Last week, the Church History Department published online the missionary journals from two of the very first single sister missionaries ever to be called. The two women, Eliza Chipman and Josephine Booth, served in Scotland as companions 125 years ago. Being able to contrast the two journals gives a fuller picture of the lives they led and the struggles they endured. It adds an interesting layer of insight into their service that we would not receive from two unconnected sisters.
Women
Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – 1 Corinthians 8–13
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Evangelical Questions: Men and Women
by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC
Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about the interdependence of women and men. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – 1 Corinthians 8–13
Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 19: The Early Church – Polygamy [D]
One of the Church history topics I find the most fascinating is that of the Nauvoo Expositor and the lead-up to and aftermath of the martyrdom.
My first real exposure to the story of the Expositor was as a sophomore in high school in Utah. An anti-LDS substitute math teacher decided to take it upon himself to lecture us on the evil censorship of the church many of us in the class belonged to. Looking back now, I can see how wildly inappropriate it was for a substitute teacher to bring this up in order to harass and criticize the religious beliefs of a bunch of teenagers who were just trying to learn pre-calculus. But unfortunately, at the time it wasn’t that unusual for us to have teachers who didn’t like the church. It didn’t occur to us that these teachers were crossing way over the line by actually vocalizing that dislike in class.
[Read more…] about Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 19: The Early Church – Polygamy [D]
Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 18: The Early Church – Polygamy [C]
Sorry for taking so long to get this posted! I’ve been putting in more than 60 hours a week at work lately, and I just didn’t have time to properly research this post until now.
This week, the topic under discussion is Joseph’s wives and the way that he personally practiced plural marriage. It’s true that some of the circumstances a little unusual compared to how later members practiced it, and it’s also true that sealing practices in general were unusual compared to how we practice them today. The world was also very different in the 1840s than it is today in the 2020s.
All of that means that it can be very difficult for us to understand what was going on and why. I’m going to do my best to break this all down so that it makes sense, but just remember, it’s okay if it makes you uncomfortable. It’s okay if you don’t like the idea of plural marriage. It’s okay if you don’t ever want to practice it. I don’t, either.
[Read more…] about Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 18: The Early Church – Polygamy [C]
History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference
by Maddie Christensen and Kristy Wheelwright Taylor
Wilford Woodruff kept a journal from the time of his baptism at the close of 1833 until his death in 1898, saying, “I have ever been impressed . . . of the deep importance of keeping a journal and record of the dealings of God with his people.”1 His sixty-plus years of records comprise over 115,000 written pages (26,000 of which have been located), left to us as journals, letters, discourses, autobiographies, and personal papers. These records document a large part of the early Restoration of the gospel. Three years ago, Jennifer Mackley and Don Parry created the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, whose mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seeks to make Wilford Woodruff’s records universally accessible to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. In celebration of these newly published documents, the Foundation hosted its first conference, Building Latter-day Faith. The conference was held at the Hinckley Center on the campus of Brigham Young University on Saturday, March 4, 2023, with over 350 people in attendance. [Read more…] about History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference
Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13
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Evangelical Questions: “Certain Women”
by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC
Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about Women and their role in the church. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand.
Today’s verse comes from Luke 8:1-3:
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
So here we have Jesus and his disciples going around doing what they do – and we also have a group of women who are supporting them financially, and though the text doesn’t say it they were probably offering lots of other practical means of support as well. And so the question presents itself about the role of women in various churches. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13
The Prison Journal of Belle Harris now available from Church Historians Press
Yesterday the Church History Department made public the Prison Journal of Belle Harris. Harris spent approximately three months in prison in 1883, along with her baby, for refusing to testify about her plural marriage to her ex-husband, Clarence Merrill, during the time when the federal government was attempting to crack down on the practice of plural marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While there, she was received visits and support from various leaders such as Eliza R. Snow, Emmeline B. Wells, Presendia Huntington Kimball, Zina Huntington Young, Mary Isabella Hales Horne, Romania Bunnell Pratt, Bathsheba Bigler Smith, George Reynolds, Charles W. Penrose, and A. Milton Musser.
In her journal, Harris is described multiple times as a “plucky” woman, and her personality and faith really come out. Here are a few examples: [Read more…] about The Prison Journal of Belle Harris now available from Church Historians Press
Come, Follow Me Week 31 – Esther
by K.T. Martin
The Book of Esther is one of the most politically intriguing books found within the Old Testament. The story includes a king who banishes his wife and marries a new woman who is secretly a Jew. The king has an advisor who has a hatred for the Jewish people and wants them destroyed; that advisor intends to manipulate the king to accomplish this goal. However, the king’s new wife uses her royal status to save the Jews, at risk of her own life.
That’s a lot going on.
With all of that political intrigue, what’s more interesting is how the Lord sets up a woman to be in the right place at the right time to preserve His chosen people. No nefarious plot by an evil man is a match for God’s great ability to see beforehand and place his servants in the position where they can do the most good. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 31 – Esther
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey – Mormon Fundamentalism with Brian Hales and Craig Foster
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Scriptural Mormonism Podcast Episode 14, cross-posted with permission.
Robert Boylan interviews Brian Hales and Craig Foster about Mormon Fundamentalism and the Netflix show “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey,” and specifically comparing FLDS to LDS, and Warren Jeffs to Joseph Smith.
Also join us at the 2022 FAIR Conference where Craig Foster will speak on “Under the Banner of Heaven,” and Brian Hales will participate in a lunch-time panel (for in-person attendees only) on common criticisms from Reddit. More information at https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference/august-2022-fair-conference
Come, Follow Me Week 27 – 1 Kings 17–19
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by Matt Crawford
The widow of Zarephath is one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. Perhaps the greatest reason that this story resonates with me is because the widow is an outsider. She is not a member of the house of Israel—a fact the Savior confirms (see Luke 4:24–30)—and she meets Elijah at the gate of the city. That is, she is physically on the outskirts of this village where she lives. At least symbolically, the location of the widow’s initial contact with Elijah infers that she is marginalized. Yet her belonging came as she did one thing: she obeyed a prophet. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 27 – 1 Kings 17–19
