Due to a billing error on the part of our hosting service, the M* website was accidentally deleted from our hosting server. We are working on restoring the comments and posts. In the mean time all comments have been closed. Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE: It appears that our soon-to-be-former hosting service is foolish enough to run its automatic account deletion process before it runs its nightly backup processes. As a result all posts and comments made after 6/12/2006 at 1:00am have been permanently lost. We are very sorry to all who composed thoughtful posts or comments that have fallen into the abyss of inept technology.

We hope to move to a more responsible hosting service in the very near future. Comments have been re-opened and posting will resume. Feel free to recommend a good hosting service.

M* recently asked the noted historian and author Richard Lyman Bushman to talk about his new book, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Knopf, 2005). Jed Woodworth, an occasional commenter at M*, interviewed Professor Bushman, who graciously provided the answers to questions provided by Jed.

Comments are welcome. In between speaking engagements Professor Bushman may dip into the discussion on occasion.

You say in the preface that Rough Stone Rolling pays more attention to Joseph Smith’s religious thought than previous biographies. Was there some aspect of his thought that you ended up falling in love with much to your delight? Did any aspect repel you?

Plural marriage is hard for anyone who is happily married to understand, but it does not repel me as it does many Latter-day Saints.

Continue reading →

Submitted by Amira

The LDS Church’s missionary program is quite different from other Evangelical Christians’ missionary work. One major difference is that entire families will often go to various parts of the world to do missionary work of all types. I’ve had a chance to meet some of these missionary families, especially in Israel and Kyrgyzstan, and they do some good work. We don’t do anything like this and haven’t for a long time (I can only think of a few examples in early Church history). Mission presidents might count, but it’s not quite the same thing.

As I’ve traveled in the Middle East and Central Asia, areas where there are very few Church members, I’ve seen the value of expatriate LDS families living in these places.

Continue reading →

By Kathy Soper

One scripture passage that always haunts me is Mormon 8:37-39, especially these lines from verse 37:

For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.

I teach a small Family Relations class in Sunday School. Last week, during our Money Management lesson, it was pointed out how readily we think of ourselves as poor (in temporal goods), when in reality we’re all filthy, stinking rich.

Continue reading →

You of the bloggernacle in New York, who wants a nice dress? REALLY nice? My cousin Colette has been featured in a newspaper, and one of those 18-pound bridal “magazines” (Modern Bride, I think) did a feature on her and her dresses late last summer (but it’s not online). Her website is not yet up and running, but looks nice.

What I found interesting about the New York Metro blurb is how her LDS-ness is played up (though misattributed. Once again, the “Jesus Christ” aspect has dropped out, leaving the “Church of Latter-day Saints”.) Granted, perhaps LDS clothing designers tend to be in Utah making 1920’s swimsuits instead of designing $4000 wedding dresses for NY fashion shows. In any case, New Yorkers take note. High-end, award-winning AND LDS-mother pleasing fashion has arrived.

(by Ben S.)