Five Little Known Facts about the Publication of the Book of Mormon

1. The first portions of the Book of Mormon available to the public were pirated.
Using E. B. Grandin’s printing office in the evenings and on Sundays, Palmyra newspaperman Abner Cole printed a newspaper that caused some stir in the neighborhood. Cole felt called to spread enlightened thought to Americans. Writing under the pseudonym of Obediah Dogberry, he presented to his readers the first chance to read portions of the Book of Mormon. First Nephi, chapter 1; parts of First Nephi, chapter 2; and parts of Alma, chapter 43 were published in three of his January 1830 issues.
When the Smith family learned that Cole was printing unauthorized excerpts from the Book of Mormon, they sent for Joseph Smith, who was living in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Joseph Smith successfully convinced Cole to stop pirating the text, but the excerpts printed in Cole’s Reflector still represent the first time any Book of Mormon text was available to the public.

Click through for the rest...

2500 Mormons Leave the Church

The issue? The LDS church's stance on same-sex couples adopting children.

Click here for a short blog post on the subject.

See video here.

 A longer article which profiles a lawyer helping those who choose to leave the LDS can be read here.

Mormon "Preppers"

According to this article, some Mormons expect the end of the world to begin this month. This kind of thinking is not unique to the Latter-day Saints.

The Mormonizing of America

Mormonism is influential beyond its numbers. Especially now. This article examines some of the reasons.

Mormons Appoint Women to Leadership Positions

Read all about it.

It is my observation that, at least in the west, issues of sexuality are the bleeding edge for religions today. Questions about women in leadership and the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals are hot button topics. Some groups trench in and maintain traditional view. Others are opening up to a greater or lesser extent. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, traditionally patriarchal, has appointed three women to leadership roles.

They have also been more open about some of the details of their history than was previously the case.

Religous Dress

Nice article here about why some religious groups dress as they do.

There is no mention of the Mormon temple garments, however. Some women would like to have the temple garments redesigned.

Mormon Vloggers...

...carry on a Latter-day Saint tradition of journaling.

Article here.

Black Mormons...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a mixed history when it comes to members of African descent. On the one hand, the LDS Church denied black people the priesthood, and admission to temple rites, until the 1970s, claiming their dark skin was the "mark of Ham." On the other hand, the early Mormon community included free blacks and their attitude toward slavery may have contributed to the troubles they had with their neighbors in Missouri back in 1838.

Today the LDS has a reputation for whiteness. 

Interesting article here.

Mormonism's Jon Krakauer Problem

Jon Krakauer wrote a compelling book about a horrifying murder committed by a fringe group of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to this article Krakauer's book is problematic. It conflates mainstream Mormonism with extremist groups. Unfortunately, it is the only introduction to Mormonism many people have had.

Part of the Krakauer problem then becomes a problem of genre confusion. To be sure, Under the Banner of Heaven is meticulously researched with extensive endnotes. And Krakauer’s hours of interviews with former members of the FLDS expose the abuses that the leadership of this insular community have long perpetrated. And he does so with arguably more authority than even the many Mormon fundamentalist captivity narratives published before or since. Yet, more than history or investigative journalism, Under the Banner of Heaven is first and foremost a page-turning polemic against religion in general and Mormonism—in all its forms—in particular. As such, if it can be solved at all, the Krakauer problem cannot be solved by peer-reviewed biographies of Joseph Smith, like Richard Bushman’s celebrated and exhaustive Rough Stone Rolling, published in 2005.* Nor can it be solved by trade press books like Bowman’s own The Mormon People, which came out in 2012, and has been perhaps the best single-volume history of Mormonism published in the last decade. Krakauer tells a better, more gripping story because he writes by a different set of rules that values thesis over fact. - See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2015/07/14/mormonism-and-the-problem-of-jon-krakauer/#sthash.MmEONSR1.dpuf

And yet the Krakauer problem doesn’t end with problematic sources and faulty interpretations of theology. To contextualize Under the Banner of Heaven as a piece of writing, the literary “parents” to Krakauer’s book are not only twentieth-century true-crime thrillers and captivity narratives like Capote’s In Cold Blood (which, of course, has also been criticized for blurring the lines between fact and fiction in service of a better story). Bowman says Krakauer’s version of Mormon history is “descended from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London who all wrote nineteenth-century dime novels premised on the notion that Brigham Young’s Zion was a totalitarian dictatorship complete with secret police and young Mormon maidens pining for rescue from the grimly-bearded elders of the church.” - See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2015/07/14/mormonism-and-the-problem-of-jon-krakauer/#sthash.MmEONSR1.dpuf

And yet the Krakauer problem doesn’t end with problematic sources and faulty interpretations of theology. To contextualize Under the Banner of Heaven as a piece of writing, the literary “parents” to Krakauer’s book are not only twentieth-century true-crime thrillers and captivity narratives like Capote’s In Cold Blood (which, of course, has also been criticized for blurring the lines between fact and fiction in service of a better story). Bowman says Krakauer’s version of Mormon history is “descended from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London who all wrote nineteenth-century dime novels premised on the notion that Brigham Young’s Zion was a totalitarian dictatorship complete with secret police and young Mormon maidens pining for rescue from the grimly-bearded elders of the church.” - See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2015/07/14/mormonism-and-the-problem-of-jon-krakauer/#sthash.MmEONSR1.dpuf

And yet the Krakauer problem doesn’t end with problematic sources and faulty interpretations of theology. To contextualize Under the Banner of Heaven as a piece of writing, the literary “parents” to Krakauer’s book are not only twentieth-century true-crime thrillers and captivity narratives like Capote’s In Cold Blood (which, of course, has also been criticized for blurring the lines between fact and fiction in service of a better story). Bowman says Krakauer’s version of Mormon history is “descended from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London who all wrote nineteenth-century dime novels premised on the notion that Brigham Young’s Zion was a totalitarian dictatorship complete with secret police and young Mormon maidens pining for rescue from the grimly-bearded elders of the church.” - See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2015/07/14/mormonism-and-the-problem-of-jon-krakauer/#sthash.MmEONSR1.dpuf

And yet the Krakauer problem doesn’t end with problematic sources and faulty interpretations of theology. To contextualize Under the Banner of Heaven as a piece of writing, the literary “parents” to Krakauer’s book are not only twentieth-century true-crime thrillers and captivity narratives like Capote’s In Cold Blood (which, of course, has also been criticized for blurring the lines between fact and fiction in service of a better story). Bowman says Krakauer’s version of Mormon history is “descended from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London who all wrote nineteenth-century dime novels premised on the notion that Brigham Young’s Zion was a totalitarian dictatorship complete with secret police and young Mormon maidens pining for rescue from the grimly-bearded elders of the church.” - See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2015/07/14/mormonism-and-the-problem-of-jon-krakauer/#sthash.MmEONSR1.dpuf

Post Mormons Meet in a Coffee Shop...

...and the LDS leadership shows new openness in discussing contentious matters of Latter Day Saint history.

Watch the video here.

Two Thinkpieces about Mormonism

A Mormon asks "Are We Mormons a Cult?"

A Christian asks "Is Mormonism Christian?"

Both answers are nuanced and surprising.

LDS leadership surveys members on Temple Garments

News story here.

Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony

Mormons in Amboy

 

Amboy News article on Mormon Cemetery

Uncle Dale's Old Mormon Articles