Mormon Heretic
Dec 23: Joseph’s Birthday, Emma’s Anniversary
Today is Joseph’s 204th birthday. (He was born in 1805 for those of you curious about the math.) Since Dec 22 is the first day of winter, and the day with the shortest amount of sunlight, I’ve heard people say that Joseph’s birth was symbolic. Joseph was bringing light into the world after a period […]
Cool Mormon and Hannukah Videos
BiV over at Mormon Matters posted a link to the Mormon Song from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Apparently, Senator Orrin Hatch wrote a Hannukah Song, which I found really catchy, and Conan tried to follow suit, even including his on Tapper-nacle Choir to help him out. This is my first video ever, so […]
Dancing in the Temple, and Other Changes Over the Years
I’ve been reading some of the interesting changes in temple ceremonies (specifically the Endowment ceremony) in the book, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger. (I talked about this in my previous post as well.) The temple is a place where we are constantly reminded that if we […]
The Mysteries of Godliness
My book club just read this book, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger. I have to say that while the book is interesting, I had some real discomfort while reading the book. As an active Mormon, we have promised not to talk about the sacred ceremonies outside […]
A Mormon View of ‘The Lost Symbol’-Dan Brown
For my birthday, my wife gave me Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol. I don’t typically read novels–I prefer sports, history, religion, or biographies–but I read The DaVinci Code and loved it. Angels & Demons was pretty good. I had heard rumors that Dan Brown’s book was going to deal with Masonry and Mormonism, […]
What are you thankful for Part 2?
Inspired by Hawkgrrrl’s post over at Mormon Matters, I decided to write a post asking what you’re thankful for. It doesn’t have to necessarily be Mormon-related. I realize I asked this question last year, and I talked about the First Thanksgiving last year, but I think we don’t talk about our thanks as much as […]
Most Improbable Meeting
I came across this recent article at Christianity Today describing meetings between evangelicals and Mormons. Here are some interesting excerpts from the article: LDS president Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors permitted Standing Together, an alliance of 90 Utah evangelical churches, to use the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle for a September 13 revival […]
Economics of Polygamy, Divorce, and Happiness (Daynes part 4)
Ok, I’ve talked about this book quite a bit–I’ll probably take a break for a while after this post. (If you’re tired of the topic, perhaps you’d like to see what I wrote over at Mormon Matters: Utah Happiest State in Nation.) One of the stereotypes of polygamy has been that Mormon men were just […]
Surrogate Parenthood/Types of Polygamist Marriages (Daynes Part 3)
Kathryn Daynes tells a really interesting story about an infertile couple in her book More Wives than One. The Church Handbook of Instruction was leaked onto the internet a few years ago, and the church sued to stop it’s publication. The only reference I could find indicates that the Church strongly discourages members from participating […]
Daynes History of Marriage (Part 2)
I have really been enjoying the book More Wives than One by Kathryn Daynes, an associate professor of history at BYU. In my previous post on the book, I mentioned that marriage wasn’t as regulated as it is today. There were no marriage licenses, blood tests, or even ceremonies required. If a couple said they […]
Mormon Heretic 