I saw a funny link on M* to this editorial called “Op-ed: Tribune should go on; LDS scripture requires it.” Of course this piqued my curiosity so I read through it. The scripture in question is that there must be opposition in all things. Had to laugh, since this scripture is about why evil is necessary in mortality. Well, actually that understates the unintended humor in this article. Check out 2 Nephi 2:10 for full context. This scripture is actually explaining why God must punish the wicked.

This op-ed is pretty poor for the most part. A confused throwing together of unsupported opinions. The article make the following, imo, humorous charges: Continue reading →

[This post is part of a series on Joseph Smith’s Polygamy. To read from the beginning or link to previously published posts, go to A Faithful Joseph.]

In the 1820s a little free black girl was taken into the Connecticut home of Joseph and Dorinda Fitch,[ref]Jane’s diary mentions Joseph Fitch, his wife and daughter. Additional details on the Fitch family in Wilton were located in the book Descendants of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct., by George Franklin Marvin and William Theophilus Rogers Marvin, available online at http://books.google.com/books?id=Gc81AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA430#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 1 June 2014, and familysearch.org.[/ref] to be a companion to their daughter, Caroline. This little black girl was Jane Manning, whose father had died.

In early 1841, when Caroline was fourteen,[ref]In Jane’s autobiography, she says she, herself, was fourteen. However since Jane was born in 1822, the chronology doesn’t work, making it likely Jane was using the age of the girl for whom she served as companion. Jane’s autobiography is available online at http://www.blacklds.org/manning, retrieved 1 June 2014.[/ref] Jane joined the Presbyterian Church:

…yet I did not feel satisfied. It seemed to me there was something more that I was looking for. I had belonged to the [Presbyterian] Church about eighteen months when an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints, [who] was traveling through our country, preached there. The pastor of the Presbyterian Church forbade me going to hear them as he had heard I had expressed a desire to hear them; nevertheless I went on a Sunday and was fully convinced that it was the true gospel he presented and I must embrace it. Continue reading →

My daughter loves the fiber arts. She knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.

Therefore she looked forward to seeing the movie Maleficent because, surely, she thought, they would correct the heinous error of depicting Sleeping Beauty pricking herself on the distaff of a foot-treadle machine.

The rage when she saw Disney repeat the stupidity of the original was amusing to behold. I made sure I drove home, so that her rage would not in any way compromise our safety.

It’s as though you said that Samson could only die when his hair was shaved, and they proceeded to cut off his hair with a piece of rope. Continue reading →

In this third discussion, we are asked to read a large number of scriptures and several recent talks by leaders of the Church, mainly male but also female. There are no talks from Dialogue or Sunstone in the suggested pre-requisite reading for this discussion. The decision to frame the third discussion solely around official church sources was because the organization publishing these discussions “takes seriously the words of church leaders and holds sacred the scriptures.”

Having read the scriptures and talks, I was then confused at the way the discussion proceeded to wrest those talks and scriptures to suggest that women must necessarily hold priesthood keys because all are alike unto God.

Looking at the end of the discussion, the authors added references to several articles examining women and priesthood that have been published in Dialogue and in books published by Signature Books. Continue reading →