Wednesday, January 17, 2007
PBS 4 hour production on "The Mormons"
Deseret Morning News, Sunday, January 14, 2007
'The Mormons' on PBS takes aim at stereotypes
By Scott D. Pierce
Deseret Morning News
PASADENA, Calif. — Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney has one
over-arching goal for her four-hour production "The Mormons," which
airs this spring on PBS.
"I hope that most of the stereotypes — ideally, all of them — will be
blown away," she told the Deseret Morning News on Saturday. "Because
so many of them are just based on ignorance. Ignorance about Mormon
history, ignorance about Mormon theology. Ignorance."
The two-part, four-hour documentary, a presentation of both
"American Experience" and "Frontline" — their first co-production — is
to air nationally on April 30 and May 1.
After spending three years on the project, Whitney is well aware of
the stereotypes and ignorance that's out there.
"Most of the time when I bring up what I'm doing and I talk about it
with people, the first word that comes up is polygamy," she said.
Indeed, introducing the documentary to a gathering of television
critics from across the country, it took only moments for the subject
to be raised. It was addressed in the first question asked of Whitney
and a panel that included KUED's Ken Verdoia and authors Will Bagley
and Terryl Givens.
(And, interestingly, in addition to asking about the Osmonds,
television critics — learning that the men have Utah ties — assumed
all three are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints; only Givens is.)
Whitney has no illusions that "The Mormons" will answer all
questions about the LDS Church.
"It is not exhaustive. It is not comprehensive. It is thematic,"
said Whitney, who worked with both LDS and non-LDS consultants. "I
have chosen what I felt to be the defining ideas and themes and events
in Mormon history that would help outsiders go inside the church."
It's not altogether chronological, but "roughly so."
The first night, on "American Experience," addresses LDS Church
history, with themes that include revelation, persecution leading to
exodus, polygamy and "the great accommodation" when the church
renounced plural marriage.
The second night, on "Frontline," deals with the modern church —
missionary work, family, temples, dissenters and "the extraordinary
transformation from a people who are outsiders and pariahs to the
mainstream. It is one of the great, neglected narratives of American
religious history," Whitney said.
Also timed to air in April in conjunction with the two-part
documentary are three "Antiques Roadshow" episodes filmed in Salt Lake
City, looking at memorabilia from the West and early days of the LDS
Church.
"The Mormons" is not a film about Utah. Whitney traveled across the
country, from New York to California; she sent a film crew to Ghana.
"Mormons are everywhere, and I wanted to make that point," she said.
"There are more Mormons outside of America than in this country. And
even within America, there are many Mormons outside of Utah. So only a
small part of it was shot in Utah."
She spent three years working on the film, interviewing "hundreds
and hundreds of people" ranging from LDS Church President Gordon B.
Hinckley to everyday church members to those who are openly
antagonistic toward the church.
She attended ward meetings and made visits with home teachers; she
spoke with people who had been excommunicated.
"The Mormons" will no doubt displease anyone who doesn't want to
hear a negative word about the LDS Church. At the same time, it's
going to anger those who don't want to hear anything good about it.
The LDS Church was "absolutely cooperative" in the making of the
film, said Whitney, an Emmy and Peabody Award winner who profiled
monks in "The Monastery," profiled John Paul II in "The Millennial
Pope" and looked at religion in the wake of terrorism in "Faith and
Doubt at Ground Zero."
"They had seen my films. They realized ... that I was not going to
approach them and be uncritical but I would be respectful," she said.
"And it would be an intelligent film and searching."
Whitney's goal is not to recruit people to become Mormons, nor is it
to discourage current or prospective members. She is hoping, however,
that "The Mormons" will prompt viewers to examine their own beliefs.
"I would also like them to take a deep and searching look into their
own religion and see the ways in which there are commonalities as well
as uniqueness and difference," she said. "I think that by looking into
the Mormon heart, you look into your own."
New evidence supports out-of-Africa migration ~50,000 BC
One more nail in the coffin of the traditional
Garden-of-Eden,Tower-of-Babel, etc literalism. PM
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10938-new-signposts-on-the-path-of-early-human-migration.html
New signposts on the path of early human migration
19:00 11 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Jeff Hecht
An old South African skull and an ancient settlement along the Don
River in Russia lend crucial support to the idea that modern humans
spread from Africa across Eurasia only 50,000 years ago.
African fossils show that modern humans had evolved by 195,000 years
ago. Yet the only evidence of modern humans outside of Asia for the
next 150,000 years is a couple of sites about 100,000 years old in
Israel, which appear to have been abandoned as the Ice Age grew more
severe.
It had been a mystery what our ancestors were doing before the first
evidence of their presence in Australia 45,000 to 50,000 years ago,
and about 35,000 years ago in Europe.
Genetic studies suggest that modern humans did not emerge from Africa
until about 50,000 years ago, but that late date has been
controversial. Now, two new studies support the genetic evidence, says
Ted Goebel at the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas
A&M University, US.
Originally found in a dry riverbed in 1952, the South African skull
was unsuitable for radiocarbon dating. One of the new studies has
dated the sediment encased inside the skull to 36,000 years ago, and
says the skull resembles the first modern humans who lived in Europe
at about the same time.
Citing that resemblance, the team led by Frederick Grine of Stony
Brook University in New York concludes that the South African fossil
and its European contemporaries shared a recent common ancestor, and
that modern humans had therefore arrived in Europe not long before.
(Science, vol 315, p 226).
Artifact clues
The Paleolithic site in Russia is between 42,000 and 45,000 years old,
predating early human finds in central and eastern Europe. The only
human fossils are teeth that cannot be identified by species, but the
artifacts – including possible art and shells imported from more than
500 kilometres away – look like they were made by early modern humans,
argue Mikhail Anikovich of the Institute of the History of Material
Culture in St. Petersburg, Russia, and colleagues (Science vol 315, p
223).
The location suggests that modern humans may have arrived from further
east in Eurasia than in the classic depiction, in which Cro-Magnon man
passed through Turkey into Europe, says Goebel.
Much more remains to be learned about modern human migration, but
Goebel says the crucial sites will probably be in "places like Iran or
Afghanistan, where European and US archaeologists haven't been able to
work for decades."
Sex and Marriage in LDS Church History
The following historical events regarding sex and marriage in the
church have been compiled from the extensive historical church
chronology from D. Michael Quinn's book "The Mormon Hierarchy :
Extensions of Power" For references, refer to the book.
Jan 14, 1848 - Brigham Young instructs Seventy's meeting: "For the
first act of adultery you may forgive a man, but if a man beds with a
woman and does it 10 times he is guilty."
11 Mar, 1848 - Benjamin Covey is excommunicated for having sexual
intercourse with two girls "less than Twelve years of age" who are his
foster daughters. He is re-baptized and serves as bishop of Salt Lake
City Twelfth Ward from 22 February 1849 until 1856.
1 Feb, 1849 - First counselor Heber C. Kimball tells Sunday meeting
that plural marriage "would end he said when the Church had gone to
the Devil or the Priesthood taken from this people - then God would
give it to another people."
3 Mar, 1849 - At council of Fifty meeting, Brigham Young speaks
concerning thieves, murderers, and sexually licentious: " I want their
cursed heads to be cut off that they may atone for their crimes." Next
day, the council agrees that man has "forfeited his Head," and decides
it would be best "to dispose of him privately." Instead, they allow
him to live.
29 April, 1849 - First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve make following
decisions concerning sex in marriage "not to unite with woman in view
of impregnation till 7 days after the cessation of the menstrual
discharge in order for the most healthy procreation. Also that after
childbirth if delivered a son she should continue 40 days in her
purification [without sexual intercourse with her husband]. If
daughter she [the new mother] should be 70 days separated as unclean
for a man. As to sexual connection during pregnancy, do just as they
please about that - suit themselves." This is the earliest known LDS
discussion of what is appropriate in sexual relations of married
couples. These rules are based on Book of Leviticus, rather than on
current medical writings.
15 Jan, 1851 - First of Brigham Young's' five formal divorces from
plural wives. He is only one formally divorced while serving as church
president. Joseph Smith informally ended several plural marriages, and
four LDS presidents are formally divorced as apostles (John Taylor,
Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith)
19 Jar, 1851 - Utah legislature enacts law against "Sodomy" by "any
man or boy," but removes sodomy from criminal code on 6 Mar. 1852,
without explanation. As governor Brigham Young signs both laws. Due to
absence of sodomy statue, Utah judge drops charges against soldier for
raping LDS boy in 1864. Young claims Utah's legislators never
criminalized sodomy and he declines to instruct them to do so for the
next twelve years. Utah legislators criminalize sodomy in 1876 only
because federally appointed governor asks them to adopt entire
criminal code of California which has five-year imprisonment for
sodomy. For next twenty years LDS judges give 3-6 months of
imprisonment to those convicted of homosexual rape, the same
sentencing given to young males and females convicted of consensual
fornication. Mormons of this era give no known explanations for any of
these legislative and juridical actions/inactions.
17 Mar, 1851 - Brigham Young speaks in favor of Madison D. Hambleton
who is being tried for shooting and killing man at LDS church
services, immediately after closing prayer. The man "seduced" wife of
Hambleton who is "acquitted by the Court and also by the Voice of the
people present." Hambleton later becomes sheriff in Utah.
18 Oct, 1851 - Trial of confessed murderer (and newly
returned-missionary) Howard Egan. His lawyer Apostle George A. Smith
popularizes phrase "mountain common law" and argues: "The man who
seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must
kill him!" Fifteen minutes later jury finds Egan not guilty of murder.
Church authorities print Smith's closing argument in Deseret News, in
two church pamphlets, and later in Journal of Discourses 1:97. Egan is
one of Brigham Young's enforcers.
24 July, 1853 - Brigham Young preaches, "The Father came down in his
bodily tabernacle and begot Jesus."
19 Feb, 1854 - Seventy's president Jedediah M. Grant preaches: Did the
Prophet Joseph want every man's wife that he asked for? He did
not...."
16 July, 1854 - First counselor Heber C. Kimball recommends
decapitation for adulterers and preaches from the pulpit concerning
"unclean" women: "we wipe them out of existence."
8 Oct, 1854 - In what Apostle Wilford Woodruff describes as "the
greatest sermon that ever was delivered to the Latter Day Saints since
they have been a people," Brigham Young announces from the pulpit: "I
believe in Sisters marrying brothers, and brothers having their
sisters for Wives. Why? because we cannot do otherwise. There are none
others for me to and the opposite idea has resulted from the ignorant
and foolish traditions of the nations of the earth." Young's secretary
George D. Watt has already married his own half sister as a plural
wife. Her letter to Young shows that he was initially "unfavorable"
toward allowing them to marry, but this sermon reveals theological
basis for Young's authorizing Watt's brother-sister marriage and the
three children born of their union.
27 Apr, 1855 - Lieutenant in Colonel E. J. Steptoe's command in Salt
Lake City writes to friend about his romance and near seduction of one
of the wives of Brigham Young's son Joseph (who is on a mission):
"Mary [Ayers] Young and I had to give up. Brigham sent me word that if
I took her away he would have me killed before I could get out of the
Territory. He is a man of his word and little matters of this sort are
concluded, I had better not do it, although I went back to the city
purposely to get her. We wrote each other affectionate notes."
27 Mar, 1857 - Brigham Young permits woman to select faithful elders
to act as "proxy" to father children for her sexually impotent living
husband. Young performs polyandrous ceremony "for time," and the
relationship lasts for several years producing two sons, (1858, 1861).
Mother's legal husband raises boys with her, and later tells them he
loves them as much as if they were his natural sons. Both boys grow up
to become devoted Mormons and polygamists. This is last known case of
authorized polyandry.
2 June, 1857 - Brigham Young says from the pulpit, "I feel to sustain
him," when informed that the bishop in Manti. Waren S. Snow, has
castrated twenty-four-year-old Welchman, Thomas Lewis, for undisclosed
sex crime. "Just let the matter drop, and say no more about it," Young
writes Snow in July about the castration, "and it will soon die away
among the people." Snow's counselor confides to his diary that this
poor young man "has now gone crazy."
14 June, 1857 - At a prayer circle of the First Presidency and
apostles, Brigham Young refuses to seal three young girls (ages 12 and
13) to "Father James Allred" (age 73) because they "would not be
equally yoked together" in marriage.
27 Jan, 1858 - Judge Hosea Stout describes with no disapproval how
Mormons "disguised as Indians" drag a man "out of bed with a whore and
castrated him by a square and close amputation."
5 Apr, 1858 - Bishop of Payson, his brother the Sheriff, and several
members of their LDS congregation join in shooting to death
twenty-two-year-old Henry Jones and is mother, Mrs. Hannah Jones
Hatch, for committing incest by which she has a daughter. The men also
kill infant and also castrate brother/father. Perpetrators are
indicted next year, but not brought to trial. When indicted again in
1889, Deseret News article criticizes trial of this "antiquated Payson
homicide" as anti-Mormon crusade against those who were justifiably
"disgusted and greatly incensed" against "the brutal mother and son."
Former sheriff is convicted of murder, former bishop is acquitted.
12 Sep, 1858 - Church historian's office notes discovery this morning
of severed head of Provo woman who has been at U.S. military camp for
a week. Six weeks earlier another woman's head is discovered. These
are earliest verified examples of someone taking literally the
repeated teachings of Mormon leaders that apostates and adulterers
should have their heads "cut off" as "blood atonement" for their sins.
2 Jan, 1859 - Brigham Young begins custom of having all Mormon
congregations sit with women on north side of center aisle, men on
south side, and children on front benches. This seating arrangement
lasts for decades, remains in temples to this day.
8 Oct, 1859 - Brigham Young from the pulpit tells bishops to give
Melchizedek priesthood to eighteen-year old boys, even if they "have
been sowing their wild oats for years."
8 July, 1860 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit, "Children are
now born who will live until every son of Adam will have the privilege
of receiving the principles of eternal life." He also preaches, "The
birth of our Savior was as natural as are the births of our children;
it was the result of natural action."
23 Feb 1862 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit that the concept
of Mother in Heaven is as essential as concept of Father in Heaven.
1 Aug 1862 - Brigham Young writes to a local bishop: "my advice is for
bro James T.S. Allred to marry the Indian girl in question. It is
written that 'not many generations shall pass away before they become
a white and delightsome people.'" Dozens of men marry Native Americans
as plural wives in pioneer Utah and Arizona.
12 Apr, 1866 - Deseret News reports murder of S. Newton Brassfield on
2 Apr. He legally marries plural wife of absent Mormon missionary, and
Deseret News editorializes that "the illegally married couple would
probably have been suffered to pursue their way to their own liking,"
except that she filed for custody of her children. Deseret News also
reports Brigham Young's sermon about the murdered Brassfield: "Were I
absent from my home on a mission, I would rejoice to know that I had
friends there to protect and guard the virtue of my household; and I
would thank God for such friends."
19 Aug, 1866 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit: "Mary, the wife
of Joseph, had another husband. On this account infidels have called
the Savior a bastard... he was begotten by God our Heavenly Father."
She was a polyandrist, like the women he authorized in 1857.
11 Dec, 1866 - Brigham Young, Jr. writes in his diary that "a nigger"
is found dead in Salt Lake City with this note pinned to the corpse:
"Let this be a warning to all niggers that they meddle not with white
women."
10 Jan, 1868 - Deseret News Editorial: "In this Territory we jealously
close the door against adultery, seduction and whoredom. Public
opinion here pronounces the penalty of death as the fitting punishment
for such crimes."
4 Feb, 1868 - Deseret News editorializes that "it is a pity" LDS
father did not succeed in killing his daughter's lover when the father
"drew a revolver and shot him down in the court room."
5 Mar, 1868 - Deseret News article titled "Served Him Right" reports
that a Gentile is given "sound thrashing" when he visits LDS meeting
to see young woman.
15 Aug, 1869 - Apostle George Q. Canon preaches from the pulpit: "We
close the door on one side, and say that whoredoms, seductions and
adulteries must not be committed among us, and we say to those who are
determined to carry on such things: WE WILL KILL YOU..."
27 Oct, 1869 - Brigham Young preaches at Lehi, Utah that "by marriage
Lot's two daughters were sealed to him, and will be his to all
eternity." Young adds that it might one day become necessary to seals
a man's daughter to him as a wife, "but it is not likely ever again to
occur." There are verified instances of LDS leaders performing
polygamous marriages between men and their foster-daughters or
step-daughters, but not actual daughters.
18 June, 1870 - First counselor George A. Smith tells Salt Lake School
of the Prophets about "the evil of Masturbation" among Utah Mormons.
Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "Plural Marriage would tend to diminish
this evil self-pollution," and he believes that "indulgence on the
part of men was less in Plural marriage than in Monogamy." Elder
George Reynolds (Secretary to Brigham Young) also tells the School
that "where Monogamy was the Law, it compelled a more frequent
(sexual) cohabitation than is right and proper." Mormon medical books
of the time advise sexual intercourse only once a month.
11 Sep, 1871 - Counselor Daniel H. Wells tells Grantsville School of
the Prophets that "a great many of our young men are abusing
themselves by the habit of self-pollution: or self abuse, or as the
Bible terms it, Onanism," which he regards as "one great cause why so
many of our young men were not married, and it was a great sin, and
would lead to insanity and a premature grave." Polygamy is likelier
cause for prevalence of bachelorhood in nineteenth-century Utah.
First, every national census lists more males than females in Mormon
population. Second, 10 to 40 percent of Mormon men marry polygamously
which demographically requires bachelorhood in Utah's majority
population of males.
16 Dec, 1871 - Seymor B. Young, son of senior Seventy's president,
writes: "Salt Lake City has for the first time in its history houses
of Ill fame almost on every corner."
27 Feb, 1872 - LDS publication Millenial Star editorial titled,
"Motherhood of God," repeats a child's question: "Why don't you tell
me about the Heavenly Mother? Don't she give us anything?" Editorial
speaks of those who "yearn to adore her" and expresses approval of
praying to "Father and Mother God." Editorial conclusion: "When we
draw nearer the Divine Man, lo! we shall find a Divine Woman smiling
upon us...In the Father's many mansions, we shall find her and be
satisfied."
7 Mar, 1875 - Apostle Joseph F. Smith's wife writes to him that "you
know how brother (Apostle) [Albert] Carrington thinks a deal of
women." In Dec. 1882 Apostle John Henry Smith writes President John
Taylor that maid at British Mission headquarters "found Bro.
Carrington lying upon the lounge and Sarah Kirkman lying upon top
him." Upon Brigham Young's inquiry about other women in 1873 and John
Taylor's inquiry about Sarah Kirkham in 1883, Carrington denies
serious wrongdoing. he is not excommunicated until 1885 when protests
from Sarah's husband become too insistent to ignore.
24 June, 1876 - Brigham Young confides that it is "a curiosity to him
that men could commit adultery and still retain the spirit of the Lord
as he had witnessed on one occasion. The man is now dead."
26 Sep, 1877 - Grand Jury describes Salt Lake County probate court as
a "divorce mill" which granted 300 divorces in previous twelve-month
period, primarily on "grounds of incompatibility of temperament,
different aims and objectives in life." Eighty percent of divorced
couples come to Utah for divorces from such places as San Francisco,
New York City, Chicago, Terre Haute, and St. Louis. Report finds that
13 percent of divorces are granted same day of complaint, total of 25
percent within week of application, and total of 85 percent are
granted within a month of application. Report continues, "And your
committee have good reason to believe that other country probate
courts of the territory are likewise engaged in this class of divorce
business, to an equal if not greater extent." Two months later U.S.
senator Dawes introduces bill to remove divorce from jurisdiction of
Mormon probate courts and limit divorce cases to federally-appointed
non-Mormon judges.
13 June, 1878 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald's editorial
on "Unhappy Marriages" begins: "We cannot say how many divorces the
(Mormon) Utah probate courts have granted during the last few years,
but the number is enormous, amounting to perhaps thousands."
8 Oct, 1881 - First Counselor George Q. Cannon tells general
conference: "We hear now of men having got married to cover up certain
things; of children born wonderfully soon after marriage in some of
our settlements, and perhaps in this city no less than in our rural
settlements."
31 Mar, 1883 - Apostle Brigham Young Jr. tells stake priesthood
meeting: "There are many girls in Utah who have never had an offer of
marriage from a man of the Church... Girls who marry outsiders are not
worthy of the Sacrament."
9 Oct, 1883 - In several hours of meeting with stake presidents, First
Presidency and apostles give instructions about
"Masturbation...self-pollution of both sexes and excessive sexual
indulgence in the married relation." This is the first-known Mormon
reference to female masturbation.
7 Nov, 1885 - Quorum of Twelve excommunicates Apostle Albert
Carrington "for crimes of lewd and lascivious conduct and adultery"
with several women dating back to 1871. This is the first time since
1842 that a general authority is excommunicated for sexual misconduct,
and its publication on 10 Nov. stuns the community.
27 Mar, 1886 - Polygamist husband confides in his personal diary: "How
delicate is the position of a man in plural marriage who loves his
wives and who in turn is loved by them. Every move he makes, in his
relation or intercourse with them, is an arrow that pierces deep into
the heart of one or other of them... A thousand thoughts and plans may
come into his mind, but there is only one true solution. He must
please God. In doing this, it may be hoped that by and by, he may also
somehow please them."
15 July, 1886 - Apostle Lorenzo prophecies from the pulpit that in the
future "brothers and sisters would marry each other in this church.
All our horror at such a union was due entirely to prejudice, and the
offspring of such unions would be as healthy and pure as any other.
These were the decided views of President Young, when alive, for
Bother Snow talked to him freely on this matter."
27 Dec, 1886 - Sarah M. Granger Kimball, counselor in Relief Society
General Presidency teaches from the pulpit that "her brother Lafayette
Granger and the late Bishop George Miller in conversation once with
the prophet Joseph smith were told by him that when Mary the mother of
Jesus was on her way to the hill country she was met by God the Father
and the Angel Gabriel and the latter performed the marriage between
Father (God) and Mary."
21 July, 1887 - Apostle Franklin D. Richards: "God the Father came
down in his tabernacle of flesh and bone and had (sexual) association
with Mary, and made her pregnant with Jesus."
27 Feb, 1889 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald's article
titled, "FAILED MARRIAGES," regarding "the report of the Labor
Commissioner Wright, presented last week, on the statistics of
marriage and divorce in the United States from 1867 to 1886
inclusive," with following: In 1870 Utah had highest rate of divorce
out of all states and territories. In 1870 Utah's rate was one divorce
per 185 marriages. National averages was 1:664. States with lowest
divorce rates are South Carolina at 1:4,938, Delaware at 1:123,672,
New Mexico at 1:16,077, North Carolina at 1:4,938, and Louisiana at
1:4,579. In 1880 Utah had tenth highest rate of divorce out of all
states and territories. In 1880 Utah's rate was one divorce per 219
marriages, which was more than twice the national average of 1:479. In
twentieth century, divorce rates for LDS temple marriages starts out
three times higher than this "divorce mill" rate for early Utah civil
marriages.
13 Mar, 1890 - Plural wife writes to her husband: "We are more like
lovers than husband and wife for we are as far removed from each other
- there is always the embarrassment of lovers and yet we have been
married more than 37 years."
8 Sep, 1890 - Apostle John Henry Smith preaches from the pulpit that
"married people who indulge their passions for any other purpose than
to beget children, really committed adultery."
1 Oct, 1890 - An apostle asks "how the Son of God was begotten," and
Lorenzo Snow tells apostles, "that he was begotten just the same as
you and I were or as our sons today are."
2 Dec, 1890 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow tells the Quorum of Twelve that "he
expects to see the day when a man's blood is shed again for the crime
of adultery."
24 Mar, 1891 - Utah's chief justice Zane writes: "Polygamy has
demoralized the people of Utah. I presume there are more sexual crimes
here in proportion to the population than anywhere else."
6 Mar, 1892 - Stake president "condemns the practice that existed
among the Saints to some extent of taking means to restrict the number
of their children to only two or three."
20 Sep, 1896 - Seventy's president J. Golden Kimball preaches: "There
are 500 girls who are public prostitutes in Salt Lake City. Some of
these are daughters of Latter-Day Saints."
5 Nov, 1896 - Apostle Lorenzo R. Snow's youngest plural wife bears his
last child in Canada. At age 82 he is the oldest general authority to
father a child.
15 Jan, 1897 - Apostle Brigham Young Jr. temporarily resigns as
vice-president of Brigham Young Trust Co. because first counselor
George Q. Cannon allows its property to become "a first class" brothel
on Commercial Street (now Regent Street), Salt Lake City. Apostle
Heber J. Grant is invited to its opening reception and is stunned to
discover himself inside "a regular whore-house." This situation begins
in 1891 and for fifty years church-owned and controlled real estate
companies lease houses of prostitution.
7 Oct, 1898 - At general conference Apostle John W. Taylor reports
that in one rural area in Utah, 80 percent of LDS marriages involve
pre-marital sex.
14 June, 1900 - First Presidency and apostles agree to give $3,600 to
Brigham Y. Hampton for his prior "detective work" in which he paid
prostitute to allow him and nearly thirty LDS "Home Missionaries" and
policemen to spy on anti-Mormons engaging in sex acts in Salt Lake
City brothels in 1885. Although first counselor denies it at this
meeting, in private meetings of First Presidency George Q. Cannon
refers to Hampton's brothel work as "services rendered the Church" and
"work in behalf of the Church." Hampton has been set apart as a Salt
Lake temple worker since 1893, and another coordinator of brothel
spying is the temple doorkeeper (1893-1910).
10 July 1901 - Apostle Anthon H. Lund reports to apostles that during
six-month period, 58 percent of LDS marriages in rural ward were
"forced."
7 Nov, 1901 - First Presidency decides and announces that there is "no
rule in the church forbidding cousins to intermarry" and that first
cousins can have temple marriages if they present civil license.
General authorities such as Brigham Young, Williard Richards, Joseph
F. Smith and Abraham H. Cannon married their first cousins as legal
and plural wives.
23 Nov, 1902 - Apostle John W. Taylor tells stake priesthood meeting
that "those who have sexual intercourse with their wives or touch any
dead body are unclean until the evening, and therefore during that day
should not enter the temple or officiate in any ordinances of the
gospel."
26 Mar 1903 - Joseph F. Smith tells apostles "there would be no
daughters of perdition" in final judgment. General authorities
authorize rebaptism without church discipline for young man who
confesses "secret crime he committed in having to do with animals."
7 July, 1903 - Apostle Rudger Clawson tells other apostles "that the
practice of self-abuse existed to an alarming extent among the boys in
our community who attended the district schools, and also, he doubted
not, the church schools. He felt that the boys and girls should be
properly instructed in regard to this evil."
25 Oct, 1905 - Public criticism of Joseph F. Smith's remarks that
Father Damien of Hawaiian leper colony was immoral before his death.
LDS church president is convinced that leprosy is contracted through
sexual contact.
9 May, 1913 - First Presidency learns that James Dwyer, co-founder of
Salt Lake City's LDS University (now LDS Business College), has been
"teaching young men that sodomy and kindred vices are not sins..."
Dwyer's daughter, actress Ada Dwyer Russell, is already in long-term
relationship with lesbian poet Amy Lowell. Dwyer's bishop and stake
president want to excommunicate him, but First Presidency allows
Dwyer, now in his eighties, to voluntarily "withdraw his name" from
LDS church membership.
29 Sep, 1914 - Quorum of Twelve learns that mission president has
"discovered that 15% of the missionary Elders in the Netherlands
during the past two years, have been guilty of immoral practices, and
that a much greater percentage of Elders have been exposed to these
evils."
8 June, 1941 - First Councilor J. Reuben Clark tells annual general
conference of youth and their leaders: "When I was a boy it was
preached from the stand, and my father and my mother repeated the
principle to me time and time again. They said, 'Reuben, we had rather
bury you than have you become unchaste.' And that is the law of this
true Church."
26 Jan, 1942 - First Councilor J. Reuben Clark tells reporter for Look
Magazine: "Our divorces are piling up." Church Historian's Office in
1968 compiles divorce statistics since 1910 for temple marriages,
"church civil" marriages, and "other civil" marriages. Although temple
marriages have lowest divorce rate of the three categories, in 1910
there was one "temple divorce" for every 66 temple marriages performed
that year., 1:41 in 1915, 1:34 in 1920, 1:27 in 1925, 1:30 in 1930,
1:23 in 1935, 1:27 in 1939, 1:17 in 1945, 1:31 in 1950, 1:30 in 1955,
1:19 in 1960 and 1965. Last rate for temple divorce is almost ten
times higher than Utah's civil divorce rate century earlier.
2 Oct, 1952 - Second Counselor J. Reuben Clark warns women of Relief
Society general conference against "self-pollution," prostitution, and
"homosexuality, which it is tragic to say, is found among both sexes."
He cautions LDS women against allowing homosexual-oriented males to
use them as male-substitutes in dating or marriage: "I wonder if you
girls have ever reflected on the thought that was in the mind of the
man who first began to praise you for your boyish figures." Clark also
tells the ladies, "I forebear to more than mention that abomination
and filth and loathsomeness of the ancients - carnal knowledge with
beasts." Church Relief Society magazine publishes this talk in full.
21 May, 1959 - Executive committee of Church Board of Education
discusses "the growing problem in our society of homosexuality."
Spencer W. Kimball reports that David O. McKay has said "that in his
view homosexuality was worse than heterosexual immorality; that it is
a filthy and unnatural habit."
12 Feb, 1964 - First Presidency letter that all prospective
missionaries "found guilty of fornication, of sex perversion, of heavy
petting, or of comparable transgressions should not be recommended
until the case has been discussed with the bishop and stake president
and the visiting General Authority."
7 Jan, 1969 - First Presidency secretary Joseph Anderson answers
letter about "the Church's stand pertaining to birth control," with
the concluding statement: "After all, however, the brethren recognize
that this is a personal matter involving the individuals concerned,
and concerning which they must make their own decision."
14 April, 1969 - First Presidency makes official statement on birth
control which omits any reference to their own feelings about birth
control as "a personal matter," and states: "We believe that those who
practice birth control will reap disappointment by and by," and
repeated earlier letter's emphasis on "self control as a dominant
factor" in marriage.
9 June, 1978 - First Presidency letter instructs that interviews of
married persons "should scrupulously avoid indelicate inquiries," yet
also emphasizes: "Married persons should understand that if in their
marital relations they are guilty of unnatural, impure or unholy
practices, they should not enter the temple unless and until they
repent and discontinue any such practices." This reverses position of
First Presidency prior to Spencer W. Kimball's ascendancy.
17 June, 1978 - Church News headline "Interracial Marriage
Discouraged" in same issue which announces authorization of priesthood
for those of black African descent. Sources at church headquarters
indicate that Apostle Mark E. Petersen requires this emphasis.
Sep 1981 - Branch presidents at the Missionary Training Center in
Provo receive 21-point handout to help "both male and female"
missionaries avoid masturbation. Point 19: "In very severe cases it
may be necessary to tie a hand to the bed frame with a tie in order
that the habit of masturbating in a semi-sleep condition can be
broken." In May 1995 article about masturbation, national magazine
"Details" publishes seventeen of the recommendations and identifies
Apostle Mark E. Petersen as author of "Steps in Overcoming
Masturbation: A Guide to Self-Control." In 1996, spokesman at LDS
headquarters denies that Elder Petersen authored this document and
denies that it was ever distributed.
5 Jan, 1982 - First Presidency repeats its 1978 instructions for
"interviewing married persons," but adds: "The First Presidency has
interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure or unholy
practice."
15 Oct 1982 - First Presidency instruction to all stake and mission
leaders that many letters from church members "indicate clearly that
some local leaders have been delving into private, sensitive matters
beyond the scope of what is appropriate.... Also, you should never
inquire into personal, intimate matters involving marital relations
between a man and his wife." Letter continues that even if a church
member volunteers such intimate information, "you should not peruse
the matter but should merely suggest that if the member has enough
anxiety about the propriety of the conduct to ask about it, the best
course would be to discontinue it." In response to widespread
complaints from married couples being asked if they have oral sex,
this returns First Presidency stance to what it was prior to
presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, now incapacitated.
4 Mar, 1983 - Salt Lake Tribune reports lawsuit filed in February
against LDS church for $28 million. A father blames LDS bishop for
contributing to his sixteen-year-old son's suicide for counseling his
son "that masturbation is a terrible sin.. and being a normal
adolescent in the puberty state, KIP ELIASON became increasingly less
able to reconcile his sexual desires with the strict doctrines of the
said LDS Church. He became filled with self-hate."
15 Apr, 1983 - "University Post: The Unofficial Newspaper of Brigham
Young University" reports interview with director of Standards
Department. He acknowledges that students suspected of cheating,
illegal drug use, stealing, or homosexuality are expelled from BYU if
they refuse to take polygraph examination. BYU Security has licensed
polygraph examiner.
4 Apr, 1987 - First Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley tells priesthood
session of general conference that "marriage should not be viewed as a
therapeutic step to solve problems such as homosexual inclinations or
practices..." This reverses decades-long church policy formulated by
Spencer W. Kimball.
9 Aug 1991 - Salt Lake Tribune article, "Of LDS Women, 58% Admit
Premarital Sex."
church have been compiled from the extensive historical church
chronology from D. Michael Quinn's book "The Mormon Hierarchy :
Extensions of Power" For references, refer to the book.
Jan 14, 1848 - Brigham Young instructs Seventy's meeting: "For the
first act of adultery you may forgive a man, but if a man beds with a
woman and does it 10 times he is guilty."
11 Mar, 1848 - Benjamin Covey is excommunicated for having sexual
intercourse with two girls "less than Twelve years of age" who are his
foster daughters. He is re-baptized and serves as bishop of Salt Lake
City Twelfth Ward from 22 February 1849 until 1856.
1 Feb, 1849 - First counselor Heber C. Kimball tells Sunday meeting
that plural marriage "would end he said when the Church had gone to
the Devil or the Priesthood taken from this people - then God would
give it to another people."
3 Mar, 1849 - At council of Fifty meeting, Brigham Young speaks
concerning thieves, murderers, and sexually licentious: " I want their
cursed heads to be cut off that they may atone for their crimes." Next
day, the council agrees that man has "forfeited his Head," and decides
it would be best "to dispose of him privately." Instead, they allow
him to live.
29 April, 1849 - First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve make following
decisions concerning sex in marriage "not to unite with woman in view
of impregnation till 7 days after the cessation of the menstrual
discharge in order for the most healthy procreation. Also that after
childbirth if delivered a son she should continue 40 days in her
purification [without sexual intercourse with her husband]. If
daughter she [the new mother] should be 70 days separated as unclean
for a man. As to sexual connection during pregnancy, do just as they
please about that - suit themselves." This is the earliest known LDS
discussion of what is appropriate in sexual relations of married
couples. These rules are based on Book of Leviticus, rather than on
current medical writings.
15 Jan, 1851 - First of Brigham Young's' five formal divorces from
plural wives. He is only one formally divorced while serving as church
president. Joseph Smith informally ended several plural marriages, and
four LDS presidents are formally divorced as apostles (John Taylor,
Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith)
19 Jar, 1851 - Utah legislature enacts law against "Sodomy" by "any
man or boy," but removes sodomy from criminal code on 6 Mar. 1852,
without explanation. As governor Brigham Young signs both laws. Due to
absence of sodomy statue, Utah judge drops charges against soldier for
raping LDS boy in 1864. Young claims Utah's legislators never
criminalized sodomy and he declines to instruct them to do so for the
next twelve years. Utah legislators criminalize sodomy in 1876 only
because federally appointed governor asks them to adopt entire
criminal code of California which has five-year imprisonment for
sodomy. For next twenty years LDS judges give 3-6 months of
imprisonment to those convicted of homosexual rape, the same
sentencing given to young males and females convicted of consensual
fornication. Mormons of this era give no known explanations for any of
these legislative and juridical actions/inactions.
17 Mar, 1851 - Brigham Young speaks in favor of Madison D. Hambleton
who is being tried for shooting and killing man at LDS church
services, immediately after closing prayer. The man "seduced" wife of
Hambleton who is "acquitted by the Court and also by the Voice of the
people present." Hambleton later becomes sheriff in Utah.
18 Oct, 1851 - Trial of confessed murderer (and newly
returned-missionary) Howard Egan. His lawyer Apostle George A. Smith
popularizes phrase "mountain common law" and argues: "The man who
seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must
kill him!" Fifteen minutes later jury finds Egan not guilty of murder.
Church authorities print Smith's closing argument in Deseret News, in
two church pamphlets, and later in Journal of Discourses 1:97. Egan is
one of Brigham Young's enforcers.
24 July, 1853 - Brigham Young preaches, "The Father came down in his
bodily tabernacle and begot Jesus."
19 Feb, 1854 - Seventy's president Jedediah M. Grant preaches: Did the
Prophet Joseph want every man's wife that he asked for? He did
not...."
16 July, 1854 - First counselor Heber C. Kimball recommends
decapitation for adulterers and preaches from the pulpit concerning
"unclean" women: "we wipe them out of existence."
8 Oct, 1854 - In what Apostle Wilford Woodruff describes as "the
greatest sermon that ever was delivered to the Latter Day Saints since
they have been a people," Brigham Young announces from the pulpit: "I
believe in Sisters marrying brothers, and brothers having their
sisters for Wives. Why? because we cannot do otherwise. There are none
others for me to and the opposite idea has resulted from the ignorant
and foolish traditions of the nations of the earth." Young's secretary
George D. Watt has already married his own half sister as a plural
wife. Her letter to Young shows that he was initially "unfavorable"
toward allowing them to marry, but this sermon reveals theological
basis for Young's authorizing Watt's brother-sister marriage and the
three children born of their union.
27 Apr, 1855 - Lieutenant in Colonel E. J. Steptoe's command in Salt
Lake City writes to friend about his romance and near seduction of one
of the wives of Brigham Young's son Joseph (who is on a mission):
"Mary [Ayers] Young and I had to give up. Brigham sent me word that if
I took her away he would have me killed before I could get out of the
Territory. He is a man of his word and little matters of this sort are
concluded, I had better not do it, although I went back to the city
purposely to get her. We wrote each other affectionate notes."
27 Mar, 1857 - Brigham Young permits woman to select faithful elders
to act as "proxy" to father children for her sexually impotent living
husband. Young performs polyandrous ceremony "for time," and the
relationship lasts for several years producing two sons, (1858, 1861).
Mother's legal husband raises boys with her, and later tells them he
loves them as much as if they were his natural sons. Both boys grow up
to become devoted Mormons and polygamists. This is last known case of
authorized polyandry.
2 June, 1857 - Brigham Young says from the pulpit, "I feel to sustain
him," when informed that the bishop in Manti. Waren S. Snow, has
castrated twenty-four-year-old Welchman, Thomas Lewis, for undisclosed
sex crime. "Just let the matter drop, and say no more about it," Young
writes Snow in July about the castration, "and it will soon die away
among the people." Snow's counselor confides to his diary that this
poor young man "has now gone crazy."
14 June, 1857 - At a prayer circle of the First Presidency and
apostles, Brigham Young refuses to seal three young girls (ages 12 and
13) to "Father James Allred" (age 73) because they "would not be
equally yoked together" in marriage.
27 Jan, 1858 - Judge Hosea Stout describes with no disapproval how
Mormons "disguised as Indians" drag a man "out of bed with a whore and
castrated him by a square and close amputation."
5 Apr, 1858 - Bishop of Payson, his brother the Sheriff, and several
members of their LDS congregation join in shooting to death
twenty-two-year-old Henry Jones and is mother, Mrs. Hannah Jones
Hatch, for committing incest by which she has a daughter. The men also
kill infant and also castrate brother/father. Perpetrators are
indicted next year, but not brought to trial. When indicted again in
1889, Deseret News article criticizes trial of this "antiquated Payson
homicide" as anti-Mormon crusade against those who were justifiably
"disgusted and greatly incensed" against "the brutal mother and son."
Former sheriff is convicted of murder, former bishop is acquitted.
12 Sep, 1858 - Church historian's office notes discovery this morning
of severed head of Provo woman who has been at U.S. military camp for
a week. Six weeks earlier another woman's head is discovered. These
are earliest verified examples of someone taking literally the
repeated teachings of Mormon leaders that apostates and adulterers
should have their heads "cut off" as "blood atonement" for their sins.
2 Jan, 1859 - Brigham Young begins custom of having all Mormon
congregations sit with women on north side of center aisle, men on
south side, and children on front benches. This seating arrangement
lasts for decades, remains in temples to this day.
8 Oct, 1859 - Brigham Young from the pulpit tells bishops to give
Melchizedek priesthood to eighteen-year old boys, even if they "have
been sowing their wild oats for years."
8 July, 1860 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit, "Children are
now born who will live until every son of Adam will have the privilege
of receiving the principles of eternal life." He also preaches, "The
birth of our Savior was as natural as are the births of our children;
it was the result of natural action."
23 Feb 1862 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit that the concept
of Mother in Heaven is as essential as concept of Father in Heaven.
1 Aug 1862 - Brigham Young writes to a local bishop: "my advice is for
bro James T.S. Allred to marry the Indian girl in question. It is
written that 'not many generations shall pass away before they become
a white and delightsome people.'" Dozens of men marry Native Americans
as plural wives in pioneer Utah and Arizona.
12 Apr, 1866 - Deseret News reports murder of S. Newton Brassfield on
2 Apr. He legally marries plural wife of absent Mormon missionary, and
Deseret News editorializes that "the illegally married couple would
probably have been suffered to pursue their way to their own liking,"
except that she filed for custody of her children. Deseret News also
reports Brigham Young's sermon about the murdered Brassfield: "Were I
absent from my home on a mission, I would rejoice to know that I had
friends there to protect and guard the virtue of my household; and I
would thank God for such friends."
19 Aug, 1866 - Brigham Young preaches from the pulpit: "Mary, the wife
of Joseph, had another husband. On this account infidels have called
the Savior a bastard... he was begotten by God our Heavenly Father."
She was a polyandrist, like the women he authorized in 1857.
11 Dec, 1866 - Brigham Young, Jr. writes in his diary that "a nigger"
is found dead in Salt Lake City with this note pinned to the corpse:
"Let this be a warning to all niggers that they meddle not with white
women."
10 Jan, 1868 - Deseret News Editorial: "In this Territory we jealously
close the door against adultery, seduction and whoredom. Public
opinion here pronounces the penalty of death as the fitting punishment
for such crimes."
4 Feb, 1868 - Deseret News editorializes that "it is a pity" LDS
father did not succeed in killing his daughter's lover when the father
"drew a revolver and shot him down in the court room."
5 Mar, 1868 - Deseret News article titled "Served Him Right" reports
that a Gentile is given "sound thrashing" when he visits LDS meeting
to see young woman.
15 Aug, 1869 - Apostle George Q. Canon preaches from the pulpit: "We
close the door on one side, and say that whoredoms, seductions and
adulteries must not be committed among us, and we say to those who are
determined to carry on such things: WE WILL KILL YOU..."
27 Oct, 1869 - Brigham Young preaches at Lehi, Utah that "by marriage
Lot's two daughters were sealed to him, and will be his to all
eternity." Young adds that it might one day become necessary to seals
a man's daughter to him as a wife, "but it is not likely ever again to
occur." There are verified instances of LDS leaders performing
polygamous marriages between men and their foster-daughters or
step-daughters, but not actual daughters.
18 June, 1870 - First counselor George A. Smith tells Salt Lake School
of the Prophets about "the evil of Masturbation" among Utah Mormons.
Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "Plural Marriage would tend to diminish
this evil self-pollution," and he believes that "indulgence on the
part of men was less in Plural marriage than in Monogamy." Elder
George Reynolds (Secretary to Brigham Young) also tells the School
that "where Monogamy was the Law, it compelled a more frequent
(sexual) cohabitation than is right and proper." Mormon medical books
of the time advise sexual intercourse only once a month.
11 Sep, 1871 - Counselor Daniel H. Wells tells Grantsville School of
the Prophets that "a great many of our young men are abusing
themselves by the habit of self-pollution: or self abuse, or as the
Bible terms it, Onanism," which he regards as "one great cause why so
many of our young men were not married, and it was a great sin, and
would lead to insanity and a premature grave." Polygamy is likelier
cause for prevalence of bachelorhood in nineteenth-century Utah.
First, every national census lists more males than females in Mormon
population. Second, 10 to 40 percent of Mormon men marry polygamously
which demographically requires bachelorhood in Utah's majority
population of males.
16 Dec, 1871 - Seymor B. Young, son of senior Seventy's president,
writes: "Salt Lake City has for the first time in its history houses
of Ill fame almost on every corner."
27 Feb, 1872 - LDS publication Millenial Star editorial titled,
"Motherhood of God," repeats a child's question: "Why don't you tell
me about the Heavenly Mother? Don't she give us anything?" Editorial
speaks of those who "yearn to adore her" and expresses approval of
praying to "Father and Mother God." Editorial conclusion: "When we
draw nearer the Divine Man, lo! we shall find a Divine Woman smiling
upon us...In the Father's many mansions, we shall find her and be
satisfied."
7 Mar, 1875 - Apostle Joseph F. Smith's wife writes to him that "you
know how brother (Apostle) [Albert] Carrington thinks a deal of
women." In Dec. 1882 Apostle John Henry Smith writes President John
Taylor that maid at British Mission headquarters "found Bro.
Carrington lying upon the lounge and Sarah Kirkman lying upon top
him." Upon Brigham Young's inquiry about other women in 1873 and John
Taylor's inquiry about Sarah Kirkham in 1883, Carrington denies
serious wrongdoing. he is not excommunicated until 1885 when protests
from Sarah's husband become too insistent to ignore.
24 June, 1876 - Brigham Young confides that it is "a curiosity to him
that men could commit adultery and still retain the spirit of the Lord
as he had witnessed on one occasion. The man is now dead."
26 Sep, 1877 - Grand Jury describes Salt Lake County probate court as
a "divorce mill" which granted 300 divorces in previous twelve-month
period, primarily on "grounds of incompatibility of temperament,
different aims and objectives in life." Eighty percent of divorced
couples come to Utah for divorces from such places as San Francisco,
New York City, Chicago, Terre Haute, and St. Louis. Report finds that
13 percent of divorces are granted same day of complaint, total of 25
percent within week of application, and total of 85 percent are
granted within a month of application. Report continues, "And your
committee have good reason to believe that other country probate
courts of the territory are likewise engaged in this class of divorce
business, to an equal if not greater extent." Two months later U.S.
senator Dawes introduces bill to remove divorce from jurisdiction of
Mormon probate courts and limit divorce cases to federally-appointed
non-Mormon judges.
13 June, 1878 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald's editorial
on "Unhappy Marriages" begins: "We cannot say how many divorces the
(Mormon) Utah probate courts have granted during the last few years,
but the number is enormous, amounting to perhaps thousands."
8 Oct, 1881 - First Counselor George Q. Cannon tells general
conference: "We hear now of men having got married to cover up certain
things; of children born wonderfully soon after marriage in some of
our settlements, and perhaps in this city no less than in our rural
settlements."
31 Mar, 1883 - Apostle Brigham Young Jr. tells stake priesthood
meeting: "There are many girls in Utah who have never had an offer of
marriage from a man of the Church... Girls who marry outsiders are not
worthy of the Sacrament."
9 Oct, 1883 - In several hours of meeting with stake presidents, First
Presidency and apostles give instructions about
"Masturbation...self-pollution of both sexes and excessive sexual
indulgence in the married relation." This is the first-known Mormon
reference to female masturbation.
7 Nov, 1885 - Quorum of Twelve excommunicates Apostle Albert
Carrington "for crimes of lewd and lascivious conduct and adultery"
with several women dating back to 1871. This is the first time since
1842 that a general authority is excommunicated for sexual misconduct,
and its publication on 10 Nov. stuns the community.
27 Mar, 1886 - Polygamist husband confides in his personal diary: "How
delicate is the position of a man in plural marriage who loves his
wives and who in turn is loved by them. Every move he makes, in his
relation or intercourse with them, is an arrow that pierces deep into
the heart of one or other of them... A thousand thoughts and plans may
come into his mind, but there is only one true solution. He must
please God. In doing this, it may be hoped that by and by, he may also
somehow please them."
15 July, 1886 - Apostle Lorenzo prophecies from the pulpit that in the
future "brothers and sisters would marry each other in this church.
All our horror at such a union was due entirely to prejudice, and the
offspring of such unions would be as healthy and pure as any other.
These were the decided views of President Young, when alive, for
Bother Snow talked to him freely on this matter."
27 Dec, 1886 - Sarah M. Granger Kimball, counselor in Relief Society
General Presidency teaches from the pulpit that "her brother Lafayette
Granger and the late Bishop George Miller in conversation once with
the prophet Joseph smith were told by him that when Mary the mother of
Jesus was on her way to the hill country she was met by God the Father
and the Angel Gabriel and the latter performed the marriage between
Father (God) and Mary."
21 July, 1887 - Apostle Franklin D. Richards: "God the Father came
down in his tabernacle of flesh and bone and had (sexual) association
with Mary, and made her pregnant with Jesus."
27 Feb, 1889 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald's article
titled, "FAILED MARRIAGES," regarding "the report of the Labor
Commissioner Wright, presented last week, on the statistics of
marriage and divorce in the United States from 1867 to 1886
inclusive," with following: In 1870 Utah had highest rate of divorce
out of all states and territories. In 1870 Utah's rate was one divorce
per 185 marriages. National averages was 1:664. States with lowest
divorce rates are South Carolina at 1:4,938, Delaware at 1:123,672,
New Mexico at 1:16,077, North Carolina at 1:4,938, and Louisiana at
1:4,579. In 1880 Utah had tenth highest rate of divorce out of all
states and territories. In 1880 Utah's rate was one divorce per 219
marriages, which was more than twice the national average of 1:479. In
twentieth century, divorce rates for LDS temple marriages starts out
three times higher than this "divorce mill" rate for early Utah civil
marriages.
13 Mar, 1890 - Plural wife writes to her husband: "We are more like
lovers than husband and wife for we are as far removed from each other
- there is always the embarrassment of lovers and yet we have been
married more than 37 years."
8 Sep, 1890 - Apostle John Henry Smith preaches from the pulpit that
"married people who indulge their passions for any other purpose than
to beget children, really committed adultery."
1 Oct, 1890 - An apostle asks "how the Son of God was begotten," and
Lorenzo Snow tells apostles, "that he was begotten just the same as
you and I were or as our sons today are."
2 Dec, 1890 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow tells the Quorum of Twelve that "he
expects to see the day when a man's blood is shed again for the crime
of adultery."
24 Mar, 1891 - Utah's chief justice Zane writes: "Polygamy has
demoralized the people of Utah. I presume there are more sexual crimes
here in proportion to the population than anywhere else."
6 Mar, 1892 - Stake president "condemns the practice that existed
among the Saints to some extent of taking means to restrict the number
of their children to only two or three."
20 Sep, 1896 - Seventy's president J. Golden Kimball preaches: "There
are 500 girls who are public prostitutes in Salt Lake City. Some of
these are daughters of Latter-Day Saints."
5 Nov, 1896 - Apostle Lorenzo R. Snow's youngest plural wife bears his
last child in Canada. At age 82 he is the oldest general authority to
father a child.
15 Jan, 1897 - Apostle Brigham Young Jr. temporarily resigns as
vice-president of Brigham Young Trust Co. because first counselor
George Q. Cannon allows its property to become "a first class" brothel
on Commercial Street (now Regent Street), Salt Lake City. Apostle
Heber J. Grant is invited to its opening reception and is stunned to
discover himself inside "a regular whore-house." This situation begins
in 1891 and for fifty years church-owned and controlled real estate
companies lease houses of prostitution.
7 Oct, 1898 - At general conference Apostle John W. Taylor reports
that in one rural area in Utah, 80 percent of LDS marriages involve
pre-marital sex.
14 June, 1900 - First Presidency and apostles agree to give $3,600 to
Brigham Y. Hampton for his prior "detective work" in which he paid
prostitute to allow him and nearly thirty LDS "Home Missionaries" and
policemen to spy on anti-Mormons engaging in sex acts in Salt Lake
City brothels in 1885. Although first counselor denies it at this
meeting, in private meetings of First Presidency George Q. Cannon
refers to Hampton's brothel work as "services rendered the Church" and
"work in behalf of the Church." Hampton has been set apart as a Salt
Lake temple worker since 1893, and another coordinator of brothel
spying is the temple doorkeeper (1893-1910).
10 July 1901 - Apostle Anthon H. Lund reports to apostles that during
six-month period, 58 percent of LDS marriages in rural ward were
"forced."
7 Nov, 1901 - First Presidency decides and announces that there is "no
rule in the church forbidding cousins to intermarry" and that first
cousins can have temple marriages if they present civil license.
General authorities such as Brigham Young, Williard Richards, Joseph
F. Smith and Abraham H. Cannon married their first cousins as legal
and plural wives.
23 Nov, 1902 - Apostle John W. Taylor tells stake priesthood meeting
that "those who have sexual intercourse with their wives or touch any
dead body are unclean until the evening, and therefore during that day
should not enter the temple or officiate in any ordinances of the
gospel."
26 Mar 1903 - Joseph F. Smith tells apostles "there would be no
daughters of perdition" in final judgment. General authorities
authorize rebaptism without church discipline for young man who
confesses "secret crime he committed in having to do with animals."
7 July, 1903 - Apostle Rudger Clawson tells other apostles "that the
practice of self-abuse existed to an alarming extent among the boys in
our community who attended the district schools, and also, he doubted
not, the church schools. He felt that the boys and girls should be
properly instructed in regard to this evil."
25 Oct, 1905 - Public criticism of Joseph F. Smith's remarks that
Father Damien of Hawaiian leper colony was immoral before his death.
LDS church president is convinced that leprosy is contracted through
sexual contact.
9 May, 1913 - First Presidency learns that James Dwyer, co-founder of
Salt Lake City's LDS University (now LDS Business College), has been
"teaching young men that sodomy and kindred vices are not sins..."
Dwyer's daughter, actress Ada Dwyer Russell, is already in long-term
relationship with lesbian poet Amy Lowell. Dwyer's bishop and stake
president want to excommunicate him, but First Presidency allows
Dwyer, now in his eighties, to voluntarily "withdraw his name" from
LDS church membership.
29 Sep, 1914 - Quorum of Twelve learns that mission president has
"discovered that 15% of the missionary Elders in the Netherlands
during the past two years, have been guilty of immoral practices, and
that a much greater percentage of Elders have been exposed to these
evils."
8 June, 1941 - First Councilor J. Reuben Clark tells annual general
conference of youth and their leaders: "When I was a boy it was
preached from the stand, and my father and my mother repeated the
principle to me time and time again. They said, 'Reuben, we had rather
bury you than have you become unchaste.' And that is the law of this
true Church."
26 Jan, 1942 - First Councilor J. Reuben Clark tells reporter for Look
Magazine: "Our divorces are piling up." Church Historian's Office in
1968 compiles divorce statistics since 1910 for temple marriages,
"church civil" marriages, and "other civil" marriages. Although temple
marriages have lowest divorce rate of the three categories, in 1910
there was one "temple divorce" for every 66 temple marriages performed
that year., 1:41 in 1915, 1:34 in 1920, 1:27 in 1925, 1:30 in 1930,
1:23 in 1935, 1:27 in 1939, 1:17 in 1945, 1:31 in 1950, 1:30 in 1955,
1:19 in 1960 and 1965. Last rate for temple divorce is almost ten
times higher than Utah's civil divorce rate century earlier.
2 Oct, 1952 - Second Counselor J. Reuben Clark warns women of Relief
Society general conference against "self-pollution," prostitution, and
"homosexuality, which it is tragic to say, is found among both sexes."
He cautions LDS women against allowing homosexual-oriented males to
use them as male-substitutes in dating or marriage: "I wonder if you
girls have ever reflected on the thought that was in the mind of the
man who first began to praise you for your boyish figures." Clark also
tells the ladies, "I forebear to more than mention that abomination
and filth and loathsomeness of the ancients - carnal knowledge with
beasts." Church Relief Society magazine publishes this talk in full.
21 May, 1959 - Executive committee of Church Board of Education
discusses "the growing problem in our society of homosexuality."
Spencer W. Kimball reports that David O. McKay has said "that in his
view homosexuality was worse than heterosexual immorality; that it is
a filthy and unnatural habit."
12 Feb, 1964 - First Presidency letter that all prospective
missionaries "found guilty of fornication, of sex perversion, of heavy
petting, or of comparable transgressions should not be recommended
until the case has been discussed with the bishop and stake president
and the visiting General Authority."
7 Jan, 1969 - First Presidency secretary Joseph Anderson answers
letter about "the Church's stand pertaining to birth control," with
the concluding statement: "After all, however, the brethren recognize
that this is a personal matter involving the individuals concerned,
and concerning which they must make their own decision."
14 April, 1969 - First Presidency makes official statement on birth
control which omits any reference to their own feelings about birth
control as "a personal matter," and states: "We believe that those who
practice birth control will reap disappointment by and by," and
repeated earlier letter's emphasis on "self control as a dominant
factor" in marriage.
9 June, 1978 - First Presidency letter instructs that interviews of
married persons "should scrupulously avoid indelicate inquiries," yet
also emphasizes: "Married persons should understand that if in their
marital relations they are guilty of unnatural, impure or unholy
practices, they should not enter the temple unless and until they
repent and discontinue any such practices." This reverses position of
First Presidency prior to Spencer W. Kimball's ascendancy.
17 June, 1978 - Church News headline "Interracial Marriage
Discouraged" in same issue which announces authorization of priesthood
for those of black African descent. Sources at church headquarters
indicate that Apostle Mark E. Petersen requires this emphasis.
Sep 1981 - Branch presidents at the Missionary Training Center in
Provo receive 21-point handout to help "both male and female"
missionaries avoid masturbation. Point 19: "In very severe cases it
may be necessary to tie a hand to the bed frame with a tie in order
that the habit of masturbating in a semi-sleep condition can be
broken." In May 1995 article about masturbation, national magazine
"Details" publishes seventeen of the recommendations and identifies
Apostle Mark E. Petersen as author of "Steps in Overcoming
Masturbation: A Guide to Self-Control." In 1996, spokesman at LDS
headquarters denies that Elder Petersen authored this document and
denies that it was ever distributed.
5 Jan, 1982 - First Presidency repeats its 1978 instructions for
"interviewing married persons," but adds: "The First Presidency has
interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure or unholy
practice."
15 Oct 1982 - First Presidency instruction to all stake and mission
leaders that many letters from church members "indicate clearly that
some local leaders have been delving into private, sensitive matters
beyond the scope of what is appropriate.... Also, you should never
inquire into personal, intimate matters involving marital relations
between a man and his wife." Letter continues that even if a church
member volunteers such intimate information, "you should not peruse
the matter but should merely suggest that if the member has enough
anxiety about the propriety of the conduct to ask about it, the best
course would be to discontinue it." In response to widespread
complaints from married couples being asked if they have oral sex,
this returns First Presidency stance to what it was prior to
presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, now incapacitated.
4 Mar, 1983 - Salt Lake Tribune reports lawsuit filed in February
against LDS church for $28 million. A father blames LDS bishop for
contributing to his sixteen-year-old son's suicide for counseling his
son "that masturbation is a terrible sin.. and being a normal
adolescent in the puberty state, KIP ELIASON became increasingly less
able to reconcile his sexual desires with the strict doctrines of the
said LDS Church. He became filled with self-hate."
15 Apr, 1983 - "University Post: The Unofficial Newspaper of Brigham
Young University" reports interview with director of Standards
Department. He acknowledges that students suspected of cheating,
illegal drug use, stealing, or homosexuality are expelled from BYU if
they refuse to take polygraph examination. BYU Security has licensed
polygraph examiner.
4 Apr, 1987 - First Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley tells priesthood
session of general conference that "marriage should not be viewed as a
therapeutic step to solve problems such as homosexual inclinations or
practices..." This reverses decades-long church policy formulated by
Spencer W. Kimball.
9 Aug 1991 - Salt Lake Tribune article, "Of LDS Women, 58% Admit
Premarital Sex."
How old is Grand Canyon? Park Service not allowed to say
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility News Release ( www.peer.org)
For Immediate Release: December 28, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON'T SAY — Orders to Cater
to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology
Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give
an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due
to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a
prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was
created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than
three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on
sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National
Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the
official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the
Grand Canyon is 'no comment.'"
In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the
National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics,
remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive
rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the
geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar
to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees,
providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making
distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park
visitors about geologic issues.
In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the
sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail,
a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an
evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and
overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of
Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that
there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.
According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act
request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone
conducted or completed.
Park officials have defended the decision to approve the sale of Grand
Canyon: A Different View, claiming that park bookstores are like
libraries, where the broadest range of views are displayed. In fact,
however, both law and park policies make it clear that the park
bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such,
materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are
supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes. Moreover,
unlike a library the approval process is very selective. Records
released to PEER show that during 2003, Grand Canyon officials
rejected 22 books and other products for bookstore placement while
approving only one new sale item — the creationist book.
Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist
controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on "Interpretation
and Education (Director's Order #6) which reinforces the posture that
materials on the "history of the Earth must be based on the best
scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have
stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and]
Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to
endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."
"As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone
National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful:
Nostrils of Satan," Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS
leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and
leading geological societies against the agency approval of the
creationist book. "We sincerely hope that the new Director of the Park
Service now has the autonomy to do her job."
###
Read the PEER letter to NPS Director Bomar
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_28_12_peer_ltr_Bomar.pdf
View the NPS admission that no policy review on the creationist book
has occurred:
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_28_12_foia_response.pdf
See the 2005 NPS Director's Order #6 on Interpretation
http://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DOrder6.html
8.4.2 Historical and Scientific Research. Superintendents, historians,
scientists, and interpretive staff are responsible for ensuring that
park interpretive and educational programs and media are accurate and
reflect current scholarship…Questions often arise round the
presentation of geological, biological, and evolutionary processes.
The interpretive and educational treatment used to explain the natural
processes and history of the Earth must be based on the best
scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have
stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism. The facts,
theories, and interpretations to be used will reflect the thinking of
the scientific community in such fields as biology, geology, physics,
astronomy, chemistry, and paleontology. Interpretive and educational
programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs
explaining natural processes. Programs, however, may acknowledge or
explain other explanations of natural processes and events. (Emphasis
added)
Trace how the creationist book controversy started and grew
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=428
Look at tax dollars used to support the Bush administration program of
"Faith-Based Parks"
http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publiclands/faith-based/index.php
Dianne Ormond
MormonThink.com
Mormons at heart of Tongan riots
http://www.niufm.com/?t=3&View=FullStory&newsID=1532
LDS LEADER: CAN'T DENY MORMON YOUTH BULK OF RIOTERS
Date: 9 January 2007
Auckland, 2pm: A Tongan LDS leader says they can't argue with the
facts if police say Mormon youth were the ones behind the recent Black
Thursday Riots ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Tonga_riots)
Suliasi Kaufusi, from Nukualofa, says the Church is shattered at the
news but have to believe that more than half of those involved in the
riots are believed to be members of the Mormon Church. (listen
http://niufm.com/site_resources/library/News/Lito/TUESDAY_UPLOADS/suliasi_4pm.mp3)
It's being said that many of the youth who helped destroy Nukualofa
that day were troublesome youth sent back to Tonga from the United
States.
Locals have said that some of them have been "deportees" sent packing
from Utah, the Mormon capital of the world.
Ofa Guttenbiel Likiliki, whose with one of the NGOs in Nukualofa,
says there's a big Mormon community there and that many of the US
Mormons would've found it easy to influence local youth.
( http://niufm.com/site_resources/library/News/Lito/TUESDAY_UPLOADS/ofa_1pm.mp3)
(http://niufm.com/site_resources/library/News/Lito/TUESDAY_UPLOADS/ofa_3pm.mp3 )
On the Road with Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary
Author Bushman's diary of 'Rough Stone Rolling' tour is a page-turner
By Dennis Lythgoe
Deseret Morning News
A little over a year ago, I reviewed "Rough Stone Rolling"
(Knopf), Richard Bushman's splendid biography of the first LDS
prophet, Joseph Smith. I thought Bushman accomplished what no
historian had before, a balanced, interesting, perhaps even definitive
look at the life of the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints — "warts and all."
As a prolific American historian, a respected Columbia
University professor, and a believing, practicing Mormon, Bushman
seemed right for the task. He spent seven years researching and
writing the book, which may yet change the Mormon intellectual
landscape.
To date, 80,000 copies have been printed, which would seem to
clearly indicate that both Mormons and non-Mormons are reading it.
Interestingly, Bushman kept a diary about this book project and
about his speaking and signing tour last year, which has been
published in a limited edition, titled, "On the Road with Joseph
Smith: An Author's Diary."
The diary is possibly unparalleled — an author of a recent book
candidly dissecting his experiences with both Mormon and non-Mormon
audiences. There are even descriptions of his own feelings of
inadequacy.
This is no arrogant academic proclaiming his perfect product to
the world. It is a humble, gentle man with whom we can identify,
discussing feelings of anxiety, even panic and frustration over his
performance at the podium and the answers he gave to difficult
questions.
Now that this limited edition has attracted such avid interest,
both the author and the publisher have proclaimed their willingness to
pursue unlimited commercial publication. The document certainly
deserves wider distribution — in part because it shows a talented
historian laying open his vulnerabilities, and also because it shows
how much any historian lays on the line when he writes about Joseph
Smith.
During a conversation by phone from his New York City home,
Bushman said he was "flabbergasted" by the print run, and he wondered
aloud if there is any other profession (a historian writing about the
church leader he reveres) in which someone "joined professional
qualifications and personal philosophy so completely."
Bushman said he enjoyed writing the diary. "It was like eating
peanuts. It lures you from one page to another."
And reading it is a similar experience.
The reasons for his candor lie "partly in my age," said Bushman,
who is in his 70s. "I'm not protecting anything now. I think we reach
other people by opening ourselves. So I go back to who I really am
rather than to use any pretense."
As he traveled, reviews of the book gradually popped up in
journals and newspapers. When the book was reviewed in The New York
Review of Books and the New York Times, Bushman found himself perhaps
unaccountably bothered by critiques that seemed not to understand
Joseph Smith.
Yet none of the writers of those reviews — Western novelist
Larry McMurtry or popular novelist Walter Kirn, for example — is a
historian or academic. Kirn is a lapsed Mormon, and Bushman said he
doubts that McMurtry read the entire book.
They both tended to review Joseph Smith as a "scalawag, a bit of
a buffoon or con artist" rather than the author's treatment of his
subject.
But now the reviews have become much more positive, although
Bushman is convinced that "it's not possible to hit the right tone
with academics — at least not yet. If a non-Mormon, non-academic were
to have written the book exactly as it is, they might like it."
Bushman remains happy the book is selling all over the country
(including at Deseret Book and the LDS Church Museum of Church History
and Art). "No one has put it on any forbidden list, as far as I know.
It's healthy to get Joseph Smith's history out in the open. It
shouldn't be concealed."
At any rate, Bushman is glad he did it — and now he's
gravitating back to his study of farming in early America. He's also
proud of his faith. Being a Mormon is "something I could never give
up. It's too delicious." That's a term he borrowed from the preacher
of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, "who had a taste for the
doctrine of grace."
Bushman is happy that wherever he goes LDS readers seem to like
the book — and he gets many complimentary letters. "The book seems to
have hit the right tone for Mormons," said Bushman, "and every
academic will at least have to take it seriously. That's fine with
me."
Pat Robertson receives revelation on upcoming disaster
God has warned me of terror attack, says broadcaster
By Andy Sullivan in Washington
January 04, 2007 03:00am
Article from: Reuters
CONSERVATIVE US Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson says God told him
a terrorist attack will result in "mass killing" in the United States
in the second half of 2007.
"I'm not saying necessarily nuclear, the Lord didn't say nuclear,"
Robertson said on his television show The 700 Club.
"It'll be mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities.
"The evil people will come after this country and there's a
possibility, not a possibility, a definite certainty, that chaos is
going to rule," he said.
Robertson told viewers they should not be afraid because "if you get
blown up or something, you go to heaven, that's the worst thing that
will happen to you".
Robertson said God conveyed this message to him during an annual
prayer retreat. He said he has received other spiritual messages
during past retreats.
The broadcaster's 2006 forecast of heavy storm damage in coastal areas
was followed by the second-lightest hurricane season since 1995. He
said his prediction was borne out by storms in New England, Denver,
the Pacific Northwest and the Philippines.
God did not warn him of any natural disasters this year, he said.
Robertson, 76, reaches about 1 million US viewers daily on the
Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded. He is credited for
helping shape political views of evangelical Christians, a vibrant
force in the Republican Party, and campaigned for the presidency as a
Republican in 1988.
Robertson has not shied away from controversial statements in the past.
In January 2006, he suggested that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon suffered a stroke because God was punishing him for dividing
Israel. He also called for the assassination of leftist Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of President George W. Bush.
He also claims that he can leg-press 907 kg, well above the world
record, thanks to an energy shake he promotes.
History of Brewing in Utah
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4928260
Breweries in Utah are no new phenomenon, book shows
Pat Bagley
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:12/31/2006 01:21:37 AM MST
If you didn't celebrate New Year's Eve last night, you might be one of
those interested in Del Vance's new book. /Beer in the Beehive: A
History of Brewing/ /in Utah/ looks at one of the world's oldest
industries and its place here.
Here is some trivia I gleaned from browsing that you can share
tonight with fellow celebrators should the party drag.
* By 1850, several breweries were established in the Salt Lake
Valley, presumably by Mormon pioneers. Vance has documentation that one
of these early settlers, John Reese, was even granted a license to brew
beer from beets.
* Orrin Porter Rockwell, the notorious gunslinger and enforcer,
built a roadhouse brewery in Bluffdale called the Hot Springs Brewery
Hotel. He had gained some practical experience years before in Nauvoo
when he set up a bar in Joseph Smith's Nauvoo House.
* The first major Utah brewery was built in 1864 by a German
immigrant, Henry Wagener. Called the California Brewery, it was located
at the mouth of Emigration Canyon within a stone's throw of the This Is
the Place monument.
* In the 1800s, ZCMI sold beer, wine and liquor in its downtown
location.
* Mark Twain was familiar with a distilled spirit called Valley Tan.
He said it was "a kind of whiskey, or first cousin to it; it is of
Mormon invention and manufactured only in Utah. Tradition says it is
made of imported fire and brimstone."
* Temperance advocate Carrie Nation visited Salt Lake City in 1903
with a bag of her trademark axes. The axes had been engraved and were
sold as souvenirs. Nation wanted to address LDS General Conference and
enlist the Mormons to her cause. An easy sell if there ever was one.
* But President Joseph F. Smith didn't want her to speak. Not to be
deterred by a mere prophet of the Almighty, the 6-foot Nation bullied
her way into the Tabernacle and even forced her way to the podium. She
then insulted just about everyone in the country.
* Strict adherence to the Word of Wisdom, and even what it meant,
was in flux before the 1920s. In 1900, LDS Church President Lorenzo Snow
saw the central message of the Word of Wisdom as a prohibition on the
eating of meat since animals have souls. Many of his fellow general
authorities argued that beer shouldn't be counted as being covered by
the Word of Wisdom.
* The Word of Wisdom was enshrined as church law soon after the
adoption of Prohibition in the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution
in 1919.
* In 1909 Republicans overwhelmingly controlled the Legislature.
Then as now, they were mostly Mormon and pro-business. Events showed
that Republican officials were suffering crises of conscience between
their business and religious sensibilities. The /Deseret News/ accused
Republican legislators of dragging their feet on the endorsement of
prohibition. Things got embarrassing when it was revealed that the
brewers had been funneling money to the Republicans with the implicit
understanding that they torpedo legislation dealing with prohibition.
Prohibition was struck from the Constitution on Dec. 5, 1933, when
Utah became the 36th state to vote for repeal.
Here's another bit of trivia that is not in /Beer in the Beehive/,
but deserves mention because it is guaranteed to thrill your party
guests. Years ago I toured the special collections of BYU's Harold B.
Lee Library. The curator at the time, Chad Flake, asked with a sly smile
if I wanted to see the oldest item they owned. He opened a small box
with a piece of stone resting in it about the size of my palm. It was a
Sumerian cuneiform tablet covered with imprints made with a sharpened
stick when it was still a wet piece of clay several thousand years ago.
"Want to know what it says?" Flake asked. Sure, I was curious.
"It's a bill of sale for beer."
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Mormon Studies Consultation approved by the American Academy of Religion
We are pleased announce that the American Academy of Religion has
approved the creation of a Mormon Studies Consultation to be launched at
the AAR's annual meeting in November 2007. To the many who
enthusiastically endorsed the idea, we express our deep appreciation and
look forward to your ongoing support.
James McLachlan, Western Carolina University, jmclachla@email.wcu.edu
Grant Underwood, Brigham Young University, gru2@byu.edu
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-AmRel&month=0612&week=b&msg=G0jlmwoBvCJpqVw8ggaEZQ&user=&pw=
approved the creation of a Mormon Studies Consultation to be launched at
the AAR's annual meeting in November 2007. To the many who
enthusiastically endorsed the idea, we express our deep appreciation and
look forward to your ongoing support.
James McLachlan, Western Carolina University, jmclachla@email.wcu.edu
Grant Underwood, Brigham Young University, gru2@byu.edu
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-AmRel&month=0612&week=b&msg=G0jlmwoBvCJpqVw8ggaEZQ&user=&pw=
Friday, January 05, 2007
How old is Grand Canyon? Park Service not allowed to say
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility News Release (www.peer.org)
For Immediate Release: December 28, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON'T SAY — Orders to Cater
to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology
Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give
an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due
to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a
prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was
created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than
three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on
sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National
Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the
official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the
Grand Canyon is 'no comment.'"
In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the
National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics,
remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive
rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the
geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar
to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees,
providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making
distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park
visitors about geologic issues.
In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the
sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail,
a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an
evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and
overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of
Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that
there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.
According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act
request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone
conducted or completed.
Park officials have defended the decision to approve the sale of Grand
Canyon: A Different View, claiming that park bookstores are like
libraries, where the broadest range of views are displayed. In fact,
however, both law and park policies make it clear that the park
bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such,
materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are
supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes. Moreover,
unlike a library the approval process is very selective. Records
released to PEER show that during 2003, Grand Canyon officials
rejected 22 books and other products for bookstore placement while
approving only one new sale item — the creationist book.
Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist
controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on "Interpretation
and Education (Director's Order #6) which reinforces the posture that
materials on the "history of the Earth must be based on the best
scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have
stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and]
Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to
endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."
"As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone
National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful:
Nostrils of Satan," Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS
leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and
leading geological societies against the agency approval of the
creationist book. "We sincerely hope that the new Director of the Park
Service now has the autonomy to do her job."
###
Read the PEER letter to NPS Director Bomar
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_28_12_peer_ltr_Bomar.pdf
View the NPS admission that no policy review on the creationist book
has occurred:
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_28_12_foia_response.pdf
See the 2005 NPS Director's Order #6 on Interpretation
http://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DOrder6.html
8.4.2 Historical and Scientific Research. Superintendents, historians,
scientists, and interpretive staff are responsible for ensuring that
park interpretive and educational programs and media are accurate and
reflect current scholarship…Questions often arise round the
presentation of geological, biological, and evolutionary processes.
The interpretive and educational treatment used to explain the natural
processes and history of the Earth must be based on the best
scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have
stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism. The facts,
theories, and interpretations to be used will reflect the thinking of
the scientific community in such fields as biology, geology, physics,
astronomy, chemistry, and paleontology. Interpretive and educational
programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs
explaining natural processes. Programs, however, may acknowledge or
explain other explanations of natural processes and events. (Emphasis
added)
Trace how the creationist book controversy started and grew
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=428
Look at tax dollars used to support the Bush administration program of
"Faith-Based Parks"
http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publiclands/faith-based/index.php
Dianne Ormond
MormonThink.com
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Romney, the church and conservative Christians
When Mitt Romney's religion is mentioned these days, we often hear
that Mormons and evangelicals, despite theological differences, are on
the same page politically. But while Mormon voters are among the
country's most conservative, there are key issues on which they don't
line up neatly with the religious right.
By Drake Bennett | December 31, 2006
DESPITE ALL THE attention Mitt Romney's religion has received, when he
formally launches his campaign for president sometime in the next few
weeks -- as he is widely expected to do -- he won't be the first
Mormon to run for the office. Just six years ago, Senator Orrin Hatch
of Utah made a short-lived presidential bid, and in 1967 Romney's own
father, George, then governor of Michigan, was the early front-runner
for the Republican nomination (until, notoriously, he blamed a
"brainwashing" for his earlier support for the Vietnam War).
In fact, the phenomenon of Mormons running for president is almost as
old as the religion itself. Joseph Smith, founding prophet of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), as the church is
officially known, himself ran in 1844. Smith never had much of a
chance, and he was shot to death by an Illinois mob that June, in one
of the many instances in which hostility toward the insular church and
its beliefs bubbled over into violence.
Not only was there the Mormon practice of polygamy (formally renounced
by the church in 1890), but Smith espoused a political and social
worldview regarded as dangerously radical by many who had come into
contact with the growing Mormon settlements. Smith was an
abolitionist, for one thing; and he argued for the communal ownership
of property. According to Richard Bushman, an emeritus professor of
history at Columbia University and a biographer of Smith, Mormons
identified strongly with the revolutionaries who would roil Europe in
1848.
Today many Americans remain deeply skeptical about the LDS church.
Recent polls have found that around 40 percent of Americans say they
would not vote for a Mormon for president -- though nearly as many
said they would have reservations voting for a Catholic in 1960, the
year Joh n F. Kennedy won the White House. Many conservative
Christians, especially Catholics and evangelicals, still consider
Mormons -- who follow non-biblical works of scripture, teach that God
has a physical body, and believe in the possibility of direct
revelation and that people can evolve toward godhood -- to be members
of a cult.
But the left-wing radicalism once associated with the religion has
disappeared. Mormons today are reliable Republicans. According to
Joseph Quin Monson, a political scientist at LDS-owned Brigham Young
University, they are "almost as monolithically Republican as
African-Americans are Democratic." They tend on most major issues to
be culturally and economically conservative, and in the past few
presidential elections 80 to 90 percent of Mormons have voted for the
Republican candidate.
All in all, in the words of Mark Noll, a historian of American
Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, "politically considered,
white evangelicals and Mormons look very similar."
It is this alignment that Romney has tried to exploit in courting his
party's vital conservative Christian bloc. He has emphasized his
opposition to embryonic stem-cell research, and sought to distance
himself from earlier statements that suggested moderate views on
same-sex marriage and abortion. According to Gregory Rodriguez, a
political analyst at the New America Foundation, Romney has even
called himself an "evangelical Mormon."
Indeed, when Romney and others talk about his Mormonism in the context
of the coming campaign, the assumption is that, despite the
theological differences between LDS and evangelicals, politically the
two groups are on the same page.
But while few dispute the social conservativism of the LDS church and
its members, it is also true that on some key issues they don't fall
neatly into line with the religious right's priorities.
To be sure, Mormons and conservative Christians, both Catholic and
evangelical, are on the same side of two of the bitterest culture-war
battles being fought today, over gay marriage and abortion. On others,
though -- stem-cell research, the teaching of evolution in schools,
public funding for religion, and end-of-life care -- the LDS church is
harder to pin down. In part this is due to the church's unique
theology, but it may also derive from Mormonism's early history as a
marginal sect suspicious of (and suspected by) the US government.
Mormons today are among the nation's most patriotic groups, but many
retain a sharp sense of their minority status.
Romney himself has been quick to point out that he is not running as a
representative of his religion. And like John F. Kennedy, he has
demonstrated over the years a certain independence from his church.
And yet, lost in the discussion of Romney and Mormonism is that,
unlike Kennedy, Romney's stances on key issues dear to the religious
right may actually make him more conservative than his own church.
It was in the 1970s that the LDS church as an institution moved
definitively into the political arena. As with white evangelicals, the
galvanizing issues were the Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v. Wade,
both of which the church saw as a threat to the nuclear family. Today,
similar concerns animate the church's vocal opposition to same-sex
marriage.
The church remains pro-life. But the official Mormon position on
abortion differs in one key respect from that of the Catholic Church
and many Protestant denominations: to the LDS church, abortion is not
murder. The reason for this is that (again, unlike many Christian
denominations) Mormon theology has no clear position on when a body
acquires a soul -- when, in effect, earthly life begins. "Since they
don't define when the soul enters the body, they can't call abortion
murder, they simply say it's 'like unto it,'" says Richard Sherlock, a
professor of philosophy and expert on Mormon ethics at Utah State
University.
As a result, the LDS church takes a more flexible approach to abortion
than many other churches, opposing what it calls "elective abortion
for personal or social convenience," but allowing abortions in the
case of rape, incest, fatal fetal deformities, or when the health of
the mother is at risk. Just as significantly, it does not throw its
weight behind legislative efforts to limit or outlaw abortion. In
short, neither the Mitt Romney who ran for Senate in 1994 vowing to
keep abortion safe and legal, nor the more recent "firmly pro-life"
Romney, would be in the wrong according to the teachings of his
church.
On abortion, such theological distinctions may not make much
difference to many Mormons, the overwhelming majority of whom identify
themselves as pro-life. But on the question of stem-cell research,
which has become a major issue for the conservative Republican base,
the official ambiguity on when life begins has had far more tangible
political effects.
The LDS church has no official position on stem-cell research, but
according to Dan Jones, a leading Utah pollster, more than 60 percent
of the Mormons in the state, who tend to be among the country's most
conservative, support it. Orrin Hatch is one of Congress's leading
proponents of federal stem-cell funding, and his four Mormon
colleagues in the Senate (Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Senators
Michael Crapo, Gordon Smith, and Robert Bennett, all Republicans) have
taken similar positions.
In public appearances, Romney has credited his thinking about the
moral consequences of stem-cell research with having led him toward a
more conservative position on other reproductive issues, like abortion
and emergency contraception. And while this shift may have made him a
more viable national Republican candidate, on the stem-cell issue at
least, it has placed him outside the mainstream of his own faith.
If this divergence between conservative Christians and Mormons springs
from theology, another originates in the church's early history at the
margins of American society. For Mormons, says Armand Mauss, a
sociologist at the Claremont Graduate University School of Religion
specializing in Mormon political and social attitudes, "there is an
acute awareness of their own history as a persecuted people," a
tendency "to lean on the side of freedom of expression for all
different kinds of groups."
This history has translated into a respect for the constitutional
separation of church and state not always popular on the religous
right. John Green, a senior fellow in religion and American politics
at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, describes Mormons as
having "a special sensitivity to relations with the government." While
evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and James Dobson have publicly
supported the Bush administration's funding for faith-based programs,
for example, the LDS church has refused to participate in the
initiative out of a fear that with government money comes government
control (several conservative Christian organizations, including the
Southern Baptist Convention, have taken similar positions).
For the most part -- and despite evidence, recently reported by the
Globe, that Romney aides had talked to LDS church leaders about
creating a network of Mormon supporters for the upcoming campaign --
the church is conscientious about keeping partisan politics separate
from religious matters. Aside from what it sees as issues relating to
"how children are raised," says Jan Shipps, widely considered the
leading non-Mormon historian of the religion, the church's leaders
tend to shy away from taking political action (doing so would, of
course, also endanger the church's nonprofit status). Polling done by
BYU's Quin Monson and Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell
found that, between Catholics, Southern Baptists, and Mormons, as the
two write, "Mormons are by far the least likely to receive political
cues at church."
Because of this insistence on separate religious and political
spheres, Mormons appear less likely to wade into other culture-war
debates, such as the teaching of evolution. Duane Jeffery, a BYU
professor of biology and a leading opponent of teaching intelligent
design in science classes, says the issue hasn't had the same
resonance for Mormons as it has for many evangelical communities --
not because the LDS church is full of diehard Darwinists (the church
has no official policy on the subject) but because Mormon parents, by
and large, are satisfied that their children are getting their
religious instruction through the often daily seminary classes the
church runs for them. "In general," he says, "most of them feel that
there's not much reason to get politically involved" over the issue.
On the issue of school prayer, which conservative evangelicals
overwhelmingly favor, Mormons are divided. In Utah, according to the
pollster Dan Jones, most Mormons support it. Polling numbers outside
of Utah are harder to come by, but some political scientists and
sociologists of the church argue that Mormons living elsewhere see
school prayer as a threat. Two-thirds of American Mormons live outside
the Mormon strongholds of the Western mountain states, and as BYU
political scientist Richard Davis puts it, "There's a little more
uneasiness about it because of the realization that they're a
minority." The 2000 Supreme Court case Santa Fe Independent School
District v. Doe, which outlawed student-led prayers before football
games, was brought by a Mormon family in Texas.
That is not to say that the church refrains from telling its members
what sort of life to lead (devout Mormons cannot drink alcohol, smoke,
or have caffeine), but it often allows them the freedom to make
decisions that other conservative churches would balk at. During the
heated debate over the fate of Terri Schiavo, for example, the Mormon
church reiterated its position that, "Members should not feel
obligated to extend mortal life by means that are unreasonable."
"There are fewer fixed dos and don'ts" for Mormons, says Sherlock. On
end-of-life issues, he says, "the Mormon Church says, 'Think about it,
pray about it, and get the best answer you can."'
It's this idea that Romney himself seemed to refer to in a 1994
interview with the Boston-based gay and lesbian newspaper Bay Windows,
in which he rooted what was then his strong support for gay rights in
his religion. Drawing on the Mormon concept of "free agency" -- the
idea that, despite God's foreknowledge of what we will do, we are
still free to choose our actions -- he made a political argument about
the value of tolerance. "Our society should allow people to make their
own choices and live by their own beliefs," he argued.
Since those comments resurfaced a few weeks ago, Romney has been
pressed to reconcile them with his now strident opposition to same-sex
marriage. On that issue, Romney's newly assertive conservatism places
him in step with his church. On others, though, he seems more a
conservative evangelical than a Mormon.
Drake Bennett is the staff writer for Ideas. E-mail drbennett@globe.com.
Interested in a home built for four wives and 27 kids
Interested in a home built for four wives and 27 kids?
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:01/01/2007 02:56:15 AM MST
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - A real estate ad for a recently abandoned home
at the Utah-Arizona state line might read something like this:
3 level. 8 bd/8 ba. New carpet, paint. Custom closets, granite
window sills. Jacuzzi tubs. 2 kitchens, one per wife. Unfinished bsmt.
Fruit rm. Rose garden, wood/coal shed, horse corral, coop. 6 chickens.
LOTS of privacy.
Sound attractive? How about this one: A 19-bedroom, 23-bathroom
mansion in Hildale with three kitchens, one stocked with
commercial-grade equipment. The bathrooms have oversized or Jacuzzi
tubs. The living room is large enough to accommodate an orchestra,
maybe two.
Both homes, last occupied by relatives of polygamous sect leader
Warren S. Jeffs, are among a dozen residences recently dumped by the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
And Bruce R. Wisan, who is running a property trust set up by the
sect, is not sure what he'll do with either one. The growing stockpile
of homes is the latest twist in the standoff between the FLDS and
Wisan, who has managed the trust since May 2005. A Utah court placed
Wisan over the trust, which holds virtually all land and homes in the
twin towns, to protect its assets from litigation targeting the church
and its leaders.
But the FLDS have paid little heed to Wisan since the takeover.
They've been no-shows at three town meetings he set up to share his
plans for the trust.
Last year, none of the FLDS faithful paid property taxes on homes
they occupy until demand notices threatening eviction were tacked to
their doors.
Wisan is reviving that door-to-door campaign again this year. So
far, only half of the $602,000 that was due Nov. 1 to Mohave County
has been paid. Wisan has six eviction notices ready to send out next
week.
More empty homes - and no one to pay taxes on them - may just add
to Wisan's quandary.
He has allowed a dozen or so ex-FLDS members ousted by Jeffs to
reclaim homes they proved an interest in or that they built.
But these?
"I don't have any families out there that I'm aware of that would
be able to handle that kind of a house," he said. The 19-bedroom home
housed a husband, four wives and 27 children.
Wisan is not just talking family size, however.
There are taxes to be paid and, without a viable claim to a home,
Wisan will expect interested parties to pay "some kind of fair market
value." Wisan also has proposed residents pay for property deeds to
help cover costs of running the trust; he initially suggested $20,000
but now says the fee will be much lower.
Meanwhile, Wisan is trying to stay positive - and hoping people
plan to stay put.
"I am not overly concerned with what we have right now, but if
every week I get three or four or five houses then, yeah, I'll be
concerned and have to take a different approach in terms of what I'm
doing," Wisan said. "We don't have that many requests that if I get 75
empty homes that I'll be able to fill them all. I'd have to go to Plan
B."
That is, try to pitch the properties to outsiders who are not
trust beneficiaries. Would there be any takers?
The FLDS are an insular group who even avoid contact with family
members cast out of the faith, which means they aren't likely to be
the friendliest of neighbors.
And there is this: A few of the homes given over to Wisan are
definitely fixer-uppers.
Across the street from the deluxe home listed above is a pioneer
home vacated months ago. It looks OK from the outside but time,
neglect and vandals have taken a toll.
It has a fairly standard setup: two kitchens, two living rooms,
eight bedrooms and three bathrooms.
"This is at least a three-wife home," said Isaac Wyler, an ex-FLDS
member who works for Wisan, as he wandered from room to room taking
inventory.
Broken glass, sheetrock and red dirt litters the basement rooms.
Upstairs, children's scribbles are visible where wallpaper has peeled
away. In one room, vandals have hacked right through a sheetrock wall
to expose the adjacent bathroom. Taped to a mirrored closet door in
the same room is a paper that says, "Keep Sweet No Matter What. It Is
a Matter of Life or Death" - a favorite saying of former FLDS leader
Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father.
On Field Avenue in Hildale there is another vacant seven-bedroom,
six-bathroom home that could be a tough sell for Wisan. Man-sized,
soon-to-be tumbleweeds have taken over the front yard and a cat has
had its way inside the home, leaving piles of feathers everywhere.
There is the usual detritus left behind when people move: pieces
from a children's puzzle, a Sampson the Sheepdog book and old, never
opened bank statements. But there are some surprises, too.
One kitchen has been stripped of every appliance and all the
cabinets. Yet, an upstairs bathroom opens to a sparkling clean
two-person Jacuzzi tub, which looks almost ready for water.
Words written with black marker on the door mirror ask: "Did you
think to pray today?"
brooke@sltrib.com
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Longevity and family size
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10875-large-families-linked-to-reduced-parents-lifespan.html
Large families linked to reduced parents' lifespan
10:00 03 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi
Parents of large families face a modest increase in the risk of death
compared to those with only a few children, a study of couples married
in the 1800s suggests. And contrary to previous research, the new
report hints that rearing many children can take its toll on fathers,
as well as mothers.
Demographer Ken Smith at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US,
and Dustin Penn, at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, mined the
extensive genealogical records kept by the Mormons in the state. The
researchers analysed data from 21,000 couples married in Utah between
1860 and 1895.
Even after adjusting for a woman's age, they found that mothers who
bore more children had shorter lives. For example, more than 5% of
women died within a year of giving birth to any child after their
eleventh. By comparison, about 1% of women died in the year following
the birth of their first, second or third child.
Smith explains that pregnancy can severely deplete the nutrients in a
woman's body, including calcium, and reduce her resistance to
infection. Because of the hardships of the time, these factors might
have put the mothers at greater risk of deadly disease, he speculates.
Previous studies have also suggested that the stress of caring for ill
children can speed up the ageing of mothers' cells (see Chromosomes
aged 10 years by stress).
Widower risk
The analysis also revealed that fathers with more children also had a
shorter lifespan. About 3% of men died within the year following the
birth of any child after their eleventh. On the other hand, less than
1% of men died in the year following the birth of one of their first
three children, even after accounting for their younger age.
The researchers estimate that parents with 12 or more children might
live a year or two less than their counterparts with small families.
Smith notes that the settlers of the Western frontier faced many
hardships in the mid- to late-1800s, including uncertain and limited
food supplies.
"It's a no-brainer – if you are impoverished and have a lot of kids to
feed you're at a disadvantage," says Leonid Gavrilov at the University
of Chicago, US.
Historical value
Gavrilov says that bearing numerous children can perhaps take its toll
on a woman's body even today. But he doubts whether current data would
support a link between large families and reduced paternal lifespan:
"If Bill Gates had 12 children it wouldn't decrease his life
expectancy."
"This is an important study for historical perspective but you cannot
really say anything about modern population because things are so
different in modern times," Gavrilov says.
Smith notes that many parents today opt to have fewer children and to
devote greater resources to each child. "Today there is more of an
emphasis on quality than quantity," Smith notes.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI:
10.1073/pnas.0609301103)
Monday, January 01, 2007
Last Church Patriarch almost 100
Century Mark: Church leader with historic position nears 100th birthday
http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_4918642
Great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith approaches his centennial with a
full schedule, but a touch of disappointment that the position will
die with him
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:12/30/2006 10:36:57 AM MST
Posted: 6:12 AM- Just 10 days shy of his 100th birthday, Eldred G.
Smith is the oldest living and longest-serving LDS general authority -
and that includes 96-year-old President Gordon B. Hinckley, who joined
the leadership ranks a decade after Smith.
Smith served for 32 years as the LDS Church's "presiding
patriarch," endorsed by members as "a prophet, seer and revelator" on
par with the church president and 12 apostles. The position was
established in 1833 by church founder Joseph Smith, who installed his
father as its first occupant and then his brother, Hyrum. Since then,
the office of presiding patriarch, charged with giving "patriarchal
blessings" to all adult and teen members, passed down the generations
to various male descendants in the Smith family.
By 1979, LDS leaders determined the church no longer needed a
presiding patriarch because every stake (a group of congregations,
like a diocese) had its own. They also had grown uncomfortable with
the notion of lineal descent. So they made Smith an emeritus general
authority, but allowed him to continue to provide the blessings, each
one a personalized spiritual road map, spelling out possibilities such
as being married in the temple, going on a mission, being a mother or
ministering to the poor.
To this day, Smith receives a "living allowance," maintains an
office, has a designated parking place, receives his biannual temple
recommend directly from Hinckley and joins other top leaders in the
temple on the first Thursday of every month for a special service. He
gives blessings to any eager Mormon recommended by local leaders. And
he travels around showing several church artifacts - including the
clothing his ancestor Hyrum Smith was wearing when he was murdered in
1844 with his brother Joseph in Carthage Jail - to groups of
Latter-day Saints.
Yet few Mormons know of Eldred Smith or his previously prominent
position. He is largely invisible to the members; even his
second-floor office in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown
Salt Lake City is hard to find. It's beyond the wooden doors, down a
hallway and past a bank of cubicles.
Smith doesn't mind the lack of attention on him, he says, and
shrugs off the milestone as "not much different than turning 60."
But he is disappointed that the office of presiding patriarch will
die with him.
"I accept these changes," he told Mormon authorities in 1979, "but
I don't like them."
Waiting for the job: From earliest childhood, Eldred Smith knew
the position of patriarch was his spiritual destiny. He was the oldest
son of Hyrum Gee Smith, the fifth Smith in a line of patriarchs. Hyrum
Smith was training to be a dentist in California when he got the call
that John Smith, his grandfather, had died and the church needed him
to return to Utah for the full-time position. Leaders offered no
reason for skipping over Hyrum Smith's father.
Hyrum Smith took to the calling with gusto, overseeing a Quorum of
Patriarchs who sought advice and training for the mystical calling. He
taught his son Eldred to expect the position.
When Hyrum Smith died, Eldred Smith was only 25, not married and
without a college degree. Then-LDS President Heber J. Grant felt he
was not ready for the position, so the office went vacant.
It was 1932, the depths of the Depression, and Eldred Smith had
his mother and seven siblings to care for. Within a year, he married
Jeanne Ness and they soon began a family. Thus he was forced to take
any job he could find. He carried 200-pound blocks of ice on his back
for Hygeia Ice Co. to houses. He scraped, cleaned and painted the
entire ceiling of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, a job for which his
smaller frame and weight were more suited. He painted and hung
wallpaper for Bennett Glass & Paint; he worked at, and owned, gas
stations and repaired cars.
During World War II, Smith worked as an engineer in Oak Ridge,
Tenn., at a company that was enriching uranium for use in the atomic
bomb.
Finally, in 1947, he was called back to Utah to become the
church's presiding patriarch.
"There is no way to prepare for it, no instructions, no counsel,"
Smith said this week. "When I was first ordained, I went into my
office, closed the door and didn't come out for two weeks. Then a
young man came to the door asking for a blessing and so I gave it to
him."
How did he know what to do?
"You just say what comes to you," he says.
Smith was soon traveling the world giving patriarchal blessings.
While in Australia in 1966, for example, he gave 139 blessing in 16
days. He had five full-time secretaries to type what he dictated. He
always spoke in English, but if the recipients spoke another language,
he would send the transcripts to the LDS Church offices for
translation. To date, he's given more than 19,000 blessings.
Gary Smith, Eldred Smith's oldest son, sees his father as a
practical man, an engineer, given to tinkering with clocks and fixing
things around the house. He recalls sitting in the room as a teen
while his father intoned the words of a patriarchal blessing for
strangers.
"I thought, 'Who is this man?' as he was talking. He was
articulate, profound and incisive," says Gary Smith, co-author with
Irene Bates of Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch.
"The minute he finished [the blessing], it was my dad again."
It was a spiritual experience for the son, who felt divine power
in the moment.
"My mother taught me that I should never expect the office, but
live worthy of it," Gary Smith says. "That's what I've done."
But it will never be his.
A new kind of calling: Though he stopped traveling abroad and lost
some of his secretaries, Eldred Smith added a new dimension to his
work after 1979. He began to take the artifacts he had inherited from
his Smith ancestors on the road. He and his wife, Hortense (whom he
married two years after Jeanne died in 1977), have given more than
1,000 fireside chats in such cities as Stockholm, Tucson, Ariz.,
Honolulu and New York.
Smith is descended from Hyrum Smith, brother of Joseph Smith.
After Hyrum Smith was killed, his widow, Mary Fielding Smith, brought
the artifacts to Utah. They were passed down, by tradition, through
the eldest-son line until Eldred Smith inherited them. After he dies,
they will go to Gary Smith.
The Smiths display Hyrum Smith's bloodied clothes to help people
get a sense of how big a man he was - about 6 foot 3 inches. They hold
up the watch Hyrum had in his pocket that was shattered by a bullet
and show the box that Joseph Smith said he used to hold the gold
plates, which contained the writings Smith said he translated into the
Book of Mormon.
The LDS Church does not finance these presentations, and the
Smiths accept no payment.
"This undertaking is physically challenging, but invigorating,"
Gary Smith says. "My father has reinvented his service parameters in a
way that possibly blesses as many or more than if he had remained as
an openly recognized general authority."
And Patriarch Smith continues to give blessings to anyone who asks.
"Very few members know that, and, indeed, fewer and fewer members
remember or ever knew there ever was such a position as churchwide
patriarch," says Gary Smith, who lives in Southern California. "The
only open acknowledgment of his current status is the sign on the
second floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building as you come out of
the elevator."
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