The Arrington Mormon history lecture titled "Declarations of Independence" will be given by Benjamin E Park on Thursday September 24th at 7:00 p.m. in the Logan Tabernacle.

Declarations of Interdependence: Why the Latter-day Saints Just Can't Quit the United States

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is often identified as one of the most successful homegrown religions in American history. And yet the Mormon tradition, in all its expressions, has retained a complicated relationship with the country that aided in its development. This presentation traces the long, topsy-turvy, and evolving saga including the United States and its most famous local faith, and will focus on particular moments when notions of patriotism, allegiance, and citizenship took on enhanced significance.

About Benjamin E. Park

Benjamin E. Park is an award-winning historian with a commitment to public scholarship. He received a master's degree in theology from the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity and a doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge, and currently teaches history at Sam Houston State University.

He is the author or editor five books, including Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier, which won the Mormon History Association's Best Book Award, and American Zion: A New History of Mormonism, which won the American Society of Church History's Philip Schaff Prize for the Best Book in the History of Christianity.

His popular YouTube and social media channels have over thirty thousand subscribers and several million views. He is currently the president of the Mormon History Association.