Emma Smith and the Church

This week’s thought comes from D&C 25. This is what is known to my D&C teacher as a proto-patriarchal blessing or a (PPB for short). (A Patriarchal blessing is something that we receive to help us understand that God has a plan for us, and declares our Abrahamic lineage, blessings, and warnings.) This revelation by Joseph is to Emma Smith. But what we don’t know are the background behind it and what it means for women generally. First there were two feminist groups around that wanted to liberate women. The first are the Shakers. The Shakers are some of the people that were the most vocal critics of mormon women’s liberation because not only do they not believe in marriage, they don’t believe in procreation. I wanted to ask how they got new members, but I didn’t. Then the Oneida group believed in liberation with free love. No marriage, no exclusive partners, no responsibility. Additionally, it’s important to mention that women were considered the property of their fathers and then their husbands. That means they never had any personal responsibility. If they were to be punished, their husband was punished publickly and then they were punished in the home. We learned of a court case wherein a husband beat his wife to death. He was tried by a jury of 12 men because women weren’t able to vote so couldn’t be citizens. He was exonerated. He didn’t mean to, and she deserved it. Taken in that context, D&C 25 is pretty interesting: there’s a ton of good, women-friendly doctrine. Like you’re responsible for yourselves, husbands are supposed to help around the house, and women are allowed to speak to the whole body of the church. That was at a time when women were only allowed to teach the other women and the children. Our church was a vanguard for women’s rights. The first female mayor, state senator, and somebody else important – they were all LDS. And when you think about it, Emma was given responsibility for probably one of the most important scriptures we have – the hymnal. Prof H. pointed out that we have meetings without quoting the book of mormon or the bible or the D&C. When was the last time we had a meeting without singing a hymn? Can’t remember it? Neither can I.

The Book of Mormon is the Fulness

Ok, so for the spiritual thought today: we were talking about D&C 6 &9 today in class. In 6, Oliver Cowdery is told he will be able to translate – “whatsoever you desire shall be given you”. In 9, the Lord takes the gift away from Oliver “ you took no thought save it was to ask me”. We have always thought Ollie went down in history as being a complete failure. That’s not necessarily true. There is record of 28 words written in Joseph Smith’s handwriting in Alma 28. That is approximately where they would have been historically due to the date of the revelations and other things historians have tracked. My prof suggested that those 28 words were written by Joseph and translated by Ollie. What that means is that he successfully did it. What happened? Same as Peter. Peter walked on water and then his faith faltered. I think (because I thought of this analogy even before the prof suggested it) that it’s the same situation. Ollie tried, succeeded and then faltered. Anyhow, I thought that was cool. Also, we talked about how the book of mormon is the fullness of the gospel. The bible is a skeleton – it tells you what to know, but not how to know it or what to do with it. Not only that, the BoM provides application – example that makes it very clear what the gospel is. There are 3 specific chapters wherein the gospel is stated in its entirety. And the rest of the book is expounding on how to live: 2Ne 31, 3Ne 11, and 3Ne 27. For example: baptism. We know Jesus was baptized, we presume he was baptized by immersion, but we wouldn’t know how or even what to say if it weren’t for the BoM. So the BoM contains the fullness. It puts the meat on the bones. So my challenge to you is look for instances in which the Book of Mormon clarifies the Bible and it may be necessary to even look for vagueness in the bible. But the Book of Mormon helps us understand the bible in ways that other religions can't.