Guest Post: Biblical Precedent and the Succession Crisis

Robin Scott Jensen is employed by the Church Archives and works as an editor on the Joseph Smith Papers Project, working on Joseph Smith’s 1843-1844 journals and JS’s revelations. Robin received a master’s degree in history at BYU, writing his important thesis on early Strangite missions. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Library Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has been published in the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, BYU Studies, and The Journal of Mormon History. Robin has received many awards for his work, including “Student Researcher of the Year, 2005” for the Joseph Smith Papers.

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From the Archives: Brigham Young Educates Bancroft

In the late fall of 1875, Frank M. Derby sent a note to Brigham Young’s office inquiring about Young’s interest in purchasing the latest masterwork of Derby’s client, Hubert H. Bancroft. Young’s reply, sent out over the signature of his secretary, George Reynolds is pithy but telling.

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Lorenzo Snow and Eram Quod Es

Admin: This post is authored by occasional guest blogger and friend to JI, Bored in Vernal.

While doing genealogy work some years ago, I came across an epitaph in a New England cemetery where several of my ancestors are buried. I remember I was somewhat shocked to read:

As you are now, so once was I
As I am now so you will be
Prepare for Death to follow me. ^[1]

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The Juvenile Instructor Welcomes SC Taysom as a New Permablogger

Although it is customary to have someone be a guestblogger first and then issue the invitation to be a permablogger, in this case we’re pleased to announce that SC Taysom will be bypassing that formality and be joining us directly. SC actually did his guest-blogger training at BCC over the summer, but has held out for a better offer ;).

Here’s some background on SC:

SC Taysom earned a BA degree in History from BYU and an MA and Ph.D. in the History of Religion with a specialty in American Religious History and Ritual Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington.  A manuscript based on his dissertation, a compa

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Emma — The Elect Lady

Admin: This post is authored by occasional guest blogger and friend to JI, Bored in Vernal.

What woman would not want to have earned the title “Elect Lady?”  This evocative term was used to describe Emma Hale Smith in a revelation given by the Lord in July 1830.  “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” Emma was told, “and thou art an elect lady whom I have called.”  The appellation is an interesting one, and may possess shades of meaning beyond simply that Emma was an extraordinary and revered woman.  How do the words “elect lady” fit in with her being “called?”  Does this phrase have any connection with the ordination promised to her in verse 7?  Following are several interpretations which can be made of the words “elect lady:”

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The Juvenile Instructor Welcomes Bored in Vernal

For readers that are “old hands” to the ‘nacle, the name Bored in Vernal is not new. BiV has her own blog and contributes to a few other sites around the ‘nacle. We’ve recently discovered that she has a bit of a taste for historical posts, and we’ve therefore invited her to do a guest stint here. Here’s what she has to say about herself (in third person, of course):

BiV is a woman of a certain age with years of church experience under her belt.  She has been fascinated with issues of church history since her days at BYU in the Leonard Arrington years.  Many years as an early-morning Seminary teacher have given her a familiarity with the scriptures–but she especially loves the unusual and obscure.  BiV has done her time as a barefoot SAHM [for those uninitiated in feminist speech, like me, that means “stay at home mom,” I think] eagerly populating the earth.  A move to Vernal, Utah coincided with her discovery of blogging and the birth of “Bored in Vernal.”  BiV now teaches at an all-female university in Saudi Arabia.

 Let’s welcome BiV as our latest guestblogger!

Debut of “Nobody Knows” A Success

I unfortunately dropped the ball and missed the debut of “Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons” today at the Utah Film Festival (I thought it was yesterday). However, I did email Margaret Young to ask how it was received, and she responded that “We got a prolonged standing ovation. It was extremely gratifying.” Now I wish that I had been there even more. The documentary next heads to the San Diego Black Film Festival. I agree with Margaret that “It’ll be interesting to see how an African American, non-LDS crowd responds.”

Margaret also indicated that they do plan to show the film one or two more times in Utah, but no dates are set. I’ll be sure not to miss the next one. I believe that this is an important project, and I therefore encourage all JI readers to donate something to support the film. I’m a poor graduate student, and if I can donate, anyone can. 

“A True and Perfect System of Civil and Religious Government, Revealed from on High.”

In the fall and winter of 1843, Parley P. Pratt wrote a small pamphlet entitled “The Angel of the Prairies,” a work that was similar to his “One Hundred Years Hence. 1945.”“The Angel of the Prairies” purports to be based on a dream in which Pratt is transported one hundred years into the future, where an angel shows him that the U.S. government was destroyed from corruption within (shades of Book of Mormon stories of Gadianton Robbers), and the “sons of noble sires” had erected an empire of liberty in the American West. The angel also showed Pratt a thin volume entitled “A true and perfect system of Civil

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Enchanted Mormon

So I saw the movie Enchanted at the theater the other night. I know I am going to be subjected to merciless mockery by Chris and David for admitting that here, since I discount National Treasureras something quite below a farcical joke and yet will go with my wife to a children’s movie/chic-flic and actually kind of enjoy it…but alas, ’tis the truth. But what has this got to do with Mormon studies? Well, part way through the movie my wife leaned over and told me she had heard that the leading actress, Amy Adams, was Mormon. That piqued my interest.

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“As if we had been some savage tribe”: Parley P. Pratt on Mormon Identity

Writing, it was once said, is an instrument of power. Abolitionists used novels to combat slavery, as did anti-polygamy crusaders. Writers have tremendous power to shape images, whether of perceived dangers, or of past wrongs that need to be made right. As Yale theologian Miroslav Volf argues, “to remember a wrongdoing is to struggle against it.”[1] For the Latter-day Saints after the expulsion of 1838 writing was one of the few ways that they could fight back against the Missouri vigilantes and government officials that had expelled the Saints from the state.[2] Parley P. Pratt was keenly aware of the power of writing to shape how the American public understood what had happened in Missouri. While in prison

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