Just two weeks ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the first volume of its long-awaited history of the church series, Saints: The Standard of Truth. Written as an engaging narrative, this book covers events in church history beginning in 1815 and concluding in 1846 as the Saints were forced out of Nauvoo and heading to Iowa to prepare to embark the next year on their westward migration.
The book includes like nothing before in official church history many stories about women—of their heroism, brilliant minds, and spiritual depth—who contributed mightily to the establishment and survival of the early church. It introduces many stories of immigrants and black Latter-day Saints, and their faith and successes in helping build and shape the Restoration. This new official church history volume is also especially notable for how it includes many details (often viewed as difficult and faith-dampening) about persons and events that are likely unknown to most Latter-day Saints. These include: an unprecedented-in-church-curricula amount of forthright attention to Joseph Smith’s involvement in treasure seeking, an expanded First Vision depiction that is woven together and harmonized from Joseph’s four first-hand accounts of what he experienced in the grove; a story of the translation of the Book of Mormon that includes his use of a seer stone and a hat in bringing it forth; the failures of the Kirtland Safety Society and Zion’s Camp (referred to in the volume as the Camp of Israel); Joseph’s own personal engagement in polygamous marriages; the Saints’ own sometimes aggressive behavior that fueled escalations of violence against them; questionable decisions regarding calling certain individuals to high positions within the church, as well as choosing to destroy the press that printed the Nauvoo Expositor, which led quite directly to Joseph’s and Hyrum’s martyrdom.
We are thrilled and blessed to have the voices and perspectives of brilliant panelists in this two-part episode. They are the wonderful Megan Burnside, David E. MacKay, Brittney Hartley, and Cristina Rosetti. In Part 1 (Episode 507), they focus on the project itself and the approach to its history the church has chosen to take, their sense of the project’s contributions along with areas in which it falls short, and their takes on what seem to be the church’s primary goals in creating this series and how successful they think they will be met through an effort such as this. In Part 2 (Episode 508), they focus in on specific stories in the volumes and the choices that were made regarding what to leave in, what to leave out, why the church might have chosen to emphasize the reading of historical documents the way they did, over and against other options (some fairly well known but passed over here in favor of others). In every instance and comment, the tremendous intellects and good, good hearts of each panelist shine brightly.
Please listen and enjoy!
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Link:
To read Saints: The Standard of Truth online, click here
Printed editions are available at Church Distribution Centers and at many bookstores that sell LDS-related items.
To purchase (an overpriced but conveniently shipped copy—ha ha!) through Amazon, you can click here
Comments 9
I realized I never addressed the David E. MacKay clarification that Dan asked right at the beginning of the podcast introduction. I figure I’ve answered that questions so many times before I don’t have to anymore. 🙂 Ernest is my Middle name and my last name is spelled differently and as far as I can go back on my family history I have no relationship with David O. McKay. Yes, I often get asked if I have some relationship with him and Sadly I don’t.
Cheers everyone, it was very enjoyable for me to be on with you all.
Thank you. I enjoyed the discussion. David eluded to a statistic that 73% of 21+? year old members are considered less active. Could you please give the source for that? I could use it in some things I am working on. Thanks in advance.
https://religionnews.com/2016/10/05/leaked-worldwide-only-25-of-young-single-mormons-are-active-in-the-lds-church/
http://mormonprimer.com/
Scroll down until statics show up, although the source of that static isn’t cited. So I’m pretty sure it’s using the above link that says only 25% of youth are active by the age of 21.
Hope that helps or is enough. If you are interested in more references I can search around a bit more.
Yes Lynn, that conclusion must have been drawn up by Jana Reiss – in Next Mormons study that she conducted.
She has been on Mormon Matters too I believe. That is the only study that reveals this statistic. But I find it to be true for the Ward that I am in.
I would however like your opinion if you agree with the conclusion that this study reached.
https://leadinglds.org/are-more-people-leaving-the-church/
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-next-mormons-9780190885205?cc=us&lang=en&
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/863062971/the-next-mormons/posts/2189253
My comments don’t seem to appear.
But this is a pretty good podcast on this topic.
https://leadinglds.org/an-lds-leaders-guide-to-millennial-mormons/
https://religionnews.com/2016/10/05/leaked-worldwide-only-25-of-young-single-mormons-are-active-in-the-lds-church/
http://mormonprimer.com/
Scroll down until statics show up, although the source of that static isn’t cited. So I’m pretty sure it’s using the above link that says only 25% of youth are active by the age of 21.
Hope that helps or is enough. If you are interested in more references I can search around a bit more.
David MacKay,
I had a hard time getting through Rough Stone Rolling as well until I found an audio version that was released recently on Audible/Amazon. Check it out and you’ll be finished 29 hours from now!
Jared
I might be too stingy to pay for the audio version, but I have been considering it.
Thanks for the tip.
Been enjoying the podcast. One of your guests made a statement that seemed a mistake to me, so I dug into the historical record to verify. Your guest had been disturbed that “Saints” on page 448 had Joseph Smith saying “I now have the key by which I can do it” when she felt that the authors should have instead included Joseph’s statement about Joseph “turning the key to you”, implying that the authors had chosen a less controversial variant of Joseph’s statement.
It sounded to me like “Saints” was referring to a different statement by Joseph Smith and not some variant of the “turning the key” statement. That is in fact the case. “Saints” on page 448 is quoting from the Sarah M. Kimball reminiscence of March 17, 1882, in which she is remembering the events in early March 1842 when Sarah Kimball and others were contemplating forming some society to help relieve the temple workers. Joseph Smith was communicating that he had something grander in mind and that “I now have the key by which I can do it.”
Later, after the initial few meetings of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, on April 28, 1842 Joseph Smith was instructing the Relief Society when he made the statement recorded in the minutes as “I now turn the key to you in the name of God and this Society shall rejoice and knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time.” In fact, “Saints” even includes this latter quote on page 452.
So, we have two different statements by Joseph Smith on two different occasions relating to “keys” and the Relief Society, both of which are quoted in “Saints.”
On this topic, something I found interesting in the Relief Society minutes from this meeting of April 28, 1842 is that earlier in his instruction, Joseph Smith is reported to have “spoke[n] of delivering the keys to this Society and to the church— that according to his prayers God had appointed him elsewhere.” Rather than turning keys to the Relief Society, as he was reported to say later in the meeting, at this point he talks of delivering the keys to both the Relief Society and the Church. “Saints” does not include this statement in its discussion of Joseph’s early teachings to the Relief Society.