Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

This week, I have for your perusal:

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Understanding RLDS History: A Resource List

In January, JI got an email asking for a post highlighting the “essential” books to understanding the history of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Community of Christ. We reached out to David Howlett, author of The Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (University of Illinois Press, 2014), and visiting assistant professor at Skidmore College. David’s book is well worth your time, and I urge you all to read it. He graciously provided us with a list of five essential books for any readers interested in RLDS/Community of Christ history.

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Review: Craig Harline’s Way Below the Angels

Harline, Craig. Way Below the Angels: The Pretty Clearly Troubled But Not Even Close to Tragic Confessions of a Real Life Mormon Missionary. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2014.

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JI on Polygamy

On Wednesday, we here at JI declared we were happy to (try to) answer any questions about polygamy people may have, in response to the Church publishing two more essays on the topic. In preparation for that post (or several posts) next week, I’ve hunted through the archives to find older posts on the subject. (Warning, there are a lot.) I’ve tried to group them thematically here below.

LDS responses to anti-polygamy legislation

Responses: Patrick Mason on David Pulsipher on Mormon Civil Disobedience

Joseph H. Dean and Joseph F. Smith on Mexico/Polygamy

The Manifesto and post-Manifesto polygamy

A Review of Lu Ann Faylor Snyder and Phillip A. Snyder, eds., Post Manifesto Polygamy: The 1899-1904 Correspondence of Helen, Owen, and Avery Woodruff (and another review here)

Wasted Seed and Spent Men: Corinne Allen Tuckerman and the Politics of Polygamy after 1890

Reading Like a Conspiracy Theorist, Part 1: A Post-Manifesto Polygamist?s Diary, Part 2: The Case for Polygamy, Part 3: Quinn and Hardy

Quantifying Polygamy

From the Archives: Joseph Smith III Congratulates Wilford Woodruff on the Manifesto

Remembering polygamy

From Embrace to Embarrassment: Remembering Joseph Smith?s Polygamy

Peculiar Questions Briefly Answered: Charles W. Penrose on Polygamy, Etc.

?Plurality of Wives was an Incident, Never an Essential?: James E. Talmage on Polygamy

Mormon Folklore, Part Two (Polygamy)

Susa Young Gates, Juanita Brooks, and Plural Marriage: Situating the Legacy of Polygamy in the 1920s and 1930s

Celestial Polygamy is Inevitable

Grub Street History: Peggy Fletcher Stack and The Polygamies of Joseph Smith and Warren Jeffs

The Perspectives on Parley Pratt?s Autobiography: BiV on ?Conjugal Relations of Parley P. Pratt as Portrayed in his Autobiography?

Women and the Manifesto: Painting with Broad Strokes

Specific Polygamous Relationships

Helen Mar Kimball blessing and the dating of her marriage to Joseph Smith

Hannah Tapfield King?s Introduction to Polygamy and Hannah Tapfield King, Gendered History, and Class

Movie Review: Emma Smith: A Really Great Catch and Emma Smith Movie, Again

 Polygamy and gender

?The cheerless, crushed and unwomanly mothers of polygamy?

?Either a misogynist or proto-feminist?: Women and Polygamy in John Turner?s ?Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet?

Passionate Stability: Polygamy, Dating, and the Creation of Modern Mormon Gender

Thoughts on Polyandry

Polygamy and race

Black Methodists, White Mormons: Race and Antipolygamy

?Prelude to American Imperialism?: Mormon Polygamy, Natural Law, and Whiteness

?A situation worse than polygamy?: Mormon Missionaries, ?Mulattos?, and Defending the Faith in North Carolina, 1900

Miscellaneous

When Did Mormons Become Straight: The Intersections of Mormon History and Queer Theory

Spatial Dynamics and Polygamous Burial Practices

Notes from the Utah State Historical Society?s 56th Annual Conference, Part 2: Polygamy

From the Archives: ?Polygamy?is Conducive to Health, Ingelligence, and Longevity?, An 1885 Letter of George Reynolds on Ebay

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

Let’s dive right in:

First things first: the Church History department is now on Tumblr! I’ve already added it to my blog roll and look forward to more fun and informative posts.

Then, a Trib article on the (presumed) relationship between Mormons and the GOP, and a Huffington Post article on Mormons, social media, and progressive activism.

And because this post deserved another link, and these are words I never thought I’d read in one sentence, “Polygamist women in ninja costumes” involved in nefarious activity. See KUTV for more details on what is a funny headline for a sad story.

Lastly, a reminder that the deadline for this year’s Mormon History Association is coming up! All submissions are due October 1. You can find the CFP here.

Feel free to add your links in the comments!

five reasons to visit the Church History Museum

1. There’s something for everyone: exhibits on Relief Society history, Presidents of the Church, Book of Mormon Fiesta…

2. One exhibit, “Practicing Charity: Everyday Daughters of God,” features some striking art about the breadth and depth of womanhood and charity. Regular JI readers might remember this post, in which curator Lauren Allred Hurtado introduced the exhibit. (Not in Utah? You can see an online version of the exhibit here.)

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MSWR – July 20

For your Sunday perusal:

Our own Amanda Hendrix-Komoto writes about the excommunication of Kate Kelly (and Mormon feminism?) on the Nursing Clio blog.

Pauline Kelly Harline writes about female Mormon bloggers and the long tradition of writing that exists in Mormon culture.

Joseph Spencer recaps the Mormon Theology Symposium that recently wrapped up in London here.

A whole host of qualified people (including JI-ers Andrea Radke-Moss and Rachael Givens) weigh in on the question of equality, gender, and priesthood here on a panel at Patheos.

Is the Mormon moment finally over? Find out here.

On the complexities of Mormon identities, being a gay Mormon, and going from being a missionary to playing one on a stage.

On the intersection of politics and religion when it comes to popular opinion.

Emmeline Wells is highlighted by the National Women’s History Museum here.

The Deseret News reports on the third new temple film to come into rotation in the span of twelve or so months.

And finally, the Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Culture is holding its symposium on July 22, 23, and 25. The program can be found here. In the neighborhood? Come listen to Natalie Rose on Tuesday!

Anything we missed? Leave your contributions in the comments!

“It’s hokey and didactic, but it works”: on the Mormon Miracle pageant in Manti, Utah*

In June, I went to Manti to witness the Mormon Miracle Pageant that is put on there every year. In many ways, it was an indescribable experience (which is slightly problematic seeing as the pageant is supposed to make its way into one of my dissertation chapters). I’ve pulled together some thoughts for this post, and would be interested to hear yours.

Those of you that have been to the pageant will likely remember the proselytizing that goes on before the show. Signs had been put up on church grounds that proselytizing was not allowed. Understandable, but a tad ironic, given the LDS Church’s emphasis on missionary work and the vast resources it expends to send missionaries all over the world. It raises interesting questions about center vs. periphery and the ethics of missionary work that I would be happy to debate at some other time (or in the comments, if anyone’s interested). In any case, the signs did not help much, as there were an abundance of people (very careful to stay on public roads) wanting to engage with Mormons about the alleged false doctrine in the church. They ranged from the three or four hecklers shouting at the top of their lungs, to the somewhat bitter ex-Mormons wanting to save their former brothers and sisters, to people calmly handing out pamphlets. Of the latter group, I got the impression that many had been recruited to do their Christian duty and probably could not have told you much about the church except that it was wrong. (This went for some of the hecklers as well: Mormon doctrine was heavily misrepresented in their talk of Mormon polytheism, for example.) In his dissertation, Policing the Borders of Identity at the Mormon Miracle Pageant (2005), Kent Bean writes that the Manti pageant should be framed as a power struggle, between evangelicals, LDS, and Mormon fundamentalists. While I do not entirely agree with his characterization of the Mormon-evangelical debate, there is something to be said for the issue of power being central. I’ll come back to that.

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MSWR

I have a very short MSWR for you today.

The Salt Lake Tribune has a piece on what, exactly, makes Mormonism (among other faiths) attractive to people in Ghana.

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Mormon Women Project

As Ben noted here, Mormon history is often told through a male lens. And as my advisor likes to say, women bear the brunt of being different. As a consequence, when their stories are told, they’re often relegated to a specially-labeled conference session or class unit or journal article, somehow set apart from instead of being an integral part of whatever history is being told. Obviously, I don’t know the solution to this problem, except to tell women’s stories wherever I can. Which is why I spent a good while perusing the site of The Mormon Women Project. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the project, but for those that are not, the project aims to showcase “the diversity and strength” found in the roughly seven million LDS women around the world. The site features profiles and pictures of women that “overcome personal trials, magnify motherhood, contribute to communities outside their homes, or be converted to the Gospel.” To insiders, it hopes to show that there is no one right path a faithful Mormon woman must follow, and to outsiders, it shows “the immense strength and wisdom of our people.” [2] Quite the charge.

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