Category: history
Pro-Choice for Education
I am dismayed that some people who pride themselves on being pro-choice stand for choice when it comes to the decision of a parent to terminate a young human’s life,…
Freedom to Be Thankful For: My Pilgrimage to Xiaogang, Birthplace of China’s Latest Revolution
One of the most touching and courageous moments in China’s recent history is depicted in the painting below of a secret meeting of farmers in a tiny village that few…
John Gee’s Introduction to the Book of Abraham: A Lifetime of Book of Abraham Scholarship Distilled into a Valuable Book for a Broad Audience
It was a pleasure to read John Gee’s recently published An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center,…
Canadian Mormons by Roy and Carma Prete: Interview with the Authors by Erin Gazdik
A valuable new contribution to the history of the Latter-day Saints will be published this month. Canadian Mormons: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada edited by…
Evidence At Last: The Many Aspects of John Lloyd Stephens’ Work That Strengthened Mormons in the 1840s
A delightful trend in modern Book of Mormon criticism today is to scour books, articles, and maps for information that hypothetically could have aided Joseph Smith in fabricating many of…
In Defense of Dr. John E. Clark’s “Ludicrous” Assessment of Early Criticism of the Book of Mormon
Dr. John E. Clark’s presentation on archaeology and the Book of Mormon, the subject of a recent post here, has been taken to task by one of our critics for…
The Egyptian Context for the Book of Abraham: Why Hor, Priest of Thebes, Might Want an Abraham Text
One of the important but often overlooked issues in the debate over the origins of the Book of Abraham is why the ancient Egyptian owner of the Joseph Smith papyri…
No, the Strangite Witnesses Are Not Strong Parallels to the Book of Mormon Witnesses
In my last post, Lawyers, Inc. vs. Faith, some folks suggested that the import of the Book of Mormon witnesses is lessened by the imitative adventure of James Strang and…
Lawyers, Inc. vs. Faith
My sophomore English class at Brighton High School was a disaster. The school was using a failed but trendy new system where hundreds of kids were in a big open…
Race and the Priesthood: Significant New Statement on the LDS History of Blacks and the Priesthood at LDS.org
I’m delighted with the release of a thoughtful statement at ChurchofJesusChrist.org clarifying the history of the Church’s former policy that prior to 1978 prohibited those with African ancestry from holding…
