polygamy

100 Most Important Events in Church History

I was pleased to receive a review copy of What You Didn’t Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History by Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, and Mary Jane Woodger.  It’s the perfect coffee table book, describing 100 events in LDS church history in about 3 page chunks.  It’s easy to read, […]

Awesome Interviews for #BlackHistoryMonth

As many of you know, one of my favorite topics has been the priesthood and temple ban on black church members.  There’s a new podcast called Gospel Tangents I want to HIGHLY recommend.  Here are some of my favorite quotes so far in interviews with Dr. Paul Reeve, a history professor at the University of […]

When “Forever Families” Weren’t

I’ve heard about the Law of Adoption as an LDS theological point of the past, but never really understood it very well.  I enjoyed reading Brian Hales discussion of the concept in his book, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy:  Volume 3.  (This is a follow up post on the book; I previously discussed Hales position that there is no […]

No Spirit Birth

It’s been a while since I read Joseph Smith’s Polygamy:  Volume 3 by Brian Hales.  I read volume 3 first because (1) it was the shortest (a mere 281 pages compared to the other volumes), and (2) Brian Hales recommended we read it first since it was the first time anyone had tried to tackle the […]

Does D&C 132 support Polyandry?

This past week, we’ve discussed polyandry–the idea that a woman can have multiple husbands.  (Polygyny is the concept where a husband can have multiple wives.  Polygamy encompasses both polygyny and polyandry.)  The reason this came up was due to a presentation I attended at the Mormon History Association meetings.  Many people have charged that Josephine’s mother […]

Joseph’s DNA test

The most exciting, newsworthy event at the 2016 Mormon History Association meetings was the announcement of the DNA test of Josephine Lyons.  As the story goes, Joseph Smith had more than 30 polygamist wives.  Except for Emma, none of these wives had children via Joseph.  There had been a few rumored children but John Reed Hancock […]

MHA 2016

I really enjoyed the Mormon History Association meetings at Snowbird, Utah this weekend.  I can’t tell you how much fun these meetings are for me.  The thing I hate most is when there are 2 sessions at teh same time that I want to attend.  It can be difficult to choose at times, but I […]

Blacks and Gays

I am still appalled by the new church policy banning baptisms for children of gays and polygamists until age 18. A distant relative of mine was just released as stake president, and I told him that I feel this new church policy has set the church back 100 years.  That was an understatement; it’s more […]

MHA 2015 in Review

The Annual Mormon History Association meetings came to Provo last night.  Last year it was in San Antonio, and next year it will be at Snowbird Resort in Utah.  Sometimes I like it better when it’s out of town, because I can attend all the sessions.  When I’m home, there’s just too much going on, […]

Posts Restored – Back to the Present

Many of you have noticed a blast from the past on my blog.  Back in Feb 2013, my host server crashed and I had to back up my blog and try to restore it.  I picked WordPress.com, thinking that was a good choice.  Well, it didn’t restore all my posts–I was missing about 150 of […]