Every great book has a great backstory. The recently published book Writing Mormon History allows the reader to enter into the historian’s world. Each chapter is written by a well-known historian describing the journey of writing books that have shaped our understanding of the Mormon past, offering an unprecedented glimpse into why they wrote these …
Speaker: Joe Geisner
Mormons and Native Americans: Myths vs. Realities
Brigham Young is quoted as having said about Native Americans: “It is cheaper to feed them than to fight them.” Due to this and the Mormon belief that Native Americans are descended from the Book of Mormon people, it is a common myth that 19th-century Mormons were always kind to Native Americans. The reality is …
TWO-PAPER SESSION ON B. H. ROBERTS
Part I: In 1908 and 1909, B.H. Roberts learned that some high-level LDS leaders continued to sanction secret polygamous marriages despite the two Manifestos forbidding the practice. Roberts compared this situation to president Smith’s “whisper campaign” supporting the Republican Party in violation of the Church’s policy of political neutrality. At the October 1909 General Conference, …
Very Careless In His Utterances: Editing, Correcting, And Censoring Conference Addresses
At the Sunday morning session of the October 2010 General Conference, President Boyd K.Packer gave a talk titled “Cleansing the Inner Vessel.” a few sentences and several words were changed from the spoken talk in the published talk posted on the Church’s website, LDS.org. Almost instantly, these changes and their significance were analyzed in the …
Author Meets Critics: Persistence of Polygamy
Co-editors Newell G. Bringhurst and Craid L. Foster have brought together all new articles on the history of Mormon polygamy. Join us for a discussion of this groundbreaking anthology with one of the co-editors and two readers/critics. Joe Geisner, Les Gripkey, Newell G. Bringhurst
Very Careless in His Utterances: The Editing, Correcting, and Censuring of Conference Addresses
At the Sunday morning session of the October 2010 General Conference, President Boyd K. Packer gave a talk titled, Joe Geisner
SL09233 Panel: Supporting Special Needs Children and Young Adults in the Church [Partial]
This panel brings parents, leaders, and advocates together to discuss the challenges and joys of bringing up special needs children and young adults in the Church. Given the lay nature of LDS leadership, teachers and advisors in a church setting may not have previous experience working with special needs children. What can leaders and individual …