Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0This paper looks at the two types of heads used in the Book of Mormon. It argues against a recent theory that these heads served as mnemonic cues that enabled Joseph Smith to extemporaneously compose and dictate the text. Instead, it argues that the function and form of heads in the Book of Mormon finds ancient precedent in Egyptian literary culture and scribal practice. A brief addendum on the ancient precedent for the chapter breaks in the original text of the Book of Mormon is also provided.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I really liked this devotional address that President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered a short while back at Brigham Young University:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBYU devotional: President Oaks repeats call to \u2018root out\u2019 racism, unite in Christ\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cProtect Religion\u2019s Place in the Public Square\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cElder Soares outlines the foundations and fruits of religious freedom in Texas keynote address\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I confess that Halloween has never been particularly high on my list of holidays.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a huge fan.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I\u2019m also not an opponent<\/em>.\u00a0 I enjoyed it very much as a kid, and I have nothing especially against it today.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Some people really do<\/em>, though:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy Some Religious People Still Refuse To Celebrate Halloween\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an article that the late Bill Hamblin and I published back on 20 October 2015:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAre Halloween\u2019s roots evil and satanic?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And here, just to show that I raised my children with the proper ghoulish and unholy interest in All Hallow\u2019s Eve, are a few relevant articles that one of my sons wrote for the Deseret News<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 back when he was willing<\/em> to write for the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n October 2012:\u00a0 \u201c10 movies perfect for family Halloween viewing\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2012:\u00a0 \u201cHalloween movie recommendations: Horror films perfect for a broader audience\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2013:\u00a0 \u201cWhat to stream this Halloween\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2014:\u00a0 \u201cHow Charlie Brown saved Halloween, and other interesting facts\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2015:\u00a0 \u201cHalloween watching: 10 eerie episodes of \u2018The Twilight Zone\u2019 available to stream\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2016:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHalloween monster movie primer\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n October 2018:\u00a0 \u201c18 things you might not know about Mexico\u2019s Day of the Dead celebrations\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, just in time<\/em> for Halloween, here is a trio of items for your Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File.<\/em>. They\u2019re especially well-suited to your subsection about evil, greedy, mercenary \u201cLD$ Inc.\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow the Church is spreading peanut butter across storehouses and food banks nationwide\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"Hawaii's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/10\/Laie_Hawaii_Temple_1400.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drawing on R. Lanier Britsch, Moramona: The Mormons<\/a> in Hawai\u2019i<\/em>, 2d ed., updated, revised, and enlarged (Laie, HI: The Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies, Brigham Young University-Hawai\u2019i, 2018), 131-133:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In accordance with the doctrine of the physical gathering that was so prominent a feature of the nineteenth-century Church, early Latter-day Saint leaders in Hawai\u2019i sought a gathering place for its members there.\u00a0 For a while, they settled on the island of\u00a0L\u0101na\u02bbi.\u00a0 But the difficult ecological conditions there, very much aggravated by the leadership vacuum that arose when American missionaries were recalled because of the 1857 Utah War and by the unscrupulous adventurer Walter Murray Gibson<\/a> who stepped in to fill that vacuum, led\u00a0 to the eventual abandonment of that effort.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n However, the search continued.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There was a special interest among some of the leaders in the area of\u00a0L\u0101\u02bbie, on the northern shore of the island of O\u2019ahu, which, in earlier times, had been an ahupua\u2019a,<\/em> a Polynesian \u201ccity of refuge.\u201d\u00a0 In January 1865, while Elders William W. Cluff and future apostle and Church president Joseph F. Smith, both experienced Hawaiian missionaries who were fluent in the Hawaiian language, were touring the islands in an attempt to put Church affairs back in order after a period of disorganization and decline, Elder Cluff had a remarkable vision:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We stopped for a few days at a small branch in Laie, enjoying the luxurious home and hospitality of a Mr. Dougherty, who owned the entire Ahupua\u2019a of Laie, 6000 acres.\u00a0 He was using it as a stock ranch.\u00a0 One day, feeling somewhat lonely and depressed in spirits, I retired to a dense thicket of a large shrub of peculiar growth between the house and the beach and knelt down in secret prayer.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I then strolled along a path winding through grass plots and haw thickets, more or less in a listless mood or reverie, when suddenly and to my astonishment, President Brigham Young came walking up the path and met me face to face.\u00a0 After ordinary greetings were exchanged, we sat down on the grass beside the path, and a brief conversation about the work on the islands passed between us.\u00a0 He then referred to the beautiful landscape before us, commenting on the beautiful plain, the rich alluvial soil, the verdure covered and timbered mountains in the distance and the beach washed by the waves of the Pacific Ocean.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis,\u201d he said, \u201cis a most delightful place!\u201d\u00a0 He then rose to his feet and silently casting his eyes over the surrounding country, turned to me, and in his pleasant and familiar manner, said, \u201cBrother William, this is the place we want to secure as headquarters for this mission.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The interview then terminated and I was alone. . . .\u00a0 Ever afterwards that appeared to me the best place on the Islands for the gathering of the Saints.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, in fact, it was<\/em> a very good place:\u00a0 The price was relatively low, the land was fertile and productive, Mr. Dougherty\u2019s ranch included livestock and several houses.\u00a0 An active branch of Latter-day Saints was already located there.\u00a0 And, at thirty-seven miles distant, L\u0101\u02bbie was both near enough to Honolulu and, also very important, far enough away.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A new article, this one written by Stephen O. Smoot<\/a>, has been published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>