The History Channel has a show called “Digging for the Truth.” In season 1, they did an episode called “The Lost Tribe of Israel”, which highlighted the Lemba Tribe in South Africa, which claims to be a Hebrew people who were displaced around 700 BC, about 100 years before Lehi left Jerusalem. I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between their story, and the story of Lehi.
Read more…
Michael Quinn’s book The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power talks about many incidents which led to the “extermination order” by Missouri Governor Boggs. These events are often referred to as the Mormon War in Missouri. While there were some armed struggles, it seems more like vigilante and frontier justice than an all out war. But with Memorial Day upon us, I wanted to highlight a person that people know a little about, Alexander Doniphan, who was known as one of the first “Jack Mormons.”
Read more…
A little more than 10 years ago, I was vacationing in Hawaii with a few friends. While there, we attended a small branch and became good friends with one of the members there. The member invited us over for family home evening, and introduced me to the idea that the Book of Mormon happened in South America. I had never heard of this before, and became quite intrigued.
Read more…
I have long avoided talking about polygamy on my blog. It is a source of tremendous discomfort for me, but it keeps coming up, so I want to give my impressions about this early practice in Mormonism, as well as my beliefs and reconciliations.
Read more…
The Faithful Dissident asked a very interesting question in my last post.
Back to Joseph Smith and theocracy, there’s something that puzzles me about Quinn’s claim. If JS truly intended on establishing a theocracy in America, wouldn’t that be in complete contradiction to what his religion proclaimed (i.e. that the US Constitution was a God-inspired document)? I never took American history, so I’m no expert on the Constitution, but how could it have been upheld in a theocracy?
Read more…
So, in reading The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, the author D Michael Quinn makes a very interesting claim. While most people think the publication of polygamy was the reason that Joseph Smith ordered the destruction of the printing press, Quinn makes a more startling reason–that Joseph was attempting alliances with foreign nations, and he didn’t want that to get out. Quinn almost acts as if the Expositor had only been about polygamy, then Smith would have left it alone.
Read more…
I often try to put up a post commemorating holidays. So, in celebration of Mother’s Day, I just want to let you all know how much I appreciate my mother. She is the most patient person I know, and she has a way of making me always try to do my best. She is one of my best friends, and a great listener. I really can’t think of a better Christian than she is.
So, you’re welcome to tell me about your mother as well. As I am biased, I know she won’t be better than mine, but I’d love to hear how cool your mom is too!
I was first introduced to the idea of women holding the Melchizedek Priesthood in the book called Sidney Rigdon: Portrait of Religious Excess by Richard Van Wagoner. Sidney claimed that Emma Smith was the first woman to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood (as I blogged about in Part 5). The current book I’m reading, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power by Michael Quinn, seems to support this idea, and goes into greater detail. Apparently, Brigham Young also supports this idea. I’ve changed some of the formatting, and modernized the spelling below, but according to Quinn on page 36,
Read more…
I recently made the acquaintance of Morgan Deane, who runs a blog called Warfare and the Book of Mormon. Morgan is a scholar in Military History, and has used some of his expertise in analyzing some passages in the Book of Mormon as related to warfare. Here’s what he says about himself on his website.
Read more…
Recent Comments