Talk:Morianton's maidservant

Latter Day Saint movement Low‑importance

	Latter Day Saint movement portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Latter Day Saint movementWikipedia:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movementTemplate:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movement articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Women in Religion Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of the Women in Religion WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Women in religion. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Women in ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject Women in ReligionTemplate:WikiProject Women in ReligionWomen in Religion articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

A fact from Morianton's maidservant appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 March 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that an unnamed abuse survivor risks her life to become a spy in "one of the bravest actions in all of the Book of Mormon"?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2024/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Morianton's maidservant.

Wikipedia

Did you know nomination[edit]

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 16:12, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that an unnamed abuse survivor risks her life to become a spy in "one of the bravest actions in all of the Book of Mormon"? Source: "The hero of this story is an unnamed maid servant who suffers domestic violence and then risks her life to warn the Nephites of Morianton's plans" [...] "Her status as a servant, a woman, and a survivor of abuse all put her on one of the lowest levels of the social caste system, making her decision to become a spy one of the bravest actions in all of the Book of Mormon", quoted from Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen Hemming, The Book of Mormon for the Least of These, vol. 2, Mosiah–Alma (By Common Consent Press, 2022), 332.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Teresa Mañé

Created by Hydrangeans (talk). Self-nominated at 11:42, 4 March 2024 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Morianton's maidservant; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

I'll review this. BeanieFan11 (talk) 01:56, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: - Offline/paywalled citation accepted in good faith Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall:

Looks good. Assuming good faith on the offline source for the hook. Approving. BeanieFan11 (talk) 02:17, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

'Spy' and general reliability of the source(s)[edit]

Is Mormon pious/devotional literature such as 'The Book of Mormon for the Least of These' really a reliable source? In this case, its analysis seems rather outlandish, especially when it comes to the description of the character as a 'spy'. In normal English usage as I know it, just defecting from one side to another and disclosing to the enemy the information that you possess because of your previous allegiance doesn't make you 'a spy'. A spy would be someone who actively infiltrates the opposite side in order to obtain information. For people to be able to reasonably say that she 'became a spy', she would have to sneak back into her former camp at least once, risking her life in order to gather more information there. That would also really be 'brave'; just escaping when you are mistreated seems, well, not all that exceptional, and telling on your former companions once you have joined the enemy doesn't require any particular 'bravery' at all. This looks like Mormon priests/missionaries finding new, 'fresh' fashionable, 'feminist/progressive' ways to praise the 'righteous' characters in their scripture. Naturally, it doesn't make sense, as religious propaganda generally doesn't. Maybe it's hard to find sources on Mormonism that aren't Mormon, but the source should be making at least some attempt at scholarly objectivity. 62.73.69.121 (talk) 22:16, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

a reliable source? Writing for Religion News Service, Jana Riess, who has a PhD in American religious history from Columbia University, called The Book of Mormon for the Least of These cutting-edge Book of Mormon Studies.

just escaping when you are mistreated seems, well, not all that exceptional This understates the effect of domestic violence and the phenomenon of women staying in violent situations because they feel trapped and fear what will happen if they leave (and lose the costly 'stability' they have with their abusers). It seems reasonable that the authors regarded the maidservant as a brave character for escaping this violence. Injecting our own interpretations into the article, rather than summarizing interpretations from secondary sources, seems like it would be original research.

This looks like Mormon priests/missionaries The authors aren’t Mormon priests or missionaries. The Reverend Fatimah Salleh is Baptist. Margaret Olsen Hemming is a Latter-day Saint from what I gather, but she is not a priest for the denomination, which does not ordain women to its formal priestly ecclesiastical leadership positions (like bishop, elder, etc.). Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 00:42, 29 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]