DiaBLOGue
Christ’s World Government: An End of Nationalism and War
April 17, 2018The tenth Article of Faith states the Mormon belief that “Christ will reign personally upon the earth.” This is usually taken to mean that Christ will literally return to the earth at the Second Coming…
Religious Tolerance: Mormons in the American Mainstream
April 17, 2018The transformation of the Mormon Church from a radical nineteenth century socio-religious movement into a respectable denomination in the twentieth century raises sociological questions on whether or how distinctive Mormon elements can survive in our…
Uncle Joseph Smith, 1781-1854: Patriarchal Bridge
April 17, 2018John Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, Sr., and uncle of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was an unspectacular, though far from ordinary man. Amid the troubles and uncertainties following the June 1844 martyrdom of the Prophet…
The “Lectures on Faith”: A Case Study in Decanonization
April 17, 2018The “Lectures on Faith,” seven 1834-35 lessons on theology and doctrine prepared for the “School of the Elders” in Kirtland, Ohio, were canonized in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants by official vote…
Determining and Defining “Wife”: The Brigham Young Households
April 17, 2018Utah satirist Al Church, among other suggestions on how to survive as a gentile in Utah, offered this tip: “Ask guides at the Beehive House how many wives Brigham Young had. (Of my last four…
Refugee Converts: One Stake’s Experience
April 17, 2018Situated on a prominent knoll in the Oakland hills, the Oakland Temple is the most visible symbol of the Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. The temple is located within the boundaries of the…
Brave New Bureaucracy
April 17, 2018Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984, and Vonnegut’s Player Piano all envision a world where the system—big bureaucracy, big government, corporations, changing technology, or a mix of these—achieves total, albeit benign, control. The individual is…
BIG D/little d: The View from the Basement
April 17, 2018Recently I finished my first book, a brief journey on the road to self-definition. I called it Leaving Home[1] because my life has been a series of comings and goings to and from various homes…
Balance and Faith | William E. Berrett, The Latter-day Saints: A Contemporary History of the Church of Jesus Christ
April 17, 2018Thousands of Latter-day Saints were first introduced to William E. Berrett and the Church’s history when they were assigned in seminary to read his book The Restored Church (1940). Initially written in the late 1930s,…