By May 21, 2013
[Part of the Many Images of Mormonism series.]
In the 2012 US presidential campaign candidate Mitt Romney was frequently described as a robot or robot-like. Mormons in general are sometimes compared to robots, the Borg (a cybernetic species from Star Trek), or Stepford Wives. In this post I will look at some of the context for using robots to describe people, particularly when those people are Mormon. [1]
By May 19, 2013
One of the reasons I started the Southwestern States Mission series was to motivate myself to analyze missionary health. I had been putting it off for a while and have continued to do so because it?s a big, daunting topic. It?s time to bite the bullet. I?ve started coding diary entries for health status by month. [1] Below is a summary of my first-draft results for July 1900 and 1901. I have included only the five travelling missionaries.
By May 12, 2013
In the past few months I?ve posted on the hymnbook, Mormon hymnody, and the general role of singing in the Southwestern States Mission. Today I will look at when in the week and when in the year traveling missionaries sang. [1]
By May 7, 2013
Last week Nathaniel Givens at T&S reminded us of how many Mormons produce speculative fiction (lots and lots) and some possible reasons why. For the past year or so I have semi-systematically read a hundred or so prominent SpecFic works [1] and have been surprised, not by the fantastical coming from Mormon pens and keyboards, but by the Mormons coming from mainstream desks. [2] Of the novels I read, I noticed six with unambiguous references to Mormons: Stranger in a Strange Land, Hyperion, Contact, Lucifer?s Hammer, The Stand, and Snow Crash. As part of our ?Mormonism?s Many Images? series, I will briefly discuss how these novels utilize Mormonism.
*** Spoiler Alert: Plot points appear below. ***
By May 5, 2013
Music played a significant role in missionary efforts in the Southwestern States Mission. In this post I briefly list some of the ways missionaries used music.
[Also: I have divided the footnotes: letters indicate comment or explanation, numbers have only examples.]
By May 2, 2013
Two weeks ago I posted an excerpt from GQ Cannon?s announcement of the decision to formally call female missionaries. Today I look at the response in The Young Woman?s Journal (YWJ). [1] The first official, female, Mormon missionary, Harriet Nye, was set apart on 1898 March 27; Inez Knight and Jennie Brimhall followed on April 1 and Cannon?s speech was on April 6. I looked for references to the call of the first sister missionaries in Volume 9 of the YWJ, which ran January to December 1898 and was edited by Susa Young Gates. [2]
By April 28, 2013
Southwestern States missionaries carried hymn books and sang often [1] but distinguished Mormon and non-Mormon songs: ?After supper we talked, and sang them some of our songs. They in turn sang some of theirs.? [2] Missionaries also referred to ?the songs of Zion.? [3] Despite the distinction, missionaries sold hymn books—even to those unlikely to convert—and copied hymns for appreciative listeners. [4]
By April 22, 2013
In my last few posts I have looked at discourse around early female Mormon missionaries. Below is the text of ?Lady Missionaries,? published in The Young Woman’s Journal in 1904, six-and-a-half years after the first Sister Missionary was set apart. The author is Joseph W McMurrin, one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, and thus one of the chief administrators in the Church’s missionary program. Note, however, that only about a third of the 1,500+ words come from McMurrin; the balance are from mission presidents. Since the article quotes four of the six US mission presidents, I think the article gives a reliable snap-shot of the leadership view at the time.
By April 21, 2013
In last week?s post I looked at the public linguistic context for the phrase, ?faithful, discreet sisters,? in Sister Carling?s mission call. This week I look at her private writings.
By April 15, 2013
The first official, female, Mormon missionary was set apart on 1898 March 27. Ten days later, George Q Cannon, First Counselor in the First Presidency, spoke at General Conference. As presented in the conference report, he spent 2 out of 14.5 columns on the decision to call female missionaries. Below I give a five-hundred-word summary for those of you in a hurry and then the unbroken thirteen-hundred-word excerpt.
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