Mormon Culture

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 […]

Would you recognize this church?

Often on the bloggernacle, someone will ask (such as Faithful Dissident did recently) What Would Joseph Smith Think About The Modern LDS Church? The implication often is that we moderns have strayed.  Perhaps, but another answer is we have evolved.  But if we moderns were to travel back in time, would we recognize them?

Did Moses Copy Hammurabi’s 10 Commandments?

A friend of mine let me know about this news item at Signature Books.  Apparently, one of their authors (David Wright) has a new book published by Oxford University Press.  For those of you who don’t know, Oxford is known as a pretty tough place to publish.  They have pretty high scholarly standards, so getting […]

Mormons and Indians in the Great Plains

I have some good news, and some bad news.  First the good news–I got a new job!  Now the bad news–my new job will interfere with my frequent blogging, so there will definitely be a decrease in activity. My book club has been reading a book called Establishing Zion by Eugene Campbell.  I couldn’t find […]

Pres Veazey on Scripture Literalism

Thanks to FireTag for letting me know about a recent statement by the current prophet of the Community of Christ.  He talks about scriptural literalism.  The videos can be found on the CoC website, and this quote comes from Chapter 4.  Let me quote from Pres. Veazey directly:

Joseph Smith is a Ute!

I always got a kick out of the signs in the student body section proclaiming, “The Prophet is a Ute!”  After all, so many Mormons proclaim that BYU is the “Lord’s University”, that it was really nice to point out that President Hinckley is an alum of the University of Utah.  The cool thing is […]

Niblet Nominations

Over at Mormon Matters, they’re nominating various blogs or post in the bloggernacle.  They have categories for various topics: best new blog, best group blog, best post, most spiritual post, funniest post, etc.  Anyway, nominations are open to anyone, so if you want to nominate something, please do so over at Mormon Matters.