Based upon the theory that all authors are unique in the frequency of their use of certain words, studies of word frequencies in the Book of Mormon have been conducted to draw conclusions regarding its authorship. A number of questions have been raised. Was Solomon Spalding the author, or Sidney Rigdon, or Joseph Smith, or …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2004
PROGRESSIVE ORTHODOXY: A NEW CHAPTER IN MORMON ASSIMILATION?
Recent years have seen the rise of a Mormon intellectual movement I call “progressive orthodoxy.” Exemplified most prominently by the limited geography model for the Book of Mormon, progressive orthodoxy seeks to affirm LDS faith claims in ways that are credible by scholarly standards. Progressive orthodox scholars thus seek to balance two opposing forces that …
A ‘GATHERING’ STORM: THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT’S WORLDWIDE WAR ON MORMON PROSELYTING AND EMIGRATION
The Supreme Court’s 1879 ruling on the constitutionality of anti-polygamy laws triggered an offensive in the campaign to crush Mormonism. Within days of the Court’s ruling, the Secretary of State notified U.S. ambassadors to seek the help of foreign governments to “check the organization of [this] criminal enterprise” by halting the work of missionaries and …
THE OTHER DNA PROBLEM: BLACK AFRICAN JEWS AND THE PRIESTHOOD
For thousands of years, African tribes in Mozambique and Zimbabwe have claimed Jewish heritage and priesthood lineage. Their religious practice has included monotheistic worship, circumcising male children, and dietary practices closely resembling those prescribed in the Old Testament, including eschewing the eating of pork. Although some scholars have dismissed the tribes’ ancestral claims, new DNA …
THE PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS: LDS SCHOLARS AND THE BOOK OF MORMON
LDS and non-LDS scholars agree that the Americas were peopled by Asians crossing the Bering Strait land bridge more than 11,000 years ago. A growing number of LDS scholars posit that the Jaredites were just a colony in their midst some 4200 years ago, and the same for the immigrant Israelites some 1600 years later. …
THE MYTHICAL BOOK OF MORMON, PART II
I will continue developing the thesis that the Book of Mormon is not literal, but symbolic, archetypal history brought forth by the visionary Joseph Smith, in shamanic fashion, as a grand symbolic, spiritual ethic to rebalance the culture into which it came. Calling on the work of Carl Jung and John Weir Perry, I will …
A FOOL’S ERRAND? MORMON FICTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
There is an elephant in the room whenever one ventures to discuss the state of LDS writing, namely: do LDS people actually read LDS literature? Or more to the point, do they buy it? In this presentation, I explore the notion that LDS writers may have to reach beyond the LDS audience in order to …
FROM BUNKERVILLE TO BABYLON: JUANITA BROOKS AND PHYLLIS BARBER TELL THE STORY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MORMON WOMEN’S SEXUAL TRAINING
Juanita Brooks (Quicksand and Cactus: A Memoir of the Southern Mormon Frontier), and Phyllis Barber (How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir) reconstruct Mormon women’s sexual training during the mid- to late-twentieth century by narrating the story of their lives growing up in Nevada. Each autobiography illustrates the strained position of many Mormon women as …
WHAT DO WE MAKE OF THE NEWS OUT OF COLORADO CITY?
For more than a year, news accounts have portrayed the Fundamentalist Mormon community at Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, as a cesspool of sexual molestation, open rebellion against the law, welfare thievery, and potentially another Waco or Jonestown. These characterizations have been made by embittered former members, politicians, muckraking journalists, and a writer of …
CHURCH LEADERSHIP AND MORMON ECOTHEOLOGY
As an LDS Church member, just how should I feel about the earth? In this session, I explore that question from the perspective of ecotheology, studies that address the extent to which Church doctrine influences members’ perception and practices relative to the earth and its creatures. I suggest that LDS leaders provide limited guidance concerning …