Mormon
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 […]
United Order vs Consecration
I always thought the United Order and Consecration were the same thing. I’ve been reading a book called Great Basin Kingdom by Leonard Arrington (former church historian) and learned they are actually different. The basic difference to me seems to be that with Consecration, one gave all they owned to the church, and then were […]
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 […]
Early Church History: Oaks and Veazey
I’ve been reading a book by Apostle Dallin Oaks called Carthage Conspiracy. Oaks is a lawyer, former Utah Supreme Court judge, former dean of the University of Chicago Law School, and president of BYU from 1971-1980 (updated 8/9/2009). He wrote the book in 1975, and analyzes the trial of the assassins of Joseph Smith. I […]
The Documentary Hypothesis
The 8th Article of Faith for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints states: 8 We believe the aBible to be the bword of God as far as it is translated ccorrectly; This has to be one of the most oft-quoted articles of faith by members of the LDS church. In one of my […]
Science and Religion: Compatible or Not?
Ok, this is a post to tackle a few issues. #1, Bishop Rick did request a post: “Personally, I would like to see a post that shows how evolution could fit inside the Genesis account of creation. I predict a lively discussion there.” I did do a post on Evolution, but he didn’t know me […]
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:
Mormon Heretic 