History

I wanted to continue Ken Burns’ discussion of the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows as part of his series, The West (available on Netflix.)  In Part 6, he discussed the trial of John D. Lee.  At the beginning of part 6, he begins with this introduction. By 1874, Washington had launched still another assault on [...]

I just watched a documentary called Jefferson’s Secret Bible.  (You can download it for free on iTunes or watch it at the Smithsonian website.)  The documentary discusses the restoration and some of the theology behind Thomas Jefferson’s rewriting on the Bible.  In his day, Jefferson was called an atheist by his detractors; he wasn’t really [...]

This past week, Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote an excellent article entitled ”How Beards Became Barred Among Top Mormon Leaders.” I encourage you to read it. In the end, I have nothing more to add to it than the personal observations that sre very near and dear to my face. I grew my beard during a [...]

Last March, Jake wrote a post discussing the Strengthening Church Members Committee (SCMC), following the BBC documentary The Mormon Candidate.  The BBC programme was my first introduction to the existence of such a committee in the LDS church.  I don’t want to go over old ground with this post however, but rather widen the discussion. [...]

I wanted to start a new series on the book Mormon Doctrine, by Bruce R. McConkie.  Some have referred to this book (no longer being published) as “Bruce’s Doctrine.”  In Greg Prince’s biography of David O. McKay,  Prince cited a study by some general authorities that the book had over 1000 errors.  The first edition of [...]

I must admit, before my trip to New Zealand over the holidays I had never heard of the Mormon Maori prophecies.  I knew that there are many Polynesian church members.  I was aware that the most popular religion in the island of Molokai (the spiritual center of Hawaii) is Mormonism, and that there are many [...]

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ 1996 documentary series on The West.  It’s a 9 part series, so it takes a bit of effort to get through.  Of course Burns spends some time discussing the Mormons, and I found his treatment of Mormons within the context of the western United States very interesting. In Part 4: [...]

Quite some time ago I read Kevin Barney’s excellent article he wrote for Dialogue:  “How to Worship Our Mother in Heaven Without Getting Excommunicated.”  One of his references was a book by archaeologist, William Dever, called “Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel” which I just finished reading.  The gist of the [...]

While the Sundance Film Festival gets all the press, Utah County is also home to the LDS Film Festival.  I reviewed the schedule, and thought I would point out a few films that sound interesting at the Scera Theater in Orem, Utah. Wednesday – Opening night 7 pm – The Playbook It’s the story of [...]

Well, at least the election is over. No matter who you wanted to win, you couldn’t be sad that the robocalls, the TV and radio ads and the junk mail have stopped. If you were in a swing state up for grabs, it was non-stop, day and night. So, now what for the Mormon moment? [...]

Let’s face it. Although morality profoundly impacts American’s political views — making political and election issues an inevitable topic of attention for a Mormon blog — the idea of a Mormon being elected President of the United States has animated discussion on this site much more than would a contest between Barack Obama and a [...]

Unable to sleep a few nights ago, I sought mind-deadening through cable TV. I chanced upon a movie I thought would do the job — a murder mystery set in a mountain abbey in 14th Century Italy. I didn’t get what I expected. Instead, the movie, The Name of the Rose, starring Sean Connery and [...]

Community of Christ does not follow its LDS cousins in having secret temple rituals. So I read last week’s post by Bored in Vernal, on the “Sacred Embrace As Five Points of Fellowship” with the curiosity of one who has never even been inside an LDS Temple. Much of the terminology was unfamiliar to me [...]

Based on the controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, it seems clear that we have not achieved a color blind society here in the US and we have a long way to go in race relations in this country.  And as we approach Easter this coming weekend, it is a shame the simple lessons of [...]

As we all know, what most people know about Mormonism could fill a thimble. And many people get whatever knowledge they do have in little sound bite pieces or headlines. Most do not do any in-depth investigation to find out more about us. They are more apt to react to a negative report about the [...]

I may be a historian, and I may align with feminist thinking, but I am not a feminist historian. Feminist history usually involves digging up forgotten people (women) from the past, and then holding them up to show how they were oppressed, subjected by male patriachy, or silenced. In some cases it is important to [...]

Science knows that the Norse (Vikings) colonized Greenland a millennium ago, but the colony didn’t stick when colder temperatures returned following the Medieval Warm Period. Average daily temperatures in Greenland warmed about 3 degrees F before the plunge back into a Little Ice Age (which itself only ended well into the 19th Century) that forced [...]

Will the church evolve to stop the train of apostasy? When the Sicans felt their religion had failed them, they burned their temples.

Here a few observations from the last few weeks. US Politics -          OK, how long will Rick Santorum’s turn as the Anti-Romney last? There is no one else after him unless we get a spring surprise. -          Will Newt Gingrich’s fade be permanent or will the “South Rise Again?” -          Is anyone else missing the [...]

Last week I talked about the results of John Dehlin’s recent survey that showed that a leading cause of people leaving Mormonism has become the ready access to church history information on the internet.  Today I’d like to continue to evaluate the survey information. Oh Ye of Too Much Faith It seems that often those [...]