By creedal amnesty, Mormons are biblical errantists. That is, we believe that while canonical, the Bible has errors in it and does not represent the Word of God verbatim. I think, however, that when it comes to our modern scripture, we tend to err on the side of inerrancy. It is hard to argue with the voice of the Lord. The issue is further complicated when modern revelation quotes the King James text. If the Lord is quoting it, it should be the correct “translation,” no? Well, not according to Joseph. (more…)

Early Mormonism in Finnish Newspapers, 1840-1849

by Kim Östman

PDF

Kim Östman, “Early Mormonism in Finnish Newspapers, 1840-1849,” BCC Papers 1/1, July 2006, http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2006/07/bcc-papers-1-1-ostman.

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The name “Mogget” may mean something to you: a graduate student at a Catholic university, the amazingly well-spoken Bible scholar from Faith-Promoting Rumor. To us, she’s D. J. Kirby, and she’s agreed to post with us for a while.

In the final chapters of Romans, Paul introduces the terms “strong” and “weak” to distinguish between those who enjoy freedom from the Law and those who do not. The “strong” are those who understand, as Paul did, that righteousness comes by faith (15:1). The “weak” believe they must also continue in certain Jewish traditions, possibly including abstinence from meat sacrificed to idols and observance of holy days (14:1-2, 5). (more…)

I would like to let visitors to By Common Consent know that a major article by Michael Quinn has been posted on the E-Papers section of Dialogue Paperless. Quinn brings a fresh perspective to the discussion of the “First Vision,” providing evidence that there is good reason to believe that the vision occurred at the time and in the circumstances that Joseph Smith claimed. This article, writes Quinn, “provides new ways of understanding Joseph’s narrative, analyzes previously neglected issues/data, and establishes a basis for perceiving in detail what the teenage boy experienced in the religious revivalism that led to his first theophany.” (D. Michael Quinn, “Joseph Smith’s Experience of a Methodist ‘Camp-Meeting’ in 1820.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Dialogue Paperless. E-Paper # 3 (July 12, 2006) http://www.dialoguejournal.com/.) The article is accompanied by a blog where readers who wish to engage in a detailed or technical discussion of the article may enter comments.

I would also be interested in comments on By Common Consent. Some scholars feel that the First Vision is a worn-out topic, a debate brought to a condition of stalemate between unbelieving scholars on the one hand and by believing scholars on the other. After reading Quinn’s article, I can’t agree. It seems to me that at a minimum, Quinn has re-invigorated the topic. It also strikes me that the piece is very much a faith-promoting article.

Two stories:

First -
I moved to the DC area about two years ago. Early on, I attended services with an uncle and aunt in their Northern Virginia ward. When I walked down the hallway, I did a double take. There’s a piece of wood from the Joseph Smith Palmyra cabin hanging from the wall. It’s framed. I noticed a group of Primary kids filing down the wall. As they passed, each reached up and touched it. (more…)

An interesting article in The Guardian describes the “1% Rule”:

it’s an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will “interact” with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.

Question: does the 1% Rule apply to the Bloggernacle? (more…)

Announcing “BCC Papers.” (more…)

This talk was first given in 2004 in the Cambridge First Ward.

In looking forward to Pioneer Day, I have chosen to speak about the influence of the dead on the living, the interconnections that exist between those who have gone before and those who continue to go. I have entitled my talk “Waking the Dead.” While part of me will admit that I’d rather be awake than dead, it’s a title I’ve chosen deliberately. Even those of us who are surrounded by death at work know from our professional experience that it is always someone else, somewhere else. Perhaps this constant safe exposure to mortality is why doctors are so full of themselves, but that is a story for another day. (more…)

Today is Pioneer Day, celebrating the arrival of Brigham Young and the first mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Why do we need to remember the pioneers? What relevance does this date have for Church members outside of Utah? (more…)

A snappy statement is a crease in the pants of a speech. Numerous, and sometimes overlapping, literary categories[1] exist for the many forms of such a zinger: maxim, aphorism, apothegm, epigram, quip, proverb, witticism. Affected Americans like me sometimes call it a bon mot, reminiscent of a tasty bit of chocolate.  Once a saying gets a following it becomes an adage. If it’s really successful it becomes a cliche. Everyone wants to author, but no one wants to use, a cliche.

I ask you to help me come up with the top 10 Mormon one liners. (more…)

My papist pal and fellow academic Andrew has agreed to answer some more of my questions. For Part One, see here.

(1) If the Vatican opposes gay marriage/abortion/issue X, does it make it incumbent on you, a believing Catholic, to oppose said issues too?

(2) At what point do those Catholics who oppose some of the Vatican’s teachings cease to be “spiritually” Catholic? What is the point of Catholicism if the Vatican loses its authority to guide believers’ morals?

(3) If you’re a Catholic and you think the Vatican has lost the plot on certain issues, would it not make sense to go to a more “liberal” church, such as the Episcopalians?

If one considers the Bible to be genuine revelation, then the instruction one gleans from the Bible, with the teachings of Jesus having a particular importance for Christians, will have serious ethical implications. Scripture is revelation in that it reveals a God who acts with love and justice. These divine acts invite a human response in the same spirit of love and justice. This all sounds perfectly agreeable, but the obvious problem is how to appropriate a biblical ethic faithfully. Even if we could agree on what precisely constitutes such an ethic, how could we translate that ethic to the myriad issues one encounters nowadays. The biblical horizon and the modern horizon do not always meet and have to be mediated. (more…)

I understand the rationale. (more…)

Over at the Thang, Geoff is interested in your experience with “prospering.” In response, Eric raised what I think is an interesting point – that he had always understood scriptural promises of prosperity as collective, rather than individual. (more…)

I am running in the Days of ’47 marathon in Salt Lake City on Monday. I don’t point this out because I am desperate for people to come and cheer me on (which, on a side note, I am; please come!). Instead, I would like to talk about what the process of training has meant to me spiritually.

Nothing. (more…)

Call me morbid, call me pale. I’ve spent 6 long years planning my funeral fare. (more…)

Many people perceive Latter-day Saints as “peculiar” in the modern sense of being a little strange, weird, odd or different. For instance, I recently saw a blurb for an anti-Mormon book on the Internet that said: “Mormons are a very peculiar people, but they claim to be Christians.” Some Saints view this perception perversely as something of a badge of honor, as evidence that we are the people spoken of in 1 Peter 2:9: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people”. In one of the old Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guides there was a lesson entitled “Become a Distinctive People,” which was keyed to 1 Peter 2:9. This title was attempting to put a positive spin on the common understanding of what it means to be a “peculiar people.” (more…)

And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. (more…)

If you have been paying close attention to my posts here thusfar, you may have noted a theme. I’ll be a bit more explicit about it here. We, Mormons, don’t know how to righteously dissent with our leaders (or our Leader). In fact, generally speaking, we frown on dissent, no matter how well intentioned or politely put. We certainly have assurances that God is at the helm of the church, both public and private. But I wonder if we sometimes read too much into that, arguing that anything the Brethren say is the Word of God and not to be questioned. On the other hand, there are those for whom the advice of the Brethren and other Priesthood leaders is considered to have no greater weight than anybody else’s. That also seems to be an extremity. Of course, most Mormons live between the extremes of these two poles. However, should we?

The scriptures have something to say about this problem. In fact, they have several things to say about it, sometimes revolving around the same scriptural figure.

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I am constantly irritated by the appropriation of the terms “liberal” and “leftist” in Mormon culture. Outside our religious community, such terms describe political and economic orientations. In Mormon discourse they apparently denote religious orientation. This is confusing and frustrating to individuals such as myself (you know, actual leftists). (more…)

I have a secret. This isn’t one of those fun, gossipy secrets. It’s more like a burden…a trying to keep someone from getting hurt kind of a secret…and it’s weighing on me. I have this strong urge to divulge, like keeping it in is somehow painful. So, I went to see a secret keeper, my bishop, talked it over with him, unburdened myself, and left feeling calm, peaceful, and able to cope. On the ride home I thought, “how many more people unburdened themselves tonight? How many more secrets is he living with?” (more…)

Here’s an interesting passage from Mosiah 18:9, suggesting, on its face, that mourning with those who mourn is a Christian duty (which I believe):

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life–(emphasis added)

A similar phrase appears in Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” At first glance, Alma’s speech seems to echo the Sermon on the Mount, literally multiplying that beatitude times two. But Mosiah 18:9 may have a closer cousin found in a touching and amusing passage from chapter 20 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (more…)

In 1935, fresh off his own mission, the 25 year old Gordon B. Hinckley accepted an assignment to run the newly created Radio, Publicity, and Mission Literature Committee of the Church. By 1937 this new department had released the first edition of The Missionary’s Hand Book. This book drew on several publications in circulation at the time and was published with the copyright of Heber J. Grant. Nine years later, the second edition was released, retaining the Grant copyright. In this post, the first of a series, I will review the first two Chapters of the 1946 edition, those dealing with general mission rules. (more…)

For reasons that I can’t quite get my mind around, my personal faith status has, in recent weeks, become one of the hot topics of discussion in the LDS blog community. I wouldn’t generally choose to respond to such remarks, but the widespread discussion about my beliefs provides a good opportunity for posting some comments that I’ve wanted to present for quite some time: my personal confession of faith. (more…)

We should never rank commandments. Though it is human nature to categorize by importance, nothing is gained from the argument of this commandment being more valuable or meaningful than that commandment or that a disciple of Christ should heed this one but not necessarily that one since that one ranks lower on the list of Important Commandments. As true disciples of Christ, we should be willing to give all commandments equal credence and mental exertion. We ought to be humble enough to do whatever He asks, whether we can see the meaning or not.

Which is to say, I believe the Word of Wisdom is ranked 63rd. (more…)

A little while ago, I arrived home from a meeting at school to find my neighbor’s 14-year-old daughter sitting on my front porch, sobbing. (more…)

Ronald Reagan called it “America’s Choir.” It won a Grammy in 1959 for “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and numerous other awards. It has the longest running radio show in history. Of course, it’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Mormondom. No doubt many readers even heard a performance of MoTab patriotic tunes over the July 4th weekend. However, some recent observers have suggested MoTab needs to catch up with the times. Here are a few suggestions along those lines. I invite yours as well. (more…)

On July 4th 1885, many residents of Salt Lake City flew their flags at half mast to signal their distress at the hands of the US government (see here and here). Though not yet a state, Utah was in the grip of the US territorial government, an institution that designed to reconstruct the Mormons in its own image. The media response was brutal and the First Presidency indicated that it was foretold time when the Constitution was to hang by a thread. This specific instance was not considered by Kerstetter in his recent book God’s Country, Uncle Sam’s Land: Faith and Conflict in the American West, but on this 121th anniversary, it is an image whose iconoclasm to contemporary Mormonism underscores his thesis. (more…)