“With All They Have to Perform That Work” – Narrating The Manifesto

The following is a portion of my research from last summer’s Bushman seminar, in which I examined how Mormons between 1890 and 1940 vacillated between embracing and marginalizing their polygamous past.

With Protestants continuing to be suspicious of a possible attempt by the Latter-day Saints to bring back the practice of plural marriage, Mormons at times narrated their polygamous past leading up to the Manifesto to emphasize their loyalty to the nation. In this context, the potential to marginalize the importance of polygamy was evident. For example, in 1916 Talmage told a news reporter that “when the federal statutes prohibiting its practice were declared constitutional, plural marriage was forbidden by action of the Church, officially assembled in general conference.”[1] By arguing that Mormons immediately discontinued the practice of plural marriage when the anti-polygamy statutes were declared constitutional

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Celestial Polygamy is Inevitable

At least that’s the message that early twentieth-century Mormon author Nephi Anderson was trying to send in his short story “The Inevitable,” published in the Improvement Era in 1907. I think it is significant that Anderson wrote this story after the death of his first wife, Asenath Tillotson in 1904, and just before his second marriage to Maud Rebecca Symons in 1908. Questions of his marital status with his first wife and a potential second wife in the hereafter were likely on his mind.

Given the recent discussions around the ‘nacle concerning celestial polygamy, I thought I’d post this here so we can get some feel for the emergence of this idea in Mormon thought in the post-1890 era. It’s a bit long, but it’s a short story, so it should be a quick read for the curious.

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Review: Afternoon Session of UVSC’s Mormon Studies Conference

Christopher has already ably outlined the morning session of today’s conference at UVU on Mormon schismatics. Here I will summarize the proceedings from the afternoon.

The afternoon session was comprised of three speakers on three different and important groups that traced their origins to Joseph Smith, Jr. R. Jean Addams presented on the Church of Christ, Temple Lot (Hedrickites), Vickie Cleverley Speek spoke about the Strangites, and Michael Van Wagenen summarized his research on the Wightites in Texas. Like the morning session, the three speakers first presented their individual papers and then combined for a panel and Q/A session. This format allowed for questions that examined the three groups in comparison to one another, which was one major objective of the conference.

R. Jean Addams is a history buff living in Washington state and his presentation was a summary of Hedrickite history f

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?We Are Now Rocking in the Cradle of Liberty?: The Memory of Persecution and Images of the West as a Refuge

“The history of our persecutions is unparalleled in the history of past ages.”[1] So argued George A. Smith, leader and historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 24, 1852 in Utah territory, five years after the Latter-day Saints left their homes in the Midwest and settled in the Great Basin. Smith, like most other Americans, of course ignored the history of oppression of Native Americans and slaves of African descent. For Smith, the only history of persecution that mattered in this context was that of biblical prophets, the early Christians, and all true followers of Christ. What made the nineteenth-century persecutions of the Latter-day Saints “unparalleled” in Smith’s argument was that they had

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The JI Welcomes Joel as a New Permablogger

Bit by bit, the Juvenile Instructor is diversifying. We now have a female permablogger (Heidi), two permas that wish they were Latinos (David and Chris), a Latino that was raised to be more white than Latino (Jared, hehe), two permas that wish they were black (Stan and Jordan), a member of AARP (SC), a young kid with the hairline of an AARP member (Ben), and now an Asian American…Joel.

In all seriousness, we are happy to announce that Joel has agreed to remain with us. He’s a fine young scholar that brings a new and fascinating perspective to our discussions here at the JI. Let’s welcome Joel.

What’s Your Blog’s Reading Level?

Jon W. over at Banner, Sword, and Shield has a post about a fun website that gauges a blog’s reading level (Jon got it from Emily at Mormon Times). Here’s what I get when I type in a few of my favorite blogs:

Juvenile Instructor: College (Postgrad) Genius

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?Hymns That Are Peculiarly Ours?: B.H. Roberts on Music

For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed singing hymns. In high school I sang in the ward and stake choirs. As a missionary I tried to sing at every appointment. In the years since my mission, I have gone nearly every Sunday to a local retirement center to sing to the residents there. As I sing I always like to let my eyes wander to the bottom of the page to see who wrote the song and when. I’ve always found it fascinating that many of the hymns in our hymnbook were not written by Mormons, but rather come from Protestant writers. For me at least, making this realization has always

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“Mormons and American Life”: IUPUI’s All-Star Conference

From H-Religion: 

The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis will sponsor a conference entitled:

“Mormons and American Life”

Saturday, April 12, 2008

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Rock the Vote…The JI Gets Nominated for Three Niblets

Dear readers, the Juvenile Instructor has been nominated for three Niblets (the ‘nacle equivalent of the Oscars, etc.). Here are the categories:

Best Blog

Best Big Blog

Best New Blog

 The competition is intense in each category, so please vote for us!

The JI Welcomes Joel as Our Latest Guestblogger

In recent months we’ve had our threads improved upon by the comments of Joel, a fellow academic in training. He’s accepted our invitation to spend some time with us and share some of his insights. Incidently, this past week Joel served as a commentator on the JI’s Stanley Thayne’s paper given at a conference on sexuality and gender (although Stan’s paper was on a celibate twentieth-century female prophet, his session also contained papers on transgenderism). Anyway, here is Joel’s autobiographical act:

Although I was born outside the Jello belt in Cortez, Colorado, my family’s ancestral home has always been in Rexburg, Idaho where my parents continue to live to this day. I served in the Trujillo, Peru Mission and spent four months in Cajamarca near the plaza where Pizarro infamously encountered the Incan leader Atahualpa. I have a B.S. in History from BYU-Idaho and an MA from USU. My Masters thesis explored the lives of

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