A case for Cowdery’s Rod as the “gift” of D&C 6

Within a few weeks of meeting Joseph Smith,
&C 6 & 8 were received for Oliver Cowdery

This week's Gospel Doctrine lesson (#5, "This Is the Spirit of Revelation") covers D&C 6,8 and 9 which discuss Oliver Cowdery and revelation.

Both sections 6 and 8 each discuss two gifts regarding Oliver Cowdery. Those who have compared D&C 8 with the earlier versions of that revelation (such as in the Book of Commandments) are aware that one of the gifts  is a revelatory rod owned by Oliver Cowdery. In this post, I'll provide textual evidence that the first gift mentioned in D&C 6, is the same as the gift of the rod described in earlier versions of D&C 8.*

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Marriott, Boy Scouts and gay rights

Excerpts of Mormon-founded Marriott joins push against anti-gay marriage law, L.A. Times

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... One of the nation's leading gay-rights advocacy groups, the Human Rights Campaign, has formed a coalition of major companies calling for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.  

One of the first companies to join the effort was Marriott International Inc., which was founded by a devout Mormon, John Willard Marriott...  

"We are proud of our longstanding commitment to diversity, inclusion and equal treatment of all our employees within our benefits programs. ... Joining the business coalition for DOMA repeal affirms that commitment." ...

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Excerpts of Boy Scouts may mirror Mormon policy and let in gays, Salt Lake Tribune

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The Boy Scouts of America soon may allow openly gay members and leaders in its ranks, a move that could have a dramatic impact on the group's century-old relationship with its top sponsor: the Utah-based LDS Church.

General Young Women's leader: "No need to lobby for [women's] rights"

Excerpts of Remark stirs controversy on LDS women's rights and roles, Kim Johnson, abc4.com

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During the January 15th Devotional Address, Elaine Dalton said, "you will understand your roles and your responsibilities and thus will see no need to lobby for rights."

Sweet potato genome suggests pre-columbian Polynesian invovement

Clues to Prehistoric Human Exploration Found in Sweet Potato Genome, by Lizzie Wade, Science Mag

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Europeans raced across oceans and continents during the Age of Exploration in search of territory and riches. But when they reached the South Pacific, they found they had been beaten there by a more humble traveler: the sweet potato. Now, a new study suggests that the plant's genetics may be the key to unraveling another great age of exploration, one that predated European expansion by several hundred years and remains an anthropological enigma.

Ensign magazine discusses changes to revelations

Excerpts of "Great and Marvelous Are the Revelations of God," Gerrit Dirkmaat, Ensign Magazine

--The ongoing Joseph Smith Papers Project at the Church History Library has highlighted the essential role that Joseph Smith's revelations played in building the faith of early members of the Church. They understood that the process of revelation was not static and that the Lord sometimes commanded Joseph to revise, update, or correct the written revelations.

Study: Utah ranks last in women attending college

Excerpts of Utah's higher-education gender gap grows, by Brian Maffly, Salt Lake Tribune
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UVU study • Percentage of women attending postsecondary institutions trails nation.

Utah women marry younger, have children sooner and have more of them than their peers in all other states. This demographic quirk is often cited as the reason women don't attend college at the same rate as men, a growing cause of concern among higher-education leaders.

A Selected Chronology of Lorenzo Snow

The Priesthood / Relief Society manual Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow will be studied by Latter-day Saint men and women in 2013. In conjunction, LDS-Church-History will present a in-depth chronology of the life of Lorenzo Snow.

2013 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association

... The Mormon Transhumanist Association, ... will be held on 5 April 2013 from 9am to 5pm in Salt Lake City, Utah. Speakers will address the themes of Mormonism, Transhumanism and Transfigurism, with particular attention to topics at the intersection of technology, spirituality, science and religion. ...

The Cross in Mormon History

Amelia Folsom Young (Briaham Young's

 polygamous wife). Photograph from Utah
State Historical Society Classified Photo
Collection, no. 14195

Excerpts of  Reed, "Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo" (reviewed by Boyd J. Petersen) 
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Title: Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo
Author: Michael G. Reed

... As Robert Rees has argued, one of the "very large stumbling blocks" keeping other Christians from accepting Mormons as Christian is our rejection of the central symbol of Christianity: the cross. [1] The symbol is not found on Mormon places of worship, on LDS hymnals or scripture, or on jewelry worn by members of the Church. In fact it is often viewed with suspicion, as a sign of apostasy.

... [F]or the average Mormon, LDS antipathy to the cross may seem doctrinal, perhaps foundational, dating back to teachings from Joseph Smith. However, as Michael Reed aptly demonstrates ... this history is much more recent and quite complex. ...

Mormon Women "Pants Day" at church

Excerpts of Mormon 'Pants Day' — debate heats up as women prepare to dress down by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune 

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Modern Mormon women who see the skirts-only convention at LDS chapels to be evidence of outdated and discouraging stereotypes ...  proposed the "Wear Pants to Church Day " and posted an announcement on Facebook. The event is intended as the first act of All Enlist, a group dedicated to gender equality in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"We do not seek to eradicate the differences between women and men, but we do want the LDS Church to acknowledge the similarities," the group's mission statement says. "We believe that much of the cultural, structural, and even doctrinal inequality that persists in the LDS Church today stems from the church's reliance on — and enforcement of — rigid gender roles that bear no relationship to reality ."

Within hours, the page had hundreds of commitments to participate, and even more hostile comments.

Mormon Church launches website on homosexuality

Excerpts of New Mormon church website touts softer tone on gays by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune

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The LDS Church is not changing its tune about homosexuality, but it has launched a new website to alter the tone.

The site —called "Love One Another: A Discussion on Same Sex Attraction" — includes video clips of Mormon leaders as well as gay members and their families promoting compassion and understanding toward homosexuals. It also urges gay Mormons to stick with the faith.

Mormon Church History: 1847

1847 marks an important period in the history of the LDS Church. The year opens with Mormons wintering in the temporary settlement Winter Quarters on the Nebraska / Iowa boarder. By mid-summer, Brigham Young would found an isolated community near the Great Salt Lake in present day Utah.

Over the next several months, Mormon-Church-History will chronicle each day of 1847, gradually traversing through the entire year.  Information posted will include journal entries, meeting minutes, biographical information and more.

See here for more info.

Excerpts from  January 1st, 1847
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Mormons sit on sidelines in anti-gay marriage efforts

Excerpts of Where Have All the Mormons Gone In the Fight for Marriage Equality? by gay activist & former Mormon Fred Karger, Huffington Post

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012 will go down in history in our political fight for LGBT rights. In Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington voters stood up to the usual campaigns and a majority in each state voted for the freedom to marry for the very first time. Before last Tuesday we had lost 33 marriage votes in a row and most by very lopsided margins.

Since the first gay marriage vote in Hawaii in 1998 we have always been vastly outspent by our opponents in every election until we finally evened the score in fundraising after 10 years and 29 losses on California's Proposition 8. We even outraised our opponents $44 million to $40 million. Our narrow defeat on Prop 8 was the turning point in our civil rights movement.

Mormon Church Busted

Somethings don't change -- a look back at politics, this week in Mormon History

"A bad dose of politics is like the measles": A sampling of politics in LDS history by Clair Barrus, Worlds Without End
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"Great Excitement [today] over the Election for a Presidet of the United States." – President Wilford Woodruff

"… a bad dose of politics was like the measles if it set in on a man it turned his hide yellow and made him cross-eyed." — President Heber J. Grant

We've just completed a tense election season. Political parties have been heavily divided and emotions high at the end of a lengthy campaign. But for Latter-day Saints, stakes have been even higher at the prospect of a Mormon president.

I've looked through some items that occurred this week in Mormon history, and found much in common with today's politics.

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Gay marriage rights see significant gains in election

Excerpts of My Gay Agenda by Jana Riess, Flunking Sainthood

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Tuesday's election was historic ... because it showed that our nation has crossed a threshold in accepting LGBTQ people as equals.... Consider the results:

• Voters approved of same-sex marriage in Maryland, Washington, and Maine. Maine had rejected it just a few years ago.
• Minnesota voters said no to a measure that would have amended its state constitution to define "marriage" as heterosexual unions between a man and a woman. Voters in 30 states had approved such measures in previous elections, making it possible for conservative activists to claim that every time such a measure had been sent directly to the American people, the American people had voted down gay marriage. That's not the case any more.
• In neighboring Wisconsin, a lesbian, Tammy Baldwin, became the nation's first openly gay Senator. Moreover, as one commentator put it, "her sexual orientation was largely a non-issue in the race." 
• In Iowa, voters did not unseat a judge who had been part of the seven-member state Supreme Court that had unanimously upheld same-sex marriage in 2007. According to the New York Times, two other judges who had found in favor of gay marriage had been kicked off the bench by angry Iowa conservatives in 2010. This year's election was a different story.
• Voters re-elected for president a man who announced earlier this year that he had changed his mind about same-sex marriage, and that he now supports full marriage equality.

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End of Mormon moment & LDS statement on the election

Excerpts of 'Mormon moment' ends with a loss — but his religion still won, Salt Lake Tribute, Peggy Fletcher Stack
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Mormons in Utah and across the nation were thrilled by the prospect that one of their own might occupy the highest office in the land.

Mitt Romney came closer to doing that than any other Latter-day Saint since that once-beleaguered brand of Christianity burst onto the American scene in 1830.

"For many Latter-day Saints, it was a surprise that a Mormon candidate was able to make it as far as Mitt," said Stuart Reid, a Mormon and a Republican state senator from Ogden. "He's done more than any single person in recent church history to share with the general public what a Mormon is, putting up a very positive image about Mormons and creating interest in our faith that was unprecedented."

Despite the outcome, Mormonism came out a winner, said Philip Barlow, chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University.

Mormons silent on state gay marriage referendums

Excerpts of Mormons silent on state gay marriage referendums by Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post staff
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WASHINGTON - Maryland activists working to overturn same-sex marriage have had to get used to one surprising absence from their religious coalition: Mormons.

Wealth redistribution, taxes, government, and the poor in Winter Quarters

Excerpts of Wealth redistribution, taxes, government, and the poor in Winter Quarters, by Clair Barrus, Worlds Without End

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In our current election season, many issues have been debated about the economy, including wealth redistribution, social safety nets, economic recovery, the size of government, the poor and self-sufficiency. Brigham Young was faced with these same issues when building a winter settlement in Iowa as the Mormon pioneers headed west. ... Young successfully implemented a government structure that oversaw the development of an economy that produced a city.

Winter Quarters, Christensen

Young divided the settlement into wards and called 22 Bishops to oversee the needs of the people. Hosea Stout recorded Brigham Young's proposition to the high council to address the situation.

"President B. Young … taught the council … to lay plans to take care of the poor & see that the Bishops also did the same and cause the poor to be put in a way to sustain themselves and not to make the rich hand out all they have." [2]

The next day, the topic was revisited. Stout recorded:

"President Young moved that every able bodied man be taxed every tenth day to be devoted to geting [sic] wood and doing such other thing as is necessary for the poor and that it be paid in advance & that the Bishops … notify the people to commence next day to work out this tithing which was agreed to by the council[.] The men who did not work out his tithing is to pay an equivalent" [3]

Givens: To the doubter

Excerpts of Letter to a doubter (A Fireside Presentation to the Single Adult Stake, Palo Alto, CA on 14 October 2012)  by Teryl Givens

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I understand that some doubts have arisen in your mind. I don't know for sure what they are, but I imagine they are ones I have heard before. Probably some of them I have entertained in my own mind. And perhaps some of them I still harbor myself. I am not going to respond to them in the ways that you may have anticipated. Oh, I will say a few things about why many doubts felt by the previously faithful and faith-filled are ill-founded and misplaced. The result of poor teaching, naïve assumptions, cultural pressures and outright false doctrines. But my main purpose in writing this letter is not to resolve the uncertainties and perplexities in your mind. I want rather to endow them with the dignity and seriousness they deserve. And even to celebrate them. That may sound perverse, but I hope to show you it is not.

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Quinn: When Mormons Go to Washington

October 15, 2012

When Mormons Go to Washington

Because of the skepticism Mitt RomneyBs Mormon beliefs have caused voters, the G.O.P. nominee has likened himself to J.F.K., the U.S.Bs only Catholic president. But the cozy relationship between the L.D.S. Church and Mormon politicians, particularly Republicans, would make even the Pope blush.

By Michael Quinn

For not yielding to the wishes of the L.D.S. Church, in 1965, Mormon Congressman Kenneth W. Dyal said he received Babuse, threats, blackmail and vicious attacks on my integrity from corporations, church members and their leaders.B It was perhaps for this reason that resisting the Church was not common.

Mitt Romney is the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (L.D.S.) to be nominated by one of the two major parties as a candidate for the U.S. presidency. The ChurchBs adherents are nicknamed Mormons, because their founding Bprophet,B Joseph Smith Jr., published the Book of Mormon in 1830 as GodBs new revelation, a volume of BHoly Scripture,B equal to the Bible in importance. Today the L.D.S. Church has more than 14 million members in 138 countries, and 15 members of the U.S. Congress are Mormons.