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Three Important FAIR Conference Presentations to Help Parents, Leaders, and Other Teachers of Children and Youth

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These three presentations are important to families and Church leaders of all faiths. We hope you will watch them and share them with your Latter-day Saint, and non-Latter-day Saint, friends.

Jeffrey Thayne – “Worldview Apologetics: Revealing the Waters in Which We Swim” (transcript)

Carl Trueman – “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution”

Ed Gantt – “Agentic Sexuality: How a Latter-day Saint Perspective Can Rescue Humanity from the Tyranny of the Abstract”

Jeffrey Thayne is from BYUI, Carl Trueman is with Grove City College and is an Orthodox Presbyterian, and Ed Gantt is from BYU.

This is a reposting from a previous blog to highlight the conference presentations.

Three Conference Presentations Now Available to Help Parents, Leaders, and Other Teachers of Children and Youth

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by Cassandra Hedelius

Late last year, I started brainstorming suggestions for who we could invite to present at the 2021 FAIR conference. We usually look for presenters to counter criticisms of the church on issues like polygamy, Book of Mormon translation, and race. But in addition to these, I wanted this conference to provide more immediately vital resources for parents, building on John Gee’s excellent presentation in 2020. Children are bombarded with not only explicit arguments, but very subtle messages that shape their imaginations and moral judgment in ways that make it very difficult to accept divine authority and parental guidance. I’m the mother of three young children, and my dearest hope is to succeed at building their faith in the Lord, His church, and the prophets and other leaders He calls. I was determined to find speakers that would significantly help me and other parents like me. 

Around that time, I started reading a new book by Carl Trueman: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. I was instantly captivated by Trueman’s skill at naming and explaining cultural forces that I had dimly intuited but never fully grasped. His bracing exposition gave me the consciousness and competence I need to shape my childrens’ worldviews instead of allowing them to be shaped by the world’s philosophies. [Read more…] about Three Conference Presentations Now Available to Help Parents, Leaders, and Other Teachers of Children and Youth

Come, Follow Me Week 21 – Doctrine & Covenants 51-57

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by Hanna E. Seariac

One of the amazing elements of the Doctrine and Covenants is the way that the Lord teaches us about personal stewardship and responsibility in the scripture. Many callings are given to the saints and the faithful, where God asks them to stretch and grow to fill the capacity of their calling. While we may think about callings as a way for ourselves to grow, how often do we see them as a privilege?

We read, “And thus I grant unto this people a privilege of organizing themselves according to my laws.” (D&C 51:15). God’s commandments and covenants give us the privilege of becoming more like Him, becoming more good, becoming more loving; they compose the greatest privilege that we have in this life—to grow in the principle of perfection and love like our Savior. With that being said, my mind turns to a verse in Luke 9, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:26).

When we frame commandments and covenants as privileges that God grants to us rather than as burdens or hindrances, we can remember the words of our ancestors, “Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?/’Tis not so, all is right/Why should we think to earn a great reward/If we now shun the fight?” This acts as a guiding principle for us when we consider how the Lord calls us. Edward Patridge was given a great calling and was told, “And whoso is found a faithful, a just, and a wise steward shall enter into the joy of his Lord, and shall inherit eternal life.” (D&C 51:19). We inherit eternal life not merely because the Lord grants it to us, but because we become the type of person who could live eternally with the Lord, who brings souls to Jesus Christ, which is the work and purpose of the Lord. The Lord’s organizational structure allows us to have stewardship in specific areas to learn how to love in the way that the Lord does. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 21 – Doctrine & Covenants 51-57

Come, Follow Me Week 20 – Doctrine & Covenants 49-50

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The Story Behind the Revelations: Using the Joseph Smith Papers to Better Understand the Doctrine and Covenants

by Matt Grow & Matt Godfrey

(This is from a presentation given at the 2014 FairMormon Conference)

Matthew Grow:

It’s a great privilege to speak to you today about the Joseph Smith Papers and the Doctrine and Covenants. What I want to do is to share some thoughts as to why the Joseph Smith Papers is important to answering questions and to defending the Church, and then to share some recent research which can enlighten Latter-days Saints as they seek to understand Joseph’s revelations.

First, a brief introduction to the Joseph Smith Papers. We sing in the Church that “millions shall know Brother Joseph again.” It is our hope at the Joseph Smith Papers that we have a role in helping millions upon millions to become acquainted with Joseph.

The goal of the Joseph Smith Papers is to publish – either in print or on our website – everything that is a Joseph Smith document – that is, documents that he wrote, that he dictated, that he authorized, documents that were written to him, business records, legal records, and other things. It’s a massive undertaking.

On the day the Church was organized, the Lord declared, “Behold there shall be a record kept among you.” The early Saints took that commission seriously. We’ve now published eight volumes out of a projected two dozen. The Joseph Smith Papers is a documentary editing project that’s sponsored by the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as the Larry H. and Gale Miller Family Foundation. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 20 – Doctrine & Covenants 49-50

Who Was Hugh Nibley?: Announcing a New, Landmark Book, “Hugh Nibley Observed”

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Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4 | Post 5 | Post 6 | Post 7 | Post 8 | Post 9

Post 1 of 9

by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/

This is the first of nine weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). Each week our post will be accompanied by interviews and insights in pdf, audio, and video form — some short and some longer.

Today, April 1, is not only April Fool’s Day (an irony Hugh Nibley would appreciate), but also the eleventh anniversary since the appearance of the nineteenth and last volume of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, entitled One Eternal Round. This book was Hugh’s master work, decades in the making.

This series is our way of celebrating the availability of a new, landmark publication entitled “Hugh Nibley Observed.”[1] It is available today in softcover, digital, and audio versions, and, in May, a beautiful hardback edition. The book contains many never-before-told anecdotes and stories that weave together Nibley’s life and scholarship. We hope it will not only delight and inspire old friends already familiar with Nibley’s work but also many new friends who may have heard stories about the man but have never read anything by or about him. [Read more…] about Who Was Hugh Nibley?: Announcing a New, Landmark Book, “Hugh Nibley Observed”

FAIR Voice Podcast #31: Murder Among the Mormons with Richard Turley

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Richard E. Turley Jr. was named as the new managing director of the Public Affairs Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 26, 2016.

Prior to his appointment, he served for eight years as assistant Church historian and recorder. He also served for eight years as managing director of the Family and Church History Department, overseeing the Church Archives and Records Center, the Church History Library, and the Museum of Church History and Art, which collectively contain the world’s largest collection of resources for the study of Latter-day Saint history and one of the richest collections on the settlement of the western United States.

He also oversaw the Church’s worldwide family history operations, which include hundreds of documentary microfilming and digital-imaging projects in dozens of countries; the Family History Library, the largest genealogical library in the world; the Granite Mountain Records Vault, a secure preservation facility for copies of millions of records from around the globe; over 4,000 branch family history centers on six continents; and teams that generated highly acclaimed software and data products.In addition, he supervised the Church Historical Department from 1986 to 2000 and the Family History Department from 1996 to 2000. The two departments were merged in 2000.

Under his guidance in 1999, the Family History Department launched the popular FamilySearch.org Web site, an online resource that provides free access to some of the world’s largest genealogical databases. Under his direction, the department also issued compact disc products containing useful historical data, including the records of the Freedman’s Bank (a treasure trove of information for African-American genealogy); the Mormon Immigration Index; Vital Records Indexes from several European countries and Australia; the 1880 United States Census; the 1881 Canadian Census; and the 1881 British Census, which was awarded the Besterman/McColvin Award from the Library Association of Great Britain. During his tenure, the department furnished data to the National Park Service and the Ellis Island Foundation for populating the Ellis Island database.

Under his editorship in 2002, the Family and Church History Department published Selected Collections From the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2002), a collection of 74 DVDs containing nearly 500,000 color images of many of the Church’s most important early documents, including the Joseph Smith Collection and Brigham Young’s letterbooks. Critics have hailed Selected Collections as “the most important event in modern Mormon publishing,” “an achievement of such significance that no praise, no matter how effusive, seems sufficiently laudatory.”

Turley received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, where he was a Spencer W. Kimball Scholar. He later graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, where he served as executive editor of the law review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He also received the Hugh B. Brown Barrister’s Award, presented each year to the graduating student who demonstrates the highest standards of classroom performance.

He is a member of the editorial board for The Joseph Smith Papers and general editor of The Journals of George Q. Cannon series. His book Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992) is an oft-cited history of the famous Hofmann forgery-murder case of the 1980s. Along with Ronald W. Walker and Glen M. Leonard, he has written Massacre at Mountain Meadows, was published in 2008 by Oxford University Press.

Turley served as president of the Genealogical Society of Utah and was a member of the committee for Fort Douglas Heritage Commons, a “Save America’s Treasures” official project that served as the athlete village for the 2002 Winter Olympics and currently houses University of Utah students. He has also been a vice president of the Small Museum Administrators Committee, American Association of Museums; a member of the Utah State Historical Records Advisory Board, National Historical Publications and Records Commission; and a member of the Copyright Task Force, Society of American Archivists.

In 2004, he received the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history.

FAIR Voice Podcast #30: Come Follow Me with Brent Top

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Brent L. Top is a professor of Church history and doctrine and former dean of Religious Education. He was born and raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and served a full-time mission to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission. He received all of his degrees from Brigham Young University—a BA in history, a master’s degree in instructional media, and a PhD in instructional science and technology. Before joining the BYU Religious Education faculty in 1987, he worked for the Church Educational System as a released-time seminary teacher, an institute teacher, and an administrator. Dr. Top served as associate dean of Religious Education from 1997 to 2002. He held the endowed Professorship in Moral Education for two years before his call as president of the Illinois Peoria Mission (2004–7). He was appointed department chair in June 2009. He is married to the former Wendy Cope from Idaho Falls. They are the parents of four children and reside in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where Brother Top served as the president of the Pleasant Grove East Stake.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.

2020 Interpreter Foundation Conference

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Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses

September 18-19, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 situation, this will be a live-streaming-only conference. For updates on conference details, watch this page

Presented by
The Interpreter Foundation
Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture
Book of Mormon Central
FairMormon

[Read more…] about 2020 Interpreter Foundation Conference

Book Review: The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The Journals and Histories of Newel Knight

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Available from the FairMormon Bookstore

Newel Knight lived from September 13, 1800 to January 11, 1847. He met Joseph Smith in 1826 and remained close friends with him until Joseph’s death. He was directly involved in some of the early events in church history, so his autobiography and journals are valuable to historians. However, these have only been available in manuscript form, in several different versions, which have made them difficult to use. This book amalgamates them in a coherent form and provides a transcription that can be better understood and cited.

The book splits Knight’s writing into five parts, covering different chronological periods of his life. Each section has an introduction with a biographical summary. Editorial remarks are given in footnotes, and spelling and punctuation are generally retained, except in cases where the editors felt clarification was necessary (which to me seemed inconsistent, and in at least one case, possibly incorrect[1]).

There are many things included that are important, such as a letter from Joseph Smith that has not been published in the Joseph Smith Papers Project, Christ’s appearance in the Kirtland Temple[2], many accounts of healings, the aftermath of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the exodus from Nauvoo. Despite his human imperfections, Knight comes to life as a role model worth emulating with his tremendous faith, even during discouragement, and always remembering to be grateful for the blessings that followed.

I found this particular episode of 1839 in Nauvoo to be very interesting, involving his wife Lydia: [Read more…] about Book Review: The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The Journals and Histories of Newel Knight

FairMormon Conference Podcast #51 – Scott Hales, “The Exodus and Beyond: A Preview of Saints, Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand”

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This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2019 conference. If you would like to watch the presentations from our 2019 conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Scott Hales, The Exodus and Beyond: A Preview of Saints, Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand

You may also be interested in FairMormon Conference Podcast #49 – Angela Hallstrom, “Women’s Voices in Saints Volume 2” and FairMormon Conference Podcast #39 – Matthew McBride, “Answering Historical Questions with Church History Topics,” which are mentioned in the presentation.

Scott A. Hales has been a historian/writer for the Church History Department since 2015. He currently works as a writer and story editor for Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, the new four-volume narrative history of the Church. He has a BA in English from Brigham Young University and an MA and PhD in American Literature from the University of Cincinnati. He has published scholarly articles on Mormon and American literature in several academic journals, including Religion and the Arts and The Journal of Transnational American Studies. He currently lives in Eagle Mountain, UT with his wife and five children.

Audio Copyright © 2019 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.