Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Understanding RLDS

We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming ... The current Dialogue has a piece entitled "The Remnant Church: An RLDS Schismatic Group Finds a Prophet of Joseph's Seed," by William D. Russell, an RLDS scholar. It is available online here, but you really ought to subscribe and get your own copy (so you can read all the other articles, etc.). There is also a lengthy interview between Russell and Dialogue's editor posted at BCC (which prompted some heated intra-RLDS exchanges in the comments that probably torpedoed a more balanced discussion). Utah LDS know surprisingly little about RLDS thinking. At the same time, RLDS are even less understandable to mainstream Christians, for whom reformed or reorganized Mormonism is simply incomprehensible, so Utah LDS are really the only target audience for RLDS apologetics. We're the only ones who will listen.

Blog Train Wreck

It was quite a spectacle yesterday. While the rest of the blogosphere was opining on the withdrawal of Harriet Miers, the Bloggernacle was transfixed with a blog train wreck: Bannergate. It was painful, but you just had to watch. It was grotesque entertainment, strangely out of place on the computer screen. The accusations happened here, here, and (most effectively) here; the groveling confessions (and one pathetic non-confession) appear in glorious and ongoing detail here. What to make of this bizarre episode? Here are a few abbreviated observations.

Best of the Box

Here are highlights from the week based on MA's groupings of B'nacle blogs. See if your favorites make my "best of the box" picks for this week.

Understanding Baptists

I recently heard BYU's Robert Millet comment that Mormons don't know nearly enough about other denominations. He is the "Manager of Outreach and Interfaith Relations" for Church Public Affairs, so he speaks with some authority on that point. I'll do my part to remedy the problem, beginning with the Baptists and using the book Baptists in America (CUP, 2005). The Wikipedia entry "Baptists" is also helpful. Baptists take a rather conservative approach to religious doctrine and social issues in general, surprisingly similar to LDS positions (apart from distinctive LDS beliefs like temples and the Book of Mormon). But it takes some effort for Mormons to grasp the different conception Baptists have of religious identity, which I'll try to discuss in terms of membership, congregation, and denomination.

D is for Divorce

Slim pickings in D: physical death, spiritual death, debt, and divorce. Maybe we can just generalize and just say: Avoid things that start with D. Divorce is the most interesting of the four entries, especially in light of renewed emphasis on LDS family values in this, the post-Proclamation era. The Church is against divorce, of course; the only question is whether divorce is nevertheless allowed as an acceptable or at least tolerated option for those who find themselves in troubled or failing marriages. It is the exceptions to the general policy against divorce that deserve our attention if we want to understand the current LDS policy on divorce as briefly communicated in the TTTF article.

Discussion Groups

It's not everyday something interesting happens over at T&S, but yesterday was one of those days. In new comments to this recent post at T&S, there was an open discussion on LDS discussion groups, essentially private associations of generally active Latter-day Saints who get together informally to talk about LDS doctrinal or historical subjects, often with an invited speaker who addresses the group. Apparently there are dozens of such groups meeting around the country with no evident harm to those attending. If one is to believe anecdotal reports, the meetings are generally enlightening and uplifting. That is certainly the case for the discussion group meeting I attended last year, where Prof. Ron Walker, a BYU history prof, spoke to a group of about thirty about his forthcoming book on Mountain Meadows. So how did discussion groups, sometimes erroneously termed "study groups," ever become an issue? Why are there rumors that such groups are sometimes opposed by local leadership? Enquiring minds need to know.

Newsweek Backstory

Elise Soukup, the LDS journalist who authored "Mormon Odyssey," the recent Newsweek story on the LDS Church, has given a couple of interviews that are available online. I think the interviews are more interesting than the story! One is a transcript of a live exchange between Soukup and various listeners who submitted questions, posted online at MSNBC. She fielded questions on Joseph as polygamist, on Joseph's methods of translation (which didn't involve looking at the plates through the Urim and Thummim), and on her interview with Grant Palmer (which, unfortunately, didn't make it past editing into the published story). The second interview was by Ryan Bell over at M-Star (a blog, not a tabloid), where Soukup talks about some of the angry mail she's gotten since the story, her experience interviewing three apostles as part of her story, and what she learned about Joseph Smith while researching the story. I think Soukup comes across as bright, clever, and witty in the interviews. FWIW, I wrote my earlier Newsweek post before I realized the author was LDS.

Newsweek on Mormonism

Alright, enough vacation. I bought the Newsweek issue today and just can't pass up talking about what twenty million Americans are reading about Mormonism this week. In a nutshell, I found it the most balanced and complimentary major piece I've ever read about the Church in a weekly news magazine. What gives? I will give quotes from the article in bold, with my comments following in plain text. You should all go out and buy the issue if you don't have it already. [Justin posted short comments at BT, with links to online selections from the Newsweek article. Mormanity had some commentary too.]

Four Big Fish

On my recent fishing trip, I reeled in a few big ones that should get me through the winter. First, Rough Stone Rolling, the new Bushman biography of Joseph Smith, which I immediately bumped up to my "Featured Book" slot. I'm about 70 pages into it — it's a winner. Still don't like the title though. Second, I finally pulled the trigger on Prince's David O. McKay biography. Seems like I ought to get to know Mormonism's "kinder and gentler" prophet. Third, I bought Arrington's Adventures of a Church Historian. He lived the adventure, the only historian to serve as Church Historian. Makes you wonder how many Church Prophets were prophets. Finally, Carmon Hardy's Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage, the story of post-1890 LDS polygamy.