Today in Mormon History - May 09

[TodayInMormonHistory]

On this day in Mormon History
http://TodayInMormonHistory.com/

-- 195 years ago today - May 1831 (9 May) --
[D&C 50]
Section 50 ... After the departure of the Lamanite Missionaries to Missouri and before the arrival of Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio (February 1831), extreme spiritual abnormalities were manifested among new converts in the Kirtland area. ...

Parley P. Pratt, an eyewitness to these events, recorded the following:.

As I went forth among the different branches, some very strange spiritual operations were manifested, which were disgusting, rather than edifying. Some persons would seem to swoon away, and make unseemly gestures, and be drawn or disfigured in their countenances. Others would fall into ecstacies, and be drawn into contortions, cramps, fits, etc. Others would seem to have visions and revelations, which were not edifving, and which were not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the gospel. In short, a false and lying spirit seemed to be creeping into the Church.

To determine the nature of the spiritual workings among new converts of the Church, Elder Pratt, among others, went to Joseph Smith and asked him to inquire of the Lord concerning the matter. "After we had joined in prayer in his translating room," said Pratt, Joseph Smith "dictated in our presence" section 50.

Section 50 gave instructions on the procedure of discerning "the spirits which have gone abroad in the earth." (1)
----------------------

-- 195 years ago today - May 9, 1831 --

Joseph and Emma adopt Murdock twins (Joseph Murdock and Julia) (2)
----------------------

-- 190 years ago today - May 9, 1836 --

John Taylor and wife, Lenora, baptized near Toronto, Canada. (3)
----------------------

[John Taylor]
Baptized by Parley P. Pratt. (4)
----------------------

-- 185 years ago today - May 9, 1841. Sunday. --
[William Clayton]
Joseph preached on his side on baptism for the dead ... Afterwards a number was baptized both for remission of sins and for the dead. I was baptized first for myself and then for my Grandfather Thomas and Grandmother Ellen Clayton, Grandmother Mary [Critchley] and Aunt Elizabeth Beurdwood. (5)
----------------------

-- 135 years ago today - May 9, 1891 --

President Benjamin Harrison visits Salt Lake City and meets with Members of the First Presidency and others. Mormons make a concerted effort to demonstrate "progress" from their anti-federal-government, polygamous past. (6)
----------------------

-- 125 years ago today - Thursday, May 9, 1901 --
[John Henry Smith]
Joseph F. Smith and Brigham Young's allowance was fixed at five thousand per annum. H. J. Grant's was raised some. I was blest and set apart for my mission under the hands of all present. President Lorenzo Snow being Mouth, he gave me a good blessing. He gave me a good many promises. (7)
----------------------

-- 115 years ago today - May 9, 1911 --

The theory of uncreated, uncreatable, self-existent, conscious, immortal entities, having inherent agency, whose 'inherent nature makes them what they are,' is in conflict with direct revelation.

...

The notion that the revelation that Christ and man, 'that which is spirit,' were 'in the beginning with God' proves the co-eternity,' of them with the Father, is self-contradictory. The very words 'in the beginning with God' signify a beginning, and the added avowal that Christ was the 'first born,' shows that His brethren had their beginning as individuals after His spirit-birth.

We owe our very being to our Eternal Father, the intelligence derived from Him, our knowledge, our agency, and all our powers. This is affirmed in ancient and modern revelation and the teachings of our leaders.

The assertion that 'intelligence proceeds from intelligencies' is a mistake. It proceeds from 'the presence of God' as the light of truth to the mind as well as the eyes of man. Doc. & Cov. 88: 12, 13, 49, 50. (8)
----------------------

-- 95 years ago today - May 09, 1931 --

Barbara Woodhead (Winder), later the eleventh general president of the Relief Society, is born in Midvale, Utah.
----------------------

-- 55 years ago today - May 9, 1971 --

Mary Beth Rampton, wife of the Utah Governor Calvin Rampton, gives a talk on Mother's Day at the Federal Heights Ward in Salt Lake City: "To assist myself in [talking about motherhood], I have drawn two illustrative concepts from my study of prehistory. The first is the concept of the Mother Goddess. The Heavenly Father whom we today know and love and worship is a masculine God; but it is interesting to know that the oldest deity of whom archaeologists have found evidence is feminine Mother Goddess, whose little stone and clay figurines have been found in upper Paleolithic sites over most of the world. She was the goddess of the fruitfulness of the earth and its creatures, the source of the earth's abundant life, charged with nurture. . She became, as the centuries passed, Ninhursag, the mother-goddess of the Sumerians; the Minoan mother-goddess of ancient Crete; Demeter, the earth goddess among the older Greek gods." (6)
----------------------

-- 30 years ago today - 9 May thru 11 Jul period --
[Same-Sex Marriage]
Jack Hoag, co-Chair of Hawaii's Future Today (LDS organized lobbying group), made several public statements stating that Hawaii's Future Today would be endorsing and backing political candidates.

Hawaiis Future Today places political ads in Hawaiis two daily newspapers at a cost of over $1,000. Representative Terrance Thom, supported in these ads, wins his reelection by 54 votes. The Senate Judiciary Chair who opposed this groups political position and was opposed by the ad lost his re-election bid. (9)
----------------------


1 - Cook, Lyndon, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, http://amzn.to/RevelationsofJosephSmith
2 - Proctor, Scott and Maurine Jensen, editors, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother: Revised and Enhanced
3 - Hemidakaota, "Church Chronology from 1800-2000," http://lds.net/forums/topic/10668-church-chronology-from-1800-2000-part-1/
4 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor, Salt Lake City, Utah
5 - George D. Smith, An Intimate Chronicle; The Journals of William Clayton, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1995, http://bit.ly/WilliamClayton
6 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
7 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
8 - Charles W. Penrose, 'Origin of Intelligent Beings,' ca. 1911, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010
9 - Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59