Recently I drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon with my brother and nephew. This is the canyon in which many of your ancestors pulled out the granite for the construction of the salt lake temple. As soon as we passed the granite facings on the side of the canyon my nephew played a song on his iPod by Corb Lund Brother Brigham Brother Young and it brought mental flashes into my mind of men working on the side of the mountain blasting granite out of it. It made me think of the struggles that men and women had even back then with the faith in many ways very similar to our day. From what I have read Mr Lund isn’t LDS but has relatives that are. Im assuming one of his relatives is a historian buff? Its probably safe to presume this song will never be played in a chapel 
but I can’t help liking it! You can listen to his song Here Continue reading…
Archive for the 'Utah' Category
If one searches around the bloggernacle, you’ll find a snarky comment about how the church traded polygamy for statehood, or that the church just wimped-out on polygamy. Such comments don’t seem to take into account how much pressure the US government was putting on the church–it was literally trying to snuff it out if the church didn’t back down from polygamy.
I’d like to get into some of these details leading up to the Manifesto. (This is a shorter version–more details are found here.) I talked about the Manifesto previously in the context of whether the prophet would ever lead the church astray. It should be noted that the church had been fighting federal anti-polygamy legislation for nearly 30 years, so I think it should be noted that the Manifesto banning polygamy in 1890 was not a spur-of-the-moment quick capitulation. I’ll be taking my quotes from 2 books: Forgotten Kingdom by David Bigler, and Great Basin Kingdom, by Leonard Arrington.
If you were in downtown Salt Lake City today, you may have noticed a large rally of over a thousand peacefully protesting polygamists. What is happening to the financial affairs of the FLDS right now seems completely inexplicable, but I need to try to understand what is going on. And it seems to me to behoove every citizen of the United States to do the same. Continue reading…
I happen to be cruising around the LDS Temple website the other day and I was looking at the Temples under construction. I was wondering whether we the Church had announced a Temple and not built it. I knew that this happened, so I thought it might make an interesting post. Most of my information comes from that website, except where noted.
Last time, I did a lengthy post on Nepotism in the Church, which you can find here. This is an update for this year so far. As you can see, the list is pretty short. I haven’t had a chance to go back and do more research on the appointments other than General Authorities, Temple Presidents and Mission Presidents. Biographical information is hard to come by for Area Authorities and Stake Presidents.
One thing is clear; the church is getting much more diverse in appointments for Mission Presidents and Temple Presidents. While there are still a number of Mission P residents coming out of Utah and other church strongholds, local/regional callings are on the rise.
As far as Temple Presidents, with the large number of Temples in operations, local Temple Presidents are now the norm. Except for the “big” Temples in various areas, Utah, Hawaii, and Washington D.C where emeritus General Authorities or released 2nd Quorum of 70 members are called.
And while you don’t see a significant number of relatives being called to the General Authorities, long time Church employees or other “well-connected” members are getting the nod. But this has probably always been true as President Hinckley was a long time Church employee prior to his call to the General Authorities.
| Name | Position | Relationship | Relative | Position |
| Allan F. Packer | 1st Quorum 70 | Son | Boyd K Packer | Quorum of 12 |
| Charles W Walton | Mission Pres 2009 | Son in Law | Ray H Wood | 2nd Quorum 70 |
| Clark B Hinckley | Mission Pres 2009 | Son | Gordon B Hinckley | President |
| Dale G. Renlund | 1st Quorum 70 | Son in Law | Merlin Lybbert | 2nd Quorum 70 |
| David J Bullock | Mission Pres 2008 | Son in Law | Boyd K Packer | Quorum of 12 |
| Gregory M Saylin | Mission Pres 2009 | Son in Law | Keith K Hilbig | 1st Quorum 70 |
| Michael Tally Ringwood | 1st Quorum 70 | Son in Law | Russell M Nelson | Quorum of 12 |
| Miguel Tenorio | Mission Pres 2008 | Son | Octaviano Tenorio | 1st Quorum 70 |
| Richard A Hunter | Temple Pres 2008 | Son | Howard W Hunter | President |
Ever since I read the MHA study ranking Utah as the #1 most depressed state in the U.S., I’ve been asking my Mormon friends and family why they think Utah has a higher percentage of population reporting depression than any other state.
Many view the Second Coming as a time when Jesus will personally and politically reign, not just host lamb & lion mixers. So what do you think? Will Jesus govern politically? Or is the notion that Jesus will govern politically more of the same wishful thinking that people had the first time around when they thought the Messiah would free them from political oppression by the Romans? (Weren’t they disappointed!) Continue reading…
Mormons are sometimes criticized for their unquestioning obedience to authority. Statements like “When the prophet has spoken, the thinking is done,” and the Primary song “Follow the prophet” come to mind as well as the belief that even if leaders are mistaken, we should follow them. Do Mormons have an unhealthy respect for authority? Continue reading…
There was an interesting article in Time recently about Facebook’s censorship of pics with nips, specifically eliminating pictures of breastfeeding moms (and, in their defense, a few of topless women who just happened to be holding babies). But, this brought up an age-old question of Mormondom: why are there no nipples on the Nephites in the BOM vids? Continue reading…
Today’s guest post is by Joe Geisner. Most bookstores in Utah have sold out of the new book on the Mountain Meadows massacre with a print run of 10,000 copies. Amazingly this happened in less than a week.
The buzz is that the book answers all the questions. This new openness, scholarly approach and availability for the most controversial subject in Mormon history is quite amazing. Continue reading…
We recently went to a few Native American sites near Prescott, Arizona with our kids. My husband’s “Mo-Dar” was in rare form. I must have been sleep-walking to miss a few of these obvious fellow Mormons also out visiting these sites with their kids. Continue reading…
I was talking with a French colleague at dinner about the differences between European politics and American politics, and he made a statement that left an impression. European politics are colored by their colonialist histories and how to balance a preservation of their culture while dealing with the other cultures they have essentially subordinated over time. For example, he mentioned the Muslims in France who demanded equal consideration of their separate cultural preferences in the very strict and isolationist French culture. The French people are very concerned with preserving their culture, values, and language (even governing the number of foreign words allowed to be added per year). I believe there is a Mormon parallel to be understood. Continue reading…
The raid in Texas is interesting (and differs from AZ and UT prosecutorial efforts) in that polygamy is being attacked directly. So, will this shift in approach result in the end of polygamy (again)? Continue reading…
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