Joseph Smith Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1805 — 218 years ago. The anniversary of his birth today may be lost in preparing for Christmas — something that professor Daniel Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic and Islamic studies at BYU, suggested was by no means inappropriate, since Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ, not Joseph, “and don’t want to suggest otherwise.” Joseph Smith by age 24 had published the Book of Mormon, and organized what Latter-day Saints consider to be a restoration of Christ’s ancient church.
Joseph Smith Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1805 — 218 years ago. The anniversary of his birth today may be lost in preparing for Christmas — something that professor Daniel Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic and Islamic studies at BYU, suggested was by no means inappropriate, since Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ, not Joseph, “and don’t want to suggest otherwise.” Joseph Smith by age 24 had published the Book of Mormon, and organized what Latter-day Saints consider to be a restoration of Christ’s ancient church.
Latter-day Saints don’t have to be ‘nervous’ about their history, Richard Bushman and other scholars say on the anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth, and in the wake of over 18,000 pages of primary source documents about Joseph Smith being made freely available online.
News of note about Capital Region history and landmarks
Tim Blydenburgh
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Grant will help Shaker Museum project
CHATHAM – Shaker Museum was awarded a two-year, $230,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the installation of the Shaker Belief, Shaker Life, Shaker Community collection, to be presented at the launch of the museum’s upcoming facility in downtown Chatham.
Curated by Maggie Taft, the display will offer a kaleidoscopic view of American Shakerism from the religion’s founding in the late 18th century to its flourishing in the 19th century and decline in the 20th. Using selections from Shaker Museum’s collection, the exhibition will explore how Shakerism’s radical foundational values of equality, inclusion, and accessibility were pursued and experienced by members of Shaker communities, according to the museum.