Comments on: A Mormon (Advertising!) Image

By: John Pratt

John Pratt — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:06:22 +0000

This is a very, VERY, good book, and came to me as if my miracle at a critical time. I was an LDS missionary in Tahiti, 1972-1974. I managed the mission/stake book store in one assignment, and this book, only one copy, arrived in a shipment from the European LDS Distribution center in Europe. So I bought for myself.

Tahiti was the first foreign-speaking LDS mission, where the elders were actually sent out by Joseph Smith. They had good success in the outlying atolls. But the next missionaries were RLDS, and so they took all the converts, lock, stock, and barrel. The subsequent LDS efforts were very, very difficult, having to start from scratch against tremendous opposition. So we had to contend with dealing with the RLDS version of things, (Blood Atonement, Joseph Smith didn’t start plural marriage, etc.) and all the other denominations there were also tainted against the LDS by the RLDS.

This book was instrumental in helping me have information to deal with these issues, and also served as a foundation (but not the end) for learning critical things about the Restored Gospel that have developed my religious paradigms

By: Scott B.

Scott B. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:43:17 +0000

Reorganites = lung donors?

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:51:08 +0000

RE: Reorganites (a common term during the period). It is also important to remember that the presidents of both Churches were first cousins.

The pamphlet of all pamphlets was published the following decade: B. H. Roberts edition of the King Follet sermon after it was removed from the History of the Church. Seems like tracts and pamphlets were frequently independent publications; but that is just going from memory.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:13 +0000

1906 would have been just a bit late for the second ritual–if that had in fact been your choice.

If only he had published the good news a year earlier!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:48:59 +0000

I believe you’re reading it correctly, kevinf, but I don’t know how common it was for general authorities to publish privately or conduct private sales of their writings.

Good question. This is after the ruling that authorities needed permission to run for political office, and well before the brouhaha (tangentially, we need more opportunities to use the word “brouhaha,” I say) over BRM’s 1st ed. of Mormon Doctrine. Policies must have been still quite fluid.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:40:51 +0000

I love the headline. I always wondered what Blood Atonement had to do with the Origins of Plural Marriage. One has to assume that the note “For sale by…” indicates that Joseph F. Smith was the publisher, as it doesn’t reference Deseret Book, or the Juvenile Instructors Office. Was this a common practice of that period, for general authorities to publish without the authority of the church, or am I reading this incorrectly?

By: BHodges

BHodges — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:10:56 +0000

Friggin’ blood atonement.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:51:12 +0000

Probably more analogous to the FLDS or other polygamous groups today, Matt. We each (LDS and RLDS) considered the other an apostate branch of the Restoration, not just a competing form of Christianity. Many families were split between the two churches (far more then than today), and we each saw the other as a challenge to authority and a potential “enemy from within.” A lot of ink was spilled on both sides attacking each other’s claims to succeed Joseph Smith and either the introduction of false doctrines/abandonment of true doctrines (depending on where you stood).

Ironic that the farther apart we draw theologically these days, the closer we and the RLDS/CofC are able to work together socially.

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:44:05 +0000

This is my first encounter with the term “Reorganites”. By this I assume it means RLDS. I am wondering if the RLDS church used to hold the position we seem to currently give to Evangelicals, as our favorite competition?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:25:59 +0000

I’ll give you 20 cents for that first edition, Ben. That is, if Steve will hold the reins while I climb down off this wagon.