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Positive Effects Of Conservative Religion On The Mental Health Of Sexual Minorities, Jaxon Jessup Jan 2024

Positive Effects Of Conservative Religion On The Mental Health Of Sexual Minorities, Jaxon Jessup

Student Works

Sexual minorities often struggle to navigate their sexuality and conservative religious beliefs. Conservative religion is often thought to be toxic for sexual minorities because of the emphasis on traditional marriage (Anderton et al., 2012), and often, the LGBT community will reject sexual minorities that choose to remain in religion (O'Brien, 2007). Conservative religion, however, provides many resources that could benefit sexual (and other) minorities. Religion can help create a sense of identity through teachings and community involvement that may strengthen positive self-perception; it may also create a sense of belonging within a supportive community, especially when individuals are raised among …


Drop-Out Rates Among First-Generation Undergraduate Students In The United States, Rachel Alger Jan 2024

Drop-Out Rates Among First-Generation Undergraduate Students In The United States, Rachel Alger

Ballard Brief

For first-generation college students, receiving an acceptance letter to an institution of higher education is a milestone: a means to secure economic and social opportunities not afforded to their family members. However, for many first-generation students, college acceptance does not equate to a college credential or degree, with only 27.4% graduating within 4 years. These lower attrition rates stem from a lack of familial financial resources and inadequate academic preparation in high school. Additionally, a different set of rules, jargon, and expectations between home life and institutions of higher education create a 'hidden curriculum' for first-generation students, making college completion …


Lack Of Access To Quality Education For Rural Indigenous Communities In Chiapas, Mexico, Elizabeth Sanchez Jan 2024

Lack Of Access To Quality Education For Rural Indigenous Communities In Chiapas, Mexico, Elizabeth Sanchez

Ballard Brief

The Mexican state of Chiapas has the highest indigenous population in the country and the least educated population of any state. The confluence of historical government neglect (in infrastructure and politics), gender inequality, language barriers, and low family income of these populations seriously hinders indigenous Chiapanecos from receiving a high-quality education—if any education at all. A history of indigenous marginalization and government unwillingness to recognize and remedy this creates a serious roadblock to any permanent change in indigenous education levels. These low levels of education lead to an increase in reproductive health illiteracy, lower occupational attainment and advancement, and decreased …


Joseph Smith And The “Red Sea” In 2 Nephi 19:1, E. Jan Wilson Jan 2024

Joseph Smith And The “Red Sea” In 2 Nephi 19:1, E. Jan Wilson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

When Nephi quotes Isaiah 9:1 in 2 Nephi 19:1, Isaiah’s the “way of the sea” (KJV translation) becomes “the way of the Red Sea” in the Book of Mormon, a change that is often said to reflect an egregious blunder by Joseph Smith or a scribal error. However, there may be a scenario in which it could reflect a reasonable interpretation of an authentic ancient passage.


“One Drop Of Salvation From The House Of Majesty”: An Analysis Of The Revelation Of The Magi And Restoration Scripture, Spencer Kraus Jan 2024

“One Drop Of Salvation From The House Of Majesty”: An Analysis Of The Revelation Of The Magi And Restoration Scripture, Spencer Kraus

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

An early Christian text called the Revelation of the Magi presents itself as a history of the Magi before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. This text offers important insights into how the early Christian world may have conceptualized how other nations outside of Israel similarly looked forward to the advent of the Messiah, how they worshiped God, and how they knew who their Savior would be. The Book of Mormon similarly presents itself as text written by early believers in Jesus Christ. It is centered primarily around two civilizations outside the land of Israel who knew who Jesus …


Further Evidence From The Book Of Mormon For A Book Of Moses-Like Text On The Brass Plates, Jeffrey D. Lindsay Jan 2024

Further Evidence From The Book Of Mormon For A Book Of Moses-Like Text On The Brass Plates, Jeffrey D. Lindsay

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Students of the Book of Mormon have long mined the Old Testament as a rich source of influence on Nephite writers. However, surprising recent finds suggest that an ancient text related to the Book of Moses may have been an especially significant influence as well. That possibility was raised in Noel Reynolds’s early analytical paper, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis.” He found thirty-three proposed parallels between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon, some of which pointed to a one-way connection with the Book of Moses as the source. Our recent collaboration resulted in identifying a total …


Are There Ten Commandments For Latter-Day Zion?, Dennis Newton Jan 2024

Are There Ten Commandments For Latter-Day Zion?, Dennis Newton

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

New faith traditions often modify existing religious tenets to accommodate the particulars of their membership’s needs. A specific example is how different faith communities have modified the Ten Commandments both inside and outside the historic Jewish community. This paper argues that Joseph Smith received a Latter-day Decalogue that was canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants but went unrecognized as such by either Smith or the early Saints. While some of the commands in this new set of commandments are familiar (thou shalt not kill, steal, nor commit adultery), others are specific to the conditions of the latter days. This paper …


Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen!, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2024

Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen!, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

There is no more important message than that of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s life-transforming and world-transforming. It is also the most joyous news imaginable. What Jesus did on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives.


Prophet Or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi And The Emergence Of The Almas, Val Larsen Jan 2024

Prophet Or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi And The Emergence Of The Almas, Val Larsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Mormon’s overwhelmingly dominant rhetorical purpose is to testify of Christ, which he and his protagonists often directly do. But he also communicates his testimony more subtly through carefully crafted historical narratives. His use of frame narratives is especially artful. In the Book of Mosiah, Mormon frames the dispiriting account of Zeniff and Noah’s rule with the story of its aftermath: the suffering of Limhi and his people, which is recounted both before and after the central Zeniff/Noah narrative and which underscores the folly in the narrative it frames. The Limhi story is, in turn, framed by a Mosiah family narrative …


“Our Great God Has In Goodness Sent These”: Notes On The Goodness Of God, The Didactic Good Of Nephi’S Small Plates, And Anti-Nephi-Lehi’S Renaming, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro A. Olavarria Jan 2024

“Our Great God Has In Goodness Sent These”: Notes On The Goodness Of God, The Didactic Good Of Nephi’S Small Plates, And Anti-Nephi-Lehi’S Renaming, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro A. Olavarria

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s speech (Alma 24:7–16) reveals multiple allusions to significant texts in Nephi’s small plates record. Thus, when he declares “I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us,” he appears to allude to an inclusio that bookends the two books of Nephi’s small plates record which emphasizes the “goodness” of God as a theme. Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s description of his ancestors as “wicked fathers” appears to deliberately contrast Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael with Nephi’s “goodly parents” in 1 Nephi 1:1. The name …


An Important Addition To The Library, Kevin Christensen Jan 2024

An Important Addition To The Library, Kevin Christensen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Oxford University Press has published an annotated edition of the Book of Mormon. This represents a significant event and provides a useful study resource. At the same time, the author’s determination to follow the conclusions of mainstream biblical scholars inevitably generates tensions on issues where the Book of Mormon conflicts with those conclusions. The author also assures readers that the commentary follows “the plain meaning of the text,” which ought to acknowledge Joseph Smith’s foundational observation that different teachers of religion may understand the same passages very differently, depending on their framing context. In this review, I introduce the content …


Heavenly Ascent In Jacob’S Writings In Second Nephi: Addressing The Question Of What The Plan Of Salvation Is In The Book Of Mormon, Skyler Smith Jan 2024

Heavenly Ascent In Jacob’S Writings In Second Nephi: Addressing The Question Of What The Plan Of Salvation Is In The Book Of Mormon, Skyler Smith

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Heavenly ascent describes the process of an individual (or community) returning to the presence of God. Though various elements exist within heavenly ascent literature, general patterns can be discerned. This project uses one such pattern as a hermeneutical tool to examine what can be learned about how Book of Mormon prophets may have understood the plan of salvation. Specifically, Jacob’s understanding of the plan of salvation will be analyzed by examining his writings in 2 Nephi 9–10. The evidence from this study suggests that some Book of Mormon prophets (at least Jacob and Nephi) viewed the plan of salvation through …


King Benjamin’S Sermon As A Type Of Temple Endowment, Andrew I. Miller Jan 2024

King Benjamin’S Sermon As A Type Of Temple Endowment, Andrew I. Miller

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

To more permanently unify the Mulekites and the Nephites as a reunited kingdom of Israel, King Benjamin gathered his people at the temple, and in his role as a king and priest after the order of Melchizedek, imparted teachings that bear resemblance to the Latter- day Saint temple endowment ceremony first introduced in Nauvoo. Several of these similarities are explored in depth. Since the book of Mosiah is one of the earliest extant texts of Joseph Smith’s prophetic ministry, this finding adds to a growing body of literature that suggests that temple themes are apparent in the unfolding Restoration earlier …


“Armed With Righteousness And With The Power Of God”: Allusions To Priestly Clothing, Priesthood, And Temple In 1 Nephi 14:14, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2024

“Armed With Righteousness And With The Power Of God”: Allusions To Priestly Clothing, Priesthood, And Temple In 1 Nephi 14:14, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi saw in vision that in the latter-days “the saints of the church of the Lamb” and “covenant people of the Lord” who, though scattered across the earth, “were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14). Nephi’s prophetic statement is loaded with meaning. This study explores how “armed with righteousness” means “clothed with righteousness” (Psalm 132:9) not merely in a martial, but also in a priestly sense (compare 1 Samuel 17:5; Isaiah 59:17). This concept relates to the latter-day temple and its ordinances, which enable the Lord’s people to “go forth” from …


The Seven Women Seeking The Bridegroom: Isaiah 4:1 As Transition Point In A Redemption Allegory, Jared T. Marcum Jan 2024

The Seven Women Seeking The Bridegroom: Isaiah 4:1 As Transition Point In A Redemption Allegory, Jared T. Marcum

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi laboriously copied many of the words of Isaiah in hopes that his readers would rejoice in Christ. While Isaiah 4:1 (2 Nephi 14:1) is generally not viewed as Messianic, there may be an allegorical interpretation that would place this verse among Isaiah’s other Messianic writings. A pre-Nicene patristic writer, Victorinus of Poetovio, interpreted the seven women of Isaiah 4:1 as representing the seven churches of the Apocalypse and the one man as Christ. Victorinus’s Christ-centered interpretation of Isaiah 4:1 has received very little attention in modern scholarship. This paper uses textual analysis to determine if a Christ-centered allegorical interpretation …


The Harmful Effects Of Living In Brick Kiln Communities In The South Asia Region, Cambrie Ball Jan 2024

The Harmful Effects Of Living In Brick Kiln Communities In The South Asia Region, Cambrie Ball

Ballard Brief

Across South Asia, brick kilns pose significant health challenges, socioeconomic disparities, and environmental degradation due to hazardous air quality and exploitative labor practices. The poor infrastructure of kiln sites contributes to dangerous working and living conditions for laborers and their families, which remain unregulated due to the sector’s informal nature. These kilns emit substantial amounts of pollutants, including particulate matter and carbon dioxide, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and premature deaths. Furthermore, indoor air pollution from burning solid fuels exacerbates health risks, particularly for women and children. Poverty and low wages persist among kiln workers, with many trapped in …


Inadequate Healthcare For American Indians In The United States, Brooke Grow Jan 2024

Inadequate Healthcare For American Indians In The United States, Brooke Grow

Ballard Brief

Key Takeaways+ Inadequate healthcare access for American Indians due to geographical barriers, historical trauma, and funding shortages results in higher rates of chronic diseases, financial burdens, and reduced quality of life. In some areas in the United States, the life expectancy of Native Americans can be 20 years less than the national average. Of the hospitals located on reservations in the United States, all but three have less than 50 beds, and most do not provide surgical or obstetric services. Only 33% of American Indians report having any form of insurance, compared to 80% of non-Hispanic whites and 52% of …


Second Nephi As A Legal Document, Martin Oman Evans Jan 2024

Second Nephi As A Legal Document, Martin Oman Evans

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Considering conventions of the ancient Near East, 2 Nephi can be understood as a legal document or legal archive. Factors supporting this view include 1) Nephi’s allusions to sealing the record and to a bar of judgment, 2) discussion of the law of witnesses and reference to Isaiah and Jacob as witnesses, 3) components and formatting consistent with Neo- Babylonian depositions and plaintiff statements, 4) uncharacteristically formal and conservative (high-fidelity) citations of Isaiah, and 5) rhetoric and vocabulary consistent with the Judean legal genre. Nephi’s inclusion of Jacob’s and Isaiah’s words as a witness and his references to judicial procedure …


“That They May Once Again Be A Delightsome People”: The Concept Of Again Becoming The Seed Of Joseph (Words Of Mormon 1:8 And Mormon 7:4–5), Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2024

“That They May Once Again Be A Delightsome People”: The Concept Of Again Becoming The Seed Of Joseph (Words Of Mormon 1:8 And Mormon 7:4–5), Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In Words of Mormon 1:8, Mormon declares, “And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.” The expression “that they may once again” plausibly reflects the Hebrew idiom wayyôsipû or wayyôsipû ʿôd. Mormon’s apparent double-use of the wayyôsipû (ʿôd) idiom in Words of Mormon 1:8 (or some Nephite scribal equivalent), like 2 Nephi 5:2–3, recalls language in the Joseph story (Genesis 37:5, 8). The original Lamanite covenant, as an extension of the Abrahamic covenant, involved …


God Is A Poet, Matthew Wickman Jan 2024

God Is A Poet, Matthew Wickman

Inscape

Why do we need literature? Certainly, there is much to admire in thoughtful, beautifully crafted narratives, poems, and plays, in gripping stories, layered characters, and poignant turns of phrase. But need is more intense than admiration, more desperate than mere affection. A graduate school friend and Church member once remarked to me, astutely, that if one surveys all the world’s civilizations over the course of known history, one can find plenty of examples of societies that had no concept of private property or insurance industries or professional sports teams or universities or lawyers or finance capitalists or plastic surgeons (and …


Proper Names And Political Claims: Semitic Echoes As Foundations For Claims To The Nephite Throne, Lyle H. Hamblin Jan 2024

Proper Names And Political Claims: Semitic Echoes As Foundations For Claims To The Nephite Throne, Lyle H. Hamblin

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains examples of phonemes in character names that resemble Semitic root words. The possible meanings of the names and their timing in the Book of Mormon narrative provide a deeper level of context to the Nephite political challenges in the books of Mosiah through 3 Nephi. Specifically, the English phonemes for the Hebrew and Arabic root- word for “king,” M-L-K, appear in character names in the Book of Mormon narrative when the people of Zarahemla, who were descended from Mulek, the last king of Judah, are discovered by the Nephites in the book of Omni. “King” …


“This Stone Shall Become The Great, And The Last, And The Only Sure Foundation”: A Nephite Poetics Of Dramatic Fusion And Transfer In Jacob 5, Matthew Scott Stenson Jan 2024

“This Stone Shall Become The Great, And The Last, And The Only Sure Foundation”: A Nephite Poetics Of Dramatic Fusion And Transfer In Jacob 5, Matthew Scott Stenson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In this study, three intersecting images are traced through the small plates until Jacob 5, where they directly (or by implication) culminate in the final section of Zenos’s allegory. The three images appear fused together in Nephi’s and Jacob’s writings. Specifically, this literary study tracks the images of the olive vineyard, the sheepfold and pasture, and the cornerstone or rock foundation. These oddly fused (or adjacent) images, though complexly employed, can be understood best as representing not only Christ but a gospel-centered record to be revealed by him. Fundamental to this reading is the idea that the Good Shepherd gathers …


It Helps To Have A Village, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2024

It Helps To Have A Village, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In preparing the next generation, it really is helpful when parents don’t stand alone and they have the help of others outside the family. This is one of the reasons why the seemingly growing gulf between gospel values and the values of the societies around us is such a cause for concern: “The truths and values we embrace are mocked on ev’ry hand.”1 All of us have benefited from innumerable influences—from teachers in and out of the Church, from writers, from youth leaders, from coaches, from role models of all kinds. We may even have forgotten many of those influences, …


“I Shall Gather In”: The Name Joseph, Iterative Divine Action, And The Latter-Day Harvest Ingathering Of Israel As Themes In 3 Nephi, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2024

“I Shall Gather In”: The Name Joseph, Iterative Divine Action, And The Latter-Day Harvest Ingathering Of Israel As Themes In 3 Nephi, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The identity of “the people of Nephi who were spared, and also those who had been called Lamanites, who had been spared” (3 Nephi 10:18) as “a remnant of the seed of Joseph” (3 Nephi 5:23; 10:17; compare Alma 46:23–27; Ether 13:6–10) or “a remnant of the house of Joseph” (3 Nephi 15:12) is key to understanding Jesus’s Isaiah-based teaching at the temple in Bountiful in 3 Nephi. That teaching emphasizes iterative divine action (implied in the name Joseph [yôsēp], compare yôsîp) to restore and gather Israel and Judah. Like Mormon’s prophecies in 3 Nephi 5:23–26 and 26:8, Jesus’s sermon …


Aftermath Of The Martyrdom: Aspirants To The Mantle Of The Prophet Joseph Smith, R. Jean Addams Jan 2024

Aftermath Of The Martyrdom: Aspirants To The Mantle Of The Prophet Joseph Smith, R. Jean Addams

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In the weeks, months, and years following the murders of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, several aspirants stepped forward to claim the mantle of the prophet. Who were these individuals with claims to the leadership of the church? What were their motives? How were these men able to inspire large numbers of saints to follow them? What became of their efforts and how are their works manifest in the present day? The reasons that members or prospective members chose or rejected the claims of these aspirants are examined, as are the churches of the organizations that were …


“That They May Know That They Are Not Cast Off Forever”: Jewish Lectionary Elements In The Book Of Mormon, Bradley J. Kramer Jan 2024

“That They May Know That They Are Not Cast Off Forever”: Jewish Lectionary Elements In The Book Of Mormon, Bradley J. Kramer

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

It is not uncommon for Jews who join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to notice connections between certain events in the Book of Mormon and modern Jewish practices associated with the feasts of Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles, and Rosh Hashanah. Aware that traditional Christianity holds not only that Jews were ousted from God’s covenant but that Jewish traditions in support of that covenant are spiritually worthless, these Jews find great comfort in these connections as well as in Book of Mormon statements that affirm their continued inclusion in that covenant. But aren’t there also connections to the modern …


Full Issue Jan 2024

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Media Conglomeration, Local News, And Capital Market Consequences, Travis Dyer, Mark Lang, Jun Oh Jan 2024

Media Conglomeration, Local News, And Capital Market Consequences, Travis Dyer, Mark Lang, Jun Oh

Faculty Publications

We examine the effect of news media consolidation on local business coverage and its consequences for firms, investors, and capital markets. Using television transcripts, we find a substantial drop in coverage of local firms following the consolidation of local television stations associated with Sinclair acquisitions. Local information search, institutional portfolio local bias, and overall retail trading decrease for firms in treated geographic areas. Results are most pronounced for small firms, for stations with higher ex ante viewership, and for stations with greater reductions in local coverage. Our results provide insight into the consequences of media consolidation for local business coverage, …


The Contracts Word List: Integral Vocabulary For Reading And Writing English Contracts, Elizabeth Hanks, Brett James Hashimoto, Jesse Egbert Jan 2024

The Contracts Word List: Integral Vocabulary For Reading And Writing English Contracts, Elizabeth Hanks, Brett James Hashimoto, Jesse Egbert

Faculty Publications

Both Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) and Legal English as a Lingua Franca (LELF) users engage with legal contracts regularly. However, contractual language is notoriously complex, due in part to the vocabulary it contains. To help mitigate the challenges related to learning the vocabulary of contracts, this paper introduces a word list of American English contracts called the ContractsWord List (CWL).We describe the compilation of the Corpus of English Business Contracts (CEBC) that represents six major contract types in 48 million words. The extraction of prevalent and specialized words from the CEBC is described, following validation procedures in …


From Biology Major To Religion Professor: Personal Reflections On Evolution, Joshua M. Sears Jan 2024

From Biology Major To Religion Professor: Personal Reflections On Evolution, Joshua M. Sears

BYU Studies

When I arrived at Brigham Young University as an excited freshman, my plan was to major in biology. I had really enjoyed biology in high school and scored a perfect 5 on the AP exam, so I figured this was something I could be good at. That first year I took courses in general biology, biodiversity, chemistry, and physical science.