The purpose of this study is to present the history of events leading up to the division of the Mormon community of Slaterville, Weber County, Utah by apostasy. The work has been classified chronologically under the following chapter headings: The Founding of Slaterville, Joseph Morris in Slaterville, The Morrisite War, Apostasy Because of Change of Ward Leadership, Influence of Apostasy on Politics, and Influence of Apostasy on Education.

This thesis proposes that human beings by virtue of living in each new present moment are motivated to develop strategies to secure the best possible outcome in their lived experience. A personal account of the phenomenological experience of time is presented and a brief history is given. The implications associated with being thrown into the present moment make apparent the weaknesses of the current assumptions that the slices of the present moment form a continuity of past and future and create a coherent synthesis of life. The assumption that human beings are intentional, goal-directed, and prone to seek meaning in their lives is explored. The ultimate nature of human beings and what their responsibility is in this life is re-examined.A personal experience that enlarged the author's understanding of the tentativeness of the present moment is investigated. In addition, five theorists are selected whose work is concerned with temporal constructs, existentialism, and the intentionality of each human being.It is concluded that a theory of linear time cannot account for the time phenomenon created by human beings being thrown into the present moment. The continuity of the present with the past and future to form a whole life is only assumed, but not explained by current theories. The five theorists cannot account for humanity's intentionality and search for meaning. Implications of the personal time experience are explained. Religious doctrines found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are examined to show how the gaps in the theories of time can be addressed by these beliefs. These doctrines include belief in pre-existence and an eternal afterlife, the reality of God and the Devil, and the power of faith and repentance.In summary, the thesis defends the conclusion that the theorists and humankind all have some level of faith in God, and that the theorists are limited in developing accurate theories about human beings because of the erroneous and incomplete understanding of the character and nature of God. God as the creator understands the whole process and it is only through His revelatory process can we understand humankind. God loves His children and has prepared a way through the atonement of Jesus Christ that all might return to Him.

In an effort to cope with forces which would remove the home from its place of influence, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently inaugurated the Family Home Evening Program. Emerging out of a fifty year history of efforts to institute the home evening practice, it is one of the most systematic and comprehensive efforts to date to implement change within the structure of its member families.Such a deliberate and predetermined effort toward improving the family system constitutes what applied social scientists call "planned change." Home evening, when adopted, has many of the elements of a behavior known as "family ritual." Inasmuch as the church has attempted to institute a ritual practice which the family itself would normally initiate, the Family Home Evening Program becomes, to the social scientists, an interesting social experiment.The family itself must ultimately make the decision as to what extent it will adopt any advocated innovation. Factors within the culture of individual families will play a prominent role in determining to what extent they will be susceptible to the influence of a change agent. This then, becomes a starting place for the investigation of the family home evening. Within this context, the present investigation had two objectives: (1) to explore patterns of family home evening acceptance and adoption, and (2) to explore the relationships between acceptance and adoption of family home evening and certain selected variables.

Research has related both physical fitness and religiosity to health. This study combined these ideas and examined the relationship between religiosity and physical fitness among middle aged Mormon men (n=110). Mormons are an ideal population for study because of their strict health code. Fitness variables were grip strength, waist/hip ratio, body mass index (BMI) and estimated maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). A questionnaire assessed level of religiosity and separated subjects into two groups: highly religious (n=35) and less religious (n=14). Moderately religious subjects (n=61) were omitted. A one way ANOVA (between-groups design) found no significant differences in fitness variables between groups. Results indicate that fitness and religiosity do not appear to be related among Mormon men. These factors were found to be related in Mormon women (Blakemore, 1997:16). Therefore, an increase in religiosity may be associated with improved physical fitness for Mormon women, however, based on this study no such association can be made for Mormon men.

"The Witness" can be viewed as Clinton F. Larson's poetic manifesto that points the direction for much of his subsequent work. Although his poetic "mormonism" has been questioned by several of his critics, this thesis shows that Larson definitely expresses his Mormon faith in "The Witness" as a metaphorical quest for mythic consciousness. While searching in the poem for sacred space and time, Larson seeks to become closer to the divine and powerful center of being, creating at once a metaphor for his quest to understand and assimilate Christ's atonement and a poetic voice from which he can speak for and of God. It is from this imagined pinnacle as poet-prophet that Larson seeks to establish a Mormon poetic that boasts a Mormon "restoration" structure analagous to the Catholic "epiphanous" structure characteristic of much of Joyce's and O'Conner's work.

This study sought answers to two major questions regarding the Book of Mormon prophets: first, did a prophet's unique personality cause him to be significantly qualified and effective in coping with the problems of his ministry; and second, were a prophet's teachings directly relevant to his problems, assisting him to be effective in fulfilling his assignments. Six minor hypotheses were used to gather data regarding the four representative prophets chosen: Lehi, Nephi, Alma the Younger, and Mormon. The teachings studied were limited to those which reached the ears of a prophet's contemporaries, and were further limited to those which were clearly emphasized in at least one verse. The minor hypotheses yielded abundant and clear evidence showing that in all but one problem (one in Lehi's life) the prophets were qualified and effective in meeting their problems. The evidence also demonstrated that all of the teachings which were studied were directly relevant and supportive in solving the given problems.

Even though home teaching is not unique with the Mormons, its present methods and utilization are unlike the teaching practices used by other churches. The purpose of this thesis is to study Mormon attempts to establish effective home teaching practices within their Church during the nineteenth century.

This thesis explores Mormon women's experiences with death as revealed in their personal writings from 1847-1900. The study includes an examination of women's involvement in caring for the sick and tending to the dead, as well as an exploration of women's personal reactions to death. A careful reading of Mormon women's writings from this period reveals that Mormonism equipped believers with powerful doctrines and rituals which helped women cope with the sorrow and profound grief that accompanied the deaths of those they loved. In addition, members living in Mormon communities rendered invaluable physical, emotional, and spiritual support to each other as they cared for the sick and dying, prepared the dead for burial, and dealt with the lingering sense of loss brought on by death. Significantly, special community-sanctioned customs and traditions associated with illness and death provided solace in difficult times.

In laying a general foundation for this study, a brief survey of language, its origin and use by man, and its basic levels of structuring, will be presented. Patterns generated through language structuring and the inherent value of structure in language to convey meaning or esthetic qualities will also be considered. Finally, basic implications of patterns incorporated into language will be presented.

For religious couples, the spiritual domain stands alongside the biological, psychological, and systemic domains as an influence upon interaction and mechanism for change. This study is a quantitative expansion of Butler, Gardner, and Bird's (1998) qualitative study, of the change dynamics of prayer. This study attempted to improve the generalizability of the Butler et al. (1998) study through its use of a larger, and religiously and geographically more diverse sample. This study investigated the effects of prayer during times of marital conflict through a quantitative methodology with a survey design. The researchers developed a survey based on the findings of the Butler et al. (1998) study, regarding the effects of prayer on couple conflict. The data on over 90 Christian religious couples was statistically analyzed to determine the reliability of the Prayer Conflict II instrument and to further confirm the Butler et al. (1998) findings. Findings indicated that prayer invokes a couple-God system which significantly influences couple interaction during conflict. Overall, prayer appears to be a significant "softening" event for religious couples, facilitating reconciliation and problem solving. Prayer 1) invokes an experience of relationship with Deity, 2) de-escalates hostile emotions and reduces emotional reactivity, 3) enhances relationship and partner orientation and behavior, 4) facilitates empathy and unbiased perspective, 5) increases self-change focus, and 6) encourages couple responsibility for reconciliation and problem solving. Therapists' support of religious couples' use of prayer as a change mechanism is considered.