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The Lingering Legacy of Post-Manifesto Polygamy
For the few that might not be familiar with post-Manifesto polygamy, a very brief overview might be in order. Today members of the Church look at the 1890 Manifesto as the revelation that ended...
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Correlation: An Uncorrelated History (Part 4 — John W. Taylor, Excommunicated)
Catch up on the series with parts one, two, and three. Daymon’s dissertation can be downloaded and read here. Brad: So to this point we’ve basically laid some important historical groundwork. We began...
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Correlation: An Uncorrelated History (Part 5 — The Rise of Fundamentalism)
For those of you who have kept up with and continue to follow this series, we thank you for your diligence and patience. In part 1 we tracked the polygamist Underground and the discursive splitting it...
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Correlation: An Uncorrelated History (Part 8 — The Rise of Correlation)
Read the first seven installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. You can download and read Daymon’s dissertation here. I should note that the dissertation chapters that...
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Heber J. Grant on politics
I am deeply troubled by the actions and attitudes of some our people with regard to politics. I encourage you to read John Fowles’ guest post at Millennial Star for further context. What follows is a...
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Correlation: An Uncorrelated History (Part 9 — History Done Backwards)
This is the final, and longest, post of the series. Read the first eight installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8. You can download and read Daymon’s...
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Female healing article now available
The last six years have been a lot of fun, and I count myself very fortunate to have been able to work on this project and to work on it with Kristine. Honestly, there were moments in the Church...
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Your Sunday Brunch Special (#3). Utah Artist James T. Harwood, 2: Early Utah...
Ok, so for this one, you can eat while you read. <grin> We continue our exploration of the late James Taylor Harwood and his relation to Mormonism. J. T. Harwood is a respected painter who did...
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The “New” Articles of Faith
In 1907, in an effort to put in place a picture of Mormonism for a 20th century audience, the Church, by common consent, approved a list of beliefs as well as explanation and confirmation of a...
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Resource Constraints & Shifts In Religious Behavior Patterns
The recent issue of BYU Studies contains a paper written by my co-blogger Jonathan Stapley regarding the Relief Society’s burial services the early 1900′s. The paper addresses a decline in Relief...
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King Follett and Clouds of Meaning
We’ve just experienced the Mormon preaching festival. That is, general conference! In addition to inspired teaching, it gives the outside world a chance to experience some of the variety of Mormon...
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Polygamy, Society, and the Mormons
When I returned to my office after winter break, I found two large brown boxes (with “Joe Christensen” written on the sides) waiting for me in the mailroom. I was pretty sure I knew what they held and,...
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Church Finances, 1947-Style
In April 1959, the Church published its last financial report. The last here is important, though, because, for almost half a century leading up to that report, the Church presented a relatively...
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Vestigial Polygamy
The church officially—and in fact—ended its experiment with polygamy more than a century ago. Yet polygamy and its effects remain with us today. And no, I’m not talking about D&C 132; we’ve...
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Women of Vision
Yesterday my family and I went to Chicago’s Field Museum. After checking out several other exhibits, we went to the Women of Vision exhibit. Women of Vision shows some photography that 11 female...
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Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation
I’ve got a book in the editing process at Greg Kofford Books [it’s about D&C 132]. With luck, it may appear this December or possibly February 2017. Here’s a bit of the preface (excuse typos, it’s...
View Article#TaxDay 2018: For Ye Were Strangers
The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. —Leviticus 19:34 My liturgical...
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Review: Thunder From The Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics
Matthew L. Harris, ed. Thunder From the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2019. Hardcover, 260 pages. Footnotes. Bibliography. Index. Cloth:...
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The Tax Roots of OD2(?)
It’s become an article of faith in some circles that the end of the racial temple and priesthood ban was motivated, at least in part, by the specter of the church losing its tax-exempt status. And...
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