Mormon Heretic

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.)

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Apostle Paul Savage of the Church of Christ with Elijah Message

Sunstone has been going on since Wednesday here in Salt Lake City.  It ends tomorrow, and I thought I would give a few words about the conference.  I have been blogging at Mormon Matters for about a year and a half, and have never met any other bloggers here….until this week!  It has been nice to nice BiV and Stephen Marsh.  I hope to meet others tomorrow.  It was also nice to meet with a few apostles.

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I really miss my book club, but I am participating in the Stay LDS Book Club.  The first book that we have decided to read is Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  It is her story of the Rwandan Genocide.  I previously discussed the movie Hotel Rwanda, describing the events from Paul Russebagina’s point of view.  Immaculee has an incredibly inspiring story as well.  The book is intensely moving.

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CoC Independence Temple at Sunset

All trip long, I have been looking forward to attending the Community of Christ Devotional at the Independence Temple.  The meeting began at 8:30 AM, and was a wonderful hour of singing and spoken word.  Professor Alex Baugh of BYU, and Apostle Susan Skoor of the Community of Christ

CoC Apostle Susan Skoor

gave background on many hymns written or revised by WW Phelps.  It was a truly inspiring meeting.  I haven’t enjoyed singing that much since I was in the MTC!

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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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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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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…

Ok, I’ve talked about this book quite a bit–I’ll probably take a break for a while after this post.  (If you’re tired of the topic, perhaps you’d like to see what I wrote over at Mormon Matters: Utah Happiest State in Nation.)

One of the stereotypes of polygamy has been that Mormon men were just horndogs and married women for sex.  Another stereotype has been that women joined into polygamy under duress–that it was preached for their salvation.  While this is partially true, it leaves out significant parts of the story.  Surprisingly, Utah had THE most liberal divorce laws in the nation during the Brigham Young era.  In fact, “gentiles” seeking divorce utilized Utah’s liberal divorce laws, forcing the Utah legislature to close a loophole allowing non-residents to obtain divorce in Utah.

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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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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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If one searches around the bloggernacle, you’ll find a snarky comment about how the church traded polygamy for statehood, or that the church just wimped-out on polygamy.  Such comments don’t seem to take into account how much pressure the US government was putting on the church–it was literally trying to snuff it out if the church didn’t back down from polygamy.  I’d like to get into some of these details leading up to the Manifesto.  I talked about the Manifesto previously in the context of whether the prophet would ever lead the church astray.  It should be noted that the church had been fighting anti-polygamy legislation for nearly 30 years, so I think it should be noted that the Manifesto banning polygamy in 1890 was not a spur-of-the-moment quick capitulation.  UPDATE:  I just finished Forgotten Kingdom, and I want to add some additional information.  I’ve highlighted this in purple below.

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Over the last year, I have come across a few bloggers who are members of the Community of Christ (formerly known as RLDS).  I have always been curious about the Community of Christ, and have often wondered the differences in worship between their services, and LDS services.  I wanted to share some of the stuff I’ve learned.

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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.

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