Purpose of Site

The purpose of the All About Mormons web site is to explain the beliefs and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To summarize, we want visitors to find an answer to any question they have about the LDS faith.

Ownership of Site

All About Mormons is maintained by John and Jenny Walsh. To read our testimonies, see Testimonies: W. John Walsh and Testimonies: Jenny Scoville Walsh. While this site is neither authorized nor sanctioned by the Church, every effort has been made to ensure that it is consistent with official Church teachings. However, we alone are responsible for its contents.

Perspective of Owners

We believe that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God and personally headed by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ himself (See Head of Church). We are faithful Latter-day Saints and loyal supporters of current and past Church leaders, who we believe are servants personally chosen by God to minister his affairs upon the earth. Many sites claim to be "pro-LDS" sites and then proceed to criticize current and past leaders of the Church or their teachings. Both Church leaders and their teachings will be supported, affirmed, and sustained on this site. We do not believe there is such a thing as "loyal opposition" in the Kingdom of God (See Following the Prophets home page).

Monetary Contributions

We pay for the site out of our own pocket and do not accept contributions. One of the purposes of this site is to share something that has been very valuable in our lives "without money and without price". (Isaiah 55:1)

History of Site

All About Mormons was founded in October 1996. Regarding the founding of the site, John Walsh has related the following:

"Why was All About Mormons founded? In 1996, I started using the Microsoft Network (MSN) as my Internet provider. One day, as I was browsing around the various areas of MSN, I accidentally came across a Christian Issues discussion board in the Religion area. As the subject of religion is one of my favorites topics, I decided to visit the area and take a quick look around.

To my surprise, I discovered that "Mormonism" was a very hot topic of discussion on the board. Unfortunately, many of the portrayals of the LDS faith were not accurate. Since I did not want innocent witnesses of the discussions to leave with the wrong impression of my faith, I decided to join the discussion and correct some of the misrepresentations. I soon found myself in an endless cycle of debates with people from other denominations, especially Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants.

After several months, I began to notice a familiar pattern to the debates. I would address an issue from someone. Then, several weeks later, someone else would bring up the very same issue. Then, another week or two would pass, and yet another person would bring up that same issue again.

At this point, I realized the need to have a source of LDS teachings publicly available which would answer these commonly raised issues effectively and efficiently. As I searched the Internet, I discovered that there simply was not such a resource available. At this time, the official Church site at http://www.lds.org was not in existence.

After some discussion within my family, we decided to provide this resource ourselves. At first, I was resistant to the idea, because I felt that there must be someone out there who could do a better job at it. However, it was apparent that those who were more qualified lacked the time to do it.

Therefore, well aware of own weaknesses and short-comings, our family made the commitment. While the quantity and quality of the site resources are always being increased, we hope that the 3,000 web pages of material found on All About Mormons will help address some of endlessly repeated issues I first encountered on MSN."

Number and Origin of Visitors

All About Mormons averages about 25,000 visitors a day (over 9,000,000 per year). Our server has logged visitors from almost every nation in the world, including: United Arab Emirates, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Aruba, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Brazil, Bahamas, Botswana, Belarus, Belize, Canada, Switzerland, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cook Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Egypt, Spain, Ethiopia, Finland, Micronesia, Faroe Islands, France, Georgia, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guam, Guyana, Hong , Kong, Croatia (Hrvatska), Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, India, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Japan, Korea (South), Kuwait, Cayman Islands, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Oman, Peru, Philippines, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, USSR (former), El Salvador, Thailand, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Missionary Referrals, Baptisms, Retention, and Reactivation

We have received countless letters from people affirming that All About Mormons was a major contributor in their decision to become active Latter-day Saints. We feel that if the life of only one person has been blessed by our efforts on this site, then our efforts have been well worth it. We prefer for people to use the official contact information on our Welcome page to obtain further information about the Church, but when necessary we have made personal referrals to the Missionary Department at Church Headquarters.

Responding to Critics

Why do you bother to respond to critics? Both Elder Neal A. Maxwell and Elder Dallin H. Oaks have used the following quote:

"Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish." (Austin Farrer on C. S. Lewis.)

Copyrights for Information Sources

To our knowledge, we have the legal right to use all material on our site either through direct permission of the authors or the fair use exclusion of the Copyright law.

About the Site

All About Mormons

http://www.mormons.org