Early Mormon History
100 Most Important Events in Church History
I was pleased to receive a review copy of What You Didn’t Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History by Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, and Mary Jane Woodger. It’s the perfect coffee table book, describing 100 events in LDS church history in about 3 page chunks. It’s easy to read, […]
Gays & the 2nd Article of Faith
There was an interview released last week where Paul Reeve admitted being the source behind the Race & Priesthood essay at LDS.org. While I think that was a nice scoop, there was another part of that interview that I think is very important and may have gotten lost in the headline. I have been very vocal […]
Awesome Interviews for #BlackHistoryMonth
As many of you know, one of my favorite topics has been the priesthood and temple ban on black church members. There’s a new podcast called Gospel Tangents I want to HIGHLY recommend. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far in interviews with Dr. Paul Reeve, a history professor at the University of […]
When “Forever Families” Weren’t
I’ve heard about the Law of Adoption as an LDS theological point of the past, but never really understood it very well. I enjoyed reading Brian Hales discussion of the concept in his book, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Volume 3. (This is a follow up post on the book; I previously discussed Hales position that there is no […]
No Spirit Birth
It’s been a while since I read Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Volume 3 by Brian Hales. I read volume 3 first because (1) it was the shortest (a mere 281 pages compared to the other volumes), and (2) Brian Hales recommended we read it first since it was the first time anyone had tried to tackle the […]
Book Review: Joseph’s Seer Stones
I was pleased that Deseret Book sent me a copy of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones to review. I know a lot of people have complained church members have complained that we always reference the Urim and Thummim, but not seer stones. There is also the complaint that the artwork is incorrect concerning Joseph translating the plates. […]
Doctrinal History of Vicarious Work
A friend asked me about the doctrinal history of why Mormons, and specifically Joseph Smith, came up with the doctrine of baptism of the dead, and vicarious ordinances. He noted that in Elder Bednar’s 2011 General Conference talk, Bednar tied vicarious work not only with the visit of Elijah to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland […]
Does D&C 132 support Polyandry?
This past week, we’ve discussed polyandry–the idea that a woman can have multiple husbands. (Polygyny is the concept where a husband can have multiple wives. Polygamy encompasses both polygyny and polyandry.) The reason this came up was due to a presentation I attended at the Mormon History Association meetings. Many people have charged that Josephine’s mother […]
MHA 2016
I really enjoyed the Mormon History Association meetings at Snowbird, Utah this weekend. I can’t tell you how much fun these meetings are for me. The thing I hate most is when there are 2 sessions at teh same time that I want to attend. It can be difficult to choose at times, but I […]
Mormon Heretic 