Author Archive

I have been researching Reynolds v. United States (1879), the Supreme Court’s first polygamy case, on and off for several years.  For those who are interested, my paper on the topic is now available for download at SSRN.  Reynolds is an important case in American constitutional history, because was the first time the U.S.... Read More »

The language of turning the other cheek and Christian ethics in general can really get quite nasty. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

In 1996, the Catholic scholar Massimo Introvigne published an article entitled “The Book of Mormon Wars: A Non-Mormon Perspective.” He wrote: 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

I recently went through every version of the Church Handbook of Instructions, looking at what they have to say about the operation of church courts and how it has changed over time. 1 people like this post.Like  Read More »

This morning I went running with my dog.  0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

A guest post from Ben Spackman: 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

My own politics ocillate between liberalism (in the grand historical sense) and conservatism. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Truman Madsen died earlier today.  For those who don’t know, Madsen was a long-time professor of philosophy at BYU.  His intellectual influence, I think, came in two forms.  First, he produced a series of popular lectures on Joseph Smith and other gospel topics.  These were not academically rigorous productions, but I think that they... Read More »

So Prop 8 has been upheld by the California Supreme Court, but it is largely Pyrrhic victory for Prop 8. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Here is an updated schedule for BYU’s upcoming conference on Sacred Space on June 3rd.  This looks a really great line up if you are in Provo. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

One of my favorite hymns is not in the hymn book. No, it’s not “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” although that is one of my favorites as well. Rather, I am talking about the hymn “Jerusalem,” one of the great anthems of the Church of England when it gets low-churchy enough to sing... Read More »

A conference announcement that makes me wish I were closer to Utah: 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Today I gave a presentation to the William & Mary chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Society on “Mormons as Minorities” in which I discuss some of my research on Mormon legal and political history (and other stuff). If you are interested, you can listen to the presentation here. 0 people like this... Read More »

For those who are interested in Mormon legal history, my article “Preaching to the Court House and Judging in the Temple” was just published in the most recent issue of the BYU Law Review. (You can download a copy of the article here.) This article provides my own take on the rise... Read More »

A while ago I was reading some sermons from the 1880s in the Journal of Discourses.  The 1880s, of course, is the decade when the anti-polygamy crusades were at their most intense.  Thousands of Mormons were incarcerated, the Brethren were in hiding from the law much of the time, and every time you turned... Read More »

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This looks like the sort of conference that makes me sad at times that I don’t live in Utah: 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

A few weeks ago my father retired after spending three decades working for the Church Historical Department.  I’m no doubt guilty of an excess of filial piety, but I think that the Church and Kingdom are better for the work that he did.  0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

There are a number of Mormon pamphlets and books that have achieved a kind of semi-canonical status within Mormon studies. Everyone agrees, for example, that Parley P. Pratt’s Key to the Science of Theology or John Taylor’s Mediation and Atonement are key texts for understanding nineteenth Mormon thought. If any evidence is needed, both... Read More »

Do you know of any good source dealing with Mormon attitudes toward and/or involvement in the Spanish-American War? Please give me your ideas in the comments. Thanks! 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Of late I have been thinking of late about how to read Mormon scriptures.  In particular, I have been working on some passages in the Book of Mormon on legal interpretation and thinking about how best to approach these sections.  By and large, it seems to me that there have been three basic models of how... Read More »

While I don’t really have a television, there are a couple of shows that I regularlly watch through Netflix or hulu.com.  Among them is The Office.  I actually think that some of C.S. Lewis’s thoughts on the nature of love help to make sense of Michael Scott.  0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Continuing part 1 , part 2, and part 3. Nephi’s response to his brothers directly attacks their understanding of Moses’s significance. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Yesterday’s discussion got me thinking about debt, in particular the political uses of debt.  Here, I think that the experience of the American Revolution and the failure of the Confederacy may have something to tell us about Mormon history. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Continuing part 1 and part 2. Laman and Lemuel offer up their gloss on the story of Moses in verse 22 and in so doing model a particular type of scriptural and legal interpretation.  They say: And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept... Read More »

Laman and Lemuel make their appearance in chapter 17 in verse 17, where they say: 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »

Over the holidays I discovered the poetry of Carol Lynn Pearson, which I have been enjoying. At times she spills over into the trite or saccharine, but on the whole I like it. There is nothing agonistic about it, which is the reason that Terryl Givens doesn’t much care for it. I think that... Read More »

This is the first of a series of posts in which I will be offering some commentary on 1 Nephi 17. Why that particular chapter you ask? The answer is that I believe that chapter 17 is setting forth a method of scriptural interpretation that proved to be very important both for the Book... Read More »

I often find walking in nature a spiritual experience, for want of a better term. Growing up, I think that I found my testimony in part by tramping through the Wasatch Mountains and watching thunder storms roll across the Great Salt Lake. Today, I am likely to have real moments of reverence... Read More »

It’s an intellectual banality to point out that how one thinks of the present structures how one thinks about the past. The cliché, however, is useful when thinking about Mormon history. 0 people like this post.Like  Read More »