As Mormons, we’re supposed to uphold the law of the land. But, living in a democratic society, the law of the land is subject to change. When do we decide which laws to keep and which laws to break? Do we have a moral obligation to advocate changing an unjust law?
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Here’s the first WordPress Best of the Box selections, drawn from the list of posts at Mormon Archipelago. For variety, I’ll start with the lower boxes and work up to the top this time.

Even More Islands - Go view Why People Leave the LDS Church at Mormon Stories, and learn a new word: “screencast.” A screencast is basically a podcast with pictures and a soundtrack, I’m told. It might be the Next Big Thing. (more…)

We here at BCC have decided to offer a series on Mormons and mental health. We will post our own perspectives and wish to solicit the experiences and insight of our readers. Please consider submitting a guest post on this topic to ronan at jhu dot edu (anonymity will, of course, be respected). At the end of the series, an LDS mental health professional will be invited to respond. (more…)

I have had chronic back pain for eight years. I am now 29, which means that all through my twenties I have fraternized daily with physical pain. This isn’t a whine. The pain, though unpleasant, is not agony. Also, as far as I know, I am not ill. There is much to be thankful for as regards my overall health.

Nevertheless, it does drain the soul when everyday tasks like walking or standing become uncomfortable. Next weekend I will be hiking in western Maryland. The clean air, the trees, and the companionship will bring a much-anticipated dose of freude. I just wish that I could enjoy this without pain, for once. We want perfect lives and this affliction, this ache, is a reminder that mine is the life of ha’adam, which is many. (more…)

It’s time to put aside my token devil’s advocate, negative, contrarian, apostate, [insert your own label here] self and tell what I’m thankful for in Mormonism, and why I love the Church.

I love so many Mormon doctrines. 1) Work for the dead. What a marvelous concept - everyone can be saved, everyone gets a fair shake. 2) We can actually be on the same level as God. It feels right, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t a perfect parent want their children to have access to the same things they have? 3) Eternal progression. The ability to always learn, always move forward. It’s far more interesting and impressive than angels worshipping an almighty God for all eternity. I’m never one to say “I know” about things in the Church, because I don’t know. But I sure believe, and the fruit of Mormonism tastes sweet - it tastes right. (more…)

Today’s Seattle Times reported on the recent verdict:

In a decision that could reverberate through clergy sexual-abuse cases everywhere, a King County Superior Court jury has awarded $4.2 million to two sisters who were sexually abused for years by their stepfather, a Mormon priest.

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The time has come for us to renew all things. Thank you for making By Common Consent the wonderful community that it is.

This newness includes all the bloggy goodness from every incarnation of BCC. For example, one of my favorite posts of all time is no longer doomed to blogspot ignominy. There are also the cool features that our readers should expect from BCC. Please be patient as we work out some kinks.

Logan and I recently had an interesting discussion in which, among other things, we discussed how the Church influences its members’ political activity.

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Enough dying and killing for Jesus … let’s just see what the Best of the Box posts were for the last week, as selected by me from the MA box listings. If your favorite was skipped, you can always submit it in the comments. Go leave a comment at one or two of this week’s overachievers. (more…)

Aaron’s thoughtful post, and particularly the story of the discussions at the MTC, reminded me of similar discussions I’ve had—mostly on my own mission. We all of course asked whether or not we would die for Christ if forced to profess our beliefs, and we all (so far as I can remember) happily said we would, insisting (partly joking and partly serious) that if we died as missionaries insisting we believed in Christ, we were guaranteed a place in heaven and a hot wife in the hereafter.

But we also had another discussion from time to time. Would we kill for Christ?

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My prior post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and perhaps it was a bit insensitive (or at least poorly timed) given what is surely a terrible tragedy for one Utah family.  But I do want to segue into a serious topic that I have long found perplexing:  When and to what extent is it appropriate to stand up for one’s beliefs?  Specifically, when does publicly counting oneself as a disciple of Christ become so important that it warrants the risk of severe negative consequences, yea, even unto death?

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For as long as I can remember, my Sunday School teachers have taught me to take a stand for what’s right, at all times and places.  If you find yourself in an unwholesome environment, just up and leave!  I admire those who are unwavering in their support of righteous living.

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-A Special Guest Post-

I want to thank the powers that be at By
Common Consent for giving me this chance to post a review of the new
documentary NEW YORK DOLL. It’s a testament to the quality of this film
that after seeing it this weekend I felt something I’ve never felt
after seeing a film before. I felt instantly compelled to do something
pro-active to get as many people as possible to see it. It’s simply
that good.

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By way of introduction, I am Kathleen Petty, the second of the team of six representing Dialogue magazine invited to post on this site. I have been a Dialogue reader since its fist issue. Currently I help edit the letters to the editor for the magazine. This is the first time I have posted on this, or any, website, and I am looking forward to being part of this–(cough)–diablog.

In the Spring 2005 issue of Dialogue there was an interesting article by Stephen L. Peck entitled “The Current Philosophy of Consciousness Landscape: Where Does LDS Thought Fit.” (You can find this article posted on the Excerpts section of the Dialogue website.) He focuses on what he calls the “hard” problem in consciousness studies: phenomenal consciousness. (The “easy” problem of consciousness involves finding and mapping the mechanisms of consciousness–how the brain processes information, the neural pathways, how the brain communicates with itself.) Phenomenal consciousness is the “aspect of consciousness identified by that ‘what is it to be like’ feeling that we associate with personal subjectivity.”

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Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration debuts at the Legacy Theater (on the Temple Square corporate campus in Salt Lake City) on Saturday, December 17, according to this story in the Deseret News. There is also a long list of Visitors Centers that will be showing the new movie beginning on December 24.

The article notes that the film was “produced under the supervision of the First Presidency.” That’s interesting, as there is no official biography to use as a script, apart from the brief canonized account authored by Joseph Smith himself and appearing in the History of the Church and the Pearl of Great Price, two 19th-century documents. The movie, in a sense, becomes the 21st-century “official” depiction of the life of Joseph Smith. Welcome to the video age; we do movies, not texts. Movies have soundtracks, good for motivating spiritual emotions that should be associated with the Joseph Smith story. Conveniently, movies have no text that can be quoted or analyzed, just a string of images and depicted events. The dialogue is the closest thing to a text, but most of it will no doubt be fictional if plausible dialogue, words that would likely have been used by Joseph or other people during the events shown in the movie.

So come December 17 we will have a textless, official 60-minute movie version of the Joseph Smith story to complement the 561-page scholarly but unofficial textual account of the Joseph Smith story recently authored by Richard L. Bushman. It will be enlightening to compare the two accounts.

So what happened in the Bloggernacle last week? Plenty of good stuff, all listed by title in the boxes of the Mormon Archipelago. This week’s highlights include posts from New Cool Thang, BCC, A Motley Vision, Ned Flanders, and Mormon Stories. Read on …
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I live just outside the city where John McCrae was born.  The week of Remembrance Day, I always try to take a few minutes to stop by the small house where he was born.  It now houses a museum that commemorates his life.  McCrae is probably best known for scribbling a thirteen line poem on a scrap of paper, following the horror he had seen at Ypres.

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I’ve been following Bob’s recent exaltation thread from afar. More interesting to me than the different positions being taken on either side is that there is a discussion at all.

I first wondered what difference it would make whether or not exaltation were a gift. Would the answer change my testimony or how I live my life? How? I was about to write a post asking what would happen if it came down from President Hinckley himself (or we had whatever we might consider an authoritative answer) that, say, exaltation could not properly be thought of as a gift. (In fact, I might still ask that question.)

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Word on the street is that the Thurston-Evans family is relocating to the Left Coast soon, but want to have a final get-together with their East Coast friends before it’s too late.  So, please come to their Après-Thanksgiving Carnavale!  Rumour is that this will be the biggest and best bloggernacle party to date.  Karaoke may or may not be part of the festivities, along with Dance Dance Revolution.

Friday, November 25, from 7:30—-?  Email Steve at steve.evans@gmail.com for directions.  It will be tryptophan-tastic!

May I assure our colleagues at BCC that the team of bloggers that Dialogue is fielding is not designed to overwhelm this site with our posts but, given the multitude of other duties that distract us, simply to assure that we make at least one appearance a week. It goes without saying that it is my turn this week.

For my purposes today I will clarify that what I assert about the Bloggernacle also applies to all kinds of computer-based Internet communication, including not only blogs, wikis, and podcasts but also email groups, chat rooms, and instant messaging. My recent introduction to blogging has led me back to a hypothesis that I formulated about a decade ago when I first began to participate in email groups. People who inveterately communicate via the Internet on topics devoted to a treatment of Mormonism that is affirmative or at least respectfully objective tend to be, or eventually turn into, liberal Mormons. Or, to put it more softly, since the term “liberal” has acquired a pejorative connotation among the vast majority of Latter-day Saints, they are or tend to become Liahona Saints.

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Last Sunday, the Elders’ Quorum instructor based his lesson on a talk by Elder Faust in which something like “exaltation is the greatest gift from God” was quoted and used throughout the lesson. Now leaving aside my never-ending concern with superlatives in the Church (i.e., What about agency? The atonement? The utilitarian in me can’t help but rank these higher than exaltation to the extent that quite a bit more people are affected), I have a more specific question:

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As many know, By
Common Consent has an arrangement with Dialogue:
A Journal of Mormon Thought that provides some great content for the
community.  We are pleased to announce
the participation of several new folks from Dialogue
that will, on a weekly basis, rotate with Levi, the editor of Dialogue who has already posted with us. Readers can look forward to the erudition and
insight of five more fabulous individuals:

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At the recent SLC Bloggernacle party, one reveller lamented that "Mormons shouldn’t learn about Joseph’s seer stone from South Park." He was referring to the famous South Park episode that offered a comic tour through Mormonism’s founding. One scene shows Joseph Smith putting two seer stones into a hat, then burying his face in the hat and dictating words to Martin Harris. For the post 116-page translation of the Book of Mormon this is a pretty accurate (although irreverently lampooned) depiction of events. Our friend thought that most Mormons don’t know about this; that they would be horrified to find out; and that they would be doubly shocked to find out the truth via South Park.

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[Complete series] The True to the Faith (TTTF) entry “Exaltation” is just three words: “See Eternal Life.” Interesting. I think the Church still believes in and teaches what Mormons have traditionally referred to as “exaltation,” but leaders prefer to use different terms now, such as Eternal Life, which is given a two-page discussion. Are we feeling less exalted these days?
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I’m importing a feature that I started over at DMI last week. I highlight one post from roughly the last week from each of the MA boxes and throw in a comment or two. If you missed these posts the first time around, there’s still time to get a comment in!
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My wife just received a letter from BYU stating that, starting in 2006, BYU will no longer accept VISA for tuition, fees, insurance premiums, and loans. American Express, Discover, and MasterCard usage will now require a 2.75 percent service charge. In true Mormon superlative speech, let me just say that this is the dumbest thing in the world.

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There’s been a lot of moaning and groaning in the Bloggernacle of late.  Much of it has revolved around a certain nostalgia for a more youthful Bloggernacle of months past, when the community was smaller, and tighter, and supposedly more accessible.  People actually used to respond to each others’ comments!  People used to read all the comments!  The place didn’t used to seem so elitist.  There weren’t so many trolls hiding behind cowardly pseudonyms.  (Yes, this means you, Ms. McPrude, whoever you are…).  T&S has probably born the brunt of these criticisms.  However, I think many of the complaints are misplaced.  Yes, there is a growing dissatisfaction in the Bloggernacle, born of the realization that there was once a special quality to the community that has now been lost.  But in my view, everyone has misdiagnosed the real source of the problem.  What does the Bloggernacle really need to bring it back to its former greatness?  Simple: 

More posts about GAYS.

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Here’s a real problem I face every Sunday morning, and I’ll bet I’m not the only one: What do I bring to church to read during Sacrament Meeting? There are some ground rules I have developed to guide my choice of books. Perhaps you have your own suggestions.
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