If you opted to connect with a good book instead of joining with us for our September 12 – 15 annual conference in “Southern Utah’s Desert Outpost,” we are sorry we missed you. It had diversity in landscape, history, and thought. While it may have felt like an “outpost” for many, since it was so far away from the home of our organization in Independence, MO, it also became an oasis in beautiful Red Rock country as we gathered with so many friends and associates in the airconditioned conference center. It was the introvert’s opportunity to blend in with the extroverts.
We heard from our illustrious former president, Lachlan E. Mackay, during his Howard Lecture as he traced the New Mormon History from Fawn Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith to its current impact on the transformative events of this past year. We also heard from Marlin K. Jensen as he chronicled his efforts and those of others to tell the whole story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and bring about a formal apology and reconciliation for the murders that happened there. They will both be “must read” articles in our association’s journal.
Conference Tours
Gary Bergara’s photograph captures tour guide Bryan Buchanan with past JWHA president Newell Bringhurst and president elect Matt Harris in a Short Creek schoolhouse discussing the FLDS community.
Conference Tours
Both of this year’s conference tours gave an unprecedented opportunity to learn from scholars about the events and settings of encounters with two aspects of the Smith-Rigdon Restoration movement’s encounters with peace and violence. Bryan Buchanan led a tour to the Short Creek community where members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave unprecedented access to their community. Visitors went to their schoolhouse, the cemetery, and other places that helped them learn the story of government conflict and their faith.
At the same time Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown took two busloads to the site of the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre where they learned about the violent murder of an Arkansas emigrant train and recent efforts at reconciliation. Some of the descendants of victims of the massacre were on these buses and shared their own thoughts on reconciliation.
Eric Rogers captured this moment in a photograph when tour guide Barbara Jones Brown introduced Kenny Hightower, a descendant of massacre victim Milam L. Rush. Kenny
talked about how attempts to tell the whole story and reconcile have influenced his family for good.
Richard Turley and Glen Larson at Mountain Meadows Massacre healing quilt.
Frank Lockwood, a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette attended the conference online and wrote a series of articles about the conference, our Best Book Award, the tours, and attempts at reconciliation, they are featured here.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/sep/20/lds-church-members-join-with-descendants-of/
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/sep/21/book-details-cover-up-search-for-justice/
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/sep/21/historian-offers-lessons-from-1857-massacre-of/
He plans on attending next year’s conference in Independence in person and writes: “If anyone knows of any Latter-day Saint/Community of Christ/Restorationist movement stories with good Arkansas angles, I’d love to hear about them. I can be reached at flockwood@adgnewsroom.com or at (501) 908-5204.”
We also had Brian Patrick, an award-winning documentary film director, and his crew at the conference filming parts of the conference and a session of the tour. His work in the past on the Holocaust and on the Mountain Meadows, Massacre have shown efforts to find peace through history. He will feature our conference in a future documentary. Watch for it!
Presidential Address
Kyle Walker’s Presidential Address continued the theme of peace as he discussed efforts at peace between descendants of the Joseph and Lucy Smith family and Saints in the Intermountain West. Those who attended the conference had ample opportunities to find peace in both the past and the present.
