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Valentine’s Day, a Day to Love

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Image by Freepik. Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day to express love to those around us. But did you know that it started out as a pagan fertility festival? It took place each year on February 15. Then the Roman emperor Claudius II killed two Christian martyrs—each named Valentinus—on February 14 of different years in the third century. Later the pope honored those martyrs with a holy day, or holiday, called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine. Links to Romantic Love So how did such a holy day become linked to romantic love? According to Danielle Bernock of Christianity Today , in 1375 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the poem “Parliament of Foules” (Parliament of Fowls), linking the beginning of birds’ mating season (mid-February) with courtly romantic traditions. Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” In those early centuries, Valentine’s Day became a time to express
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Dream of Equity and Freedom: Martin Luther King Jr.

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“I Have a Dream.” This powerful declaration by Martin Luther King Jr. more than 60 years ago continues to move, inspire, and motivate those who believe in and love equity in the world today. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This is a solemn time to remember and renew his hope and our hope that this dream of equity can become reality for a better America for all people. Recognizing the Dream On August 28, 1963, King delivered his famous “I have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He quoted the bold words of the Declaration of Independence and reminded listeners that some of those promises had yet to be fulfilled, especially to people of color. Still, he held tightly to the promise of those words: Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evide
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The Precious Present

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Elderly man in Florence, Italy. Photograph by Matteo Vistocco, Unsplash. An old man in the neighborhood was peaceful. Neighbors wondered what his secret was. He was not healthy or wealthy. Having no family nearby, he spent much of his day alone. But he expressed genuine interest in all around him, and he seemed to relish each new day. When a young boy asked him why he was so happy, the man replied that it was because he had the precious present. The boy wondered what the present could be. Could it be a bicycle? Some other great toy? He wished he could have the same gift. Over years, the old man offered clues to help the boy discover the secret to what the “precious present” meant: “The present has nothing to do with wishing.” “When you have the present, you will be perfectly content to be where you are.” “The present is not something that someone gives you. It is something that you give to yourself.” Then one day it dawned on the boy what the old man m
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The Pacific War and Rise of the Church in Guam and Micronesia

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R. Devan Jensen and Paul A. Hoffman From a presentation at the Mormon History Association conference at Rochester, New York, on June 10, 2023. Today let’s talk about war—and peace, the transition from Pacific battlefields to sacred temple grounds. The Great Depression triggered terrible hardships in Japan that led the Japanese to seek military solutions, aggressively colonizing northern China and Micronesia. “In the 1930s, the Japanese military capitalized on the [Micronesian] islands’ strategic location, with plans to make them a springboard for expansion into the Central and Southwest Pacific.” Indeed, “the Japanese launched the early air and sea attacks of their Pacific campaign from Micronesia.” The morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the US military in Hawai‘i and Guam (in Guam it was December 8 because of the international date line). Shown here is the USS Arizona ablaze with 1,000 crewmen trapped below deck, including my second cousin Ensign Howard Merri
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Review of Saints, Vol. 2: No Unhallowed Hand, 1846–1893

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Review of  Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days . Volume 2,  No Unhallowed Hand, 1846–1893 General editors: Matthew J. Grow, Jed L. Woodworth, Scott A. Hales, and Lisa Olsen Tait. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2020. Paperback, first printing, 833 pages. Reviewed by Devan Jensen, executive editor at the BYU Religious Studies Center No Unhallowed Hand ranges widely, beginning with the  Saints’ expulsion from the Nauvoo area, their travels to the Great Salt Lake Valley, the recruitment of the Mormon Battalion, and the challenges of settling Utah’s Wasatch Front, including working through tense relations with indigenous people and the federal government. Thousands of pioneers crossed the Great Plains, seeking to build dugouts and frontier homes in the Great Basin. Sam Brannan, an emigrant leader, urged all to keep traveling to San Francisco. He was overruled by Brigham Young, president of the Quorum of the
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When Did Latter-day Saints Start Leaning Republican?

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In the United States, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disbanded its “People's Party” in 1891. Church leaders invited members to join either the Democrats or the Republicans. These leaders wanted to become more mainstream and help the cause of Utah statehood. They also thought that political diversity could help members shape local and national elections. That contest to win voters to the two major political parties created more heat than light. In the April 1892 general conference, President Wilford Woodruff counseled the Saints to stop fighting. “Every man has as much right—prophets, apostles, saints, and sinners—to his political convictions as he has to his religious opinions,” he said, adding, “Don't throw filth and dirt and nonsense at one another because of any difference on political matters" (“General Conference,”  Deseret Evening News , 5 April 1892, 4). At that time, many felt that believing members could o
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No One Knows My Editing

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Patty and I at the Provo Utah Temple. “No man knows my history,” Joseph Smith Jr. said, later adding, “I don’t blame any one for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I would not have believed it myself” ( http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-e-1-1-july-1843-30-april-1844/351 ). With a nod to Joseph Smith, no one knows my editing! All my jobs have been marvelous adventures. I started my career at Deseret Book, the Church Curriculum Department (now Publishing Services), and the  Ensign  magazine. Then in 2001 Richard Draper, a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, hired me to help take the Religious Studies Center, in his words, to “a higher level of professionalism, efficiency, and organization.” We have certainly done that, and we continue to grow. Over the years, publications directors such as Richard Draper, Richard Holzapfel, Robert Millet, Richard Bennett, Dana Pike, Thomas Wayment, Scott Espl
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