Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
For Episode 12 of Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones, we discuss why LDS Polygamy and Joseph Smith Historian Don Bradley left and came back to the LDS Church.
Help us reach more people. Donate to Scripture Central:
form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/scripture-central/lets-get-real
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
01:35 - "Pioneer Day 2005, I hand-delivered my resignation letter to my Bishop."
12:21 - "My first doubts came because of Family Home Evening."
20:25 - "I had had powerful experiences. Were they from God or from my own mind?"
31:09 - "Joseph Smith is not the exemplar."
41:35 - "What was the last straw when I did stop believing?"
50:20 - "I was an Ex-Mormon Atheist living on the Wasatch Front." | Life After Leaving
52:49 - "When I was an Ex-Mormon Atheist, I got hired by Brian Hales to research Joseph Smith and Polygamy.
01:01:16 - Coming Back
01:11:07 - "If that voice hadn't warned me, I would have died . . . If I really want to find truth, I need to start looking at both sides again."
"One of the most tragic things in my life happened."
01:23:05 - "I remembered one of the things that helped me feel closer to Christ was reading the Book of Mormon."
1:26:13 - "I found a little-known account of the first vision."
Don's book The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories:
amazon.com/Lost-116-Pages-Reconstructing-Mormons/dp/158958760X
Don Bradley's Academia.edu page, with several of his publications, including one on the John Alger account of the First Vision:
https://josephsmithpapers.academia.edu/DonBradley
For Episode 12 of Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones, we discuss why LDS Polygamy and Joseph Smith Historian Don Bradley left and came back to the LDS Church.
Help us reach more people. Donate to Scripture Central:
form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/scripture-central/lets-get-real
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
01:35 - "Pioneer Day 2005, I hand-delivered my resignation letter to my Bishop."
12:21 - "My first doubts came because of Family Home Evening."
20:25 - "I had had powerful experiences. Were they from God or from my own mind?"
31:09 - "Joseph Smith is not the exemplar."
41:35 - "What was the last straw when I did stop believing?"
50:20 - "I was an Ex-Mormon Atheist living on the Wasatch Front." | Life After Leaving
52:49 - "When I was an Ex-Mormon Atheist, I got hired by Brian Hales to research Joseph Smith and Polygamy.
01:01:16 - Coming Back
01:11:07 - "If that voice hadn't warned me, I would have died . . . If I really want to find truth, I need to start looking at both sides again."
"One of the most tragic things in my life happened."
01:23:05 - "I remembered one of the things that helped me feel closer to Christ was reading the Book of Mormon."
1:26:13 - "I found a little-known account of the first vision."
Don's book The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories:
amazon.com/Lost-116-Pages-Reconstructing-Mormons/dp/158958760X
Don Bradley's Academia.edu page, with several of his publications, including one on the John Alger account of the First Vision:
https://josephsmithpapers.academia.edu/DonBradley
