My Life is SO Pathetic!

Ok not really. It's just me whining again. But I'm in the self-pitying mood because
a) it's winter break, and I still have one more paper to write before I can celebrate. My 3 week holiday just got cut in half, and I'm dead serious
b) most of my colleagues are done with their work, and won't be coming into the office. So lonely
c) my roommate is engaged, which means the couple spends a TON of time in my living room... talking. (Not sure how often they make out, but I don't want to know). And I'm 4 years older than my roommate but not even close to snagging a date. Don't get me wrong- I am super happy for the couple. It's just that... *sigh* I don't like to be reminded of how I'm an utter-failure in the romance department.
d) I have to look for new housing sometime because the above-mentioned couple is taking over my apartment, and NO WAY am I staying with them. Great, just another "small matter" to take care of.

So don't mind my self-pity party.

Sob sob sob. Whine whine whine.

Alright, enough. I'm still internally shuddering at the "squeals" I'm hearing from my roommate in the living room with her fiance (really REALLY don't want to know what they are doing), but I can handle that.

Now on to something happier. This past Wednesday I turned a paper for my absolutely dreadful historiography class. See THIS POST (click on hyperlink) for why it is "absolutely dreadful." I want to share part of my paper with you because I think it shows how "open-minded" the LDS Church has become over the past few decades.

1950 Mormon historian Juanita Brooks published The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Some of her conclusions were:
- The massacre was a result of mob hysteria, compounded by the fact that Utah was going through the Utah War.
- John D. Lee, whom the Church placed sole blame for the massacre, was but one of the many leaders of the atrocity (some of them went into hiding, but only Lee was brought to trail and executed for it.)
- Brigham Young did NOT order the massacre.
- However, Brigham Young was an "accessory after the fact." He tried to "cover up" the massacre, but when pressured to find the "culprit" (singular) years later, he allowed John D. Lee to take the entire blame for it.

Brooks's book was well-received in academic circles; but this book was a very sore spot for the Church. General Church authorities in SLC refused to read it; her local Church leaders in south Utah censured her, and her ward ostracized her and her husband. [Brooks still remained a faithful Mormon the rest of her life.]

Fast forward to 2008. Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard published Massacre at Mountain Meadows with the Church's full support. Turley is the assistant Church Historian, and the other 2 are practicing Mormons. Russell M. Nelson and Dallin H. Oaks even vetted the script before publications. Some of the book's conclusions:
- The massacre was a result of mob hysteria, compounded by the fact that Utah was going through the Utah War.
- John D. Lee was but one of the many leaders of the atrocity.
- Brigham Young did NOT order the massacre.
- The book stops there and does not indict Brigham Young for being "an accessory of the fact" although it does say that John D. Lee harbored bitterness toward BY for "abandoning him" in the last few months of his life.

Basically, the Church has finally acknowledged that Brooks was right in almost all of her conclusions. The LDS Church did play a part in the atrocity, and not just John D. Lee or the Indians.

So... what happened? New Mormon History happened. THIS is a good article about it, especially the first paragraph which explains what New Mormon History is. This shift from polemics to writing history factually and as objectively as possible, has transformed the writing of Mormon history.

Just a few years before Brooks published her book in 1950, she overheard one Utah Mormon historian pledge that she would purge any passages that criticize the LDS Church. Brooks disagreed, and always believed the truth, nice and ugly parts, would give the Church more credibility in the long run.

The Church has come to realize that Brooks was right, and so starting with the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, is trying to publish a more complete and accurate account of Church history, even if it means portraying the Church or leaders in negative light. Hence, full disclosure of all Joseph Smith's Paper of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, even the parts about polygamy, and other similar projects.

NOTE: Ugly parts of Church History does NOT equate to anti-Mormon material. There is a difference. See my above point about "shifting from polemics to writing history factually."

It is a great step for Mormon history.