History
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 […]
Was Henry Ford a Socialist?
On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced that he was paying workers on his famously productive Model T assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan, $5 per eight-hour day. Â That was almost three times what the typical factory employee earned at the time. Â In light of this audacious move, some lauded Ford as a friend of […]
Squeezing the Middle Class
Last week, I discussed a bit about Marriner Eccles, prominently featured in Robert Riech’s new book Aftershock. While most people believe the problem with the Great Recession and Great Depression was the fault of Americans relying on too much debt, Reich believes the reason Americans went into dept is the symptom of a much larger […]
A Mormon Rescue From the Great Depression
caption id=”attachment_1455″ align=”alignright” width=”300″ caption=”Eccles, FDR, and James Roosevelt (FDR’s son)”][/caption] The Great Depression lasted from the stock market crash in 1929 until World War 2. In the middle of this economic crisis, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Utahn Marriner Eccles to become the Fed Chair. Robert Reich has high praise for Eccles in his […]
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 […]
Who was St. Valentine?
That’s a really good question, because very little is known about him. He seems to be a real person, because archaeologists have discovered an ancient catacomb in Rome and church dedicated to him. In 496 Pope Gelasius set up his feast day as February 14 (along with other martyrs) “… whose names are justly reverenced among […]
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 […]
Mormon Heretic 