Comments on: The Mormon Moment, 1935

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 04:07:46 +0000

An interesting article. Fascinating that there was a fairly accurate article without any particular bias. At least not that I can discern.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:25:47 +0000

I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my dad’s memories from that same era in Snowflake, Arizona, is that nobody was asked to speak in advance–they were all just called up from the congregation to speak extemporaneously. And we think some meetings these days are boring!

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:03:20 +0000

I know the 1st edition Mormon Doctrine strongly diapproved of those that read their sermon. Nowadays, it seems that reading is the rule rather than the exception. Interesting to see how practiced religion evolves.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:53:54 +0000

I don’t know about the hobbies, TOClark, but there *were* some sermons and some admonishment to missionaries about not preparing sermons — you were supposed to rely completely on the Spirit and speak as the Spirit directed in the moment; preparation showed you didn’t have the faith to do that.

My response when similar remarks are made these days (and they’ve been made in the Bloggernacle occasionally when someone posts the text of a talk they gave) is that I trust the Spirit to inspire me on Tuesday with what I need to say/listeners need to hear on Sunday.

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:15:07 +0000

Fantastic. I can tell that this is exactly like the current Mormon moment because it’s (a) a Newspaper Article (2) about Mormons (3) that mentions Romney (well, a Romney…)

Seriously, the most interesting parts of the article are the “never prepare a sermon” and “hobbies should not be merely for amusement”. Was anything similar actually taught by the Church back then?

By: Amy T

Amy T — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:33:20 +0000

Jeannine — since you’re commenting on a Mormon history blog, which means we can probably assume that your great-grandmother was a Mormon, I’d estimate the probability of a fairly close relationship between her and this bishop to be between 95-100 percent. : )

Nice article, Ardis! That is good media coverage.

By: Jeannine L.

Jeannine L. — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:20:23 +0000

My great-grandmother’s name was Martha Caroline Thomander. I wonder if she was related to this guy.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Great find, Ardis!!

Those were heady days for the Borough of Brooklyn, which contained both the Brooklyn Ward and the Bay Ridge Branch–Bay Ridge is the neighborhood in far south-west Brooklyn directly across the Narrows from Staten Island.

It didn’t stay that way. Populations move, and the Bay Ridge Branch was discontinued, and then the Brooklyn Ward became a branch. It wasn’t reorganized as a ward until sometime in the 1960s.

Twenty-eight years ago last month the New York Stake held a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the stake. If I can hang on for another 22 years, I’m hoping to see the celebration of the 100th anniversary.