Nielsen, Chad. “Zera Pulsipher and the Regulation of Plural Marriage” Journal of Mormon History 51, no. 3 (2025): 115-148.
Gemini-created abstract:
This article examines the evolution of how plural marriage was regulated and controlled within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, using the 1862 disciplinary trial of Zerah Pulsipher as a key case study. Pulsipher, one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy, was disciplined for performing a plural marriage for William Bailey without proper authorization.
The author argues that this trial illustrates a significant shift in the approval process for plural marriages under Brigham Young. Initially, following the precedent set by Joseph Smith, the authority to approve such unions was tightly held by the president of the church. However, the surge in plural marriages during the Mormon Reformation of 1856-1857 overwhelmed President Young’s office, necessitating a change. This led to a greater reliance on local leaders, such as bishops and stake presidents, to act as gatekeepers, vetting candidates before they sought final presidential approval.
The Pulsipher case highlights this transition, demonstrating that by the early 1860s, bypassing local leadership was considered a serious offense. The article traces this decentralization further, showing how it continued through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly during the federal anti-polygamy crusade and the post-Manifesto era, where authority was sometimes delegated to specific individuals to ensure plausible deniability for the church president. Ultimately, the Pulsipher incident serves as a window into the changing dynamics of ecclesiastical authority and the practical adjustments required to manage the controversial practice of polygamy.
Freeman, Quaid. “Heeding Christ’s Charge to Protect Children: Applying Vicarious Liability for Mormon Clergy Abuse.” UC Davis Bus. LJ 25 (2025): 135.
Gemini created abstract:
This article argues for holding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Mormon Church”) vicariously liable for sexual abuse perpetrated by its bishops. Historically, courts have dismissed such claims, viewing molestation as outside a clergy member’s scope of employment. This Note contends that the specific duties of Mormon bishops, such as conducting private “worthiness interviews” which often involve sexually explicit questioning, create a scenario where abuse is a foreseeable result of church-mandated practices.
The author asserts that the process of grooming is inherent in the official duties of a bishop, who is directed to build trust and meet individually with parishioners. This article also examines the aided-in-agency doctrine, arguing that the substantial authority given to bishops—who are believed to act as judges with influence over a member’s eternal salvation—provides a powerful tool for perpetrating abuse.
The Note further argues that First Amendment defenses, such as the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, should not bar these claims. Applying neutral principles of tort law to a religious organization does not constitute excessive government entanglement, particularly when the church itself condemns the abusive acts. The article concludes by urging courts to expand the definition of “scope of employment” to include clergy grooming and for states to broaden aided-in-agency liability to better protect victims and hold religious institutions accountable.
Niebergall, Chelsee M. “Beyond the Priesthood: Patriarchy, Faith, and the Feminist Movement with the LDS Church.” CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal 17, no. 1 (2025): 12.
Gemini created abstract:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) maintains a prominent global presence, yet its leadership significantly lacks gender diversity, particularly concerning the priesthood, which is exclusively held by men. This paper examines the institutionalized patriarchy within the LDS Church, arguing that it perpetuates gender inequality through its doctrinal teachings, hierarchical structures, and social practices. Historically, early church practices show women exercising more authority than they do today, with instances of women giving blessings of healing, a practice now restricted to male priesthood holders. However, the church’s stance has become more rigid over time, reinforced by documents like “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” which assigns distinct, often unequal, roles to men and women within the family unit.
Within the church’s hierarchical structure, women’s leadership opportunities are primarily limited to the Relief Society, an organization subordinate to male priesthood authority. Despite efforts by Mormon feminist movements like Exponent II and Ordain Women advocating for change, their initiatives have largely been met with resistance, and their proponents have even faced excommunication. While the church made a significant shift in 1978 by lifting racial restrictions on the priesthood, a similar reinterpretation for female ordination has not occurred, despite arguments that societal norms have changed. The paper concludes that the deeply entrenched patriarchal hierarchy within LDS doctrine and culture makes the prospect of female ordination a distant reality, despite viable frameworks for change offered by scholars.
Walden, Barbara B. “Power of Place: Reflections on the Continuing Story of the Kirtland Temple.” Journal of Mormon History 51, no. 3 (2025): 1-14.
This paper explores the previously underexplored context surrounding Madison M. Scott’s request for testimony from Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) leaders regarding Joseph Smith’s involvement with polygamy1. Madison M. Scott, a non-Mormon from Scottsville, Indiana, sought this information to counter the influence of Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) missionaries, including his own family members, who denied Joseph Smith’s practice of plural marriage.
The article reveals that Scott’s request, prompted by recent RLDS missionary activity in his community and the circulation of anti-polygamy tracts, created an “unlikely alliance” between himself and LDS leaders against a perceived common enemy. William Clayton, Joseph Smith’s scribe for the 1843 polygamy revelation, provided a detailed letter to Scott in 1871, vehemently defending Joseph Smith’s initiation and practice of polygamy and expressing frustration with the Prophet’s sons who denied their father’s involvement. This correspondence, along with an earlier reply from Brigham Young’s secretary, David McKenzie, aimed to establish the historical truth of Joseph Smith’s polygamous practices. Ultimately, this exchange is presented as a significant part of the larger 19th-century conflict between the LDS and RLDS churches over the historical memory of Joseph Smith and the origins of polygamy.
Davis, Ryan A. “Enos Encoded: Narrative Structure in the Small Plates.” Dialogue A Journal of Mormon Thought 58, no. 2 (2025): 79-108.
Gemini created abstract:
This article examines the narrative structure of the small plates of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, focusing particularly on the book of Enos, to reveal a “divine architecture” that develops “latent images of Christ.” The author proposes a theological reading based on the hypothetical premise that Enos provides the narrative “sense of an ending” for the small plates, as suggested by Jarom and Abinadom’s statements of sufficiency.
Using narratological tools, the paper argues that Enos’s experience configures the small plates to highlight a transformative ethos, aiming not only to convince readers of Jesus as the Christ but also to facilitate their personal transformation through a relationship with Him3. The analysis delves into the hermeneutic code in 1 Nephi, showing how the text traces the Nephites’ emerging awareness of the mysterious figure seen by Lehi as the Messiah, ultimately identified as Christ. This is contrasted with the proairetic code prevalent in Enos, where repeated prayers and immediate resolutions drive the narrative and emphasize a “wrestle before God”.
The article reinterprets Enos’s “wrestle” as a ritualistic Christian sacrifice of the soul, distinct from Old Testament sacrificial practices and their associated guilt. This re-framing has implications for understanding Enos’s relationship with God, the affirmation of individual identity in Christian sacrifice, and the nature of sin remission as a preparatory act for a more intimate relationship with God rather than solely a response to specific transgressions. The conclusion posits that the interplay between these narrative codes couples knowledge with action, underscoring the transformative purpose embedded within the very structure of the small plates.
This essay challenges the “tight control” theory of the Book of Mormon’s translation, which posits that Joseph Smith merely dictated a pre-existing English text. It argues that evidence, often used to support this theory, instead suggests Joseph Smith’s active participation as an “actual translator”1.
The article questions the foundational assumptions of Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack’s research by arguing that their interpretive lenses are incomplete. It proposes that Joseph Smith’s personal linguistic system, or “idiolect,” and his “spiritual register” were central to the Book of Mormon’s English rendition. The author contends that certain “nonstandard grammatical constructions” and “archaic features” 4444, previously attributed to an Early Modern English source or considered “Hebrew-like” artifacts , can be explained as human errors, misapplications, or idiosyncratic usages stemming from Joseph Smith’s developing linguistic competence.
The essay provides examples of “if, and” conditional constructions and specific word usages like “depart” and “scatter” to illustrate how Joseph Smith’s “spontaneously drew on habituated formulaic language from multiple stories in the KJV, reconfiguring the phraseology in the moment of performance to express the ideas in a novel text, only to conflate the different formulas in an awkward manner”7. Furthermore, it highlights the accessibility of Early Modern English vocabulary and grammatical structures, particularly through popular works like John Bunyan’s The Holy War, in early nineteenth-century working-class families, suggesting Joseph Smith could have been exposed to such language.
Ultimately, the article concludes that the textual characteristics of the Book of Mormon “point ineluctably to Joseph himself as the source of the English rendition” 9, revealing a translator who was a non-native speaker of Early Modern English, prone to human error, and actively engaged in adapting existing linguistic patterns to new contexts10. This “loose control” perspective, the author argues, enhances understanding of Joseph Smith’s revelations and the Book of Mormon’s message11.
Gilman, Josh. “Environmental Stewardship and Confronting The Biodiversity Crisis.” Dialogue A Journal of Mormon Thought 58, no. 2 (2025): 187-195.
Gemini-created abstract:
This talk, delivered to the Döbling Ward in Vienna, Austria, explores environmental stewardship and the biodiversity crisis from a Latter-day Saint perspective. The author, a sustainability student, argues that the health of planet Earth, specifically its biodiversity, is vital to the long-term sustainability of the faith community, connecting it to spiritual well-being as evidenced by scripture, temple architecture, and personal spiritual experiences.
The talk defines biodiversity as the “variety and variability of life on Earth” and emphasizes its spiritual nature, suggesting that without all of God’s creations, Earth cannot fulfill its divine purpose. Temple ordinances and architecture are presented as highlighting the connection between the environment and spiritual progression. The author shares a personal spiritual journey where a hike in the Superstition Mountains, a place of intense biodiversity, provided peace and reinforced a belief in a higher spiritual power behind natural beauty.
The talk highlights the declining global biodiversity due to human activities like climate change and land use change, using the example of saguaro cactuses collapsing in Phoenix due to record heat waves. It cites a report estimating that 1 million species are threatened with extinction. Drawing parallels with other Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church’s encyclical “Laudato Si,” the author asserts a spiritual imperative for Latter-day Saints to address biodiversity loss, referencing teachings from Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse and President Russell M. Nelson on earthly stewardship. The talk concludes with a call to preserve all of God’s creatures, emphasizing the spiritual context provided by the plan of salvation for understanding humanity’s relationship with nature.
Skidmore, Samuel J., G. Tyler Lefevor, and James S. McGraw. “The Varying Effects of Religiousness on Well-Being for Latter-Day Saint Sexual Minorities.” Sexuality & Culture (2025): 1-19.
Although religiousness may promote stigma and discrimination toward sexual minorities (SM), at least some SMs report benefitting from their religiousness. It is unclear, however, both how and why religiousness promotes well-being among these SMs. The present study uses a sample of 403 Latter-day Saint SMs to assess how behavioral, psychological, and social components of religiousness affect various aspects of well-being. Path analyses revealed that psychological aspects of religiousness were positively related to positive emotions, engagement, relationships, and meaning, with the strongest association existing between religious commitment and meaning in life. In contrast, behavioral aspects of religiousness were negatively related to positive emotions and meaning, and social aspects of religiousness did not demonstrate any significant relationships with well-being. These findings provide evidence that religiousness may benefit Latter-day Saint SMs psychologically (particularly by enhancing a sense of meaning), whereas behaviorally it may hinder well-being.
Bowie, David, and Kjerste Christensen. “The LDS General Conference Recordings Corpus.” Journal of Language and Aging Research 3, no. 1 (2025): 76-90.
The LDS General Conference Recordings Corpus is an archive containing semi-extemporaneous sermons delivered by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with several individuals appearing repeatedly across decades. While not originally designed for linguistic research, the corpus offers an opportunity to observe phonological and phonetic variation and change across the adult lifespan. Its value for language and aging research lies in its temporal depth, consistency of genre, and the public prominence of its speakers, allowing for reliable biographical contextualization. Despite limitations such as lack of linguistic annotation, limited demographic diversity, and access constraints, the corpus has already supported studies of age-related phonological change and holds further potential for exploring lifespan trajectories. It serves as a compelling example of how found corpora can advance language and aging research.
Duffau, Céline, and Carter Charles. “Religious Experience and Memory Retrieval: A Memory Studies Reading of Joseph Smith’s “First Vision” Accounts.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2025): lfaf041.
Using as a model the primary accounts of the visionary experience of Joseph Smith (founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), this article argues that multiple narratives of the same experience, religious or not, reveal how the mind processes memory over time. To that end, the article points to parallels shown in the retrieval of the 9/11 events and mobilizes the disciplines of neuroscience, psychology, and history to explain memory processes and illustrate how decompartmentalization between academic disciplines provides a better understanding of those processes. Beyond Smith and religion, the article concludes with the proposition that one’s reaction toward a version of a retrieved memory is influenced more by a subjective interpretation of and rapport with events, experiences, or narratives than by an entirely rational and objective understanding of the inherently unstable nature of memory.
Rose, Anthony Edward, and Timothy B. Smith. “Christian Beliefs About Salvation: Measurement and Associations with Mental Health and Well-Being.” Religions 16, no. 6 (2025): 757.
Religious beliefs influence many behaviors and perspectives relevant to well-being and mental health. In Christianity, beliefs about how one attains salvation may be particularly relevant to psychology, but limited scholarship has considered cognitive aspects of religiosity. This study developed and evaluated a new measure of Beliefs about Salvation (BAS) that assesses affirmations of salvation (a) by God’s grace alone and (b) by God’s grace after human repentance/ordinances, as understood by different Christian denominations. We examined the association of the BAS with three measures of mental health and six measures of influences on religiosity. In a sample of 1556 predominantly members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Protestant Christians, which traditionally hold distinct views about the roles of divine grace and human works/ordinances necessary for salvation, the BAS data demonstrated evidence of reliability and validity in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with two subscales, faith and works. Neither BAS subscale was significantly associated with the other variables measured in this study, except for religious legalism, which was negatively correlated with faith and positively correlated with works. Additional analyses indicated that six measures of influences on religiosity were moderately associated with one another and tended to be more strongly associated with mental health than religious involvement, with spiritual transcendence being the most strongly correlated with well-being. Psychological research can benefit from evaluating multiple aspects of religiosity, including inquiry about the psychological influence of specific religious beliefs.
Stanley, Joseph A., and Jessica Shepherd. “LTH Affrication: A Sociolinguistic Indicator in the American West.” Journal of English Linguistics (2025): 00754242251343916.
Insertion of a consonant between a sonorant and voiceless obstruent is common in some environments in American English (e.g., prince?=?prints). In this paper, we describe a similar process whereby /?/ is realized as a dental affricate [?t???] in the infrequent environment of /l?/ (e.g., wealth and stealth), a process we call “LTH affrication.” In audio collected using an online survey from a 265-person sample from the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, a third of them had LTH affrication. While the presence of LTH affrication was not predictable, the duration was: closure durations were longer among women, Utahns, suburban-oriented people, and practicing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This paper offers a rare insight into production patterns of a sociolinguistic indicator and suggests that infrequent phonological variables may have as much sociolinguistic conditioning as more common variables. Finally, this paper adds to the description of the Latter-day Saint religiolect in Utah.
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