Revelations, women, and the early church

In honor of Women?s History month, I bring you something from the archives.

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Is McNaughton an Artist? Or, what I said on RadioWest

[These are fleshed-out notes of what I shared on RadioWest on their show dedicated to Jon McNaughton?s paintings. As such, it?s pretty disjointed and should be read more as notes than an essay.

The audio for the interview can be found here. The first half is a fascinating interview with McNaughton; the portion where I come on, along with brilliant artis Adam Bateman, is shortly after the 25 minute mark.]

Review: Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

Givens, Terryl L. and Matthew J. Grow. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

In 1854, Parley P. Pratt, Mormon apostle, theologian, polygamist, and apologist, set out to write his autobiography. In a letter to church historian George Smith, he explained that it was intended to be “a Lean, megre sketch of Church History. As my hurried life, and hurried manner of writing, prevents my branching out on many interesting items” (as quoted on p. 348). As anyone who has read Pratt’s autobiography—published posthumously by his son in 1874—can testify, it goes far beyond the “Lean, megre sketch” he apparently set out to write, and has served as both a ready resource for historians of 19th century Mormonism and a beloved book to thousands and thousands of lay Latter-day Saints to the present day. But Pratt was certainly right in noting that the Autobiography left out “many interesting items.” In Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism, accomplished scholars Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow set out to investigate those “many interesting items”—including many episodes that Pratt would likely never have discussed in detail even if he had the time and space to do so.

What struck me most forcefully while reading Givens and Grow’s book was Parley Pratt’s personality. Described by the authors as having a “tempestuous character,” Pratt comes across

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Unforgivable Pins: Mormon Women, Pinterest, and the Defining of Virtual Self

Mormon women are in trouble again.  Not for selling out to the patriarchy or for working outside the home.  Not for having too many or not enough kids.  Not for wearing skinny jeans or peep-toe shoes.  No, this time it?s for being overwhelming subscribers to an online bulletin board site called Pinterest.[i]

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Conference Schedule: UVU’s Mormonism and the Internet

Schedule of Events

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Final Dissertation Outline

So my adviser, Ann Taves, has approved my final “throughline” for me to send out to the rest of my committee. Let me clarify.  The way Ann likes to do it, is for her students to write the initial prospectus, then do all the research and then write a second prospectus.  She calls the second prospectus a “throughline” or a chapter by chapter detail of your arguments.  

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Southwestern States Mission: Sharing a bed

In honor of Elder Jones?s late bedtime on 1900 May 27, this week I will discuss two aspects of missionary sleeping arrangements. How often did they share a bed? and How did they feel about it?

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When Mormon Women Led Out For Peace

David Pulsipher is a professor of history at Brigham Young University-Idaho.  David was a 2007-2008 Fulbright scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia (University), in New Delhi, India.  His research and scholarship focuses on peace and non-violence, and particularly how Mormons have appropriated and/or responded to these ideologies.  He has presented papers at the Mormon History Association, Claremont Graduate University, BYU Studies Symposium, and the Congress of the Asian Political and International Studies Association.  David is currently working on a volume of collected essays (co-edited with Patrick Mason and Richard Bushman) called War and Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives; and a second co-authored book with Patrick Mason exploring a distinctively Mormon theology and ethic of peace.  Please join us in giving David a warm and generous JI welcome.

In honor of women?s history month, we might remember an all-to-brief moment when Mormon women led in the public sphere and men followed—the ?Peace Meeting? movement. Given the prevalence of martial imagery and military heroes in contemporary Mormon culture, it is easy to forget that the Church officially endorsed and organized anti-war protests during the first decade of the twentieth century. These centrally directed and locally produced affairs were held annually—usually on or around May 18, to commemorate the first Hague Conference—and were no small productions. Meetinghouses were draped in international peace colors (gold, purple, and white). Ward choirs prepared and sang patriotic hymns and anti-war songs. Poems were specially composed and recited. Peace resolutions were adopted and signed. And ward leaders (male and female) disavowed war and called for international institutions for arbitration.

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Southwestern States Mission: Fasting Frequency

Inspired by Ardis Parshall’s serial posting of the missionary diary of Willard Larson Jones at Keepapitchinin, I announce an occasional series on missionary life in the Southwestern States Mission around 1900.

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Yellow Wallpaper in Zion: The Friendship between Susa Young Gates and Charlotte Perkins Gilman

On March 8, 1927, the Deseret News published a piece about the upcoming visit of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a noted socialist and feminist.[1]  Looking back, it is easy to assume that the piece would have been largely negative.  Gilman?s most famous work is ?The Yellow Wallpaper,? which traces the growing madness of a young woman confined to her room because she has been diagnosed with hysterical tendencies.  Forbidden from working or leaving the room without her husband?s permission, she develops a fixation with the wallpaper, which makes her think of ?all the yellow things? that she has ever seen ?not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.?[2]  Eventually, she comes to believe that she lives within the wallpaper and refuses to leave the room when their summer rental expires.  She gnaws at the bedposts and hides the key so that no one can force her out into the world where everything is too green.  She ends up crawling on the floor, where she can place her shoulder against the wall, and be protected from losing her way.  The room she once hated has become her sanctuary.

Gilman saw ?The Yellow Wallpaper” as a critique of the infantilization of women, the confinement of women to the home, and the treatment of the mentally ill and as such, the short story would be at odds with the current Mormon understanding of womanhood.  Although Mormon husbands are unlikely to confine their wives to their rooms if they show signs of depression or ?hysteria,? Gilman would have critiqued the church?s emphasis on motherhood and domesticity to the exclusion of women?s work.  Gilman believed that women should be able to enter professions and that those women who did perform housework should be paid for it in real, hard currency.  Far from condemning Gilman, however, the 1920s Deseret News praised her.  It told its readers that Gilman had come from a notable family, which included Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, and that she had ?known intimately many of the greatest people of the world.?[3]  The article also lauded Gilman for her efforts to secure women?s economic independence.

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