One Eternal Round

I brought this up in Ward Council on Sunday, and everyone was surprised at its existence and thrilled. Clearly, it needs to get wider circulation. It seems like the Church was slow to get on the internet bandwagon, but is now cranking full steam. Here are instructions how to upload your own pictures into the ward directory (and see the whole ward mapped!), instead of waiting for the ward clerk to herd everyone into the hall for pictures, IF your ward even decides to do that. Continue Reading »

As I run the Mormon Portal, Star Foster runs the Pagan Portal here at Patheos. Yes, we have a Pagan Portal, as well as Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Evangelical, etc. (Go to the main page and click on Religion Portals to explore a bit.) She’s been putting up thoughts about whichever religious tradition is the weekly focus of our Future of Religion series. She recently posted 13 Things I Like about Mormons.
While some of her examples (such as polygamy) might make us say “well, maybe, but…,” or quibble in other ways (Alma in my view is unlikely to be Latin) it’s a great example of looking for the positive in religious traditions outside of one’s own. Krister Stendahl called it Holy Envy. Not everyone is so secure within their own faith that they are willing the recognize the good elsewhere. Check it out.

I have a confession: the music in the waiting chapel of the Salt Lake Temple drives me nuts. There I am, sitting reverently in my white dress, waiting for the session to start, and instead of a quiet atmosphere in which to ponder the reasons I came to the temple that day or even say a silent prayer, I am subjected to the kind of piped-in electric organ music that one might expect to hear in a funeral parlor.

As I sit there, trying to meditate but distracted by the wrong notes in the familiar hymns (the music must be played live somewhere by someone, since I hardly think there would be wrong notes in a recording), I figure I have three choices: I could resent that my religious institution forces its musical aesthetic on my personal worship and conclude that since I want to run from the musical choice I should run from the institution; I could ask the temple workers to turn it off and make a stink to the temple presidency; or I could stick my fingers in my ears so I don’t hear the music anymore and continue with my silent meditation. Continue Reading »

For $100, you can learn your ancestors’ migratory history on the earth.  National Geographic’s Genographic Project is seeking to learn more about human migration by analyzing the DNA of people around the world, including National Geographic readers who are interested in submitting their own cheek swab and in return getting a map of either their patrilineal or matrilineal migration pattern out of Africa.

The idea that all humans derive from a group of people in Africa who began their diaspora about 60,000 years ago is a well-accepted scientific idea, and the Genographic Project is expected to add detail and close gaps in our knowledge of this migration.  But in hearing LDS friends’ and relatives’ opinions on it, they are interested in finding out where their DNA derives from (who loves geneaology more than Mormons?), but dismissive of the idea that the starting point was in Africa.  Putting aside the debate about whether Adam and Eve were historical or non-literal figures in the Judeo-Christian creation myth, science suggests that there was a small group of people (the smallest possible group being two) that gave rise to modern humanity.  The fact that not a few Mormons are uncomfortable with the idea that this group was from Africa most likely stems from Joseph Smith’s belief that the Garden of Eden was near Independence, Missouri.  This idea is so thoroughly accepted by some that I’ve heard said that if only anthropologists would start digging in Missouri, all their questions about human migration and evolution would be cleared up. Continue Reading »

Patheos has informal partnerships with several of the established brands in Mormonism as well as the Church itself. (Mayhap you noticed two of our guest writers from SLC last week?)  As such, we’re beginning a new long-term series. Each week we’ll feature a select article from one of these partners for publication and discussion on the Mormonism Portal. These articles will appear in the “rotator” at the top of the portal page, and open with an editorial summary, personal meaning, or particularly salient bits to notice. We’ll rotate on a regular basis between these partnerships.

The first pick is already up. Continue Reading »

This is continued from my post on changing racial perceptions of the Chinese in LDS rhetoric at the turn of the 20th century.  Both sections here are adapted from research I conducted as a fellow during the Joseph Smith Seminar in 2007.

In 1890 there were only four documented “persons of Japanese ancestry” in the entire territory of Utah.[1] Contrasted with the Chinese, Utahns had no contact whatsoever with a significant Japanese population. Subsequently, the Japanese were easily romanticized, especially in light of the glowing reports from national newspapers about Japan’s westernization and generous trade agreements. After Admiral Perry’s opening of Japan in 1854, the United States quickly recognized that the Japanese were apparently an enlightened race to so willingly and expeditiously adopt principles of modernization into their nation. Soon, trade ambassadors from Tokyo were traveling to Washington, D.C. along the transcontinental railroad to further solidify political relations between both countries. Along the way, delegations stopped in Salt Lake City.[2] The Japanese politicians were dazzling to the Mormons. They wore fine western clothing, spoke English, and were obviously gentlemen. Continue Reading »

It’s not clear to me whether John Lennon realized he was proposing his own sort of Heaven when he wrote the classic ballad “Imagine,” but that’s what he was doing. He invites us to “imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try” and describes a world of peace and love, a sort of heaven on earth. The longing for peace in a heavenly place has led poets and prophets throughout the centuries to write, paint, sing and talk about Heaven. Professors of religious studies Colleen McDannell (University of Utah) and Bernhard Lang (University of Paderborn, Germany) have traced these currents throughout western thought in Heaven: A History.[1] To call the book a “tour through the museum of Heaven” would impose all the baggage the boring word “museum” carries; this book is an enjoyable journey. Mormons have a pretty different view of Heaven compared to other contemporary Christians, so I was glad to see a short section of the book discussing Mormon views specifically. Continue Reading »

Browsing through library databases and catalogues today, it is difficult to find even a handful of hits on Mormonism and Asian race. Even Armand Mauss’ recent sweeping study, All Abraham’s Children, notably omits any specific inquiry on the subject, though he meticulously dissects an LDS understanding of Blacks, Native Americans, and Jews.[1] Yes, some inferences may be made by delving into historical studies on missionary work in the Far East, but a comprehensive look into what it meant to be Asian in Mormonism and, perhaps more importantly, how the particular theologies came to be, are disappointingly diaphanous. Happily, from what I have previewed of Reid Neilson’s recent dissertation, I suspect that this dearth in Asian-LDS race scholarship will soon have an outstanding historical foundation on which to develop. Subsequently, I will not attempt to trace every intricate historical nuance of the subject but rather focus on my own particular research into how cultural influences created and shaped Mormon conceptions of Asian Race between 1880 and 1930.

Chin Sig, one of the 271 Chinese residents of Salt Lake City in 1890

The LDS conception of Asian Race shifted dramatically at the turn of the last century. The first era, roughly from 1880 to 1905, established a rigid hierarchy clearly favoring the Japanese over the Chinese. As cultural attitudes became more entrenched through the popular media, LDS magazines soon picked up these accepted assumptions. By 1901, the concept of an Asian hierarchy was so enmeshed in Mormon thought that explanatory theologies of what was termed “believing blood” began to appear in Conference addresses and missionary work.

Continue Reading »

It’s been five years since I posted this, and it came up in a Church discussion the other day, so it’s time for a repeat.

I enjoy Orson Scott Card’s books. My in-laws feel that he portrays evil too much in them. OSC has his own defenses of this (cf. A Storyteller in Zion), but I thought of it when I came across these comments by Brigham Young.

Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?” says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study to know everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books. We should not only study good, and its effects upon our race, but also evil, and its consequences.

Journal of Discourses, 2:34.

Study evil? These remarks fascinated me, so I ran some searches and looked up the context. I found that President Faust has quoted these words at least twice in his teachings.

Brigham Young continued. Continue Reading »

It’s been busy around here, putting together the Future of Mormonism series. Other things too. But we’re back, trying to make up lost time. Here’s the podcast on lessons 29-30, which cover Elisha and then Hezekiah and Josiah.

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Transcript

Download link for MP3 (right-click and “save as”
Notes: Continue Reading »