Recently I began studying the life of William Wines Phelps for my Doctrine and Covenants class. Many of you readers probably know him simply as W.W. Phelps. While searching for sources and information about him I accidentally stumbled upon one of the most fascinating resources on church history that I've ever seen.
If you are even remotely interested in Church History then you HAVE to check this out. http://www.scribd.com/LibrarianOfLight
This person has scanned in tons of documents from the early church history. One of my favorite things I've looked at so far is the 1844 edition of the Hymnal. For many years I've been trying to find the original lyrics to some of the earlier church hymns. Growing up I had heard fables and legends about various hymns having lyrics changed. The story I heard the most was about Praise to the Man. Basically, the rumor was a line was changed because it was "too violent and morbid". So being the person that I am, I was excited to go and look if they had changed it or not. Unfortunately this edition was from 1844, so it's too early for Praise to the Man. I did however find some awesome changes to one of the most popular Mormon hymns of all time: The Spirit of God.
In the modern version of The Spirit of God, verse four is as follows:
How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion
Shall lie down together without any ire;
And Ephraim be crown'd with his blessing in Zion,
As Jesus descends with his chariots of fire!
In the Original version verse four is:
We’ll wash and be wash’d, and with oil be anointed
Withal not omitting the washing of feet:
For he that receiveth his PENNY appointed,
Must surely be clean at the harvest of wheat.
It turns out that our current verse four, is actually verse six of the original. Verse four and five of the original are now no where to be found! The original verse 4 is reference to the temple as well as a parable found in the new testament about the laborer in the vineyard. In the parable all the workers are paid the same no matter when they started the work.
Verse 5 of the original:
Old Israel that fled from the world for his freedom,
Must come with the cloud and the pillar, amain:
A Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua lead him,
And feed him on manna from heaven again.
I think it's a bummer we don't have these verses in the hymn anymore. I can understand why the would remove them, but still... I think we should have left it as it was if only for history's sake.
This leads me to another topic: Mormon history. Many times we say to people "if you want to know about Mormons, ask a Mormon." I think that's generally true if you want to know about Mormon doctrine. I am convinced though, that if you want to know anything about Mormon history, you need to ask a non-Mormon. If there is anything I have learned while researching church history, it's that we really pick and choose what goes into our Sunday School Manual. I understand we have good reason to though: there is A LOT of history, and a lot of it isn't that important, and some of it isn't 100% reliable. I still think we dumb down our history way too much and are afraid of teaching our members the more controversial matters. The church made great strides when the published the two year Joseph Smith Sunday School manual though. For the first time people were hearing stories that had not really been told much. They also got to read and hear doctrines they may not have been very familiar with. I have to applaud the church for that. I hope I don' come off as a "don't trust the church they are telling you lies!!!!" rant or something. I'm just writing down my observances. There are plenty of Mormons who know their church history and the church does go through great effort to teach us it. But at the same time, I do think we avoid many subjects out of a fear of misunderstanding, or that it might be a "testimony breaking" subject.If it is a testimony breaking subject, it's probably because we don't talk about it enough. If members knew about it, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Things you won't probably won't learn about in Sunday School:
Joseph Smith and Polygamy (the church never mentions any of his other wives)
Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis (two African Americans who held the priesthood during Joseph Smiths life)
Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon by looking into a hat (yes, this really did happen and is well documented. It's not as weird as it sounds though)
Mountain Meadows Massacre (the Ensign has had a few articles about this though)
If you ever hear an outlandish thing about the church, I'd be willing to be there's an 80-90% chance that it is true. You may not realize it or know about it though. There's also an 80-90% chance that what you hear has been twisted in a bad light. I suggest checking out www.fairlds.org for any question on church history or controversial doctrine topics you may have. This has helped me, as well as many non-member friends, understand many things about the church. FairLDS is a group of Mormon Apologists who research just about everything and write up reports, articles, and papers about it. fairlds and a MormonWiki as well, which is basically the coolest wiki ever.
Once again, check out www.fairlds.org
It's fantastic. You'll love it.
I really hope no one is offended by this or misunderstands what I was trying to communicate. I know things like this can sometimes be a touchy subject. If you have any concerns or questions let me know! :)
That's my concerns when people think/talk about history. It's always a presentation of facts, not how things actually were. And I'm a history teacher so I have a little leverage to talk.
ReplyDeleteYou've probably heard the phrase, "victors write history" and it's true. But any type of history is going to be washed through many other people's filters before it gets to you.
Did you know that whole sections of Anne Frank's diary were edited out because the content was deemed too graphic for audiences? They JUST released this last year. We are presented history the same we are presented a play.
You were very fair in your observations. I know for a fact that when I was doing research into the church I came across things that are never, ever talked about. Let alone taught in Sunday School.
I have always believed that if someone's testimony can be easily swayed by someone else then their testimony was weak to begin with.
Oh my gosh Izzy, this was amazing!!! I went on a church history trip when I was 17 and I was absolutely amazed at what I didn't know. Those hymns are pretty cool too! Verse four is definitely my favorite.
ReplyDelete