Religion is supposed to be about peace, but often it is about war. Some of the worst religious wars include Islamic Jihad, Christian Crusades, and Joshua’s Unholy War. I wish Mormons didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, but I’ve been reading The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks.
One of the things I didn’t realize about this shameful episode is the Utah War. It wasn’t much of a war, but it was one of the leading causes of this tragedy. In 1857, President Buchanon sent 5000 troops to Utah to put down a supposed rebellion in Utah. Exaggerated reports of rebellion had come to Washington, DC. The US had just finished the Mexican-American War in 1848, and Civil War rhetoric would boil over into war just 4 years later.
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Mormon historian Newell Bringhurst recently published a new essay discussing the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he has written extensively on topics of Mormon history. Some of his books are found here, and here is a short bio on him.
Here’s a brief background concerning the disaster. The Fancher and Baker families were moving from Arkansas to California. As they traveled through Utah, nearly all the men, women, and children were killed by Mormons–around 120 in all died. Initially, the Mormons tried to blame it on the Indians, but as the evidence has come out, it appears the Mormons are primarily (some say entirely) responsible for the deaths. It is the darkest chapter in Mormon history. In his latest essay, Bringhurst discusses the most prominent books (both positive and negative) dealing with the Mountain Meadows Massacre: Read more…
After Christmas, we decided to finally upgrade our television, and got a new 55 inch HD LCD. It’s pretty nice. As part of the package, we are able to download Netflix directly to the television. The first Netflix movie I watched on my new television was Ken Burns’ America: The Shakers (1985). I picked it because I remembered that there was a mission to the Shakers in D&C 49.
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There has been much press about volumes 1 and 2 of The Joseph Smith Papers Project. My wife even spoiled me with a copy of volume 2 this past Christmas. It contains the actual hand-written revelations of Joseph, along with a typed copy to help the reader understand some of the hard to read handwriting.
Well, Signature Books has just released something similar for Brigham Young. This article from the Salt Lake Tribune talks about the release of The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young , a five-volume work. For a mere $500, you can own every version of every speech known to exist. Richard Van Wagoner, author of Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait in Religious Excess (I did a 6 part review starting here) has compiled these speeches over the last 15 years. The Tribune article has some interesting quotes from Van Wagoner.
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I just finished the book by Sarah Baringer Gordon, The Mormon Question. It was a very different book from the previous book I read, More Wives than One, by Kathryn Daynes. Gordon has degrees in both Law and Religion. She looked at Constitutional theory and the arguments before the Supreme Court and Congress as the government made many attempts to shut down polygamy.
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The book for my book club is by Sarah Baringer Gordon, The Mormon Question. It’s bee n a really hard book to find at the library (nearly impossible), so I got a late start on it. It takes a very different approach to the polygamy question. Ms Gordon has a law degree, and so she talks about the legal arguments concerning the separation of church and state. I’ve learned a lot about the evolution of legal thought and the Constitution. There hasn’t been a strict separation, especially during the 1800’s. The Mormons helped define that line.
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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. Read more…
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.
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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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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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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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My book club is reading More Wives than One, by Kathryn Daynes. I am loving this book!
You may remember my earlier post outlining my perspective on Polygamy, as well as Bushman’s perspective. I must say that I was very uncomfortable with many of these aspects (and I still am.) Daynes outlines the much more public practice of polygamy from the Utah period. Since the Mormons practiced it more openly, perhaps that is the reason for less discomfort while reading this book. Some of these stories still leave me shaking my head in amazement.
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I was surprised at the recent burst of activity on my post back in April titled, Debunking the Spaulding Manuscript Theory. One of my commenters (Roger) seem to believe the Spaulding Theory still has merit. I even had Craig Criddle stop by. He is a leading proponent of the theory and published a peer-reviewed article at Oxford in support of this theory. (You need a subscription to read it, but the abstract can be found there.)
Roger took issue Brodie’s characterization that Spaulding’s manuscript was “devoid of religious material”, and made several references to religious writings in this comment. So, if Roger is right, it seems there should be quite a few religious similarities between this Spaulding manuscript, and the Book of Mormon, right?
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