Mormon Heretic
The Finale of MHA 2011
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. MHA 2011 finished with a bang. Once again it was hard to pick which session to attend. Steve Olsen, Shawn Bennion, and Brandon Plewe combined for a session titled “New Perspectives on Mormon History”. Steve spoke on how we often argue history. To bolster an argument […]
Day 2 of MHA 2011
I absolutely love the Mormon History Association conferences. Â It is wonderful to talk to all the people that I have been writing about the past few years! Â I’ve eaten lunch with Newell Bringhurst, breakfast with Richard Bushman, and received advice from Rick Turley, Gary Bergera, Armand Mauss and Barbara Walden. Â Only John Hamer seems to […]
MHA 2011: First Impressions
I’m at the Mormon History Association meetings here in St. George, Utah and thought I would give some first impressions of the conference so far. Yesterday I had the opportunity to be part of the pre-conference tour, and learned a very interesting thing: Sin City was first settled by Mormons! The first non-Indian settlers in […]
4 Sports Stories You Should Know About
It’s been an interesting week. Â I was saddened to hear that Hall of Fame baseball player, Harmon Killebrew died Tuesday at the age of 74 of cancer. Â Killebrew played for the Minnesota Twins in the 1960s and 1970s. Â When he retired, he had hit more home runs in the American League than anyone except Babe […]
Mormon Enigmas: Linda Newell and Valeen Avery
John Larson of Mormon Expression did a book review of Mormon Enigma by Linda Newell and Valeen Avery. Â I’m not going to quote the whole podcast, but John gives a very interesting introduction to the book. Â In light of my recent post Latter-day Dissent, I thought I would continue the theme of how the church […]
Book Review: Latter-Day Dissent
A few months ago, I received an advance copy of a new book by Philip Lindholm called Latter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority. The book is supposed to be released on Friday by Greg Kofford Books. Lindholm interviews 5 of the “September Six”, as well as 3 others. The September […]
Good Friday, Easter, and Mormons
As Easter approaches every year, it seems that many people type “do mormons celebrate easter†into Google. If you do that right now, you will see that my post from 2008 is the #1 result on Google: Why Don’t Mormons Celebrate Easter? Frankly it’s shocking to me that my post is ranked so high on […]
Were Israelites Not Slaves to the Egyptians?
With Passover beginning on April 19, I thought it might be nice to look at a new theory of the Exodus. If you want to see some of the previous theories, click here for my post on Questions about the Exodus. I just reviewed a video from the History Channel called Bible Battles. The film […]
Current Race Relations Within the LDS Church
Armand Mauss is an LDS sociologist from Washington State University. Â He wrote a chapter in the book Black and Mormon, where he discusses race relations within the church. Â He has both positive and negative things to say about race relations. Â I’ll start with the positive. Â Mauss notes that the LDS church has been involved in […]
Will Mexico Stop Issuing Missionary Visas over Immigration Disputes?
The debate about what to do about immigration problems is a big issue in Utah and other states. St. George’s newspaper, the Spectrum has reported that Stephen Sandstrom, a Republican from Orem is sponsoring a bill that would allow local law enforcement to check people’s residency or citizenship status if officers have “reasonable suspicion” they […]
Mormon Heretic 