Episode 46 – Great Awakenings

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Camp meeting of the Methodists in N. America
/ J. Milbert del. ; M. Dubourg sculp. 1819. LOC

This week we delve into a topic we’ve been promising to cover for some time, the Second Great Awakening. This was the religious movement in the United States that spawned the Mormons and Adventists as well as the evangelical factions of more mainline churches. It truly was a time when American Christianity came into its own. As always, though, we’ll complicate things a bit and talk about the First Great Awakening and other religious movements before the founding of the United States.

Episode 45 – A History of Mormonism in America – Part 2

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The Brigham Young Monument (or Pioneer Monument, a bronzed historical monument located on the north sidewalk of the intersection at Main and South Temple Streets of Salt Lake City, Utah. It was originally erected in the center of the intersection of Main and South Temple streets in 1897, where it stood until 1993, when it was moved a few yards north to its present location near the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

This week we wrap up a very brief introductory history of Mormonism in America. We continue the story from the previous episode with the church’s reaction to the murder of Joseph Smith. We trace the rise of Brigham Young and the infamous Utah War. We end with the twentieth century church and its transition from fringe group to conservative religion.

Episode 44 – A History of Mormons in America – Part 1

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The Kirtland Temple was the first temple built by the LDS Church. Construction began in 1833 and was finished three years later. Only a few years after it was built, the LDS Church lost ownership of the temple to a break-off group, now known as the Church of Christ. The temple is still in use by the Church of Christ today.

Join us for the first in a two-part series about a uniquely American religion, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or Mormonism. In this episode we discuss the origins of the religion and the competing threads of official church history, non-official folklore, personal accounts, and governmental records and interactions to construct a more complete picture of how this religion developed.

Episode 43 – More Cults in the 20th Century

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Hale Bopp Comet in 1997 – Philipp Salzgeber, CC BY-SA 2.0 AT

We continue our exploration of the history of cults in America this week with a discussion of two infamous groups from the 1990s: The Branch Davidians and Heaven’s Gate. Both cults ended in the deaths of their charismatic leaders, but the trajectories were quite different. If you’re interested in the militia movement, UFOs, Nike sneakers, Star Trek, the Book of Revelations, the FBI, or how to get cheap real estate in Southern California you should join us this week!