Polygamy

A congruence of comments on my last post, and media broadcast/articles on this subject resulted in my selection of this topic. Hawkgrrrl commented: “Interestingly, we are now in a position to have to tell converts in countries that allow polygamy that we don’t allow it as we spread to African and Asian countries. India allows [...]

I considered myself unpopular at BYU.  My hair was very short, kind of a punk rock ‘do with bleached bangs.  I often wore tie-dyed jeans and a men’s thrift store blazer with a concert tee underneath.  In Pennsylvania, I never had a shortage of guys who were interested in me, including lots I thought were [...]

I was pleased to attend a book signing at Pioneer Book in Orem, Utah Saturday night. Brian Hales has put together a new comprehensive set of 3 volumes concerning the theology and history of polygamy in the early church. Initially the book was over 1000 pages, so the editors at Greg Kofford Books asked if [...]

Human brains naturally use locations in space and time to make sense of events. Why should we expect eternal spirits to follow that protocol? The question has always bothered me. What follows is speculation about a different way of looking at the relationship between the physical and the spiritual than the Restoration faiths adopted in [...]

Daniel faced a serious problem.  Darius the king had been tricked by his princes into outlawing prayer.  But Daniel felt beholden to pray to his God.  The society in which he lived restricted his personal freedoms more than his religious society did.  In fact, his religious community went underground due to the persecutions and restrictions of the [...]

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? [...]

The following is how we ought to teach about Same Sex Marriage in the Ensign and in Sunday School

Today’s guest post is by Wayfarer. Joseph Smith approached both Helen Mar Kimball (14 years old) and Nancy Rigdon (19) to join him as his celestial wife, using in both cases the promise of exaltation if complied with, and something quite onerous if not.  Neither woman/girl wanted to accept the ‘principle.’  Helen Mar received a [...]

Recently, Julie Beck asked Mormon Mommy Blogs to bring her whatever questions they had.  A blog post went out to ask the questions women in the church had, whether about polygamy or women and the priesthood or any other topic.  Below are the questions I came up with based on my experience in the bloggernacle.  As [...]

Now that the “Mormon in Americas” survey has been published (You can read the whole survey results here), the boobirds and naysayers are reacting. The survey results are quite clear in that they represent 1000 people who self-identify as “Mormon.” The Pew Research Center used a group of Mormon scholars to assist them in their [...]

I recently read an excellent OP on By Common Consent by Brad titled Notes Toward a New Vision of the Prophet.  I’ve always had some contradictory thoughts about JS, and I’m not sure this changes them. JS does seem to be a megalomaniac and opportunist to me, someone who became increasingly blind to the consequences [...]

A criticism I’ve heard about Mormonism on the internet is:  “What’s unique about it isn’t good, and what’s good about it isn’t unique.”  While it’s true that Mormon culture has some flaws, and that other religions share some of its good points, I can’t agree with this observation.  Still, I think something about this phrase [...]

The Sunday School curriculum is a success in one way — it does return us to the scriptures instead of commentaries or instead of the time when entire years could go by with minimal scriptural references (Ardis could give you links to those days). But …

In dealing with historical “facts” we need to get several foundation principles before we can start trying to make “facts” into “knowledge.”  [Yes, this is part of the post I was going to try to get Nick to write, and goes over some of the things he brings up when he talks about how the [...]

The Church’s practice of Plural Marriage has been the source of curiosity, scorn, humor and head-scratching for the majority of the history of the Church.  With the focus on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS, same sex marriage, TV shows like “Big Love” and “Sister Wives,” and two Mormon presidential candidates, the terms Mormon Church and [...]