Year: 2006
Annie Griffith Burbank: Amongst the Gentiles
Annie Griffith was born on August 27, 1837, in Georgetown, Essex Co., Massachusetts, on the Merrimack River near the New Hampshire state line. She lived in that county all her life.
The Theology of the Horse
How big of a deal is technology theologically speaking?
Mice and men
If we’ve learned one thing in the past week, it is this: Mice are not good Mormons.
The Shape of Things to Come
For many years, northern Bavaria had a duplicate Church geography, with a stake for American servicemen sharing the boundaries of a German district.
Faith in the Shadow of Death
My sister-in-law, Lynda, is dying of cancer. It was in remission for eight years, but has now returned and is in her bones.
LDS Sessions at the Society for Biblical Literature
Mormons make an appearance at the important SBL conference.
Mormons, Gentiles, Suffrage, and the Courts
In 1870, the Utah Territorial Legislature passed an act giving women the right to vote, making Utah the second jurisdiction in the United States to given women the vote. (Wyoming was the first in 1869.) In 1887, Congress revoked the territorial law in the Edmunds-Tucker Act, and women were denied the vote until Utah was admitted as a state in 1896. Less well known is that there was an 1880 judicial attack on women’s suffrage in Utah.
Do Mormon Intellectuals Have Intellectual Agendas?
Ironically, the main problem with Mormon intellectual discussions is that all too frequently we have no intellectual agenda. Or at least so it seems to me.
Venus Robinson Rossiter: Learning to Serve
Venus Rossiter, serving in Tahiti with her husband, Mission President Ernest C. Rossiter, wrote to the Relief Society General Board early in 1919 with her report for 1918.
Relic area
Once when I was a missionary district leader, one call to my zone leader went particularly badly. I was trying to get permission for my district to take a hike in the woods, essentially. (The difference between a hike in the woods, and essentially a hike in the woods, was the sticking point
Nephite Legal Reasoning
There are lots of legal stories in the Book of Mormon, but there is not much in the way of legal reasoning. One of the few exceptions is found in Alma 30, which tells the story of Korihor the Anti-Christ.
Primary Lesson 40 Supplement
An Open Letter from Richard Bushman
Dear LDS Bloggers: Many you are aware of the conference for LDS Religious Studies and Divinity School students to be held at Yale University on February 16-17. The aim of the conference is to address issues that create problems for LDS students in religion and to ask what can a Mormon contribute to the debates that go on in these fields.
Murder in the Metropolis: Part the Fourth (Conclusion)
Hooper Young was arrested in Connecticut three days after the discovery of Mrs. Pulitzer’s body.
Levi Savage and Obedience to Church Authorities
The problems of following the prophet is a perennial favorite source of Mormon intellectual angst. What if the prophet is wrong? After all, prophets are human and are prone to mistakes? Indeed they are. Which brings me to the topic of Levi Savage.
From the Archives: Models of Women and the Priesthood
A favorite topic of speculation (and angst) among many Mormons and Mormon-watchers is whether or not women will get the priesthood. It is an interesting topic, but I think that most of the discussions of it are pretty uninteresting. The reason for this, I think, is that they are in the thrall of a single, rather simple model of what it means to “get� the priesthood.
Murder in the Metropolis: Part the Third
Hooper never told the full story of his association with Mrs. Pulitzer; such accounts as he did give were conflicting and incomplete.
Wal-Mart, McDonalds
How do you transplant an American institution to Europe and make it work?
Murder in the Metropolis: Part the Second
William Hooper Young, known as Hooper, was born in 1871 in Philadelphia, where his mother, Libbie Canfield, was visiting, while his father, John W. Young, was in Utah.
Murder in the Metropolis: Part the First
As the ebbing tide of September 18, 1902, lowered the level of the barge canals near Jersey City, New Jersey, a passing trolley engineer spotted the nude and mutilated body of a woman lying in the mud.
The Opportunity Cost of Publishing
In this excellent post, Rosalynde talks about the gender differences in subject material among Deseret Book writers. This renews the discussion brought up by Taryn Nelson-Seawright on the same difference existing in other Mormon outlets. Explanations abound for this phenomena, ranging from differing preferences to piggy discrimination, but most of them are sort of boring. Here’s one that is at least slightly more interesting:
Crunch the Catalog
The hidden meaning of the Deseret Book Christmas Catalog.
Charlotte Owens Sackett: Teaching the Sisters to Sing
Lottie Owens was born in 1877 in Willard, Box Elder County, Utah. Her mother’s family were early Church members in Nauvoo; her father had emigrated to Utah as a convert from Wales.
Primary Lesson 39 Supplement
Blog-Post Bingo (or Tic-Tac-Toe)
Start with a three-by-three grid.
Primary Lesson 38 Supplement
Sunday School Lesson #41
Lesson 41: Jeremiah 1-2, 15, 20, 26, 36-38
Retiring Toscanini
We are a storytelling people. Our Sunday lessons are as often built around a scriptural episode as around an abstract principle. Our General Conference talks and magazine articles are brightened by stories. Our family reunions are celebrations of family stories. We want stories from our returning missionaries, not exhortations on repentance and baptism.
Baby Daddy
Why are babies busting all over?