My latest journey around the Bloggernacle has convinced me that my fellow Saints need some more counsel from the Vocabulary Police. Please, for your own edification, study the following terms.
Counsel: advice; opinion or instruction given in directing the judgment or conduct of another.
Council: an assembly of persons summoned or convened for consultation, deliberation, or advice.
You know how those anti's are constantly publishing comparisons of different editions of the Book of Mormon and the temple ceremony and lamenting over the wording changes? Well, I'd like to highlight some changes in those old familiar hymns and ponder on their meanings. My consternation over these alterations commenced as a brand-new, three-month-old convert. At a Sacrament meeting around Christmas-time I was very embarrassed while singing a familiar carol to be looking up from my hymnal right when the words changed to
And Saints and angels sing
And heaven and nature sing!
My Dear and beloved companion of my bosom, in tribulation, and affliction,...I have a great anxiety about you, and my lovely children...If I do not meet you again in this life, may God grant that we may meet in heaven. I cannot express my feelings. My heart is full...oh my kind and affectionate Emma, I am yours forever your husband and true friend. Joseph Smith, Jr.
In the early winter of 1844, shortly after the death of her son Joseph, Lucy Mack Smith sat down to write the history of the Restoration from the point of view of the mother of the Prophet. She had been approached by Church historian Willard Richards and the Council of the Twelve to provide details for the official History of the Church, and by others who were curious. As she told her son, William, she was tired of answering questions on the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and other details of Joseph's life and she had “almost destroyed her lungs giving recitals about these things.” She “now concluded to write down every particular.” For this purpose, she engaged the services of Martha Jane Knowlton Coray to be her scribe. The result was a handwritten dictation of Lucy's reflections which survives today as the "Preliminary Manuscript.
Lucy's memoirs have gone through several versions as follows:
This document includes approximately 210 pages of foolscap paper as well as several fragments and torn sheets. According to Joseph F. Smith, the manuscript was written from Lucy's memories, which she dictated to a scribe, Mrs. Martha Jane Knowlton Coray. Coray wrote with clear penmanship, excellent spelling, and little punctuation. The material follows a loose chronological order, with occasional corrections and additional notes added between the lines. Observers speculate that Martha wrote down Lucy’s dictation and then read it back to her for correction. It was copyrighted on 18 July 1845 by Lucy Mack Smith, which suggests that she read and approved the final version. The title page is as follows: "The History of Lucy Smith Mother of the Prophet...an account of the many persecutions, trials and afflictions which I and my family have endured in bringing forth the Book of Mormon, and establishing the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." Martha supposedly retained the original copy of this book until she arrived in Utah with Brigham Young. The manuscript "resurfaced" in the 1960s in the LDS church archives.
By the time of Lucy Mack Smith's death on May 5, 1855, the Coray manuscript had been placed into the possession of her son, William Smith. Accounts differ as to who possessed it in the following years, but eventually it reached the hands of Isaac Sheen, a former LDS and RLDS newspaper editor who was living in Michigan. It was purchased from Sheen by Elder Orson Pratt, who was traveling East on his way to a mission in England. Pratt published the manuscript in Liverpool in 1853 under the title "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations." A secondary title page reads "History of Mother Smith, by Herself." In his preface, Pratt wrote: "Most of the historical items and occurrences related have never before been published. They will therefore be exceedingly interesting to all Saints, and sincere inquirers after the truth, affording them the privilege of becoming more extensively acquainted with the private life and character of one of the greatest prophets that ever lived upon the earth."
"There are many mistakes in the work… I have had a written copy of those sketches in my possession for several years, and it contains much of the history of the Prophet Joseph. Should it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be done until after they are carefully corrected."
“We wish those who have these books to either hand them to their Bishops for them to be conveyed to the President’s or Historian’s Office or send them themselves, that they may be disposed of.”
The first edition of Lucy's memoirs was recalled by Brigham Young. However, his goal was accuracy, not suppression, since he initiated a second edition. According to Wilford Woodruff's journal, the President charged the careful Woodruff and two Smith family members to "correct the errors in the History of Joseph Smith as published by Mother Smith, and then let it be published to the world."
An edition of Lucy Smith's history was published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1880 as "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations." It was republished in 1908 and in 1912 with notes by Heman C. Smith, and a paperback edition was printed by Herald Publishing House, Independence, Missouri, in 1969. "Under this order large numbers were destroyed, few being preserved, some of which fell into the hands of those now with the Reorganization. For this destruction we see no adequate reason; unless it be found in the fear that a plain story told by the mother of the first president of the church, might possibly convey views to the minds of its readers, opposed to the then ruling powers.
The present impracticability of giving a more extended and satisfactory history of Joseph Smith, under the supervision of the Reorganized Church; in connection with the fact that Elder E. W. Tullidge's work, "Life of Joseph, the Prophet," has been put upon sale, have determined the Board to publish this work without change in the text."
The 1902 edition was further edited with notes and comments by Assistant Church Historian Preston Nibley in 1945 and published by Bookcraft of Salt Lake City under the title "History of Joseph Smith By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith." The first paperback edition is the one I read when I joined the Church in 1979. There were many editions of the Nibley version. I have seen the following editions available for sale: 1945, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1979, 2000, 2004. In 2004 the Nibley version was published in an illustrated paperback edition by Covenant Communications Inc. with paintings by several well-known artists. A partial text can be found online here.
Husband and wife team Scot and Maurine Proctor brought together for the first time the Preliminary version of Lucy Mack Smith's manuscript and the later, edited versions. In 1995 and 1996 they were permitted to study and typescript the original manuscript in the Church archives, and in 1996 published "The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother." Their book was also serialized in the online Meridian Magazine. "Where Lucy is incorrect in dates or names, corrections have been made in the text and the changes often footnoted. No attempt has been made to restate her sentences in more polished prose or improve her vocabulary. She stands well on her own and thus the edits are light. Where transitions or explanations are necessary and not available in the Preliminary Manuscript, the 1853 text has been used. However, to save the text from becoming tedious, every shift between the Preliminary Manuscript and the 1853 edition has not been noted. The motivation was to find Lucy buried in the material, be true to her voice, and at the same time create a book that was accessible and inviting to a wide audience."
Lavina Fielding Anderson's version of the Lucy Mack Smith memoir is a remarkable achievement, surpassing all those which have gone before. It was published by Signature Books in 2001 and comprises 968 pages. In order to compare the Preliminary Manuscript with the 1853 edition, it is arranged in parallel columns. Significant variants from later printings are indicated in the editor's footnotes, with prefatory chapters that provide historical background and textual genealogy. "Overreaction is perhaps the most charitable way to characterize the rather obvious discrepancy between the staggering official denunciation and the relatively minor and infrequent errors (if indeed they are genuine errors) that Lucy actually makes... It is distressing to see the president of the church slander the mental competence of a seventy-year-old woman when the documentary record...shows otherwise. It is unpleasant to hear a man revered as a prophet sneer at the faithful mother of twelve...dismissing her as a sensation seeker and novelist. And it is particularly disappointing to hear him justify these behaviors by accusations that the book is a 'tissue of falsehoods,' an accusation that, on close inspection, is itself a falsehood."
"As important as this text is for Mormon history, the editor rightly emphasizes its equal importance as a spiritual autobiography and as a primary source on women's domestic and larger cultural roles during the early republic."
In 2005 Stratford Books published R. Vernon Ingleton's "History of Joseph Smith By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith: The Unabridged Original Version." In 504 pages Ingleton has been able to present the Preliminary Manuscript as well as the corrections added later by church historians. He puts deletions from the Preliminary Manuscript in brackets and insertions in italics. A detailed preface makes sense of all the different versions and their copyrights. An over-full stomach always seems to set me ruminating on how I can share my blessings with those in need. If you're anything like me, you want to help make a difference in the world, but you don't have unlimited resources. I love the idea of service but I hate the boring and meaningless service projects that are available about this time of year. Somehow I can't get into sending lip balm to the soldiers in Iraq. (Though I'm sure their mouths do get awfully dry over there.)
By now, those in the know have clicked on the link at the Dialogue journal website to read the free preview of Kevin Barney's article, "How to Worship our Heavenly Mother (Without Getting Excommunicated)." For quite a while I have been hearing about and greatly anticipating the appearance of this scholarly comparison of the Mormon Mother in Heaven with the female deity Asherah. And my readers will know of the great admiration I have for Kevin Barney's research, writing, and opinions. So it is with some regret that I feel compelled to point out some dangers and flaws in this piece.
originally posted at Mormon Matters
The Relief Society teacher was teaching the lesson on the signs of the Second Coming, and she was writing these events on the board as fast as the sisters could shout them out. "Wars," "Rumors of wars," "Pestilence," "Earthquakes," she wrote. Then came an unusual one:
"The waters of the Dead Sea will be healed."
A man named Delynn "Doc" Hansen is perhaps one of the best current sources of information on the Dream Mine on the internet. He describes himself as follows:
I became interested in Bishop Koyle and his Dream Mine starting back in the 1950's as a child. I was drawn to it like a magnet. When I was 28 and fresh out of college in practice, the Spirit told me to call the Relief Mine office. I didn't think they would have a phone as the project seemed dead. I phoned and talked to the president of the board, Quayle Dixon. The Spirit also told me to take $300. which was every last cent I had. My wife and I went up to the mine and talked to Bro. Dixon for 3 hours. The Spirit testified to both of us throughout the 3 hours. At the end...he said that Koyle recommended that a family have 100 shares of stock to see them through the hard time ahead. At $3. a share...it came to $300...so we bought our first stock.
In Part I of the Dream Mine story, we saw that there were those in Church leadership who supported Bishop Koyle's visions, and even bought stock in the "Dream Mine." However, support from Church headquarters lessened after geologist and theologian James E. Talmage denounced the endeavor.
In a meeting on August 7, 1913, the First Presidency decided to send Elder Francis M. Lyman of the Council of Twelve Apostles to Spanish Fork for the purpose of releasing John Koyle as bishop of the Leland Ward. [8] Acting under the orders of Francis Lyman, the Stake President released John Koyle as bishop, in which office he had served since May 31, 1908. President Joseph F. Smith and his two counselors signed a statement published by the church-owned Deseret News that year, saying "when visions, dreams, tongues, prophecy, impressions or an extraordinary gift of inspiration conveys something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the church . . . it is not of God, no matter how plausible it may appear. . . . It is our duty to warn against mining schemes which have no warrant for success." [9]
On August 27, 1894, John Hyrum Koyle of Spanish Fork, Utah, was visited by a personage attired in white and radiating intelligence. The angel told Koyle that the Lord had called him to open up a gold mine for the benefit of Zion and the world in a future time of trouble. John Koyle spent his life establishing what he called the "Relief Mine" near Salem, Utah, and though it never produced gold, he and his followers had faith that in the last days the gold would come in and provide for the Saints when they most needed it. [1] The mine is still maintained today on the west slopes of the Wasatch mountains in Utah County. It is the world's largest non-producing gold mine on the face of the earth!
Soy Made Me Gay
The post that originally caught my attention is titled: When Your 15-Year-Old Son Says, "I'm Gay." It's a practical guide suggesting what to do when one of your children comes out to you. It's an amazing, loving piece which takes into account the emotions you and your child will be experiencing. I think it's the best advice I've ever read for how to deal with this important moment.
Clint, the writer of this blog, is a celibate, active, gay Mormon. He works in the film production industry. He hasn't yet discounted marrying a woman in the future. He is also quite gorgeous. I enjoy his dry humor. Read more about Clint's feelings for the Church in his post "Why I Came Out To My Entire Ward," which he did in a testimony meeting in September.
Clint's position on Prop 8 is unusual and poignant. As a member of the Church, he supports the Prophet, yet the issue is painful for him as a gay man. He mostly chooses to ignore it, but he did write one post which I thought was fascinating. In "How To Support A Same-Sex Marriage Ban Without Coming Across As A Tool," he gives hints on what to do on your blog and in your conversations with friends to lend support to the Church's position without alienating opponents of the measure.
This is a blog which has captured my interest and I hope to hear more from him in the future. Check it out!
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I guess I shouldn't be put out that ARDIS TOTALLY STOLE MY IDEA. I've been planning to do a female edition of my guessing game, so here it is, and I hope my readers aren't too bored with it. Come on, everyone, see if you can guess who these famous female eyes belong to!
Guess Who?
Can you guess all 20 of these famous peepers? (Without cheating!) Put your answers in the comments, and remember, if you post under "anonymous," include your name or your pseudonym in the comment. 
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