Author Guest Post with Anthony Sweat and Giveaway
Fire and Ice is excited to welcome author Anthony Sweat today to tell us about his upcoming book. To celebrate we are hosting a two book giveaway in connection with Shadow Mountain~
Mormons: An Open Book
by Anthony Sweat
Paperback, 224 pages
Expected publication: June 26th 2012
by Shadow Mountain
ISBN1609088115
Book summary: With the growth and exposure of Mormonism across the country and world, more and more people are curious about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although most Americans have an opinion about Mormonism, many of them admit they don’t really know what Mormons actually believe. Using scriptures, quotes, facts, engaging visual images, and even some humor, this one-of-a-kind book is designed to openly explain the beliefs, practices, history, and culture or Mormonism. Chapters answer such questions as “Are Mormons Christians?” “What happens inside LDS temples?” and many more. Chapters address topics such as LDS beliefs about marriage and family, the position of women in the Church, and LDS views about politics in America. There are even sections that dispel some common myths and misconceptions about Mormonism.
Written from the perspective of those who know and live the religion, the pages of Mormons: An Open Book invite you to come in, learn about, and better understand a growing body of faith in American and across the world: Mormonism.
Author guest post:
I never thought I’d be a writer (an artist? Yes. Teacher? Maybe. GQ cover model? Dream on man, dream on). In 2007 I had been teaching full-time as a religious educator for the LDS Church’s Seminaries and Institutes of Religion for about seven years when I had a fateful encounter with what has become one of my great friends, John Hilton III. John and I happened to be teaching at an Especially For Youth conference together out in Georgia when we met. At that conference, we both watched and admired each other teach, and together hit it off. John had just recently published a book with Deseret Book and he said to me, “You’ve got to write some of this stuff down that you are teaching and get it out there.” I demurred, and John—with his wonderfully persistent nature—kept pushing and pushing me over the following months to write.
I was able to put him off for a bit, but eventually he broke me down one day when he stopped by my office and said something like, “Okay, not saying you have to do it, but if you did write anything, what would it be about?” I opened up and said something along the lines of, “Well, I’d write this book that helps give LDS youth doctrinal and logical reasons for our standards and answer their common questions and call it something like WHY?” Before I knew it, John had pitched the idea to his product director at Deseret Book and called me and said they loved the idea. I put the phone down and told my wife, “Well, it looks like I’m writing a book.” WHY? went on to get published and become a Deseret Book bestseller, and the rest, for me anyway, is history. Since then I have written or co-authored four other books, the most recent being MORMONS: An Open Book.
MORMONS: An Open Book, to me, is the most important book I have written thus far. Written to a national, non-LDS audience, it comes fortuitously (even though I began writing it a year and a half ago) on the heels of the “Mormon Moment,” when there is increasing interest in all things Mormon, most notably with the recent nomination of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for US President. The approach of the book is, as the title implies, open, honest and straightforward. It attempts to answer in an engaging, visual, straightforward, and sometimes humorous way the main questions that most people have about the LDS Church. It is laced with stats, studies, scriptures, quotes, images, graphs, charts, and pictures as it answers these questions. Trust me, you won’t get bored. It is both an informational and visual smorgasbord, but totally digestible for the average person. It has some cool features, such as smart phone QR code links to videos to “Meet a Mormon” on mormon.org, and a section in each chapter called a “Mormyth” that dispels common misperceptions about Mormonism. In my totally biased opinion, it’s a book that all Latter-day Saints and those interested in Mormonism should get. It will better help anyone (artists, teachers, and—yes—GQ models) to clearly, concisely, accurately, and openly understand what people really want to know about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Author bio: Anthony Sweat received his PhD in education from Utah State University and is a full-time religious educator for the LDS Church’s Seminaries and Institutes of Religion. He is a regular speaker at Especially For Youth, Education Week, Time Out For Women, and other LDS conferences, as well as an adjunct professor in the department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He is the author of several books and audio CD’s, including Mormons, An Open Book, Why? Powerful Answers and Practical Reasons for Living LDS Standards, and I’m Not Perfect. Can I Still Go To Heaven? He and his lovely wife, Cindy, are the parents of six children and reside in Utah.
Author website: http://www.anthonysweat.com/
The Giveaway: Fire and Ice has two copies of Mormons: An Open Book to givea way to our US readers! To enter to win fill out the rafflecopter form below.