A couple of weeks ago when I was in Salt Lake City I had the privilege of sitting down with two historians who work with the Joseph Smith Papers project, an ambitious documentary history effort that’s seeing another volume in print today. If you’re interested in primary sources about the founding of the Relief Society,…

Every family has one, right? The skeleton in the closet. The story that doesn’t get told. I just didn’t realize that my own family’s story would involve a touch of shame about my religion. I’m an adult convert to Mormonism, so I don’t have any Mormon ancestors to speak of. I do have one precious…

By Sarah Hogan The history of the Relief Society is riveting stuff–seriously–and a book that recounts what Mormon women have accomplished should be both fascinating and inspiring. Daughters in My Kingdom duly provides some of each. Readers are cautioned in the introduction that, “This book is not a chronological history, nor is it an attempt…

Most Americans know enough about our national history to realize that no politician running for federal office should ever have to take a religious oath or pass an orthodoxy litmus test. It’s in that pesky Constitution: Article VI, paragraph 3. So far, so good. But having freedom of religion mandated by law doesn’t mean that…

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