Presidents and Prophets

*Presidents and Prophets*
Author	Michael K. Winder
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	The relationships between the Mormons and the Presidents of the United States.
Genre	Historical
Publisher	Covenant Communications
Publication date	September 2007
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	428 pp
ISBN	1-59811-452-2
OCLC	173994728
Dewey Decimal	289.3/32 22
LC Class	BX8643.P6 W56 2007

Last updated May 03, 2019

Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church is a book, spoken word album on CD, and direct-to-DVD documentary film of the same title by Michael K. Winder, a member of the Utah Board of State History. All three were published in 2007 by Covenant Communications, a division of Salt Lake City-based Deseret Book. Published during the 2008 presidential campaign candidacy of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, they provide historical context for the relationship between the Mormons and the American Presidency.

A spoken word album is a recording of spoken material, a predecessor of the contemporary audiobook genre. Rather than featuring music or songs, the content of spoken word albums include political speeches, dramatic readings of historical documents, dialogue from a film soundtrack, dramatized versions of literary classics, stories for children, and comedic material. The Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album has been awarded annually since 1959.

Documentary film nonfictional motion picture

A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. "Documentary" has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries. Documentary films were originally called 'actuality' films and were only a minute or less in length. Over time documentaries have evolved to be longer in length and to include more categories, such as educational, observational, and even 'docufiction'. Documentaries are also educational and often used in schools to teach various principles. Social media platforms such as YouTube, have allowed documentary films to improve the ways the films are distributed and able to educate and broaden the reach of people who receive the information.

The book has 43 chapters, one for each president from George Washington to George W. Bush. Each chapter explores the relationship between a President of the United States and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church). Political figures, such as Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (a member of the LDS Church), as well as academics, such as the University of Florida's Kenneth Wald, have praised it.^[1]

George Washington was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who also served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War of Independence, and he presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which established the new federal government. He has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

George W. Bush 43rd president of the United States

George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

The President of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

The documentary includes interviews with dozens of experts who share accounts about the interactions between the Mormons and presidents of the United States. Academics such as Columbia University's Richard Bushman participate, as do politicos such as U.S. Senator Bob Bennett and former Senator Jake Garn. The book's author, Mike Winder, narrates.

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. It has been ranked by numerous major education publications as among the top ten universities in the world.

Richard Lyman Bushman is an American historian and Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. Bushman taught at Brigham Young University, Harvard University, Boston University, and the University of Delaware before joining the history faculty at Columbia. Bushman is the author of Joseph Smith:Rough Stone Rolling, an important biography of Joseph Smith, and he serves as one of three general editors of the Joseph Smith Papers. Bushman has been called "one of the most important scholars of American religious history" of the late 20th century, and in 2012 a $3 million donation to the University of Virginia established the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies in his honor.

Jake Garn American politician and general

Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn is an American astronaut, politician, and member of the Republican Party, who served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D.

The talk CD is a one-hour "fireside" address, also by Mike Winder, summarizing some of the more colorful anecdotes in the book.

Reception

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Reed Smoot was a businessman and apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate in 1902; he served as a Republican senator from 1903 to 1933. From his time in the Senate, Smoot is primarily remembered as the co-sponsor of the 1930 Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which increased almost 900 American import duties. Thomas Lamont, a partner at J.P. Morgan at the time said, "That Act intensified nationalism all over the world". The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the Great Depression.

Thomas S. Monson president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a "prophet, seer, and revelator." Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.

In Mormonism, the endowment is an ordinance (ceremony) designed to prepare participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the endowment ceremony.

Boyd Kenneth Packer was an American religious leader and former educator, who served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2008 until his death. He also served as the quorum's acting president from 1994 to 2008, and was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1970 until his death. He served as a general authority of the church from 1961 until his death.

Mormon fundamentalism is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the first two presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by Joseph Smith, the founder of the movement. A second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were wrongly abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today, the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices.

The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.

Leonard James Arrington was an American author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association. He is known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History" because of his many influential contributions to the field. He was the first Church Historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 to 1982, and was director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History from 1982 until 1986.

<i>Under the Banner of Heaven</i> book by Jon Krakauer

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith is a nonfiction book by best-selling author Jon Krakauer, first published in July 2003. He investigated and juxtaposed two histories: the origin and evolution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a modern double murder committed in the name of God by brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who subscribed to a fundamentalist version of Mormonism.

The Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) is a Mormon fundamentalist group that promotes polygamy. The AUB has had a temple in Mexico, since at least the 1990s, an endowment house in Utah since the early 1980s and several other locations of worship to accommodate their members in Wyoming and Montana.

Michael Kent Winder is an American businessman, author, and politician. He was the mayor of West Valley City, Utah between 2010 and 2014. A Republican, he currently represents District 30 in the Utah House of Representatives, a position to which he was first elected in November 2016. He is the author of twelve published books on Utah and LDS history, including Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church. He has received criticism in the press for using false identities and undisclosed pseudonyms for city promotion, for a political attack, and for editing of the Wikipedia article about him.

Mormons have both used and been subjected to significant violence throughout much of the religion's history. In the early history of the United States, violence was used as a form of control. Many people of different faiths used violence in order to harass and persecute people who adhered to different religious beliefs. Mormons were violently persecuted and pushed from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois and from Illinois, they were pushed west to the Utah Territory. There were incidents of massacre, home burning and pillaging, followed by the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. Smith died from multiple gunshot wounds in a gun battle while jailed in Carthage; Smith defended himself with a small pistol smuggled to him by Cyrus Wheelock while trying to protect himself against an illegal mob. There were also notable incidents in which Mormons perpetrated violence. Under the direction of Mormon prophets and apostles, Mormons burned and looted Daviess County, attacked and killed members of the Missouri state militia, and carried out an extermination order on the Timpanogos. Other Mormon leaders led the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Battle Creek massacre, and Circleville Massacre. Mormons have also been a major part in several wars, including the 1838 Mormon War, Walker War and Black Hawk War.

The Good Neighbor policy is the 1927 reform of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that removed any suggestion in church literature, sermons, and ordinances that its members should seek vengeance on US citizens or governments, particularly for the assassinations of its founder Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum.

Will Bagley is a historian specializing in the history of the Western United States and the American Old West. Bagley has written about the fur trade, overland emigration, American Indians, military history, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and Utah and the Mormons.

Bookcraft was a major publisher of books and products for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Richard Douglas Poll was an American historian, academic, author and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His liberal religiosity influenced his notable metaphor about "Iron Rod" vs. "Liahona" LDS Church members.

Richard Eyring "Rick" Turley Jr. is an American historian and genealogist, and an Assistant Church Historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On April 26, 2016, the church announced that he would succeed Michael Otterson as the managing director of the church's Public Affairs Department, effective September 1, 2016.

Franklin Snyder Richards was the general counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was closely connected with the defense against charges of polygamy of many leading LDS Church figures.

Dean Lowe May was an American academic, author and documentary filmmaker and professor of History at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. May specialized in nineteenth- and twentieth-century social and cultural history of the American West through the study of community and family. He taught American studies as a Fulbright guest professor at the University of Bonn, Germany and Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. May was a member of the Utah State Board of History, editor of the Journal of Mormon History (1982–1985), and served as president of the Mormon History Association in 2002. May was honored as a Pioneer of Progress in Historic and Cultural Arts by the Days of 47 Celebration Committee for the State of Utah in 2002.

Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of those known by the term Mormon and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement whose members do not generally go by the term "Mormon". The Latter Day Saint movement includes not only The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but also the Community of Christ (CoC) and other groups, as well as those falling under the umbrella of Mormon fundamentalism.

This is a bibliography of works on the Latter Day Saint movement.

References

↑ Jacket cover reviews Archived 2011-01-28 at the Wayback Machine

Presidents and Prophets

Contents

Reception

Related Research Articles

References

Further reading