Latter-day Saint Perspectives

Photo via Faith Matters Philip L. Barlow is the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. He earned a PhD in 1988, with an emphasis on Religion and American Culture and on the History of Christianity from Harvard University. At Utah State he has taught courses in Religious Studies, Mormonism, and American religion. His books include The Oxford Handbook to Mormonism (co-edited with Terryl Givens) and Mormons and the Bible: The Place of Latter-day Saints in American Religion. He is also the author of “Adam and Eve in the Twenty-First Century: Navigating Conflicting Commandments in DLS Faith and Biblical Scholarship,” which appeared in the most recent issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity. On this episode, he discusses with Russell Stevenson factors in the nineteenth century that changed how scholars interpreted the Bible, including the introduction of historical criticism. Download Transcript

Nick Galieti sits down with David Archuleta and discusses what members can do for the #LightTheWorld 2017 Campaign through acts of service. David also shares experiences he has had in his career and as a missionary. ----- (Bio courtesy of official website.) David Archuleta became a star when he was just 16. In 2008 more than 30 million television viewers fell in love with his angelic voice and their 44 million votes made him runner-up in Season 7 of “American Idol.” Soon after, the young Utahan signed with Jive Records and his first single “Crush,” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of its release. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads that first week in the U.S. and subsequently more than 1.92 million digital copies. Three months later, David’s self-titled album, “David Archuleta,” went gold, selling more than 750,000 copies in the U.S., and more than 900,000 worldwide. “It was so neat to see how positive fans were about ‘Crush,’” David said of the enthusia

Tune in as Taunalyn Rutherford interviews Jenny Oaks Baker about being a mom, concert violinist, and performing with her children. America’s Violinist, Jenny Oaks Baker is a Grammy Nominated, Billboard No. 1 performer and recording artist. She received her Master of Music degree from the renowned Juilliard School in New York City and her bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Strathmore Hall, the Library of Congress, and as a guest soloist with The National Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the internationally acclaimed Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Over the years Jenny has collaborated with such luminaries as Gladys Knight, Kurt Bestor, Marvin Hamlisch, and the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Jenny has released fifteen studio albums since 1998. They have sold over half a million copies and consistently chart on Billboard.  Jenn

Richard E. Turley is the managing director of the Church Public Affairs Department. He was previously an assistant church historian, recorder, and the managing director of the Church History Department. He has written extensively on the Mountain Meadows Massacre including Massacre at Mountain Meadows with Glen Leonard and Ronald Walker and the recently released Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers with co-editors Janiece Johnson and LaJean Carruth. In this episode, he discusses with Laura Harris Hales the aftermath of the terrible massacre at Mountain Meadows. Download Transcript

W. Paul Reeve is a professor of history and the director of graduate studies in history at the University of Utah where he teaches courses on Utah history, Mormon history, and history of the US West. Recently he was named the director of the newly organized Mormon Studies program. He is an award-winning teacher and author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness among other notable books. Paul contributed a chapter to the recently released anthology The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal about Mormon History, which is a collection of scholarly reactions to the release of the records by the Joseph Smith Papers. In this interview, Laura Harris Hales interviews Paul Reeve about the early Mormon struggle for religious freedom in Nauvoo, territorial Utah, and the efforts by modern-day Mormons to prevent history from repeating itself in regards to religious discrimination in the United States. Download Transcript Featured image from JosephSmithPapers.org.

On this episode of the LDS Perspectives Podcast, Russell Stevenson interviews Elizabeth Kuehn, a Joseph Smith Papers historian and documentary editor, about one of the lasting blemishes on the Mormon Kirtland experience – the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank. Most agree that the Panic of 1837 was the proximate cause of the failure of the bank, but many have long speculated about Joseph Smith’s culpability in the episode and how the practical fallout from the collapse led to the falling away of some of Joseph’s closest associates. When we talk about bank panics, it is natural to visualize It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey has a savings and loan company and all these people run into the bank, and they want to withdraw their money. He says, “Well, you know, your money’s in this person’s home, and your money’s in that person’s home.” But this is not at all like it was within Kirtland. The Kirtland Safety Society was not a deposit bank, so it doesn’t have that It’s a Wonderful Life connection. It’

A New York native, Terryl Givens did his graduate work in intellectual history (Cornell) and comparative literature (UNC Chapel Hill). He teaches courses in nineteenth-century studies and religious themes in literature at the University of Richmond, where he is Professor of Literature and Religion and the Jabez A. Bostwick Professor of English, and he has been a Research Fellow at both Brigham Young University and the University of Oxford. An award-winning author, Givens’s work has been called “provocative reading” by The New York Times and includes By the Hand of Mormon, When Souls had Wings, People of Paradox, and a two-volume history of Mormon thought: Wresting the Angel and Feeding the Flock (Oxford University Press). With his wife Fiona, he has written The God Who Weeps, The Crucible of Doubt, and most recently, The Christ Who Heals (Deseret Book). Professor Givens has also been a commentator on CNN, NPR, and in the PBS/Frontline documentary, The Mormons. With Fiona, he makes his home in the village of M

Fiona Givens is a retired modern language teacher with undergraduate degrees in French and German and a graduate degree in European history. She is now an independent scholar who has published in several journals and reviews in Mormon studies. Along with her husband, Terryl, she is the author of The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life and The Crucible of Doubt. In this extended episode, Fiona Givens discusses one of the most important concepts restored by Joseph Smith -- a Christ who heals our woundedness. Download Transcript

The Gospel of Mark isn’t necessarily a natural choice as a favorite gospel narrative, but for Julie Smith “as a believing LDS scholar, it is Mark whose shine most attracts [her] gaze, partially because its light is often ignored.” In this interview with Laura Harris Hales for LDS Perspectives Podcast, Smith points out some of Mark’s hidden gems that may be overlooked by the casual reader. Smith maintains that the main message of Mark is the importance of discipleship. An analogy she likes to use is that to her, Mark is the stake president in California who lets a homeless family sleep in the cultural hall because he’s not much of a rule-follower kind of a guy; whereas Matthew and Luke work for CES in Salt Lake and wear a suit and would never dream of breaking a rule. That might be a little bit of a generalization, but in Mark, Jesus is very, very earthy. It’s a very human portrait of Jesus. It’s also a very divine portrait, but the human elements in some ways really stand out — particularly in contrast with

Keith Erekson, current director of the LDS Church History Library, has worked really wherever history could be found or needed. When faced with new opportunities, he’s thought, “let’s go there, and let’s see what we can do.” In this episode of the LDS Perspectives Podcast Russell Stevenson sits down with Erekson and discusses preserving the artifacts of, reconstructing, and interpreting history. “We always like to say,” declares Erekson, “‘Well, history’s 20/20. It’s hindsight.’ No, it’s not. We’re just here in 2017, and we’re doing our best.” He urges a different view. If we break that mindset that we know it all and just say, “I’m looking for the best I can find, and tomorrow I’ll find a little more — and next year I’ll find a little more,” then we don’t get discouraged when something changes because that’s the way it works: it’s always changing. We’re always learning. His experience working outside of the LDS tradition has shown him that Mormon are not so different than other social groups. We have cha

In this episode of the LDS Perspectives Podcast, Stephanie Sorensen interviews Heather Farrell about lesser known women in the Old Testament. Heather began writing about women in the scriptures shortly after the birth of her first child on her popular blog Women in the Scriptures. She is a self-taught biblical scholar and the author of two books about women in the scriptures including Walking with Women in the Old Testament, which is currently available for preorder.

Some Mormons regard Martin Luther as a kind of hero. Maybe for various reasons that could be true, but many of the things that Luther was against, Mormons would be for. In fact, Mormons have a lot more in common with Catholics than they do with Protestants. Though he has been credited for laying groundwork for the Restoration, Martin Luther actually shared few religious views in common with those of the Mormon faith, at least in regard to the subjects he cared about most. Russell Stevenson of LDS Perspectives Podcast interviewed Luther biographer Craig Harline about Luther’s motivations for questioning the Catholic Church. Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517, he defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. As if being finally fed up, Luther acted in public defiance by finally writing down his frustrations. As it turns out, Harline clarifies, the nailing of these was a routine act for professors such as Luther, and Luther was interested in debate and discuss

  Jennifer Ann Mackley is a realist. “I have children, and they don’t ask me questions,” she admits, “They go to Google.” And when they read things out of context on the internet, they can seem really weird. Take the story of Wilford Woodruff’s experience in the St. George temple. That was a moment in church history that a lot of people are familiar with, but out of context, it’s an odd story. People write about it all the time, because the founding fathers are Mormon now. That’s how they look at it, which is not what we believe. We believe that everybody needs the opportunity to choose, and Wilford Woodruff had come to the point where he said, “I have been so focused on my own family that I didn’t even think about expanding this.” It was a revelation because he learned that it’s okay for us to help each other, and we don’t just have to focus on our own biological connections. Putting these things into context, to Mackley, is vital to understanding church history and the truly remarkable revelations that o

This week we are excited to bring you a special three-part episode. We call it our social media tool box. Podcasters Stephanie Sorenson and Nick Galieti sat down with Michelle Linford, DeNae Handy, and Greg Trimble, each experts in social media, to discuss how to maximize our interactions in the age of instant communication. Michelle Linford Michelle Linford is the Executive Director of EPIK Deliberate Digital, a collaborative nonprofit focused on changing conversations and culture around issues related to kids and technology. The vision of this international-reaching collaboration is to encourage a mindset where adults and children/youth work together to deliberately use technology for good. Like many parents in the digital age, Michelle has felt the heavy responsibility of helping her children stay safe and healthy in a digital world. She has volunteered for years in the pornography prevention space, so she is keenly aware of the very real dangers and concerns parents have. But she is grateful that her w

In this episode, Laura Harris Hales visits with Thomas Wayment, LDS Perspectives Podcast’s guest on episode one, in part two of our special first anniversary double episode on the Joseph Smith Translation to discuss some impressive findings regarding Joseph Smith's Bible translation process. Dr. Wayment is currently a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, as well as publications director of the BYU Religious Studies Center. He earned his BA in Classics from the University of California at Riverside then completed a PhD in New Testament studies at Claremont Graduate University. Known primarily as a New Testament scholar, Dr. Wayment has also written extensively on the Joseph Smith Translation. He became fascinated with the document early in his biblical studies and that interest has never really fizzled. In the next year, he will have two book chapters published on new findings regarding Joseph's Bible translation process. In his recent studies, Wayment found an interesting connection

LDS Perspectives, reviews the historical background of the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) and its presence in the Doctrine and Covenants with Dr. Kenneth (Ken) Alford. This episode is part one in a special first anniversary double episode on the Joseph Smith Translation. In his days as an undergraduate at BYU, Ken Alford studied the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible in depth. After an action-packed career in the United States Army, including assignments as Strategic Leadership department chair at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., associate professor of computer science at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and serving on the Army Secretariat staff at the Pentagon, his academic pursuits have come full circle. He currently combines rigorous research with a busy teaching schedule in the department of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. The Prophet's translation of the Bible had a great influence on the earliest years of Latter-day Saint Church history.

As part of the Young Scholars Series, Laura Harris Hales interviews Bible enthusiast Daniel Smith, creator of the YouTube channel “Messages of Christ.” Smith’s channel is equal parts fascinating and popular, evidenced by its view count of over 1 million. On perusing Smith’s channel, it’s apparent that he has a particular interest that at first glance may seem a bit unusual: ancient tabernacles and its artifacts. That interest has led Smith to study and actually build them in addition to creating unique and authentic tabernacle clothing.   During his interview, Smith recounts how and why he creates tabernacle clothing, (get this: it involves a hand-built Lego machine) what exactly happened in the tabernacle in biblical times, and why it’s important for members of the church to understand it today.  Sometimes, as Smith explains, the best way to understand something is to experience it.   Tabernacle camps are popping up — typically in Youth Conferences — in stakes all over the United States. There’s even one co

Award-winning author Michael Austin, a self-proclaimed writer of an “incoherent assortment of different topics,” is anything but incoherent in his expansion on the true message found in the Old Testament’s Book of Job. The story of Job is one that will be familiar to most listeners — Job is righteous, but God tests his faith by essentially wreaking havoc on his life. Most notably, Job loses his family and his livelihood — yet he is ever-patient, never losing his temper with God. Austin, however, is here to turn what we know about Job completely upside down: Job didn’t constantly praise God in the midst of his trials, and he certainly wasn’t always patient. And that’s okay. Yet our limited understanding of Job as a person or character isn’t the only thing Austin revolutionizes. The satan mentioned in the story? That’s not the Satan. It’s not Lucifer — the Prince of the Morning, the Father of All Lies. No, it’s someone else entirely. Get ready to rethink what you know and the evils of being impatient in the

In the winter of 1836, the Kirtland temple was nearing completion, the Saints were experiencing a period of peace after persecution, and 100 church members enrolled in a seven-week, intensive Hebrew language course. Besides being one of the most ambitious CES endeavors ever, the study of a difficult foreign language seems a bit random considering some of the students lacked even a basic pioneer education. Matthew Grey has studied this period of history extensively and believes that the Hebrew study was anything but random or casual. Rather it was an outgrowth of the larger translation project that Joseph had begun in the summer of 1835. A review of church history shows that Joseph purchased scrolls and mummies from Michael Chandler in July 1835. Shortly thereafter, he translated what became known as Abraham 1 and Abraham 2 through the use of a seer stone. He then began working on a “Grammer and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language” (GAEL). In the fall, he started looking for a teacher of Hebrew for the Kirtland

Steven L. Peck is a scientist, BYU professor, and acclaimed author. In recent years he has emerged as a powerful advocate for science and evolution, publishing two books about the topic in as many years. His latest offering, Science the Key to Theology, is an impassioned plea to members of the LDS Church to teach the compatibility rather than a supposed conflict between science and religion. He reaches out to individuals who can't accept the argument for evolution to at least acknowledge that the LDS Church does not have a stated position on the topic. In teaching capacities, members have a duty to respect that position. He hopes that by removing conflicting narratives, the tension between what our youth are taught in school and what they sometimes are taught in church settings will disappear. Too many youth feel they need to make a choice between believing science and believing in religion. As a youth, Steven became less active after learning that his seminary teacher didn’t believe in dinosaurs. If there