(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/08/the-book-of-moses-and-a-school-for-souls.html
Saturday, August 29, 2020
David Whitmer’s testimony, in verse
(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)
In August 1883, David Whitmer, the last surviving Witness of the Book of Mormon plates, spoke with a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the name of James H. Hart (1825-1906), who was searching, at the time, for portraits of the Three Witnesses for the YMMIA’s publication, The Contributor. Hart, who was then the Church’s immigration agent in New York City, traveled to Missouri to secure and later to return a photograph of Oliver Cowdery that was in the possession of Cowdery’s daughter. (Cowdery had died at David Whitmer’s home on 3 March 1850.) While he was there, Hart took advantage of the opportunity to interview Whitmer. As a former journalist, Hart knew Pitman short hand and took the interview down verbatim. From his Pitman notes Hart produced two articles (one of which was published in the Deseret News) and a narrative poem. On a subsequent visit, Hart read the poem to Whitmer, who, he said, approved it.
The paragraph above is adapted from “Literary Joseph Fielding Smith #09: James H. Hart’s Interview with David Whitmer,” by Kent Larsen (kindly brought to my attention by Justin Hart; James Henry Hart was his great great grandfather). The entire poem may be found in the Larsen article. Here, I cite from the conclusion of that article:
While Hart’s poetry isn’t on par with the best of his day, even among Mormons, (it is better than most) still he has moments when his reworking of Whitmer’s words adds some power, if not beauty:
- “If this be not truth, there is no truth,
- And I have been mistaken from my youth.
- If I’m mistaken, you may know from hence
- That there’s no God, no law, no life, no sense.
- “I know there is a God-I’ve heard his voice,
- And in his power and truth do still rejoice;
- Though fools may ridicule and laugh to-day,
- They yet shall know the truth of what I say.
I particularly like these two stanzas, which seem to me like the heart of the poem:
- “No tongue can tell the glory and the power
- That was revealed to us in that blest hour.
- The plates of brass and gold, with angel’s care,
- Were placed before us as we waited there.
- “We saw the fine engravings on them, too,
- And heard the voice declare the book was true.
- And what we saw and heard was by the grace
- Of Him who died to save the human race.
And surely Hart’s description of the gentile doctor (apparently Oliver Cowdery’s son-in-law and Whitmer’s Nephew-in-law, Dr. Charles Johnson) should be better known:
- I asked a Gentile doctor, and was told
- That David Whitmer’s word was good as gold.
- “His honesty is fairly crystallized-
- His name will ever be immortalized.
- “Although its all a mystery to me,
- I know he’s honest as a man can be;
- I’d stake upon his word my very life,
- And so would this my good and noble wife.”
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/08/david-whitmers-testimony-in-verse-2.html
Was Sidney Rigdon in on the creation of the Book of Mormon?
(by Dan Peterson sic et non blog)
John Wickliffe Rigdon, a son of Sidney Rigdon, left a memoir of his father. It was published as Karl Keller, ed., “‘I Never Knew a Time When I Did Not Know Joseph Smith’: A Son’s Record of the Life and Testimony of Sidney Rigdon,” in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 1/4 (1966): 15-42. Here is something from pages 41-42, where John tells about his return from Utah Territory — he had not been positively impressed — and about a conversation with his father:
Soon after I got home, I told him the state of affairs in Salt Lake and, as it was all a humbug, I wanted to know how the Book of Mormon came into existence, for he owed it to his family to tell all he knew about it and should not go down to his grave with any such grave secrets. He said, “My son, I will swear before God that what I have told you about the Book of Mormon is true. I did not write or have anything to do with its production, and if Joseph Smith ever got that [i.e., the Book of Mormon], other [than] from that which he always told me ([that is,] that an angel appeared and told him where to go to find the plates upon which the book was engraved in a hill near Palmyra), Smith guarded his secret well, for he never let me know by word or action that he got them differently, and I believe he did find them as he said, and that Joe Smith was a prophet, and this world will find it out some day.” I was surprised, [for he was] smarting under what he thought was the ingratitude of the Church for turning him down and not having been with them for over 25 years. I must believe he thought he was telling the truth. He was at this time in full possession of his faculties. What object had he in concealing the fact any longer if he did write it? My father died in 1876 at the age of 83, a firm believer in the Mormon Church. After my father’s death, I told Mother what my father had told me about the Book of Mormon. She said, “Your father told you the truth. He did not write it, and I know, as he could not have written it without my knowing it, for we were married several years before the book was published, and if he wrote it, it must have been since our marriage. I was present and so was your sister Athalia Rigdon, who was a girl of about ten years old when the book was presented to your father, and she remembers the circumstances as well as any recollections of her life.”
In the summer of 1904, John W. Rigdon did in fact join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being baptized in the Hudson River. Here is a report of remarks that he made on 12 March 1905 in New York City. Fred J. Pack and Sadie Grant Pack, who were there, provided a summary that was published in the April 1905 issue of the Improvement Era. Here’s an extract from their account:
In the early sixties, [he gave the year] I went to Idaho and thence to Salt Lake City. Eliza R. Snow and others tried to induce me to join the Church, but I did not, and came home to the east rather poorly impressed with the Utah people. I determined to ascertain from my father whether he knew anything in regard to the origin of the Book of Mormon other than had been made public, and if such were unfavorable to the Church I should make it known. My father was then in his last years, and I found him as firm as ever in declaring that he himself had nothing whatever to do in writing the book, and that Joseph Smith received it from an angel. On his dying bed he made the same declaration to a Methodist minister.
I myself well remember when Parley P. Pratt brought the book to my father’s house, and presented it to him, and I also know that this was the first time that my father ever saw it. My sister, some nine years older than I, testified to me a few months ago that she also remembers when the book was first seen by our father. My mother has also told me that father had nothing whatever to do with the writing of the book, and that she positively knew that he had never seen it until Parley P. Pratt came to our home with it. These testimonies have clung to me ever since, and I could not forget them.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2020/08/was-sidney-rigdon-in-on-the-creation-of-the-book-of-mormon.html
Friday, August 21, 2020
What did Brigham Young actually say? Church History series examines shorthand discrepancies
(by Lindsey Williams ldsliving.com 10-19-20)
Chances are you have heard of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Who you may have not heard of is George D. Watt—the transcriber who was present for and recorded many of President Young’s teachings and published them as the Journal of Discourses.
In a new series for the Church History website, historian LaJean Purcell Carruth examines some of the discrepancies introduced into the transcriptions found in the Journal of Discourses. Carruth is a professional transcriber of documents written in Pitman shorthand, the method employed by Watt. Pitman shorthand used “straight and curved lines, circles, and other marks to represent the sounds of words spoken, and it allowed skilled reporters to quickly record a speaker’s word verbatim.”
When Carruth started to transcribe the original shorthand, she found that “the sermons published in the Journal of Discourses and in the Deseret News often differ significantly from what speakers actually said according to the original shorthand record.”
In the first installment of the series, Carruth discusses why the differences may exist. The second part of the series discusses some of the changes, such as changes in first person to second or third person and grammatical changes. The third part of the series continues to address some of the changes, such as changing questions to statements (and vice versa), added and omitted text, and more.
Read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series from the Church History website.
https://www.ldsliving.com/What-did-Brigham-Young-actually-say-Church-History-series-examines-shorthand-discrepancies/s/93256
Chances are you have heard of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Who you may have not heard of is George D. Watt—the transcriber who was present for and recorded many of President Young’s teachings and published them as the Journal of Discourses.
In a new series for the Church History website, historian LaJean Purcell Carruth examines some of the discrepancies introduced into the transcriptions found in the Journal of Discourses. Carruth is a professional transcriber of documents written in Pitman shorthand, the method employed by Watt. Pitman shorthand used “straight and curved lines, circles, and other marks to represent the sounds of words spoken, and it allowed skilled reporters to quickly record a speaker’s word verbatim.”
When Carruth started to transcribe the original shorthand, she found that “the sermons published in the Journal of Discourses and in the Deseret News often differ significantly from what speakers actually said according to the original shorthand record.”
In the first installment of the series, Carruth discusses why the differences may exist. The second part of the series discusses some of the changes, such as changes in first person to second or third person and grammatical changes. The third part of the series continues to address some of the changes, such as changing questions to statements (and vice versa), added and omitted text, and more.
Read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series from the Church History website.
https://www.ldsliving.com/What-did-Brigham-Young-actually-say-Church-History-series-examines-shorthand-discrepancies/s/93256
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Bullfighting priest
(from the Club Aficionados Practicos Taurinos Facebook page, July 12th)
El Cura de Aliseda debuta como Aficionado Practico de Resina antes Pablo Romero, durante nuestro curso de este fin de semana.
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I still haven't heard from anyone or found out if the Church has any policy, especially in Spain, on attending bullfights be it for members or missionaries.
I had a friend that went to Rome on his mission and they were allowed to attend one professional soccer game in Rome while on their mission. I wonder if missionaries in Spain are allowed to go to one bullfight if they want.
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