Mormon Culture
History of the Bickertonites
The Church of Jesus Christ (based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania) traces its roots to Joseph Smith. I previously discussed its most famous former member, rock star Alice Cooper. I thought I could give a bit more history of this church and discuss basic beliefs. Larry Watson wrote a chapter in John Hamer and Newell Bringhurst’s book […]
An Introduction to Shismatic Groups within Mormonism
John Hamer and Newell Bringhurst compiled many essays highlighting major Mormon schismatic groups that trace their founding to Joseph Smith in their book titled Scattering of the Saints. The book is a great read. It goes into quite a bit of detail of the major groups, but if you want a more comprehensive listing of […]
Helvecio Martins: First Black General Authority
Mark L Grover gave a fascinating biography on Helvecio Martins, the first black general authority in the LDS church in the latest issue of the Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2010.) Elder Martins was ordained to the Second Quorum of Seventy in 1990 under President Ezra Taft Benson. In 1995 he was released, and he […]
Sunstone Recap 2010
I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been really busy correcting final exams. I really enjoyed the last day of Sunstone, since I was able to attend all day, rather than a session here or there. Don Bradley gave a presentation titled “Dating Fanny Alger”, a bit of a play on words. […]
Songs That Touch Our Hearts
Since yesterday was Pioneer Day, I thought I’d share my thoughts on one of my favorite Pioneer Hymns. Most of you are probably familiar with Come, Come Ye Saints. It was one of my sister’s favorite songs, and she requested that it be played at her funeral. While I always liked the song, I can rarely […]
The Mormon Myth about Alice Cooper
caption id=”attachment_1130″ align=”alignleft” width=”150″ caption=”Alice Cooper at the Scream Awards in 2007″][/caption] If you’re Mormon, you’ve probably heard the myth that Alice Cooper was a Mormon. Most of you have probably dismissed the myth as complete hogwash. Well, it turns out there is an element of truth to the myth. For example, his father’s middle […]
Religious Archaeology and Evidence
I don’t ever think I’ve done 2 posts in one day before, but I want to address this other issue that we have been discussing in the Strangite post. I’d like to discuss both Biblical and Book of Mormon archaeology. Most people believe the Bible is on solid archaeological footing, but that isn’t actually true. […]
The Strangites: Another Mormon Group
As I mentioned previously, I really enjoyed the Strangite session of the Mormon History Association meetings a few weeks ago. Vickie Speek, John Hamer, and Mike Karpowicz gave some fascinating presentations on this little known group. Following the session, they answered additional questions, and I thought it would be interesting to provide a transcript of […]
Day 3 at MHA
John Hamer, Mike Karpowicz, and Vickie Cleverly Speck gave a very interesting history of the Strangite movement. What’s a Strangite you say? Speck filled in many details: she said that James Strang was baptized into the LDS church just 4 months prior to the death of Joseph Smith. Strang claims to have a letter from […]
Mormon Heretic 