Dave's Mormon Inquiry

For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013

It's time for a discussion of Russell Stevenson's For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism: 1830-2013 (Greg Kofford Books, 2014; publisher's page). We are fortunate to have Russell presently doing a guest blogger stint at T&S, so I look forward to his responses to my review and to your observations or questions in the comments.

For the Cause of Righteousness is both comprehensive, as it takes a global view of the topic for the entire history of the LDS Church, and timely, coming just after the Church's publication of the definitive Race and the Priesthood essay. And the issue of race and the priesthood is not just an isolated topic or chapter in our history; it is a central theme that runs right through the middle of LDS history, from the first decade right up to today. It's not a pretty story, but it is one that you, as a Mormon, simply need to know.

Polygamy: Demise

This is the third and final post on B. Carmon Hardy's Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice and Demise (Arthur H. Clark Co., 2007). The simple story of the end of LDS polygamy is that it ended in 1890 with the Manifesto. The not-so-simple story involves a Second Manifesto in 1904, which raises the obvious question, "If the First Manifesto ended polygamy, why the need for a Second Manifesto?" The First Manifesto did not end the officially sanctioned LDS practice of polygamy. In fact, it took twenty years to fully execute that momentous institutional change of course.