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Dec 23: Joseph’s Birthday, Emma’s Anniversary

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 23, 2009 in Death, Early Mormon History, History, Marriage, Mormon, Women

Today is Joseph’s 204th birthday.  (He was born in 1805 for those of you curious about the math.)  Since Dec 22 is the first day of winter, and the day with the shortest amount of sunlight, I’ve heard people say that Joseph’s birth was symbolic.  Joseph was bringing light into the world after a period of darkness.  That’s interesting.

As most of you know, Joseph died June 27, 1844 in a hail of gunfire at the Carthage jail, leaving behind a pregnant wife and 3 young boys: Joseph SMITH III (age 11 1/2),  Frederick Granger Williams SMITH (age 8), Alexander Hale SMITH (age 6).  Emma gave birth to David Hyrum SMITH on Nov 18, 1844, 5 months after Joseph’s death .  (Emma gave birth to 10 children in all, though most of them died at or near birth.  Don Carlos SMITH lived just 15 months from 13 Jun 1840 – 15 Sep 1841.)

Three years after Joseph’s death, Emma married a man by the name of Lewis Bidamon.  Most astonishing to me is the day she picked for her wedding: Joseph’s birthday, 23 Dec 1847. Continue Reading »

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Cool Mormon and Hannukah Videos

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 20, 2009 in Funny, Holiday, Judaism, Mormon, Mormon Culture

BiV over at Mormon Matters posted a link to the Mormon Song from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  Apparently, Senator Orrin Hatch wrote a Hannukah Song, which I found really catchy, and Conan tried to follow suit, even including his on Tapper-nacle Choir to help him out.  This is my first video ever, so I’m hoping it works.  (Update:  Even though I upgraded to WordPress 2.9, which supposedly has built in video support, it isn’t working as advertised.  It was supposed to embed videos, but I’ll have to just post the links here.  For anyone out there who know how to embed videos into WordPress, please let me know.)

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/a-song-for-the-mormons-121409/1185331/

Here’s some other cool videos:

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Dancing in the Temple, and Other Changes Over the Years

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 14, 2009 in Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Temple

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 must communicate, we should whisper so that the Spirit of God will be there.  However, it wasn’t always that way.  Buerger records that following some initiatory ceremonies, and weddings, dancing was actually done in the Kirtland Temple.  I wish such practices continued today.

Continue Reading »

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The Mysteries of Godliness

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 7, 2009 in Early Mormon History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Temple

My book club just read this book, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger.  I have to say that while the book is interesting, I had some real discomfort while reading the book.  As an active Mormon, we have promised not to talk about the sacred ceremonies outside of the temple.  So, I will honor that promise.  On the other hand, it was fascinating to learn some of the changes over the years, and I felt a greater understanding of temple ceremonies.

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A Mormon View of ‘The Lost Symbol’-Dan Brown

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 3, 2009 in Christian, History, Islam, Judaism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith, Theology

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, so I was looking forward to see a good conspiracy novel.  Well, it turns out the Masonry part was right, but the Mormon part was pretty benign.  There were only 2 obvious–but benign references–to Mormonism.  Some of the plot has some indirect parallels to Mormon thought, though the book focuses more on seeming pagan practices than Mormon ideas.  Anyway, this was fun to read, and I thought I’d try to give a few nibbles from the book, without giving away too much plot.  So, here’s a taste of how related it is to Mormonism (which isn’t much).  I’m not going to give away too much that relates specifically to the main plot, but if you want to read it fresh, you should quit reading now.

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What are you thankful for Part 2?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on November 26, 2009 in Health Care, Holiday, Mormon, Mormon Culture

Inspired by Hawkgrrrl’s post over at Mormon Matters, I decided to write a post asking what you’re thankful for.  It doesn’t have to necessarily be Mormon-related.  I realize I asked this question last year, and I talked about the First Thanksgiving last year, but I think we don’t talk about our thanks as much as we should.  So here are a few things I am thankful for:

  1. Continue Reading »
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Most Improbable Meeting

Posted by Mormon Heretic on November 22, 2009 in Christian, Culture, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movies, Multi-Faith, Theology

I came across this recent article at Christianity Today describing meetings between evangelicals and Mormons.  Here are some interesting excerpts from the article:

LDS president Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors permitted Standing Together, an alliance of 90 Utah evangelical churches, to use the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle for a September 13 revival meeting. Throngs of evangelicals and Mormons enjoyed gospel songs and prayed together.

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Economics of Polygamy, Divorce, and Happiness (Daynes part 4)

Posted by Mormon Heretic on November 15, 2009 in Early Mormon History, Economics, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, polygamy, Women

Ok, I’ve talked about this book quite a bit–I’ll probably take a break for a while after this post.  (If you’re tired of the topic, perhaps you’d like to see what I wrote over at Mormon Matters: Utah Happiest State in Nation.)

One of the stereotypes of polygamy has been that Mormon men were just horndogs and married women for sex.  Another stereotype has been that women joined into polygamy under duress–that it was preached for their salvation.  While this is partially true, it leaves out significant parts of the story.  Surprisingly, Utah had THE most liberal divorce laws in the nation during the Brigham Young era.  In fact, “gentiles” seeking divorce utilized Utah’s liberal divorce laws, forcing the Utah legislature to close a loophole allowing non-residents to obtain divorce in Utah.

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Surrogate Parenthood/Types of Polygamist Marriages (Daynes Part 3)

Posted by Mormon Heretic on November 8, 2009 in Archeology, Book of Mormon, Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, polygamy, Women

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 in surrogate motherhood.  I know someone who was considering becoming a surrogate mother prior to her marriage.  While part of me respects such a decision, I always thought that participating in surrogate parenting was a strange idea.  I remember a NJ woman refused to give up the baby she had carried for another couple about 10-20 years ago, so there can be some real challenges for people who choose to participate in parenting via this route.  You hear about weird mixups like this one, and you understand the church’s decision on why it is a bad idea.    As I read the following story, it seems Brigham Young probably didn’t have a problem with surrogate parenting.

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Daynes History of Marriage (Part 2)

Posted by Mormon Heretic on November 1, 2009 in Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Early Mormon History, History, Marriage, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, polygamy

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 were married, then courts ruled that they were.  That was all that was needed.  It seems that many of the marriage regulations we are familiar with today were influenced by the federal government’s efforts to stamp out Mormon polygamy.  Daynes gives a history of marriage starting on page 58.

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