Gospel Tangents Podcast

Emma wanted William Marks to be the next prophet. What happened when Brigham Young & Sidney Rigdon had other plans? William Marks was so trusted by the Smith family that he helped prepare Joseph's body for burial.  Cheryl Bruno & John Dinger, the biographers of William Marks answer. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/qC6f-U12Qys 0:00 Reactions to Polygamy 19:16 Martyrdom of Joseph 21:01 Defending Sidney Rigdon transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

Did you know Emma Smith wanted William Marks to lead the Church following Joseph's death? His is an "almost prophet." Why has this important man been forgotten in both LDS & RLDS Churches? John Dinger & Cheryl Bruno are biographers of William Marks. Their book is titled, "Come Up Hither to Zion." Check out more in our conversation... https://youtu.be/ZgLLkdmnFsg transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

In this GT Live, we'll announce the contest winner and have a chat with Dr Amanda Hendrix-Komoto! Check it out! https://youtube.com/live/c392p-_0La8

Jim Lucas & Jonathan Neville explain why they think David Whitmer's description of the translation process of Book of Mormon isn't reliable. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/TYPzopAsWyM Don’t miss our other conversations with Jim Lucas: https://gospeltangents.com/people/jim-lucas/ Joseph’s Magic Show GT  00:32  Did you finish what you wanted to say about David Whitmer? Jim  00:34  No, we've got to finish David Whitmer. Jonathan  00:36  We got sidetracked a little bit. Jim  00:38  So anyway. GT  00:38  That's what tangents are all about. Right? Jim  00:39  Right. So David Whitmer, I'll make it quick. He's in Fayette, where 78% of the Book of Mormon is translated. But he's not a translator. He's not a scribe. He was never a scribe. He never really says explicitly that he was present for the translation, except for maybe this one time when he describes everybody was there in this one account where he says, "Oh, everybody was there; all of my family, the Smiths came over, and bunch of other people. GT  01:17  He was there for the translation? Jonathan  01:18  Sidney Rigdon was. Jim  01:18  For the demonstration using the stone in the hat. So, he describes his one event. GT  01:24  Was this like a magic show? What is this? Jim  01:26  It's Joseph trying to satisfy people's curiosity by using his seer stone in the hat to try to give him an idea of how the translation is working. GT  01:36 I mean, it feels like a woman with a crystal ball: "I can see the future." I mean, is that what he's doing basically? Jim  01:42  Well, if you follow the seer stone in the hat account, that's what the whole thing was. And we're saying, no, no. That's not what the whole thing was. It was Joseph. I mean, there was an account of a cousin of the Whitmer’s was working at the Whitmer home, as a housemaid or whatever. And she was like, "What's going on upstairs? What are these two guys doing up there? This is really weird." They come down and they're all glow-y and spiritual and stuff. Something strange is going on here. I'm quitting and going home. And I'm going to tell everybody the Whitmer cousins have gone crazy, unless I'm told what's going on. So it was that kind of thing which Zenas Gurley uses this great expression "awful curiosity." And there's probably a lot of other people really [wondering,] "So what's going on? How's this work?" So, Joseph did this demonstration. He pulled out his peep stone, which was a seer stone, which he carried around with him all the time. I call it his pet rock. He really liked it. It's a beautiful stone, if it's the one the Church has in its archives. GT  02:53  The white one or the brown one? Jim  02:54  Yeah. Jonathan  02:54  The brown one. GT  02:54  Both? Jim  02:56  Well, mainly people are talking about the striped one, the brown and white striped one. Jonathan  03:01  Which Jerry says came from Wyoming or somewhere. Jim  03:04  Right, right. Jerry Grover says that that kind of a stone was in the gut of a dinosaur, and that's why it's so smooth because dinosaurs, they're like birds. They'd have these stones in their guts to help them digest, and then when they died, it fell out and so forth. So, he says that that kind of a stone would be especially rare in eastern Pennsylvania. Jonathan  03:39  Or New York. Jim  03:40  So when Willard Chase found it, you can understand that he had never seen a rock like this before. I mean, you must know rockhounds, people who like to collect rocks. So, this was a really special, neat looking rock. That's what Joseph got and carried around with him until he gave it to Oliver Cowdery. So, it was like I said. I call it his pet rock. He really loved it. It was really fun rock. And, we'll get into the Martin Harris angle of that. GT  04:12  When was this demonstration, approximately what year? Jim  04:14  This would have been during that translation process, 1829,

The Comstock Act of the 1800s is still affecting us today, especially Utah & Idaho abortion laws. Dr Amanda Hendrix-Komoto from Montana State University discusses current abortion fights in Utah and Idaho and how history influences us today. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/YBMowwjTbJ8 Don’t miss our other conversations with Amanda: https://gospeltangents.com/people/amanda-hendrix-komoto/ Comstock Act Today Idaho's Abortion Fight   Utah's Abortion Fight Widespread Agreement on Abortion   Tragic Late-Term Abortion Story Why Amanda Writes about Hard Things Last Thoughts   Ina Coolbrith & Minerva Teichert   Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

We're diving into the contentious issues of birth control & abortion. Should abortion be prevented at all costs, or do Americans support it in the life & health of the mother? Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/9ZjjwNozUuo Don’t miss our other conversations with Amanda: https://gospeltangents.com/people/amanda-hendrix-komoto/ Abortion & Reproductive Rights Trek & Menses   19th Century Methods to Determine Pregnancy Menses/Abortion in 19th Century   Lucy Stanton McCary's Abortion Killings Comstock Law Homemade Birth Control   John C Bennett transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

"Imperial Zions" discusses how Mormon in Utah interacted with Native Americans there. There are good stories, and there are bad stories, just like the rest of America. We'll dive in deeper with Dr Komoto. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/4yMZUNmdE8g Don’t miss our other conversations with Amanda: https://gospeltangents.com/people/amanda-hendrix-komoto/ Racism Against Native Americans   Stories of Native American Abuse   Can Natives Inherit from Whites?   Support Indigenous Cultures   Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

We've talked about faith crisis and schism within the LDS Church, but we haven't discussed Polynesian racism. Dr Amanda Hendrix-Komoto is a Methodist, and discusses those topics in the Methodist Community as well. We'll also dive into the story of a Utah ghost town built for Polynesians an hour west of Salt Lake City. Plus Amanda will tell the story of the prophet Joseph F Smith killing a cat in Hawaii. Why did he do it? Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/hUn7pcHhhoM Don’t miss our other conversations with Amanda: https://gospeltangents.com/people/amanda-hendrix-komoto/ Faith Crisis   United Methodist Schism   Iosepa   Joseph F Smith Killed a Cat!   Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

We're diving into the history of RLDS & LDS in Tahiti. I was surprised to learn that the Community of Christ has a large number of members in Tahiti. Why is this? Well it turns out the LDS missionaries were run off the island over polygamy, and the anti-polygamy RLDS were welcomed back with open arms! Find out more in our next conversation with Amanda... https://youtu.be/j-cXVeW3EiM Don’t miss our other conversations with Amanda: https://gospeltangents.com/people/amanda-hendrix-komoto/ Amanda's Potato History Latter Day Saints in Tahiti CoC Replaced LDS in Tahiti Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.

Mauli Bonner discusses his award-winning film, "Green Flake is His Name" at various international film festivals. The film was so successful, he was able to help erect a  monument to black Mormon pioneers at "This is the Place" Park. We'll discuss his future plans for both movies & monuments. Check out our conversation by signing up to our free newsletter at https://gospeltangents.com https://youtu.be/jS1oLX-iJ7g Don’t miss our other conversations with Mauli: https://gospeltangents.com/people/mauli-bonner Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Award Winning Movie GT  00:48  Now, I know the movie won several film festival awards. Can you talk a little bit about that? Mauli  00:53  It did. I finished making the film. granted, I had never made a film before. I never wanted to be a filmmaker. I just knew that the story needed to be told, because I worried that other people in our church, no matter what color you are, would learn about this history. And they will learn it in the wrong way: on Google, in an argument at school or at work. And what is that going to do to their faith? What is that going to do to them? And so, I wanted to make this film so that people could learn the stories of this history while connecting to the people. So, it didn't feel like we're just talking about them like they weren't actual human beings. So, I wanted to tell that story. I made the film, I put everything together: location, and getting the actors and the contracts and all that. Then the day before we're about to film, I go to lay my head down, And I was like, who's the director? I didn't book a director. So, I did everything except for book the director for the film. And so, I was like, "Okay, I've got to direct this thing." And so, this is the night before I made the film. So, I went on YouTube, then it was like, when to say action, when to say cut. I watched this little 30-minute video. That was my little master class. I got on set. And it was awesome. Because I heard, "rolling." I'm like, Yeah, I remember that.  "Sound." Yes, yes. "Speed." Okay. "And," it was just silent. And I was like, "I don't remember the silence." Then my first AD, he tapped me on the shoulder, "Sir, it's on you, sir, action." I'm like, oh, gosh. So, that's how it started. But I will tell you, I had dreamed the scenes up every night, like it was... My wife would wake me up sometimes at night saying, "You're not in a movie. You're not there." Because it was just playing in my mind. So, when I was on set, I knew every scene how it should be, how it should go. So, I directed it, threw it into film festivals. And it came back winning Best Film in every film festival that we were that we got in. GT  03:01  LA, London. Mauli  03:03  Yes, LA, London, Rome, Istanbul, Tampa, there were over 10. And then I turned my email notifications off, because it was just a lot of stuff happening. And so, it was winning Best Film, across the board. And this is people that weren't members of the Church. GT  03:22  Right. Mauli  03:22  These are people who are just hearing this history. And that told me that our history is not just black history. It's not just Church history. But this is history that connects to anyone, because stories of faith and love and overcoming the most impossible things are something that, on a human level, we can all connect with. So, yeah, it was great. GT  03:44  So, you don't have to be LDS to like this movie. Mauli  03:46  No, not at all. I didn't even put it into LDS films, because I wasn't sure how the Church folk were going to like it. I'm like, I don't know. I'll go out here first. But I did end up doing a screening in Utah. I just rented a big theater and just brought a bunch of people there. And after the film, everybody's in tears, and then hands are up in questions. And I was like, oh, okay. I can't just put this out,