History
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Intro to “More Wives Than One” by Kathryn Daynes
My book club is reading More Wives than One, by Kathryn Daynes. I am loving this book! You may remember my earlier post outlining my perspective on Polygamy, as well as Bushman’s perspective. I must say that I was very uncomfortable with many of these aspects (and I still am.) Daynes outlines the much more […]
Introduction to Spalding’s “Manuscript Found” Part 1
I was surprised at the recent burst of activity on my post back in April titled, Debunking the Spaulding Manuscript Theory. One of my commenters (Roger) seem to believe the Spaulding Theory still has merit. I even had Craig Criddle stop by. He is a leading proponent of the theory and published a peer-reviewed article […]
U of U Really is School of the Prophets
Back in July, the University of Utah football team signed a player out of California by the name of Joseph Smith. I joked that with his signing, and President Hinckley and President Monson’s status as alums of the U, that it was the “School of the Prophets.” (Joseph Smith had originally set up a School […]
The Anti-Polygamy Raids
If one searches around the bloggernacle, you’ll find a snarky comment about how the church traded polygamy for statehood, or that the church just wimped-out on polygamy. Such comments don’t seem to take into account how much pressure the US government was putting on the church–it was literally trying to snuff it out if the […]
Successors of Consecration: Tithing and Fast Offerings
I’ve learned a lot about consecration in the last few books. While most of us know that tithing was instituted as a “lower law” because the early saints weren’t capable of the “higher law” of consecration, I have still learned some interesting things about both tithing and fast offerings. For example, Fast Offerings were instituted […]
Carthage Conspiracy: Trial of Joseph’s Assassins
I’ve recently been invited to a website called StayLDS.com. Let me quote the mission of StayLDS: StayLDS.com is dedicated to helping people who are struggling in some way to remain involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after a major shift in (or challenge to) their faith. We are committed to being […]
Mormon Heretic 