It’s kind of a strange family history claim to fame: My great-great-great-great aunt, Nancy Winchester, was one of Joseph Smith’s youngest teen brides. She was fourteen or fifteen years old in 1842(3?) when she married the prophet; he was in his late thirties and was killed a year or so…
Category: LDS History
Mormon Rumors – Talmadge and Einstein
Here’s another excerpt from the latest Sunstone issue I thought people here might appreciate: “A Place for Every Truth” THE EINSTEIN RUMOR This regular Cornucopia column features incidents from and glimpses into the life and ministry of Elder James E. Talmage as compiled by James P Harris, who is currently…
Get a Hammer and a Nail…
After the recent comments in chanson’s thread, I decided to copy this post from FLAK. I am interested in finding out what it is about the raid that people are so passionate about. I will state my theories below my proposal. And – as chanson did in one of her…
Parley Pratt is moving to Utah and the “Truth Restored”
A descendant of Parley Pratt got a judge to allow him to have his ancestor disintered from his burial place in Arkansas and reintered in Utah, surrounded by his polygamist wives. This is kind of interesting just because it’s digging up a body (especially in light of the whole belief…
I’m Anti-Mormon? Really??!?
I believe this “anti-mormon” label is thrown around haphazardly and without merit. This post by chanson (and the ensuing comments) show a little of what I’m talking about. From baptism… I’m not sure when this trend began. After all my analysis, many may choose to consider me (and others) anti-mormon….
Why “Reformed Egyptian”?
If you suppose the Book of Mormon is a work of fiction, it opens a different set of questions to explore than if you suppose that it is true. For example, why did the author choose to have his characters write in “Reformed Egyptian” instead of Hebrew or something else?…
So what is LDS doctrine anyway?
Kristine wrote here about when a policy is not a policy. She was talking about sterilization. I didn’t realize this was a policy either until at least five years after leaving the LDS faith myself. So why have a handbook for bishops that is not available for each member to…
So is Warren Jeffs still the (FLDS) prophet or what?
To help answer this question, a Deseret Morning News article asks (my brother) John Hamer for his analysis. John is a historian specializing in the various scisms within the restoration movement and is the co-editor of Scattering of the Saints: Schism within Mormonism. In addition to clarifying this issue, John…
In which I ponder the nature of existence…
Watching a special about Christopher Columbus a few weeks ago, I was struck by the importance of names. What a place is named – who decides what something gets to be named. In Christopher Columbus’ case, he renamed places that already had names – giving them European names. Some of…
Let the Healing Begin
I saw a movie yesterday. No, it wasn’t September Dawn. It was a little indie film by film maker Brian Patrick called Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I wasn’t prepared for the emotion it evoked in me. I wasn’t prepared for the rage. I wasn’t prepared…