Early Mormon History
Scholarship History of the Priesthood Ban
The Priesthood ban for black members of the church is a pet topic of mine. I have previously discussed Early Black Mormons who held the priesthood, as well as a long 10,000 word article discussing events leading to the ban. Newell Bringhurst and Darron Smith have put together a list of 9 essays highlighting different […]
Racism, Bigotry, and Prejudice
In the past, I’ve talked about racism, bigotry, and prejudice.  Some of these issues have dealt with the mosque at Ground Zero, immigration, or statements made by church leaders about the priesthood ban for African Americans.  Prejudice, bigotry, and racism are often used interchangeably, and there can be a lot of overlap.  (In fact, one of the […]
Development of LDS Temple Worship
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail a few weeks ago. I received an advance copy of The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History from Signature Books. It will be released on March 24, and I just added it to my Books and Movies page. If you pre-order, Amazon is offering it […]
Stapley/Wright Discuss Healings by Mormon Women
Last October, I wrote a post titled, Mormon Women Blessing the Sick, as a follow up to my post on Women with Priesthood in Ancient Christianity. Jonathon Stapley was the first to comment, saying Equating early Mormon female healing with evidence of female priesthood is folly. Kris’ and my paper on female ritual healing is […]
Debunking the Jockers Study
I really appreciate a comment by Chris Spencer on my previous post Dueling Wordprint Studies. In that post, I had discussed a controversial study completed by Stanford researchers Mathew Jockers, Daniela Witten, and Craig Criddle who concluded that 57% the Book of Mormon was authored by Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding. (There was an interesting discussion […]
Strang’s Letter of Appointment
Just 9 days prior to Joseph Smith’s death, he sent a letter to James Strang. Strang believed that this letter showed Joseph’s intentions that Strang would be the next prophet of the church. This letter was originally published in a pamphlet by Strang’s followers known as “The Diamond.” I have always wanted to read the […]
The Wentworth Letter
I posted my initial impressions of the Kindle over at Wheat and Tares. One of the coolest “books” I received at Amazon for free was the Wentworth Letter. For those of you who don’t know, Joseph Smith wrote a history of the church to John Wentworth, the editor of a newspaper called the Chicago Democrat in […]
Why Isn’t Sacrament Meeting More Spiritual?
I listened to an interview of Jana Reiss on Mormon Expression a few weeks ago, titled “Why Mormon Meetings are So Dull.” She discussed a book called Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea. Shae is a novelist in Massachusetts who attended 52 church services over a year. This author attended a Mormon Sacrament meeting. […]
What’s up with Non-Biblical Angels?
A few months ago, I attended several family reunions. At the time, I was reading John Hamer’s book, Scattering of the Saints. I was absolutely fascinated with all the accounts of Mormon schismatic groups. I was especially interested in Strangism and the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message. As I told the story of […]
Mormon Heretic 