LDS

Mormon Support for Same-Sex Marriage isn't a Total Surprise

by Benjamin E. Park

A historian of the Latter Day Saints explains that the church has become more willing to tolerate general expansions of rights for LGBTQ Americans at the same time as it reserves the right to dictate sexual mores within its own ranks. 

The Appeal of Multilevel Marketing to Latter-Day Saints Women

by Janiece Johnson

A popular documentary on the LuLaRoe company highlights how the history and gender norms of the Mormon church have made LDS women particularly attracted and vulnerable to multilevel marketing schemes promising income without forsaking domestic obligation.

Has BYU Canceled a Leading Historian of Mormonism?

The Neal A. Maxwell Institute appears to be disavowing its previous connections to historian Benjamin Park. Is it because of his objections to some LDS leaders' positions on LGBTQ issues and masking and vaccination in response to COVID? 

Mormon Women are Finding — and Using — Their Voices. Are Men in the Church Listening?

by Jana Riess

A new collection of essays should spark consideration of long struggles by Mormon women to claim and exercise influence in the faith. The author fears that it won't. 

How Joseph Smith and the Early Mormons Challenged American Democracy

by Casey Cep

In Nauvoo, Illinois, Smith established a theocracy, ran for President, and tested the limits of religious freedom.

Leonard Arrington’s vast journals show battles the Mormon historian had with LDS leaders

He wanted to expose the truth about the past they wanted to keep secret. 

Mormons perform baptisms on Holocaust victims

Mormons are posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims as well as grandparents of public figures like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg, despite church rules intended to restrict the ceremonies to a member's ancestors.

Historian digs into the hidden world of Mormon finances

In a new book D. Michael Quinn shows how church went from losing money to making money — lots of it.

$35 million Book of Mormon manuscript sale called the ‘biggest game-changer in Mormon history’

It was sold to the LDS church by the break-off sect, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“I’m white with the exception of the color of my skin.”

by Emma Green

In a new book Max Perry Mueller profiles blacks who became Mormons.

Conference celebrates 100 years of late Mormon scholar Leonard Arrington

Arrington was appointed church historian by LDS Church in 1972.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich out with a new book about Mormon women

by Beverly Gage

It answers the question: How the women came to embrace polygamy.

New scholarship coming to Mormon lessons, but will instructors really teach it?

For more than a century, Mormons have been telling a straightforward story of their movement's founding, prophetic leadership and believers. During the past few years, however, they have been confronted with a dramatic retelling, with fresh details, context and examples of human foibles fleshing out — and sometimes debunking — the familiar facts they have always believed.

New biography tells all about a forthright Mormon historian, Leonard Arrington, who told all

To the end of his life Arrington worried that he might face some kind of church discipline for his candid approach to the past.

LDS Church has gone from 0 to 4 historians specializing in women’s history

"We all know there is a lot of sensitivity related to questions about women in the church right now."

This Mormon pseudo-historian is why the Oregon militants are so confused about the Constitution

Constitutional scholars generally hold W. Cleon Skousen’s theories in churlish regard.

Mormon church publishes photos in push toward transparency

Mormons believe that 185 years ago, Smith found gold plates engraved with writing in ancient Egyptian in upstate New York. They say God helped him translate the text using the stone and other tools, and it became known as the Book of Mormon.

“Are there black Mormons?”

by W. Paul Reeve

Black Saints were among the first to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and have been a part of the Mormon experience from its beginnings.

New generation of historians presenting a better view of Mormonism to the world, speaker says

The comments were made by J.B. Hates at the 50th anniversary of the Mormon History Association Conference.

New Mormon mission

How to teach members the messy part of LDS history, theology