Relief Society Handbook: Spotlight on American Gender Norms

Susanna Morrill is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland where she teaches courses in United States religious history. She received her doctorate in the history of religions from the University of Chicago. Her work in the recent past has focused on how early Mormon women used popular literature in order to argue for the theological importance of their roles in the home, community, and church.

I finally got around to reading carefully the latest handbook of the Relief Society, Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society. It got me thinking about the symbolic connection between women and the home in Mormon and American culture. A little further afield, it got me thinking about feminine divinity in Mormonism and U.S. religious traditions and public discourses.

Continue Reading

Great-Grandma’s Sixth Sense

The way my family described my great grandma was that she was very clean, very shy, and very superstitious. The superstitious characterization is the one I heard the most; my mom once used Great Grandma in an attempt to contextualize Joseph Smith’s “magical” practices–everyone was doing it. So I was surprised and interested to get a little more context for Great-Grandma’s beliefs when my grandma read a history of her mother (Great Grandma) to us last year (this was just a few months before my grandma passed away).

Continue Reading

“[I]f the sisters were willing”: the Women of Zion’s Camp, 1834

The story of Zion?s Camp has usually been told absent its female participants. In fact, it might surprise most readers that women (and children) even participated in Zion?s Camp.

Continue Reading

“The cheerless, crushed and unwomanly mothers of polygamy”

When we decided to devote a month to women?s history beginning with mother?s day, I thought about how my research about Mormon girls and young women is also very much about hopes for the future mothers of the next generation of Mormon children. It is clear that the changing (both Mormon and non-Mormon) representations and experiences of Mormon women as mothers is an integral aspect of the church?s metamorphosis from being perceived as an outsider religion to becoming patriotic, religious Americans. A question along the lines of ?how did Mormon women transition from a group of polygamist wives who fought for women?s suffrage to embodying the model of wholesome stay at home wives and mothers?? has dominated scholarly research about Mormon women?s history.

Continue Reading

Heavenly Mother

Okay so here’s another section of my dissertation, this one on Heavenly Mother.  It’s part of a larger chapter on Smith’s plan of salvation.  It’s taken out of context somewhat and make several references to W. W. Phelps’s “Paracletes” that I examine in the next section.  But it was getting a little long, so I think this section with suffice.  Happy Mother’s Day.

God Has a Wife. In his ?Paracletes,? William Phelps referred to pre-mortal spirits living with their ?father and mother in heaven?; a few months earlier Phelps declared, ?O Mormonism! Thy father is God, thy mother is the Queen of heaven,? in a letter to Smith?s brother William.[1] This was the first printed reference to what would become one of Mormonism?s distinctive doctrines: Mother in Heaven.

Continue Reading

Introducing Women’s History Month at JI: Mother’s Day as a Day of Peace

First, a mea culpa: We at JI screwed up and failed to plan anything for women?s history month. Instead, we ended up doing a month on ritual. Although the month was fantastic and pointed to a lot of new insights and directions for Mormon history, we felt that it was important to devote a month to women?s history. We batted around a few times of the year when we could do it and eventually decided to begin the month on Mother?s Day. That decision, however, wasn?t without some trepidation. There was a feeling that conservative religious groups often reduce women to their status as mothers ? lauding them for their ability to have sex and produce a child afterwards. Breastfeeding, housework, and the willingness of some women to stay home are lauded and pointed out as women?s true calling, while the other things that women do ? factory work, the production of academic scholarship, etc. are forgotten. Even more marginalized are those women who chose not to or cannot have children or those who remain single throughout their lives. 

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies in the Classroom: Roundup

I’d like to thank all the contributors and those who provided excellent discussion during the Mormon Studies in the Classroom series from the past two weeks. In case you missed any, all the links are below:

• Ben P, Introduction
• Christopher Blythe, Mormonisms
• Patrick Mason, Approaches to Mormonism
• Nate R, Mormon Studies in the 7th Grade Utah Studies
• Amanda HK, Religion, Witchcraft, and Magic
• Ben P, Mormonism and American Politics
• Grant Hardy, The Beginning of Wisdom
• Saskia, On Sensitivity
• Andrea RM, Mormon Women, Patriarchy, and Equality

We certainly didn’t cover all angles possible under this topic; no classes on Mormonism outside of America, most notably. But I am thrilled with the broad range of perspectives and backgrounds exemplified in the various posts, and the number of questions they raise.

I’m still not covinced that, in most cases, a course devoted to Mormonism is the best option, save in special circumstances. I’m of the mind that Mormonism works best when included amongst a plethora of groups dealing with the same issues. Yet I do believe Mormonism can serve a useful case study for a number of topics, as demonstrated through the various theoretical and real courses listed above.

Any general thoughts on the series? Do you think Mormonism works well in the classroom? What other courses would you have in mind? How would you incorporate Mormonism into broader courses? What books on Mormonism do you think work best in the undergraduate classroom?

Mormon Studies in the Classroom: Mormon Women, Patriarchy and Equality

As a professor of history at a predominantly Mormon university, lately I have been a magnet for students with questions about the changes for Mormon women, especially considering the recent public attention to the roles of women in our traditional religious culture.

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies in the Classroom: On Being Sensitive

When Ben announced his intention for a new series about teaching Mormonism, it dovetailed nicely with something I’ve been thinking about. Back in 2012, I taught a class on Mormonism at my university in Germany. This past semester, I attended one at the University of Utah. Besides the obvious difference of being a student vs being a teacher, something else came up time and time again: how although the locations couldn’t be more different, both courses exhibited a certain kind of sensitivity that was oddly similar.

Continue Reading

MSWR

This week, I have a series of eclectic links for you:

–The LDS Church donated $1.5 million to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. The museum is set to open in 2016 and sounds well worth a visit!

–Remember when the American Bible Society did a survey on American Bible reading habits? Mormons came off less-than-favorably, despite their long-held devotion to the KJV. Stacie Duce of the Deseret News addresses that issue here. (The original report can be downloaded as a pdf here.)

–NPR did an interview with Neon Trees, “the Mormon band who made it big,” on Provo, honesty, being LDS, and the occasional song lyric.

–The Salt Lake Tribune talks about why the increase in missionaries since the age change has not led to an increase in baptisms per se.

–For Utah history buffs, check out the KUED documentary “Courthouse” about Utah law and the Mormon-non-Mormon legal relationship. The Salt Lake Tribune heralds it as engaging and lively, so there you go.

–LDS and Seven Day Adventist leaders met to discuss social media, religious freedom, and the importance of keeping young people in the church.

Anything we missed? Add your links in the comments!