William D. Russell

Establishment Bias | Truman G. Madsen and Charles D. Tates, Jr., eds., To the Glory of God: Mormon Essays on Great Issues

These twelve essays are dedicated to the memory of the late B. West Belnap of Brigham Young University. Most of the writers have been or are associated with the College of Religious Instruction at Brigham…

The Rise and Fall of Courage, an Independent RLDS Journal

Dialogue 11.1 (Spring 1978): 115–119
Although Courage struck a responsive chord in quite a few hearts, its readers did not support it to the extent the editors had expected. Appealing only to a minority in a small church, and without either sufficient subscribers or a financial “angel/  Courage died after its eleventh number (Winter/Spring 1973).

A Priestly Role for a Prophetic Church: The RLDS Church and Black Americans

Dialogue 12.2 (Summer 1979): 37–50
In recent years many RLDS Church members have been proud of the fact that the church has been ordaining blacks into the priesthood since early in its history. Sometimes they have made unfavorable comparisons between RLDS policy and that of their cousins in Utah who denied holy orders to black men and women until last year when half of the restriction was lifted.

Investigating the Investigation | Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses

With over-generous portions of direct quotations, Richard Lloyd Anderson presents the reader with statements made by the wit nesses to the Book of Mormon, and statements made by others affirming their good character and the…

Swarming Progeny of the Restoration | Steven L. Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement

Did you know that James Brighouse has been, among others, Adam, Enoch, Michael, George Washington, and Joseph Smith? Did you know that Max E. Powers was in attendance at the grand council in heaven before…

Faithful History | Milton V. Backman, Jr., The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830-1839

Milton Backman, a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, has written a history of Mormon ism in Ohio in the 1830s. He appears to have consulted virtually all of the primary…

Beyond Literalism

Mormonism has, in my view, a serious theological problem with its understanding of scripture. The problem lies in the tendency to read the scriptures uncritically, and it exists in both the LDS and RLDS traditions.…

Mormondom’s Second Greatest King: King of Beaver Island: The Life and Assassination of James Jesse Strang by Roger Van Noord

Bringing Balance to Our Historical Writing: From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet by Valeen Tippetts Avery

Bring Them Unto Christ

Ordaining Women and the Transformation from Sect to Denomination

Dialogue 36.3 (Fall 2003): 61–64
Over the past forty years the top leadership of the Community of Christ church (until recently the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ o f Latter -Day Saints) has gone through significant changes in religious thought. I have contended elsewhere that the decisive changes occurred in the 1960s.

The LDS Church and Community of Christ: Clearer Differences, Closer Friends

Dialogue 36.4 (Winter 2003): 177–192
In this paper I will briefly discuss what I see as the six major differences between the two churches during the first century of their existence, and then I will look at eight new differences that have emerged over the past forty years or so. I make no claim that either is a complete list.

“He Was ‘Game'”: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel

The Remnant Church: An RLDS Schismatic Group Finds a Prophet of Joseph’s Seed

Dialogue 38.3 (Fall 2005): 26–54
When the 1984 conference approved Section 156 , which also indicated that the soon-to-be-built temple in Independence would be dedicated to the pursuit of peace, it became clear that the largest “schism”—separation from the unity of the Church—in the history of the RLDS Church was in the making.

Grant McMurray and the Succession Crisis in the Community of Christ

Dialogue 39.4 (Winter 2006): 67–90
Members of the Community of Christ were shocked when our president, W. Grant McMurray, announced that he had resigned on November 29, 2004 , effective immediately.