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, …
Speaker: Christopher Smith
THE IROQUOIS AS THE LAMANITE: AN ARGUMENT FOR A CONTEMPORARY READING OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
Apologists have argued for ancient settings of the Book of Mormon in the American continent. In this presentation, I argue that the description of Lamanites portrayed in the Book of Mormon is consistent with nineteenth-century understandings of the Iroquois and the archaeological interpretation of artifacts commonly found in the New York State area during the …
The Contested Meaning Of Democracy In Early Mormonism And Methodism
In The Democratization of American Christianity, Nathan O. Hatch documents the rise of an array of populist religious sects, including the Mormons and the Methodists. However, it is a mistake to equate all democratic religion with populist religion, as Hatch does. Dissenters from the Mormons and Methodists used the populists’ own democratic rhetoric against them, …
Right of the Firstborn
The importance of family to Joseph Smith is well-known, but discussions of the subject often focus on marriage and sealing. Less has been said about Smith’s peculiar fascination with llineage and blood relation. Early Mormon scriptures feature hereditary records, hereditary priesthoods, hereditary blessings, hereditary curses, hereditary offices, and even hereditary names. They also single out …
Joseph Smith in Hermeneutical Crisis
Joseph Smith in Hermeneutical Crisis Marvin Hill argued that early Mormonism was a flight from American religious pluralism. This presentation puts a finer point on Hill’s thesis by arguing that Joseph Smith felt that American religious pluralism resulted from a breakdown in the perspicuity (or clarity) of the Bible. I suggest that Smith regarded hermeneutical …