By Jared TMarch 23, 2008
The Juvenile Instructor is happy to present here a lecture by Robert Millet given at a book signing at Benchmark Books in October of 2007. We want to recognize our friend Brent Brizzi for his painstaking work of recording and transcribing the lecture. In addition to this one, Brent has provided us with transcripts of additional lectures given at Benchmark Books in the recent past which he has in the past distributed, and has been gracious enough to make available to our blog. This lecture and accompanying Q&A session is quite lengthy, but there are a number of gems here. I have edited it only slightly for incidental content [bathroom directions, etc]. Enjoy:
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By Jared TMarch 19, 2008
I recieved the following this morning:
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By Jared TMarch 12, 2008
This morning, Elder Oaks presided at a Family and Church History Department meeting at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square where it was announced that the department will be split into The Family History Department and the Church History Department. Elder Marlin K. Jensen will remain as Church Historian and Recorder. Richard Turley was released as managing director of the Family and Church History Department and is now the Assistant Church Historian and Recorder. These changes have been immediately effective with the split occuring in April.
More details should be forthcoming as they are made available. I think I speak for a great deal of people when I say that I have a great appreciation and admiration for both Elder Jensen and Richard Turley, and I am very happy they will be serving (continuing to serve) in these capacities.
By Jared TMarch 8, 2008
In reading through Phil Barlow’s ground breaking work on Mormons and the Bible, I came across this soundbite from page xvii of the introduction:
If God works through imperfect human beings, one danger among others is that human, culturally defined allegiances and perceptions will displace God’s work. Whether or not one is a believer, the good faith attempt to critically examine human tendencies ought not induce defensiveness. The historical task can and should be essentially a constructive work for humanity, possibly having as one of his positive goals the distinguishing of moral, spiritual, and intellectual wheat from chaff.
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By Jared TFebruary 11, 2008
In 1888, the Deseret News Weekly published a talk by Joseph E. Taylor apparently given in the Logan Temple. I found interesting how Taylor connects the dots between Adam-God and multiple probations using statements from Brigham Young and Joseph Smith. The full article can be found here beginning on page 19.
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By Jared TJanuary 14, 2008
After having been chased from Kirtland, Joseph Smith made his way to Missouri, arriving about March 13, 1838. He dictated to to George Robinson in what has become known as the Scriptory Book the following (taken from the online version of Dean Jessee’s Personal Writings of Joseph Smith):
After being here two or three days my Brother Samuel arrived with his family an[d] shortly after his arrival while walking with him & cirtain other bretheren the following sentiments occured to my mind.
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By Jared TDecember 13, 2007
In reading through The Evening and the Morning Star, I came across an interesting piece in volume 1, #10 under the heading “Children”. It reads in part:
“When the Lord gave the children of Israel commandments through Moses, he said, And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
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By Jared TDecember 5, 2007
In part 2 of a recent 3 part Mormonstories podcast, Dr. Ted Lyon Jr. reported an interesting remark by a prominent ex-university president about his keeping of a journal. He is reported to have said,
“He saw that I was writing in my diary while I was waiting for him. And he said, “Oh, Ted, you keep a diary.” I said, “Yea.” He said, “I don’t, I wish I…I know I should, but I don’t. And I said, “Why don’t ya?” And he said, “Because I saw what happened to Ernest Wilkinson.” He said, “Wilkinson kept diaries in such detail of all of his doings with the Brethren,
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By Jared TNovember 12, 2007
Carmon Hardy, in his article “Self-Blame and the Manifesto”, draws a parallel between elements of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy and Mormon explanations for the Manifesto. After tenaciously clinging to “The Principle”, and after repeated affirmations of the justness of the polygamous cause, the Mormon people had to account for the cessation of plural marriage. Increasingly, Latter-day Saints looked inward and cited a failure on the part of the Latter-day Saints as the reason the promised protection did not come. An excerpt from the Anthon Lund diaries illustrates this view:
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By Jared TNovember 8, 2007
One word can speak volumes says this morning’s Salt Lake Tribune. It carried a small story on a change to a single word in the introduction of the Book of Mormon in the recent Doubleday edition. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote the introduction in 1981 for the then new edition of the Book of Mormon and it contained this statement:
“After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the prin
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