Denominations of American origin Books

Book SynopsisMormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. For those who have wondered in what specific ways Mormonism differs from the Christian faith, Mormonism 101 provides definitive answers, examining the major tenets of Mormon theology and comparing them with orthodox Christian beliefs. Perfect for students of religion and anyone who wants to have answers when Mormons come calling.

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Book SynopsisWhen Race, Religion, and Sport Collide tells the story of Brandon Davies' dismissal from Brigham Young University's NCAA playoff basketball team to illustrate the thorny intersection of religion, race, and sport at BYU and beyond. Author Darron T. Smith analyzes the athletes dismissed through BYU's honor code violations and suggests that they are disproportionately African American, which has troubling implications. He ties these dismissals to the complicated history of negative views towards African Americans in the LDS faith. These honor code dismissals elucidate the challenges facing black athletes at predominantly white institutions. Weaving together the history of the black athlete in America and the experience of blackness in Mormon theology, When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide offers a timely and powerful analysis of the challenges facing African American athletes in the NCAA today.Trade ReviewArguing that the close and complex relationship between race and religion can be uncovered through sports, Smith does a masterful job of weaving together critical race theory, US religious history, and sports to examine institutionalized racism in intercollegiate athletics. Specifically, Smith examines the realm of the sacred through the uneasy relationship between black student athletes and Mormonism’s larger theological constructions of race. Smith points out that within the Mormon Church blackness, especially in regard to black male athletes, is in tension with the notions of freedom, justice, and equality. However, Brigham Young University is not very different from other primarily white schools where, when it comes to sports, big money commands more interest than does the need of athletes. Black student athletes are especially under attack from the systemic white racism of the NCAA sports world. Perhaps most interesting here is Smith’s attention to how change can occur both within Mormon circles and in the sporting world at large. This book is timely, excellent, and worth a very close read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. * CHOICE *I want to highlight this amazing book . . . [It] is a really fascinating read . . . I can’t plug this book enough and tell everybody they need to read it. * Mormon Stories *The intersecting of race, religion and sport (or perhaps in the author’s words, the ‘collision’ of the three) is a rare feat in the world of scholarship…. An analysis of their association is certainly warranted. Darron T. Smith does just this by wading into the waters of the sports programmes at the flagship university of the Mormon Church. His thesis, that long-standing tenets of Mormon theology have unduly served to punish black athletes at Brigham Young University, extends beyond the expected descriptive account of race, religion and sport converging. Smith bravely aims to expose the racist underbelly of BYU and other similar predominantly white institutions with sport acting as the prism through which to inspect. Hence, When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide stands as a critique of the kind of theologized institutionalized racism that hides within the ranks of big-time college athletics. More to the point, racism and its effects are unique and likely more ingrained and pernicious at religious schools – institutions that should be leading the charge in the opposite direction…. When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide is a respectable gambit into the literature that deals both with race and sport, as well as with sport and religion. Indeed the three are tightly intertwined forming a rope that can pull us out of our shameful racist past but also continue to pull us down into long-standing racist histories with nothing less than the force of God. * Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics *When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide: Black Athletes at BYU and Beyond takes us well past the Davies dismissal to consider the nexus of race, religion, sport, and economic inequality in American society writ large, using BYU as an exemplar of the nation’s colleges and universities…. Smith should be commended for taking on the herculean task of trying to unravel the complex intertwining of race, sports, inequality, and religion. * Mormon Studies Review *When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide is a forceful, insightful, and powerful book built around the Brandon Davies honor code violation, which took place during Davies’s sophomore year, while he played for Brigham Young University’s successful basketball team. Here, Smith has connected the dots between sports, race, and religion in such a way that the book will be essential reading for anyone interested in sports and societal issues. This book is a tour de force; a must-read! -- Earl Smith, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies, George Mason University, author of Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change.Using the athletic department at Brigham Young University as a case study, Darron Smith explores the complicated and shifting intersections between sport, race, and religion in contemporary American society. With an eye on the historical evolution of the relationship between race and the lucrative world of sports, Smith exposes the ways that black bodies are commodified and racialized for white consumption. Mix a sometimes inconsistently applied honor code with religious justifications for historically excluding black bodies from full participation in Mormon priesthood and temples, and the setting is ripe for a complex set of dynamics to haunt the experiences of black athletes at BYU. When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide not only offers a candid assessment of those dynamics at play but proposes insightful solutions as well. -- W. Paul Reeve, University of Utah; author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Struggle for WhitenessIn this book, Darron T. Smith demands that we move beyond box scores, beyond wins and losses, beyond March Madness and bowl season, and beyond the cheers to reflect on the intersecting histories of religion, race, and sport. Offering a powerful discussion of college sports, blackness, and whiteness, Smith chronicles the story of black students at BYU. Using sports as a staging ground, despite claims of post-raciality and colorblindness, Smith offers a powerful discussion of race within and beyond the sporting fields. Interdisciplinary at its core, When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide brings together discussions of race and Mormonism, the revolt of the black athlete, contemporary college sports, and new racism. An important work for scholars of religion, sports, and race, this work is timely. -- David J. Leonard, Professor of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Washington State UniversityIn When Race, Religion, and Sport Collide, Darron Smith has the keen insight to examine the intersection of race and religion and how these categories intersect sports. The study uncovers the ways that whiteness structures BYU’s and the Mormon (LDS) Church’s response to Black athletes in the context of presumed colorblindness. Smith shows how such post-racial colorblindness is untenable and unhealthful, and he offers constructive tenets for the Mormon Church that have relevance beyond LDS academic institutions. This book should be added to the corpus of scholars who are interested in the murky terrain of collegiate sports scholarship and to the growing work in Mormon studies, race studies, and sports. -- Stephen C. Finley, Louisiana State UniversityIn this provocative new study, Darron T. Smith examines the connection between blackness and Mormonism using Brigham Young University's honor code as a case study. His book bristles with new insights, demonstrating the ways in which Mormon racial theology has affected the lives of black athletes at the church owned-and-operated school. This book is a welcome voice to the growing body of literature on Mormon race relations. It is a superb achievement. -- Matthew L. Harris, Colorado State University–Pueblo; coauthor of The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary HistoryDarron Smith's study of institutionalized racism as informed by religious doctrine is an important, thought-provoking work. Smith asks hard questions and does not settle for easy answers. Whether readers agree or disagree with his analysis, observations, and conclusions, they will not leave his stimulating book unchanged. -- Gary James Bergera, coauthor of Brigham Young University: A House of FaithWhen Race, Religion, and Sport Collide is a thoughtful and unique examination of the sociocultural issues at play within intercollegiate athletics. Dr. Smith’s work sheds light on larger social and structural issues by focusing on a truly interesting case study that will benefit students, administrators, faculty, and other personnel in both athletics and education. -- Mark Vermillion, chair, Department of Sport Management; executive director of Partnership for the Advancement of Sport Management, Wichita State UniversityThis book is a revealing examination of race in sports and religion with a unique focus—the treatment of black athletes at BYU. Darron Smith uses football, basketball, and other sports to explain a deep-seated prejudice at the heart of Mormonism. Anyone surprised to learn that Brigham Young was a racist should read this book. -- Luke O'Brien, PoliticoThis is a story of young black men used, abused, and too easily discarded under the guise of amateurism and faith. As he explores the crushing subtleties of racism in a respected college athletics program, Darron Smith reminds us that conscience is no defense for the indefensible. An important read. -- Chad Nielsen, sportswriterTable of ContentsIntroduction 1.The Meaning of Sport in the Popular Imagination: The Collision of Race, Religion and Sport 2.The Origins of Racism and Framing: Setting the Stage for the History of Blacks in Sport 3.The White Racial Framing of Blacks in Mormon Theology 4.Black Student Revolts and Political Uprising in the Late Sixties and Early Seventies: Fanning the Flame of Black Student-Athlete Revolts 5.Mormon Attitudes toward Civil Rights: It’s God’s Law, We’re Not Racist! 6.No Honor in the Honor Code: The Suspension of Brandon Davies and the Incompatibility Nexus between Blackness and Mormonism 7.Colorblindness and the Health Consequences to Black Male Student-Athletes through the Illusion of a Free Education 8.Pipeline to a Pipedream: The Elusiveness of Change in the Era of “Black Lives Matter” Notes

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Book SynopsisIn Baring Witness, Holly Welker and thirty-six Mormon women write about devotion and love and luck, about the wonder of discovery, and about the journeys, both thorny and magical, to humor, grace, and contentment. They speak to a diversity of life experiences: what happens when one partner rejects Church teachings; marrying outside one's faith; the pain of divorce and widowhood; the horrors of spousal abuse; the hard journey from visions of an idealized marriage to the everyday truth; sexuality within Mormon marriage; how the pressure to find a husband shapes young women's actions and sense of self; and the ways Mormon belief and culture can influence second marriages and same-sex unions. The result is an unflinching look at the earthly realities of an institution central to Mormon life.Trade ReviewHonorable Mention in Creative Non-Fiction, Association for Mormon Letters, 2017 "Reading this collection of intimate, intelligent, and terribly interesting essays is an exercise in empathy that truly ought to be considered required reading to the 21st century Latter-day Saint seeking to truly mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. Baring Witness broadcasts voices of Mormon women that are all too often quietly dismissed in the broader aspects of our culture. In the end, these stories consist of sacred narratives—not so much a record of God’s dealing with people but of people’s dealing with God.”--Association for Mormon Letters"The stories are fresh, raw, filled with riveting, sometimes shocking details — and impossible to predict the end from the beginning. They are both universal and uniquely LDS.”—The Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack"If you enjoy reading stories about LDS women, about both the hard times and the good times, this book is definitely for you." --Exponent"Welker has facilitated a range of lived experiences on how Mormon women negotiate secular expectations of equality and religious patriarchy. She is creating conversations between Mormon congregations, Non-Mormon communities, and Mormon scholarship by informing us how Mormon women rebel, respond and reproduce gender inequality through marriage and expectations of relationships. Therefore, these essays are concrete examples of the contested territory that Mormon women encounter, as they simultaneously re-entrench and assimilate between secular values and faith beliefs in a religion that situates its marriage as being of divine design."--Religion and Gender"Lively and fascinating." --Novo Religio"Illuminating and heartfelt, frequently moving and sometimes hilarious, these essays explore moments of failure and fulfilment, laying bare the all too often unspoken confinements, complications and comforts of love, sex, and marriage."--Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley"One need not be Mormon to savor this collection of bold and varied essays about the joys and conflicts, the highs and lows, the complexities and contradictions of being a smart Mormon woman today. Beautifully written and impeccably edited, Baring Witness provides not just a wealth of information and experience, but also a truly great read."—Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone and editor of The Bitch Is Back

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Trade Review"A very important work. This travel journal tells the story of a great man's baptism into other worlds of culture, language, nationhood, and appreciation for peoples outside of his purview. The more one knows about David O. McKay, the more one recognizes that this international experience changed the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."--R. Lanier Britsch, author of Moramona: The Mormons in Hawai'i"A well-researched and well-written narrative that places McKay's journey in historical context and prepares the reader to plumb its forward-looking significance. It will take its place in the extensive documentary history of the most important figure in twentieth-century Mormonism."--Gregory A. Prince, coauthor of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

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Book SynopsisEugene England championed an optimistic Mormon faith open to liberalizing ideas from American culture. At the same time, he remained devoted to a conservative Mormonism that he saw as a vehicle for progress even as it narrowed the range of acceptable belief. Kristine L. Haglund views England's writing through the tensions produced by his often-opposed intellectual and spiritual commitments. Though labeled a liberal, England had a traditional Latter-day Saint background and always sought to address fundamental questions in Mormon terms. His intellectually adventurous essays sometimes put him at odds with Church authorities and fellow believers. But he also influenced a generation of thinkers and cofounded Dialogue, a Mormon academic and literary journal acclaimed for the broad range of its thought. A fascinating portrait of a Mormon intellectual and his times, Eugene England reveals a believing scholar who emerged from the lived experiences of his faith to engage with the changes roilTrade Review"Haglund's analysis truly shines when she places England in context with other thinkers. . . The most powerful parts of Haglund's work are when she demonstrates how England lived during a transition moment for Mormonism." --By Common Consent"Haglund's brief, elegant study brings back the restless personality of the late Eugene England, one of Mormonism's most energetic thinkers and intellectuals, wrestling with the tensions between independent thought and loyal belief. This book illuminates an entire era in Mormon intellectual history."--Claudia L. Bushman, author of Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America"Eugene England was the most gifted Latter-day Saint essayist of the late twentieth century, influencing an entire generation of thinkers and strivers. In Kristine Haglund’s deft handling, we also come to appreciate England as embodying the paradoxes and tensions of modern religion: liberal and conservative, faith and reason, individual and community, autonomy and authority. This book will enable a whole new generation to rediscover the wisdom and wrestle of one of twentieth-century Mormonism’s most remarkable souls and intellects."--Patrick Q. Mason, Utah State University

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Michael Austin has produced an admirable introduction to the life and work of Vardis Fisher, arguably the most prominent (and prolific!) novelist to emerge from the Intermountain region in the twentieth century." --Journal of Mormon History"A remarkably well-written, engaging, and informative read." --Mormon Studies Review“Vardis Fisher was a key founder of both American Western and Mormon literatures, a master storyteller with a remarkable life, ‘an unbeliever who was Mormon to his core’. Michael Austin, Mormon literature’s leading scholar, reintroduces Fisher and lovingly reinterprets these remarkable novels for a new generation.”--Andrew Hall, Association for Mormon Letters

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Restless Pilgrim: Andrew Jenson's Quest for Latter-day Saint History provides a fast-paced walk through the life of this seminal Latter-day Saint historian, and his relentless thirst to gather as much history of the early Saints as possible." --Journal of Mormon HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ixPrologue 11 Danish American Emigrant 72 Entrepreneurial Chronicler 293 Historian’s Office Affiliate 504 Itinerant World Traveler 795 Assistant Church Historian 1046 Elder and Emissary 1217 Scandinavian Mission President 1408 Modern Record Keeper 1659 Explorer of Latin America 18310 Public Commemorator 20311 Twilight Church Historian 221Epilogue 240Notes 247Bibliography 293Index 309

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Revising Eternity indeed revises any misguided notions we might have of uniformity in the Latter-day Saint experience, boldly and candidly opening to view the sometimes intense, sometimes joyous, sometimes sorrowful lives of a wide variety of writers, and with its myriad perspectives the book invites us to more deeply know and thus achieve greater empathy with one another."--Patrick Madden, author of Disparates: Essays"This is a fascinating compilation, detailing as it does what happens when an exigent definition of righteousness and propriety meets the reality of human nature--a work at once sad, sobering, heartening, and above all enlightening. Highly recommended."--Levi S. Peterson, author of A Rascal by Nature, a Christian by Yearning: A Mormon AutobiographyTable of ContentsForeword: Mormon American Masculinities, Ideal and Actual Patrick Q. Mason xiAcknowledgments xvIntroduction: Personal, Contingent, and Incomplete Views on Eternal Marriage Holly Welker 1Part I. Revised Expectations Transgressors Stephen Carter 19A husband considers the ways his happymarriage violates the ideal praised by theProclamation on the FamilyBy the Drinking Fountain Eric Robeck 25A couple’s relationship seems like a Latter-dayfairy tale—until he loses his faithMy One and Only Clyde Kunz 31A gay man considers the way Latter-day Saints’expectations for straight marriage affect his ownsearch for a relationshipThere’s Something about Mary Kim Siever 37A husband learns to love his wife more deeply bystudying the example of her love for himFor Jess, after Eighteen Years of Marriage: Seven Fragments on Love; Or, Some Things I Carry Tyler Chadwick 42In a love letter to his wife, a husband lists someof the familiar mysteries he cherishes in theirmarriageAn Apology I’ve Been Working on for a While Joey Franklin 44A husband reflects on the division of labor inhis marriage and how it affects his and his wife’ssenses of selfNever Good Enough Michael Carpenter 52A lifetime of failing to meet Latter-day Saintideals exacts a tragic costMormon AF Nicholas Don Smith 58A stand-up comic from American Fork, Utah,reflects on what it means to be Mormon andsingleLiken the Scriptures Andrew Spriggs 63A young husband realizes that his gay marriageis the most Mormon thing about his lifeThe Care Package Kevin Barnwell 71A husband who has left the church works to findthe perfect anniversary gift for his still devout wifePart II. Sex and Its Consequences Fertility Theric Jepson 77After the birth of their fourth child, a husbandundergoes a vasectomy to spare his wife anymore worry about fertilityOpposites Robert Raleigh 82Newlyweds discover that their intense physicalattraction is not a strong enough basis for ahappy marriage—or even a satisfying sex lifeEternity in an Hour Boyd Jay Petersen 92On the eve of a trip abroad, a husband learnsthat his wife of thirty-three years is gay, afterwhich they negotiate a respectful separationPie Month Scott Russell Morris 105A young couple agrees to eat pie every day duringthe month of March 2014 while they also try toconceive a childThe Highest T. Kay Browning 119A young man determined to marry early learnsto be the man of integrity his marriage requiresof him, especially as he reckons with what the#MeToo movement means for menBeing Jane John Doe 129A bisexual cross-dresser and his wife learn tohave a mutually fulfilling sex life while honoringtheir temple covenants to one anotherSoul Mates Scott Blanding 133A gay man and a straight woman navigate amarriage both believe they committed to before birthHiding in Plain Sight David Nicolay 141A husband’s ability to connect to his wife isundermined by decades of sexual shame overmasturbation7:06 A.M. Kelland Coleman 151A lonely husband briefly attains the intimacy hehas longed for with his wife when she admits toherself and to him that she is gayUnsealed Dan Smith 160A husband learns that trying to practicepolygamy to please his wife does not heal theirtroubled marriagePart III. In Sickness and in Health Fear and Trepanation Ted Smith 171A midlife crisis helps a husband understandhow valuable his marriage is, just before it isthreatened by a dire medical crisisI’m Not Who I Thought You Married John B. Dahl 180A young husband is forced to confront his ownmisconceptions about mental illness when he isdiagnosed with depression—and discovers thatdoing so strengthens instead of harms his marriageHolding On and Letting Go Joseph Broom 190After decades in a straight marriage, a gay mandiscovers happiness with the love of his life—onlyto lose him to cancer after a short marriageDisability Check Caleb Scoville 198A young man reckons with the way his bipolardisease wreaks havoc on his marriageThe House of Infinite Regret Scot Denhalter 207Addiction to prescription narcotics destroys a life,a marriage, and a familyFrom Patriarchy to Matriarchy: A Marital and Spiritual Journey Thomas W Murphy 218A young man from an abusive household vows tocreate a family free of violence and coercion withhis wife, after which they learn about alternativeforms of strength and leadership—and aboutaspects of their own backgrounds—when theirwork leads them to Indigenous communitiesThe Marriage Bed: An Essay and Three Poems Robert A. Rees 231A widower reflects on his happy marriage andthe joy of sharing a bed with his belovedGlossary 239Discussion Questions 243Bibliography 245Contributors 249

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An interesting and convincing read." --Association for Mormon Letters"Highly original, extremely interesting, and richly documented. The collection analyzed here is remarkable. A book that is superbly satisfying in terms of intellectual stimulation (because of its high erudition and in-depth analysis of how politics will impact cultural products), aesthetic curiosity, and humorous entertainment."--Bernadette Rigal-Cellard, author of La Religion des MormonsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Chronology of Key Publications and EventsChapter 1. “Ils ont lâché le fou!”: Unleashing the Mormon JesterChapter 2. “La Loi nouvelle”: Mormonism and the Social Question in FranceChapter 3. Mormonism, Masculinity, and the Woman Question in Second Empire FranceChapter 4. Between Man and God: Mormons, Spiritualism, and the OccultChapter 5. From Page to Stage: Mormonism and the Woman Question in the Early Third RepublicChapter 6. “Ces mœurs sont bien les nôtres!” Mormons, Marriage, and the Divorce DebateChapter 7. Exotic Mormons and the French Colonial ProjectChapter 8. “La Fin du Mormonisme”Notes BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Focusing on the agency of a single institution, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Feller takes us beyond simple assumptions about representation and ideology to show us in finely grained detail how exactly Mormon theology, cosmological vision, community, bureaucratic authority, and public image work together--and sometimes, against one another--in an ongoing history of innovation, strategic management, struggle, and imagination. At each step, Eternity in the Ether sheds light on a remarkable terrain of creative energies, practical demands, and political possibilities, inviting us to see Mormonism in new ways, and by extension, to revisit many assumptions about how media work in the world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between religion and media.”--Jeremy Stolow, author of Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between"Gavin Feller's Eternity in the Ether: A Mormon Media History is an interesting book that brings together various academic disciplines and fields together -- weaving communication studies, religion, and history into one manuscript." --Association of Mormon LettersTable of ContentsPreface AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Sacred Cities, Stubborn People Voices in the West God Is Wireless Ethical Dilemmas and Technical Obstacles: Navigating Early Television Distance and Discipline: Television, Home, and Family Boundaries and Borders: Zion Online Community Here, Community Hereafter Conclusion: Control and Compromise NotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Engaging and utterly original in its conception, this study of the Mormon faith in Ireland provides a fascinating lens for understanding the effects of globalization and secularization on religious faith. This deep dive into local congregational life demonstrates how the study of a historically marginalized faith sheds light on broader political and cultural patterns.”--Laurie Maffly-Kipp, coeditor of Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin FrontierTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Religion in Contemporary Ireland The Challenges of Belonging in Modern Mormonism They All Seem Very Nice but It’s a Bit Weird Isn’t It? Their Ancestors Are Watching Them Irish-Irish and Mormon-Irish We Preach That Culture Conclusion: Reflections for the Future Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHonorable Mention in Creative Non-Fiction, Association for Mormon Letters, 2017 "Reading this collection of intimate, intelligent, and terribly interesting essays is an exercise in empathy that truly ought to be considered required reading to the 21st century Latter-day Saint seeking to truly mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. Baring Witness broadcasts voices of Mormon women that are all too often quietly dismissed in the broader aspects of our culture. In the end, these stories consist of sacred narratives—not so much a record of God’s dealing with people but of people’s dealing with God.”--Association for Mormon Letters"The stories are fresh, raw, filled with riveting, sometimes shocking details — and impossible to predict the end from the beginning. They are both universal and uniquely LDS.”—The Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack"If you enjoy reading stories about LDS women, about both the hard times and the good times, this book is definitely for you." --Exponent"Welker has facilitated a range of lived experiences on how Mormon women negotiate secular expectations of equality and religious patriarchy. She is creating conversations between Mormon congregations, Non-Mormon communities, and Mormon scholarship by informing us how Mormon women rebel, respond and reproduce gender inequality through marriage and expectations of relationships. Therefore, these essays are concrete examples of the contested territory that Mormon women encounter, as they simultaneously re-entrench and assimilate between secular values and faith beliefs in a religion that situates its marriage as being of divine design."--Religion and Gender"Lively and fascinating." --Novo Religio"Illuminating and heartfelt, frequently moving and sometimes hilarious, these essays explore moments of failure and fulfilment, laying bare the all too often unspoken confinements, complications and comforts of love, sex, and marriage."--Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley"One need not be Mormon to savor this collection of bold and varied essays about the joys and conflicts, the highs and lows, the complexities and contradictions of being a smart Mormon woman today. Beautifully written and impeccably edited, Baring Witness provides not just a wealth of information and experience, but also a truly great read."—Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone and editor of The Bitch Is Back

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A very important work. This travel journal tells the story of a great man's baptism into other worlds of culture, language, nationhood, and appreciation for peoples outside of his purview. The more one knows about David O. McKay, the more one recognizes that this international experience changed the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."--R. Lanier Britsch, author of Moramona: The Mormons in Hawai'i"A well-researched and well-written narrative that places McKay's journey in historical context and prepares the reader to plumb its forward-looking significance. It will take its place in the extensive documentary history of the most important figure in twentieth-century Mormonism."--Gregory A. Prince, coauthor of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Michael Austin has produced an admirable introduction to the life and work of Vardis Fisher, arguably the most prominent (and prolific!) novelist to emerge from the Intermountain region in the twentieth century." --Journal of Mormon History"A remarkably well-written, engaging, and informative read." --Mormon Studies Review“Vardis Fisher was a key founder of both American Western and Mormon literatures, a master storyteller with a remarkable life, ‘an unbeliever who was Mormon to his core’. Michael Austin, Mormon literature’s leading scholar, reintroduces Fisher and lovingly reinterprets these remarkable novels for a new generation.”--Andrew Hall, Association for Mormon Letters

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Restless Pilgrim: Andrew Jenson's Quest for Latter-day Saint History provides a fast-paced walk through the life of this seminal Latter-day Saint historian, and his relentless thirst to gather as much history of the early Saints as possible." --Journal of Mormon HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ixPrologue 11 Danish American Emigrant 72 Entrepreneurial Chronicler 293 Historian’s Office Affiliate 504 Itinerant World Traveler 795 Assistant Church Historian 1046 Elder and Emissary 1217 Scandinavian Mission President 1408 Modern Record Keeper 1659 Explorer of Latin America 18310 Public Commemorator 20311 Twilight Church Historian 221Epilogue 240Notes 247Bibliography 293Index 309

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Revising Eternity indeed revises any misguided notions we might have of uniformity in the Latter-day Saint experience, boldly and candidly opening to view the sometimes intense, sometimes joyous, sometimes sorrowful lives of a wide variety of writers, and with its myriad perspectives the book invites us to more deeply know and thus achieve greater empathy with one another."--Patrick Madden, author of Disparates: Essays"This is a fascinating compilation, detailing as it does what happens when an exigent definition of righteousness and propriety meets the reality of human nature--a work at once sad, sobering, heartening, and above all enlightening. Highly recommended."--Levi S. Peterson, author of A Rascal by Nature, a Christian by Yearning: A Mormon AutobiographyTable of ContentsForeword: Mormon American Masculinities, Ideal and Actual Patrick Q. Mason xiAcknowledgments xvIntroduction: Personal, Contingent, and Incomplete Views on Eternal Marriage Holly Welker 1Part I. Revised Expectations Transgressors Stephen Carter 19A husband considers the ways his happymarriage violates the ideal praised by theProclamation on the FamilyBy the Drinking Fountain Eric Robeck 25A couple’s relationship seems like a Latter-dayfairy tale—until he loses his faithMy One and Only Clyde Kunz 31A gay man considers the way Latter-day Saints’expectations for straight marriage affect his ownsearch for a relationshipThere’s Something about Mary Kim Siever 37A husband learns to love his wife more deeply bystudying the example of her love for himFor Jess, after Eighteen Years of Marriage: Seven Fragments on Love; Or, Some Things I Carry Tyler Chadwick 42In a love letter to his wife, a husband lists someof the familiar mysteries he cherishes in theirmarriageAn Apology I’ve Been Working on for a While Joey Franklin 44A husband reflects on the division of labor inhis marriage and how it affects his and his wife’ssenses of selfNever Good Enough Michael Carpenter 52A lifetime of failing to meet Latter-day Saintideals exacts a tragic costMormon AF Nicholas Don Smith 58A stand-up comic from American Fork, Utah,reflects on what it means to be Mormon andsingleLiken the Scriptures Andrew Spriggs 63A young husband realizes that his gay marriageis the most Mormon thing about his lifeThe Care Package Kevin Barnwell 71A husband who has left the church works to findthe perfect anniversary gift for his still devout wifePart II. Sex and Its Consequences Fertility Theric Jepson 77After the birth of their fourth child, a husbandundergoes a vasectomy to spare his wife anymore worry about fertilityOpposites Robert Raleigh 82Newlyweds discover that their intense physicalattraction is not a strong enough basis for ahappy marriage—or even a satisfying sex lifeEternity in an Hour Boyd Jay Petersen 92On the eve of a trip abroad, a husband learnsthat his wife of thirty-three years is gay, afterwhich they negotiate a respectful separationPie Month Scott Russell Morris 105A young couple agrees to eat pie every day duringthe month of March 2014 while they also try toconceive a childThe Highest T. Kay Browning 119A young man determined to marry early learnsto be the man of integrity his marriage requiresof him, especially as he reckons with what the#MeToo movement means for menBeing Jane John Doe 129A bisexual cross-dresser and his wife learn tohave a mutually fulfilling sex life while honoringtheir temple covenants to one anotherSoul Mates Scott Blanding 133A gay man and a straight woman navigate amarriage both believe they committed to before birthHiding in Plain Sight David Nicolay 141A husband’s ability to connect to his wife isundermined by decades of sexual shame overmasturbation7:06 A.M. Kelland Coleman 151A lonely husband briefly attains the intimacy hehas longed for with his wife when she admits toherself and to him that she is gayUnsealed Dan Smith 160A husband learns that trying to practicepolygamy to please his wife does not heal theirtroubled marriagePart III. In Sickness and in Health Fear and Trepanation Ted Smith 171A midlife crisis helps a husband understandhow valuable his marriage is, just before it isthreatened by a dire medical crisisI’m Not Who I Thought You Married John B. Dahl 180A young husband is forced to confront his ownmisconceptions about mental illness when he isdiagnosed with depression—and discovers thatdoing so strengthens instead of harms his marriageHolding On and Letting Go Joseph Broom 190After decades in a straight marriage, a gay mandiscovers happiness with the love of his life—onlyto lose him to cancer after a short marriageDisability Check Caleb Scoville 198A young man reckons with the way his bipolardisease wreaks havoc on his marriageThe House of Infinite Regret Scot Denhalter 207Addiction to prescription narcotics destroys a life,a marriage, and a familyFrom Patriarchy to Matriarchy: A Marital and Spiritual Journey Thomas W Murphy 218A young man from an abusive household vows tocreate a family free of violence and coercion withhis wife, after which they learn about alternativeforms of strength and leadership—and aboutaspects of their own backgrounds—when theirwork leads them to Indigenous communitiesThe Marriage Bed: An Essay and Three Poems Robert A. Rees 231A widower reflects on his happy marriage andthe joy of sharing a bed with his belovedGlossary 239Discussion Questions 243Bibliography 245Contributors 249

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Book SynopsisIn the nineteenth century, a fascination with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made Mormons and Mormonism a common trope in French journalism, art, literature, politics, and popular culture. Heather Belnap, Corry Cropper, and Daryl Lee bring to light French representations of Mormonism from the 1830s to 1914, arguing that these portrayals often critiqued and parodied French society. Mormonism became a pretext for reconsidering issues such as gender, colonialism, the family, and church-state relations while providing artists and authors with a means for working through the possibilities of their own evolving national identity. Surprising and innovative, Marianne Meets the Mormons looks at how nineteenth-century French observers engaged with the idea of Mormonism in order to reframe their own cultural preoccupations.Trade Review"An interesting and convincing read." --Association for Mormon Letters"Highly original, extremely interesting, and richly documented. The collection analyzed here is remarkable. A book that is superbly satisfying in terms of intellectual stimulation (because of its high erudition and in-depth analysis of how politics will impact cultural products), aesthetic curiosity, and humorous entertainment."--Bernadette Rigal-Cellard, author of La Religion des Mormons"Belnap, Cropper, and Lee teach the reader much about French debates during the nineteenth century and how Mormonism highlighted those heated conversations. The authors deserve praise for writing such an interesting book about Mormonism outside of America." --Journal of Mormon HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Chronology of Key Publications and EventsChapter 1. “Ils ont lâché le fou!”: Unleashing the Mormon JesterChapter 2. “La Loi nouvelle”: Mormonism and the Social Question in FranceChapter 3. Mormonism, Masculinity, and the Woman Question in Second Empire FranceChapter 4. Between Man and God: Mormons, Spiritualism, and the OccultChapter 5. From Page to Stage: Mormonism and the Woman Question in the Early Third RepublicChapter 6. “Ces mœurs sont bien les nôtres!” Mormons, Marriage, and the Divorce DebateChapter 7. Exotic Mormons and the French Colonial ProjectChapter 8. “La Fin du Mormonisme”Notes BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisMass media and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints evolved alongside each other, and communications technology became a fundamental part of the Church's institutions and communities. Gavin Feller investigates the impact of radio, television, and the internet on Mormonism and what it tells us about new media's integration into American life. The Church wrestled with the promise of new media to help implement its vision of Zion. But it also had to contend with threat that media posed to the family and other important facets of the Latter-day Saint faith. Inevitably, media technologies forced the leadership and lay alike to reconsider organizational values and ethical commitments. As Feller shows, the conflicts they faced illuminate the fundamental forces of control and compromise that enmesh an emerging medium in American social and cultural life. Intriguing and original, Eternity in the Ether blends communications history with a religious perspective to examine the crossroadTrade Review“Focusing on the agency of a single institution, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Feller takes us beyond simple assumptions about representation and ideology to show us in finely grained detail how exactly Mormon theology, cosmological vision, community, bureaucratic authority, and public image work together--and sometimes, against one another--in an ongoing history of innovation, strategic management, struggle, and imagination. At each step, Eternity in the Ether sheds light on a remarkable terrain of creative energies, practical demands, and political possibilities, inviting us to see Mormonism in new ways, and by extension, to revisit many assumptions about how media work in the world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between religion and media.”--Jeremy Stolow, author of Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between"Gavin Feller's Eternity in the Ether: A Mormon Media History is an interesting book that brings together various academic disciplines and fields together -- weaving communication studies, religion, and history into one manuscript." --Association of Mormon LettersTable of ContentsPreface AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Sacred Cities, Stubborn People Voices in the West God Is Wireless Ethical Dilemmas and Technical Obstacles: Navigating Early Television Distance and Discipline: Television, Home, and Family Boundaries and Borders: Zion Online Community Here, Community Hereafter Conclusion: Control and Compromise NotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the international religions that have arrived from abroad to find adherents in Ireland. Drawing on fieldwork in two LDS communities, Hazel O'Brien explores how these adherents experience the Church in Ireland against the backdrop of the country's increasingly complex religious identity. Irish Latter-day Saints live on the margins of the nation's religious life and the worldwide LDS movement. Nonetheless, they create a sense of belonging for themselves by drawing on collective memories of both their Irishness and their faith. As O'Brien shows, Irish Latter-day Saints work to shift the understanding of Ireland's religious landscape away from a predominant focus on Roman Catholicism. They also challenge Utah-based constructions of Mormonism in order to ensure their place in the Church's powerful religious and cultural lineage. Examining the Latter-day Saint experience against one nation's rapid social and religious changes, Irish Trade Review“Engaging and utterly original in its conception, this study of the Mormon faith in Ireland provides a fascinating lens for understanding the effects of globalization and secularization on religious faith. This deep dive into local congregational life demonstrates how the study of a historically marginalized faith sheds light on broader political and cultural patterns.”--Laurie Maffly-Kipp, coeditor of Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier“A very insightful look at globalization, colonialism, religious identity, and building communal memory, all through the lens of contemporary Ireland." --Association of Mormon LettersTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Religion in Contemporary Ireland The Challenges of Belonging in Modern Mormonism They All Seem Very Nice but It’s a Bit Weird Isn’t It? Their Ancestors Are Watching Them Irish-Irish and Mormon-Irish We Preach That Culture Conclusion: Reflections for the Future Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhere others saw only sage, a salt lake, and a great desert, the Mormons saw their "lovely Deseret," a land of lilacs, honeycombs, poplars, and fruit trees. Unwelcome in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, they migrated to the dry lands between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada to establish Mormon country, a wasteland made green.Trade Review“Stegner’s book makes excellent reading and is also solidly based. . . . His residence of fifteen years in the region he is describing allows him to mingle ease with authority.”—New York Times“Stegner combines a great amount of information and lively comment with fine description of one of the most beautiful and least known regions of the United States.”—Boston Globe

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Book SynopsisPresents a collection of writings of diverse European travellers through Mormon settlements in the American West. They provide a counternarrative to typical accounts of encounters with Mormons in such sojourns.

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Book SynopsisA stark exhibition of state repression of a minority faithTrade ReviewSaints Under Siege is a welcome corrective to the sensationalism surrounding the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...this book can heighten students' hermeneutic of suspicion towards [child abuse] allegations. -- John-Charles Duffy * Journal of American Academy of Religion *Saints Under Siege's strength resides in its multi-author and multi-hermeneutic approach as each chapter considers a distinct set of historical, cultural, and political/legal realities underlying the raid. -- Spencer L. Allen * International Journal for the Study of New Religions *A highly recommendable book for both academic and popular readers alike looking to gain further insight into government-sponsored religious intolerance in contemporary America. -- Johnathan W. Olson,Florida State UniversityIn this significant volume, noted scholars explore the historical, sociological, legal, law enforcement, media studies, and religious studies aspects of the 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch. A must-read for those concerned with the dynamics of how and why law enforcement agents take aggressive actions that harm children they are tasked with protecting. -- Catherine Wessinger,Rev. H. James Yamauchi, S.J. Professor of the History of Religions, Loyola University New OrleansThere has been a disturbing recent trend toward military-style government raids on minority religious communities. This book offers an incisive set of analyses by distinguished religious movements scholars of the massive state raid on the FLDS community in 2008. [It] will be the book of record for interpreting this historic event. -- David G. Bromley,co-author of Cults and New Religions: A Brief HistoryWide-ranging and provocative collection. * Journal of Church and State *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Figures List of Tables Preface Abbreviations Introduction Part I: Historical Overview 1 Germania: Origins and Progress to World War I2 Retreat: The German Problem and Its Painful Resolution 3 Boom and Bust 4 Good Times, Hard Times in the Postwar Era Part II: Product, Distribution, and Expense Management 5 Product Development: The Actuarial Problem and Individual Insurance 6 Product Development: Group, Bene?ts, and Reinsurance 7 Spreading the Word 8 Selling Insurance 9 Administration: Process and People 10 Managing Administrative Expenses: Regionalization and Automation 11 Burdens of Corporate Citizenship: Regulation and TaxesPart III: Investments 12 Investing the Premiums: Asset Management to the Mid-Twentieth Century 13 Flexibility and Quality: George Conklin's Legacy Part IV: Mutuality and Performance14 Swimming against the Tide Appendix Notes Bibliography Index About the Authors

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Book SynopsisHow Native Hawaiians’ experience of Mormonism intersects with their cultural and ethnic identities and traditionsTrade Review"A Chosen People, a Promised Land is a fascinating book. Attending to fraught and revealing episodes in Hawaiian-Mormon history, Hokulani K. Aikau opens up new terrain for historical analysis in a manner that is theoretically engaged yet accessible."—Greg Johnson, author of Sacred Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition"More than finding an eager audience, this pathbreaking book will add convincingly to the growing body of work inside and outside the continental United States and the Pacific Islands region that compels critical audiences in the studies of American culture and Native Pacific struggles of the absolute need to read work coming out of the other."—Vicente M. Diaz, author of Repositioning the Missionary"An excellent examination of the complex intersection of race, religion, and culture in Hawaii."—Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources"Aikau's personal experiences, her interviews with LDS members in the islands, the inclusion of oral history and journal entires and her storytelling skills provide fresh and valuable insight into a fascinating segment of Hawaii's people and history."—Honolulu Civil Beat"This groundbreaking, transnational, and more inclusive approach to Hawaiian studies grants Native Hawaiians agency and offers a much needed alternative representation of Hawai’i within the national history of the United States."—American Studies"This book shows the complicated nature of colonial interactions. Aikau masterfully uses native voices, especially through oral histories, to critique existing scholarship that has not addressed the colonial legacy of the Church. This book is an important work for other scholars to build on as they do further research on Mormonism in the Pacific."—Journal of Mormon HistoryTable of ContentsContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Negotiating Faithfulness1. Mormonism, Race, and Lineage: The Making of a Chosen People2. Lā‘ie, a Promised Land, and Pu’uhonua: Spatial Struggles for Land and Identity3. Called to Serve: Labor Missionary Work and Modernity4. In the Service of the Lord: Religion, Race, and the Polynesian Cultural Center5. Voyages of Faith: Contemporary Kanaka Maoli Struggles for Sustainable Self-DeterminationConclusion: Holo Mua, Moving ForwardAcknowledgmentsNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAn engrossing account of the way religion and the technological imagination come together in the world’s largest religious transhumanist organization.Table of ContentsPreface | ix A Note on Names and Terms | xxiii Series Zero: “Children of God would try to play God” | 1 Part I: Dramatis personae First Series: Mormonisms | 55 Second Series: Transhumanisms | 76 Third Series: Mormon Transhumanism | 94 Part II: Mormon/Transhuman Fourth Series: Kolob runs on Domo | 113 Fifth Series: Discipline, Belief, and Speculative Religion | 136 Part III: Science Fictions Sixth Series: Freezing, Burying, Burning | 161 Seventh Series: “as if awakening from a night’s sleep” | 211 Eighth Series: Worlds without End | 240 Ninth Series: Queer Polygamy | 256 Series: Problems, Planes, and Lines of Flight | 293 Acknowledgments | 303 Notes | 307 Bibliography | 327 Index | 353

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Book SynopsisAn engrossing account of the way religion and the technological imagination come together in the world’s largest religious transhumanist organization.Table of ContentsPreface | ix A Note on Names and Terms | xxiii Series Zero: “Children of God would try to play God” | 1 Part I: Dramatis personae First Series: Mormonisms | 55 Second Series: Transhumanisms | 76 Third Series: Mormon Transhumanism | 94 Part II: Mormon/Transhuman Fourth Series: Kolob runs on Domo | 113 Fifth Series: Discipline, Belief, and Speculative Religion | 136 Part III: Science Fictions Sixth Series: Freezing, Burying, Burning | 161 Seventh Series: “as if awakening from a night’s sleep” | 211 Eighth Series: Worlds without End | 240 Ninth Series: Queer Polygamy | 256 Series: Problems, Planes, and Lines of Flight | 293 Acknowledgments | 303 Notes | 307 Bibliography | 327 Index | 353

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Book SynopsisReligious historian Janiece Johnson analyses how sensational media attention used the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre to enflame public sentiment and provoke legal action against Latter-day Saints. This troubling episode in American religious history sheds light on the role of media and popular culture in provoking religious intolerance.

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Book SynopsisBrenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States.Trade Review“Smart, sassy, and full of provocative insight, this book shines a light on Mormonism, not as a religious tradition but as a ubiquitous cultural trope that is uniquely attuned to queerly mediated notions of sexuality and gender.” -- Dana Heller, editor of * Loving The L Word: The Complete Series in Focus *“Latter-day Screens is an amazing encyclopedic survey of the details of the Mormon Church and the place of Mormons in American popular culture. Drawing on cultural theories of mediation, mass culture, and film studies, Brenda R. Weber draws the reader into everything from aromatherapy oils to South Park parodies. Timely and relevant, and teachable for a range of classes, Latter-day Screens is an exceedingly important and interesting book.” -- Matthew Pratt Guterl, author of * Seeing Race in Modern America *"In Latter-day Screens, gender studies professor Brenda R. Weber examines pop culture’s ongoing fascination with Mormons. Mainstream media has given us a largely one-dimensional view of Mormonism: Sister Wives, Big Love, and even storylines on Love After Lockup present polygamy as the sum total of the religion. But Weber has another story to tell, one that’s about how Mormons are using pop culture—including TV shows, books, and YouTube videos—to find and enact their agency and rethink their conservative religion’s understanding of gender, sexuality, race, spirituality, and justice." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch *"A deep, provocative look at mass and social media portrayals of Mormons on the parts of both Mormons and non-Mormons. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- R. L. Saunders * Choice *"With its informative and enriching contextualization of its sources, Latter-day Screens provides a significant critical reading of Mormon media sources while also functioning as an innovative approach to Mormonism." -- Marie-Therese Mäder * Religion *"Weber makes a series of arguments, deeply informed by theories in media studies and gender and sexuality studies, about the interplay among actual Mormons and media characterizations of them. In the burgeoning field of Mormon Studies, this is a fresh approach." -- W. Michael Ashcraft * International Journal of the Study of New Religions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Past as Prologue: Latter-day Screens and History 1 Introduction. "Well, We Are a Curiosity, Ain't We?": Mediated Mormonism 13 1. Mormonism as Meme and Analytic: Spiritual Neoliberalism, Image Management, and Transmediated Salvation 49 2. The Mormon Glow: The Raced and Gendered Implications of Spectacular Visibility 91 3. The Epistemology of the (Televised, Polygamous) Closet: The Cultural Politics of Mediated Mormonism and the Promises of the American Dream 120 4. Polygamy USA: Visability, Charismatic Evil, and Gender Progressivism 162 5. Gender Trouble in Happy Valley: Choice, Affect, and Mormon Feminist Housewives 201 6. "Pray (and Obey) the Gay Away": Conscience and the Queer Politics of Desire 241 Conclusion. Afterthoughts and Latter Days 276 Epilogue. Mormons on My Mind, or, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Hegemony I Learned in Mesa, Arizona 284 Notes 309 References 329 Media Archive 345 Index 361

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Book SynopsisBrenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States.Trade Review“Smart, sassy, and full of provocative insight, this book shines a light on Mormonism, not as a religious tradition but as a ubiquitous cultural trope that is uniquely attuned to queerly mediated notions of sexuality and gender.” -- Dana Heller, editor of * Loving The L Word: The Complete Series in Focus *“Latter-day Screens is an amazing encyclopedic survey of the details of the Mormon Church and the place of Mormons in American popular culture. Drawing on cultural theories of mediation, mass culture, and film studies, Brenda R. Weber draws the reader into everything from aromatherapy oils to South Park parodies. Timely and relevant, and teachable for a range of classes, Latter-day Screens is an exceedingly important and interesting book.” -- Matthew Pratt Guterl, author of * Seeing Race in Modern America *"In Latter-day Screens, gender studies professor Brenda R. Weber examines pop culture’s ongoing fascination with Mormons. Mainstream media has given us a largely one-dimensional view of Mormonism: Sister Wives, Big Love, and even storylines on Love After Lockup present polygamy as the sum total of the religion. But Weber has another story to tell, one that’s about how Mormons are using pop culture—including TV shows, books, and YouTube videos—to find and enact their agency and rethink their conservative religion’s understanding of gender, sexuality, race, spirituality, and justice." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch *"A deep, provocative look at mass and social media portrayals of Mormons on the parts of both Mormons and non-Mormons. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- R. L. Saunders * Choice *"With its informative and enriching contextualization of its sources, Latter-day Screens provides a significant critical reading of Mormon media sources while also functioning as an innovative approach to Mormonism." -- Marie-Therese Mäder * Religion *"Weber makes a series of arguments, deeply informed by theories in media studies and gender and sexuality studies, about the interplay among actual Mormons and media characterizations of them. In the burgeoning field of Mormon Studies, this is a fresh approach." -- W. Michael Ashcraft * International Journal of the Study of New Religions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Past as Prologue: Latter-day Screens and History 1 Introduction. "Well, We Are a Curiosity, Ain't We?": Mediated Mormonism 13 1. Mormonism as Meme and Analytic: Spiritual Neoliberalism, Image Management, and Transmediated Salvation 49 2. The Mormon Glow: The Raced and Gendered Implications of Spectacular Visibility 91 3. The Epistemology of the (Televised, Polygamous) Closet: The Cultural Politics of Mediated Mormonism and the Promises of the American Dream 120 4. Polygamy USA: Visability, Charismatic Evil, and Gender Progressivism 162 5. Gender Trouble in Happy Valley: Choice, Affect, and Mormon Feminist Housewives 201 6. "Pray (and Obey) the Gay Away": Conscience and the Queer Politics of Desire 241 Conclusion. Afterthoughts and Latter Days 276 Epilogue. Mormons on My Mind, or, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Hegemony I Learned in Mesa, Arizona 284 Notes 309 References 329 Media Archive 345 Index 361

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Book SynopsisIn the nineteenth century, white Americans contrasted the perceived purity of white, middle-class women with the perceived eroticism of women of color and the working classes. The Latter-day Saint practice of polygamy challenged this separation, encouraging white women to participate in an institution that many people associated with the streets of Calcutta or Turkish palaces. At the same time, Latter-day Saints participated in American settler colonialism. After their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, Latter-day Saints dispossessed Ute and Shoshone communities in an attempt to build their American Zion. Their missionary work abroad also helped to solidify American influence in the Pacific Islands as the church became a participant in American expansion.Imperial Zions explores the importance of the body in Latter-day Saint theology with the faith’s attempts to spread its gospel as a “civilizing” force in the American West and the Pacific.Trade Review"Imperial Zions is an admirable and ambitious project."—Carleigh Beriont, Montana: The Magazine of Western History"Hendrix-Komoto has written a book that takes belief and practice seriously, and not just for those in power. She shows how those on the margins of society used belief to advocate for themselves and to maintain their long-standing cultural identities."—Nathaniel Wiewora, Reading Religion"With Imperial Zions, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto adds to a burgeoning scholarship that locates Latter-day Saints as very much a part of the history of empire-building in the American West and across the Pacific world."—Tisa Wenger, Pacific Historical Review"Imperial Zions is an important contribution to ongoing efforts to center Native cultures, stories, experiences, and perspectives as we seek to further understand the complexities of early Latter-day Saint history and culture."—Sam Mitchell, Dawning of a Brighter Day“Imperial Zions is a signal contribution to the history of the Latter-day Saints. Amanda Hendrix-Komoto brings modern scholarly concepts of empire and colonialism to bear in a thoughtful, insightful way. Her intertwined analyses of Native American and Pacific Islander Latter-day Saints represent a crucial advance in the field.”—Quincy D. Newell, author of Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black MormonTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Terminology Introduction 1. The Race and Sex of God 2. The Bonds between Sisters 3. Redeeming the Lamanites in Native America and the Pacific 4. Creating Polygamous Domesticities 5. Making Native Kin 6. Native Zions Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHow perceptions of Mormonism from 1830 to the present reveal the exclusionary, racialized practices of the U.S. nation-state Are Mormons really so weird? Are they potentially queer? These questions occupy the heart of this powerful rethinking of Mormonism and its place in U.S. history, culture, and politics. K. Mohrman argues that Mormon peculiarity is not inherent to the Latter-day Saint faith tradition, as is often assumed, but rather a potent expression of U.S. exceptionalism. Exceptionally Queer scrutinizes the history of Mormonism starting with its inception in the early 1830s and continuing to the present. Drawing on a wide range of historical texts and moments—from nineteenth-century battles over Mormon plural marriage; to the LDS Church’s emphases on “individual responsibility” and “family values”; to mainstream media’s coverage of the LDS Church’s racist exclusion of Black priesthood holders, its Native assimilation programs, and vehement opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment; and to much more recent legal and cultural battles over same-sex marriage and on-screen Mormon polygamy—Exceptionally Queer evaluates how Mormonism has been used to motivate and rationalize the biased, exclusionary, and colonialist policies and practices of the U.S. nation-state.Mohrman explains that debates over Mormonism both drew on and shaped racial discourses and, in so doing, delineated the boundaries of whiteness and national belonging, largely through the consolidation of (hetero)normative ideas of sex, marriage, family, and economy. Ultimately, the author shows how discussions of Mormonism in this country have been and continue to be central to ideas of what it means to be American. Trade Review "K. Mohrman upends normative, contemporary understandings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in relationship to race, queerness, and American nationalism. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Exceptionally Queer traces how Mormon peculiarity is critical to understanding U.S. nationalism. Whether framed as marginal and a threat to all that America holds dear or being represented as hyper-American nationalists, Mohrman demonstrates that Mormonism is a critical part of the national imaginary and the political discourse that, due to its peculiarity, has not been fully explored until now."—Hōkūlani K. Aikau, author of A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai‘i "K. Mohrman’s Exceptionally Queer brings much-needed theorizing to the question of Mormon peculiarity. Often discussed as both strange and hypernormal, Latter-day Saints occupy a puzzling place in the American consciousness. The brilliant analysis in this book links Mormonism’s peculiarity and its Americanness to larger issues of American nationalism, imperialism, and racial formation. Scholars of U.S. history, race, sexuality, queer studies, and, of course, Mormonism have much to gain from the powerful lens this book casts on the project of American exceptionalism."—Taylor Petrey, author of Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism "Mohrman’s evidence and arguments are provocative, engaging, and expand the possibilites for Mormon studies to enter into broader interdisciplinary conversations. Exceptionally Queer cannot—and should not—be ignored. "—Juvenile Instructor Table of ContentsIntroduction: Peculiar, Exceptional, QueerPart I. Making Mormonism Peculiar1. Becoming Peculiar, 1830–18522. A Peculiar Race with Peculiar Institutions, 1847–18743. The Problems of (Mormon) Empire, 1874–1896Part II. Exceptionally Normal4. Resignifying Mormon Peculiarity, 1890–19455. A Thoroughly American Institution, 1936–19626. Making Mormon Peculiarity Colorblind, 1960–1982Part III. Regulatory Queer Varieties of Mormon Peculiarity7. Polygamy, or The Racial Politics of Marriage as FreedomCoda: What Mormonism Can Tell Us about Critical TheoryAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHow perceptions of Mormonism from 1830 to the present reveal the exclusionary, racialized practices of the U.S. nation-state Are Mormons really so weird? Are they potentially queer? These questions occupy the heart of this powerful rethinking of Mormonism and its place in U.S. history, culture, and politics. K. Mohrman argues that Mormon peculiarity is not inherent to the Latter-day Saint faith tradition, as is often assumed, but rather a potent expression of U.S. exceptionalism. Exceptionally Queer scrutinizes the history of Mormonism starting with its inception in the early 1830s and continuing to the present. Drawing on a wide range of historical texts and moments—from nineteenth-century battles over Mormon plural marriage; to the LDS Church’s emphases on “individual responsibility” and “family values”; to mainstream media’s coverage of the LDS Church’s racist exclusion of Black priesthood holders, its Native assimilation programs, and vehement opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment; and to much more recent legal and cultural battles over same-sex marriage and on-screen Mormon polygamy—Exceptionally Queer evaluates how Mormonism has been used to motivate and rationalize the biased, exclusionary, and colonialist policies and practices of the U.S. nation-state.Mohrman explains that debates over Mormonism both drew on and shaped racial discourses and, in so doing, delineated the boundaries of whiteness and national belonging, largely through the consolidation of (hetero)normative ideas of sex, marriage, family, and economy. Ultimately, the author shows how discussions of Mormonism in this country have been and continue to be central to ideas of what it means to be American. Trade Review "K. Mohrman upends normative, contemporary understandings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in relationship to race, queerness, and American nationalism. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Exceptionally Queer traces how Mormon peculiarity is critical to understanding U.S. nationalism. Whether framed as marginal and a threat to all that America holds dear or being represented as hyper-American nationalists, Mohrman demonstrates that Mormonism is a critical part of the national imaginary and the political discourse that, due to its peculiarity, has not been fully explored until now."—Hōkūlani K. Aikau, author of A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai‘i "K. Mohrman’s Exceptionally Queer brings much-needed theorizing to the question of Mormon peculiarity. Often discussed as both strange and hypernormal, Latter-day Saints occupy a puzzling place in the American consciousness. The brilliant analysis in this book links Mormonism’s peculiarity and its Americanness to larger issues of American nationalism, imperialism, and racial formation. Scholars of U.S. history, race, sexuality, queer studies, and, of course, Mormonism have much to gain from the powerful lens this book casts on the project of American exceptionalism."—Taylor Petrey, author of Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism "Mohrman’s evidence and arguments are provocative, engaging, and expand the possibilites for Mormon studies to enter into broader interdisciplinary conversations. Exceptionally Queer cannot—and should not—be ignored. "—Juvenile Instructor Table of ContentsIntroduction: Peculiar, Exceptional, QueerPart I. Making Mormonism Peculiar1. Becoming Peculiar, 1830–18522. A Peculiar Race with Peculiar Institutions, 1847–18743. The Problems of (Mormon) Empire, 1874–1896Part II. Exceptionally Normal4. Resignifying Mormon Peculiarity, 1890–19455. A Thoroughly American Institution, 1936–19626. Making Mormon Peculiarity Colorblind, 1960–1982Part III. Regulatory Queer Varieties of Mormon Peculiarity7. Polygamy, or The Racial Politics of Marriage as FreedomCoda: What Mormonism Can Tell Us about Critical TheoryAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisLike other Christian denominations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has been engaged in the battle for the Bible since challenges to biblical authority began to exert significant influence in America toward the end of the nineteenth century. Other believing communities have responded with various reevaluations of biblical text. Latter-day Saints have experimented with similar approaches, often taking liberal positions on biblical authority and conservative positions on history and authorship. However, Latter-day Saints accept additional scripture as well as embracing a theology notably distinct from traditional Christianity. Hence, Latter-day Saints relate to the Bible differently from other Christians, creating gaps with mainstream biblical studies. This volume bridges that gap.From comparing the Book of Mormon to the Bible or the Dead Sea Scrolls, to Mormon feminists’ biblical studies approaches to the Gospels, this volume takes a comprehensive and inclusive approach to understanding Bible scholarship’s role in Mormon history and exploring these differences for both scholars and students. A diverse group of contributors presents an accessible resource to mediate between Latter-day Saint traditions and the broader context of biblical history, literature, and scholarship. Each essay provides a synopsis of relevant major scholarly views and delivers new insights into a wide variety of Bible receptions.Trade Review “One of the great strengths of this collection is how it often offers different perspectives, offered by different scholars, to similar concerns or texts. In so doing, it adds a nice breadth of approach and depth of competing analyses.”—Paul C. Gutjahr, Indiana University “The Sheer amount of information is impressive and makes the volume invaluable to scholars of many disciplines. Historians and biblical scholars, to be sure, but also scholars of literature, theologians, and religious studies academics will find worthy materials here.”—Mathew Bowman, Claremont Graduate University in Nova ReligioTable of Contents Introduction: Latter-day Saints and Biblical Scholarship by Taylor G. Petrey Part I: The Ancient World of the Bible as Understood by Latter-day Saints: From Joseph Smith to Contemporary Scholarship 1. The Place of the Bible and Biblical Scholarship among Latter-day Saints in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries by Philip L. Barlow and Stephen T. Betts 2. The King James Version and Modern Translations of the Bible by Thomas Wayment 3. Joseph Smith’s “New Translation” of the Bible by Grant Underwood 4. Temple and Priesthood in the Bible and in Mormonism by Cory Crawford 5. Dead Sea Scrolls by Dana M. Pike 6. The Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods by Matthew J. Grey Part II: Conceptions of Canon and Not Canon: The Bible(s) and Restoration Scripture 7. The Biblical Canon by Daniel Becerra 8. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha by Jared W. Ludlow 9. How the Book of Mormon Responds to the Bible by Grant Hardy 10. The Biblical World in the Book of Mormon by David Calabro 11. The Bible in the Pearl of Great Price by Brian M. Hauglid Part III: A Variety of Critical Biblical Approaches and Their Relevance to Mormon Studies 12. Nineteenth-Century Biblical Interpretation in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Amy Easton-Flake 13. Historical Criticism of the Bible among the Latter-day Saints by Jason Robert Combs 14. Biblical Theology and the Latter-day Saint Tradition by Joseph M. Spencer 15. Textual Criticism by Lincoln H. Blumell 16. Biblical Archaeology in Latter-day Saint Perspective by George A. Pierce 17. Orality, Literacy, and the Cultural World of the Bible in Ancient Near Eastern Scholarship and Latter-day Saint Reception by Eric A. Eliason 18. Feminist Biblical Criticism by Deidre Nicole Green Part IV: Inheritance and Divergence: Latter-day Saints Read Others Reading the Bible 19. The Use of Jewish Scripture in the New Testament by Jared W. Ludlow 20. Early Christian Biblical Interpretation by Carl Griffin and Kristian S. Heal 21. Early Christian Literature by Grant Adamson 22. Medieval Bibles by Miranda Wilcox 23. Reformation and Early Modern Biblical Interpretation by Jason A. Kerr Part V: Latter-day Saint Approaches to the Bible’s Major Genres and Divisions 24. The Pentateuch by David Bokovoy 25. From Exodus to Exile by David Rolph Seely 26. Prophets and Prophetic Literature by David Bokovoy 27. Wisdom Literature and the Psalms by Ryan Conrad Davis 28. Jesus and the Gospels by Eric D. Huntsman 29. Paul’s Letters and Acts of the Apostles by Taylor G. Petrey 30. The Universal Epistles: James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1–3 John, Jude by Luke Drake 31. Apocalyptic Literature by Jill Kirby List of Contributors Index

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Book Synopsis Joseph F. Smith was born in 1838 to Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith. Six years later both his father and his uncle, Joseph Smith Jr., the founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were murdered in Carthage, Illinois. The trauma of that event remained with Joseph F. for the rest of his life, affecting his personal behavior and public tenure in the highest tiers of the LDS Church, including the post of president from 1901 until his death in 1918. Joseph F. Smith laid the theological groundwork for modern Mormonism, especially the emphasis on temple work. This contribution was capped off by his “revelation on the redemption of the dead,” a vision accepted by Mormons as a prophetic glimpse into the afterlife. Taysom’s book traces the roots of this vision, which reach far more deeply into Joseph F. Smith’s life than other scholars have previously identified. In this first cradle-to-grave biography of Joseph F. Smith, Stephen C. Taysom uses previously unavailable primary source materials to craft a deeply detailed, insightful story of a prominent member of a governing and hugely influential Mormon family. Importantly, Taysom situates Joseph F. Smith within the historical currents of American westward expansion, rapid industrialization, settler colonialism, regional and national politics, changing ideas about family and masculinity, and more. Though some writers tend to view the LDS Church and its leaders through a lens of political and religious separatism, Taysom does the opposite, pushing Joseph F. Smith and Mormonism closer to the centers of power in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. Trade ReviewThis remarkable, path-breaking, sometimes jaw-dropping Joseph F. Smith biography makes an immense contribution to the fields of Mormon history and Mormon studies." —John Turner, George Mason University"Taysom has done a marvelous job of mining the voluminous primary sources available to him, primarily in church archives. He has produced a detailed, textured, and fascinating biography of a major but underappreciated figure in Latter-day Saint history." —Patrick Q. Mason, Utah State UniversityTable of Contents A Note on Sources Preface AcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. Bloodlines 2. From Missouri to Nauvoo 3. The Murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith 4. Pioneer Days 5. Upon the Isles of the Sea 6. Returning to Utah and Finding a Wife 7. Mission to the British Isles 8. Marital Discord, Domestic Violence, and Divorce 9. JFS the Apostle, JFS the Polygamist 10. Mission President in England, Losing the Lion 11. Exile 12. “We were unsettled as a Quorum” 13. An Emerging Gospel Scholar, Iosepa, and the Manifesto 14. The Ever- Tightening Knot of Utah Politics 15. Politics, Economics, and Polygamy Collide 16. Presiding High Priest, 1901–1918 17. The Complexities of Religion in a New Century 18. From Salt Lake to Sharon 19. Dusk Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBright Lights in the Desert explores the history of how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas have improved the regions' neighborhoods, inspired educational institutions, brought integrity to the marketplace, and provided wholesome entertainment and cultural refinement. The LDS influence has helped shape the metropolitan city because of its members' focus on family values and community service.Woods discusses how, through their beliefs and work ethics, they have impacted the growth of the area from the time of their first efforts to establish a mission in 1855 through the present day. Bright Lights in the Desert reveals Las Vegas as more than just a tourist destination and shows the LDS community's commitment to making it a place of deep religious faith and devotion to family.Trade Review"Woods's book will be very popular with members of the LDS community, and with nonmembers who want to know more about the area and region's history. We have long needed a solid, thorough history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in southern Nevada and this book deserves that description."—Michael S. Green, associate professor of history, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, author of Nevada: A History of the Silver State"Woods addresses an important part of Las Vegas history that has not received adequate attention. The book contributes to our understanding of the city's development."—Jonathan Foster, professor of history, Great Basin College, and author of Stigma Cities: The Reputation and History of Birmingham, San Francisco, and Las VegasTable of Contents Contents Foreword by Michael S. Green Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. The Latter-day Saint Corridor and the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort Chapter 2. Post–Old Mormon Fort Early Settlement to Las Vegas Stakes (1857–1960) Chapter 3. Ignorance, Education, and Cultural Refinement Chapter 4. Business and Entertainment Chapter 5. Latter-day Saints in Elected Office and Community Service Chapter 6. Ecclesiastical Community Service to a Local Congregation in Need Chapter 7. The Story of the Las Vegas Temple Appendix A. Nevada Mothers of the Year Appendix B. Clark County Schools Named After Latter-day Saints Appendix C. Select List of Elected or Appointed Officials in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Appendix D. Las Vegas Temple Dedicatory Prayer, Given December 16, 1989 Appendix E. Latter-day Saint Las Vegas Regional Timeline Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book Synopsis

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