Not sure what to get for someone who knows everything about Mormon history? Here’s a last minute gift-idea: The Nauvoo City Council and High Council Minutes. The book is due to be released on Dec 19 and is edited by John Dinger. This is the first time that the City Council Minutes have ever been available to the public.
I know I’m behind the times. I don’t watch television very often, and I don’t have cable or satellite tv. But I recently got a Netflix subscription, and I discovered that Sister Wives was on. Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched all 18 episodes of season 1 and season 2. It really is entertaining. Over and over, I kept asking myself, “how do they afford such a large family?” Season 2, episode 3 answers the question. Read more…
Due to a scheduling conflict, Sunstone was forced to find a new venue for this year’s conference. Rather than stay at the Sheraton in Salt Lake City as they have for the past few years, the conference moved to Weber State University in Ogden. I was only able to attend the Saturday conference, but wanted to give a recap of some of the presentations I attended.
D&C 132 was recorded on July 12, 1843. In this section, God revealed to Joseph Smith the Celestial Law of Marriage, and showed that a man could be sealed to multiple wives if done with the proper priesthood authority. On the other hand, women are not supposed to be sealed to multiple men. However, verse 51 offers a vague reference:
A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her;
The subject of polygamy was quite controversial with Emma. in a previous post, Richard Van Wagoner noted the issue of polygamy Read more…
You may think that we know all there is to know about polygamy in the LDS church. However, historians continue to debate the issue. A press release from Signature Books a few days ago let me know about some interesting developments. In 2008, George D Smith released a book called Nauvoo Polygamy – …but we called it Celestial Marriage. Apparently, the 2nd edition was just released with new charts and corrections.
As I understand it, the 2008 book caused a few waves among the Foundation or Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS–now known as the Neal A Maxwell Center). According to the release, FARMS reviewer “Gregory L. Smith criticized Nauvoo Polygamy for assuming the founder had sex with his plural wives.” The release notes the irony that “the reviewer then admitted Joseph Smith did had sex with at least nine women.” Signature has hailed the review as the “landmark 2008 review [that] constituted the first-ever admission in an LDS publication that Smith was sexually active with his wives.”
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. MHA 2011 finished with a bang. Once again it was hard to pick which session to attend. Steve Olsen, Shawn Bennion, and Brandon Plewe combined for a session titled “New Perspectives on Mormon History”. Steve spoke on how we often argue history. To bolster an argument is to support assumptions–to weaken an argument is to take apart these assumptions. Shawn Bennion talked about how Mormonism is an ethnic group. I’ve never really understood that point of view, but found his presentation compelling. Brandon Plewe announced that he is working on a new LDS atlas of history. It was interesting to see all the maps he was making for the soon to be published book. He also announced that there will be a website wiki about Mormon locations, but said it wasn’t available for public consumption yet. It was a very interesting presentation.
Re-creation of Mormon Fort in Las Vegas
I’m at the Mormon History Association meetings here in St. George, Utah and thought I would give some first impressions of the conference so far. Yesterday I had the opportunity to be part of the pre-conference tour, and learned a very interesting thing:
Sin City was first settled by Mormons!
The first non-Indian settlers in Las Vegas were Mormons. Wanting to improve relations with Indians and make a road to California, Brigham Young sent missionaries into what is now Nevada (it was part of the Territory of Deseret at the time) in 1855. “Las Vegas” is a Spanish word for “the meadows”. Water was found there and the Mormons set up the Mormon Fort. The mission lasted just 2 years, due to the harsh conditions, and the fort was abandoned.
BiV at Wheat and Tares has an amazing 4 minute video of Warren Jeffs in prison stating that he “never was a prophet.” I decided to make a transcript of the video. He speaks in a slow, deliberate fashion, indicating he is receiving and dictating the revelation during the filming of the prison video. Here’s the video and transcript. (I don’t know who he is talking to–obviously a devoted follower.) Read more…
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail a few weeks ago. I received an advance copy of The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History from Signature Books. It will be released on March 24, and I just added it to my Books and Movies page. If you pre-order, Amazon is offering it for 34% off. I haven’t been through the whole book yet, but I wanted to offer some initial impressions.
I posted my initial impressions of the Kindle over at Wheat and Tares. One of the coolest “books” I received at Amazon for free was the Wentworth Letter. For those of you who don’t know, Joseph Smith wrote a history of the church to John Wentworth, the editor of a newspaper called the Chicago Democrat in 1842. (I guess Joseph was more open to Democrats than most Mormons today.) :) The letter is an important piece of history because it contains the 13 Articles of Faith that are now part of the Pearl of Great Price. It was fun to read the letter. You can download it for free whether you have a Kindle or not. If you don’t have a Kindle, download the Kindle App for your pc (or iPad, iPhone, etc). Read more…
Anne Wilde wrote the chapter on Fundamentalist Mormonism in Hamer/Bringhurst’s book Scattering of the Saints. I’ve always viewed Fundamentalist Mormons like an embarrassing relative, and I haven’t really wanted to learn much about them. However, Anne’s chapter was incredibly interesting, and I learned that Fundamentalist Mormonism is much more diverse than I realized.
The Church of Jesus Christ (based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania) traces its roots to Joseph Smith. I previously discussed its most famous former member, rock star Alice Cooper. I thought I could give a bit more history of this church and discuss basic beliefs. Larry Watson wrote a chapter in John Hamer and Newell Bringhurst’s book Scattering of the Saints.
I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been really busy correcting final exams. I really enjoyed the last day of Sunstone, since I was able to attend all day, rather than a session here or there. Don Bradley gave a presentation titled “Dating Fanny Alger”, a bit of a play on words. I remember he gave a funny line to the effect of “By all accounts, she was hot!” Anyway, Bradley tried to pin down when the “affair” happened. Apparently, Emma discovered Joseph and Fanny late at night in the barn. According to Bradley, Alger appeared pregnant. Emma threw a fit, and threw Alger out of the house. (Apparently Alger had been working as a sort of nanny.)
Recent Comments