UPDATE! Tonight’s talk by Judy Dushku (as well as all of the events tomorrow) will be held in Andover Hall on the Harvard Divinity School campus. The plenary sessions will be in the Sperry Room. Directions to HDS are here. Parking is very limited, taking the T is strongly encouraged!!

…and learn wisdom in thy youth (or dotage, as the case may be). Two upcoming chances for enlightenment:

Harvard Divinity School LDSA and Sunstone Education Foundation symposium at HDS this weekend–see here

and Mopalooza at Princeton next weekend:

Mormonism and American Politics Conference at Princeton University, November 9-10.
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I’ve asked this question once before, but I am curious as to what the response would be here:
Is there any church-related thing that we discuss in our church meetings that isn’t the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture?

In the twentieth century, leaders of the Church didn’t like to discuss the history of the God the Father. Their nineteenth century counterparts, however, weren’t so hesitant. Joseph revealed part the temple in May 1842 and then all the ordinances of the House of the Lord in the fall of 1843. 1844 brought schism, contention and grave accusations that Joseph was no longer in God’s favor. At the General Conference in April, Joseph addressed the Saints and defied them: “Would to God I had 40 days & nights I would let you know that I am not a fallen prophet.” (more…)

It is an often-discussed state of affairs that Mormons usually emphasize knowledge to the exclusion of faith, at least at a rhetorical level. This move has, of course, distanced us from many passages in the scriptures that emphasize the imperfection of mortal vision and the lack of full knowledge about eternal things that is a characteristic of this life. Most of us walk by faith, even if we bear testimony of knowledge.

Yet a deeper and sadder aspect of our emphasis on knowledge is that we have mostly lost sight of the gift of the spirit that is hope. If faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, hope is still further removed from knowledge. Hope is a combination of expectation and desire. It is a belief that something may be true, and that it would be a good thing if it were true. Far from condemning a stance of hope with respect to God, Jesus, and the gospel, the scriptures consistently describe hope as a gift from God and as a necessary step toward faith. (more…)

My Branch President in my BYU student branch (freshman year, 1976-77) thought I was the best thing since sliced bread, because I loved to dance and I would ask lots of different girls to dance during dances, which kind of set a tone of inclusion and made for fun branch dance parties. He was very appreciative of this. But I was only human (with hormones pop pop popping like an apricot tree) and during the course of the year I did kind of develop some favorites whom I asked to dance more than others, especially for the slow songs. (more…)

A few years back I had a long-running argument with an American friend. Freshly shocked by what I perceived to be the weak and compliant media coverage of the Iraq invasion, I was adamant that the popular American news media was a long way right of centre. My conservative friend shoved Dan Rather in my face, hissing that I had it all wrong.

The one thing upon which we did agree, however, was that we both wanted to see a liberal media in the Middle East. What Islam needed was an al-Mother Jones, with overt liberal bias the imagined panacea for the excesses and idiocies of conservative (/extremist) Islam. The liberal media in the US may be anti-American (sic), but their (non-existent) cousins in the Middle East would bring about Every Good Thing if only we could wish them into existence. Conservatism, in other words, was noble so long as the thing being conserved was good, whereas liberalism was universally good for them (because their conservatism is bad). (more…)

…and other topics in contemporary Mormon studies and Mormon experience are the subjects of a symposium sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School Latter-day Saint Association in conjunction with the Sunstone Education Foundation, November 1-3, 2007, at the Harvard Divinity School.

UPDATE: The complete program, including talks by Judith Dushku and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich can be viewed here. You can register online here. And please do register, if only to make life easier for the person (me!) in charge of feeding you that day. (more…)

I have now received from two different sources on the Mormon grapevine this link about the upcoming movie, The Golden Compass. According to the e-mails, this movie is based on a series of books by a devout atheist, who is both anti-religion and anti-Lewis, and means his books as an atheistic counterpoint to The Chronicles of Narnia. The claim is made that the children in the story kill God in the end. Normally one might check this sort of thing out at Snopes, but in this case it is Snopes itself that is being passed around. (more…)

Sorry this one’s late. I deserve to be punished.

Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.

(D&C 19:6)

Discuss.

There are lots of adult Mormons who are single who would like to marry, but for whom it hasn’t happened yet. Let’s collect our ideas for how one should go about this particular quest. I’ll get us started with some ideas of my own. (more…)

To be successful in the church, it’s pretty obvious you have to know how to spin a good metaphor. Who can forget Elder Bednar’s pickles, or the moral significance of the fact that Idaho Falls is built on a pile of rubbish?

So, as an improving exercise, I have listed three mundane objects and events. Choose one and create a church-related metaphor, suitable for use in a talk. Extra points will be given for dealing with the specific details of the object or event and for the obscurity of the principle you are using it to explore. (more…)

This post first appeared, in slightly modified form, at the now-defunct Sons of Mosiah blog on July 2, 2004.

There comes a time in every missionary’s Mission Training Center (”MTC”) experience when he or she would prefer to be struck by lightning than spend another day cooped up in the “missionary gulag” (Or was it just me?). You spend 8 whole weeks doing “SYL”, attending class 27 hours a day, and eating the same soggy brussel sprouts over and over again. Oh, to finally get out into the real mission field! But in the meantime, you’re stuck “on campus” and you’ve got to find some way to keep yourself entertained.
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As is often the case, my life partner astounded me this weekend with a fresh perspective.

For our daughter’s birthday party she modified the scavenger/treasure hunt in a way that maintained the kids’ interest while de-emphasizing the ultra-competitive, capitalistic nature of many of these games.
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A BCC alum, who wishes to remain anonymous, writes in with a question for the ‘nacle:

My grandfather is in his 90s. He is a lifelong, devout church member and temple goer who has spent much of his retirement years doing genealogical extraction work, tending to in his magnificent garden, and reading biographies of Church presidents. His default mood is one of stern sensibility; his life has been characterized by a studied avoidance of capriciousness.

Recently, he surprised Grandma with this announcement. “I want to know what beer tastes like.” (more…)

Careful readers of the Pentateuch will know that stories often get repeated. For example, there are two creation narratives and two Flood stories, among several others. The same is true for Israelite law. The book of Deuteronomy is, as its title suggests, a “repetition” or “second-giving” of laws already given earlier in the Torah, and represents Moses’ final testament to the people of Israel. Some laws are the same, some are revised slightly, others are unique. (more…)

I know a man who is a police officer in a small town in Idaho.  He told me one of the worst parts of his job is when he gets a call for shoplifting or domestic disturbance or DWI and then finds out the problem involves a fellow church member.  In an effort to cheer him up, I joked that he probably knows more dirt about the people in the ward than the bishop.  He agreed,  but he didn’t think it was funny.

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In early September I asked the ‘Nacle for some help in conceptualizing a youth fireside I had been asked to give. The actual fireside took place last night, so I thought I would give you a report. (more…)

It is often said that, in place of a theology, Mormonism has a history. In fact, of course, Mormonism has many histories and many historiographies. Yet if there is plurality in our history, there is far more in our theology. Few, if any, major questions of theology are really permanently settled in Mormon thought. The Mormon tradition presents believers with a range of possible theological stances regarding the godhead, the atonement of Jesus Christ, the meaning and nature of revelation, the source and scope of priesthood, the nature of family, post-mortal life, the authoritativeness of scripture, and virtually every other important question. Ongoing debates among Mormons regarding the advisability of developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or the possible conditionality of God’s love, are instances of this general state of theological openness. (more…)

This was posted a while back on my personal site. Occasionally, a mommy-blogger gets noticed, and this morning, at about the same time I received a small award for this piece of writing, I also received a phone call about a loved one who is likely headed to the combat zone. Makes it especially poignant, I think. (more…)

Jane Manning James is a great hero of the restoration. Many know of her story as the most prominent Mormon pioneer of Black African descent. Her life is tragic and I can barely talk about the sensitive issues without choking up.

She participated in the Relief Society and some of the meetings minutes where she participated were reprinted in the Woman’s Exponent. The following is a selection of these minutes: (more…)

Can ye be angry, and not sin? let not the sun go down upon your wrath;

(JST, Eph. 4:26)

Discuss.

The captioned type of expression in the KJV is among the most universally misunderstood in Mormon discourse. This is a natural misunderstanding. The contemporary use of familiar is as an adjective, derived from the Latin familiaris “domestic” (an adjectival formation from familia, “family”). The word means something like “intimate, very friendly.” But in about 1590 the word also began to be used as a noun meaning “demon, evil spirit.” (more…)

Does the Mormon God speak English at home? (more…)

Mormonism takes a remarkably relaxed and lenient view of sin. (more…)

In hopes of generating more discussion that doesn’t invoke long-standing debates about the nature of faith and church membership, I’d like us to think through questions of moral behavior.

Should an LDS physician provide a blessing of healing to an LDS member whom s/he is treating?
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Mark Brown’s latest post, as I read it, makes the argument that because our environment generally produces our political opinions, we should refrain from accusing people with different opinions of “bad thinking” and remove political conversations from church settings in order to prevent internal division.  Many of Mark’s points are undeniably wise.  Certainly, it behooves each of us to interrogate our own political beliefs, to consistently attempt to learn from those whose opinions differ, and to love those who disagree with us, recognizing that no party is God’s party.  But although I can fully join Mark in believing that we would be well served by giving up negative models of political conversation, I must depart from what I read, perhaps wrongly, as Mark’s conclusion to renounce political conversation more generally within the Church.  I want to thank Mark for providing me with an opportunity to articulate a set of concerns that I find deeply pressing.I wish to offer the alternative argument that any contemporary organization that wishes to remain a significant moral force (and I’m assuming here that one function of an institutionalized church is to prescribe standards for moral action) cannot afford to give up politically oriented conversations, even for the aim of promoting peace amongst its membership.  By politically oriented conversations, I’m referring to politics in the broadest sense of the term, incorporating all of the social and economic systems that order our lives, including, but not limited to, party politics. (more…)

Sorry for the delay. Happy Columbus Day, compliments of Oliver Cowdery and the early Latter Day Saints:

In perusing the history of the first introduction of the Spaniards into South America and the Mexicos, the heart of the philanthropist must shrink at those scenes of inhumanity to which they had recourse to deprive the aborigines of their country and precious metals.

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[Oliver Cowdery], “Reflections for the Fourth of July, 1834,” The Evening and the Morning Star 2, no. 22 (July 1834): 173.

Political socialization is described as the process by which people acquire their political beliefs, and there are people who have made the study of this process the focus of their lives’ work.  Their research shows that, for a very high percentage of us, our political beliefs are predictable based on a combination of factors such as the political orientation of our parents, the schools we attended and the subjects we studied, and whether we have personally experienced events like long-term unemployment, long-term poverty, or a depression.

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Apropos the current poll, I couldn’t resist sharing a fascinating description of the Millennium originally published in the Nauvoo Neighbor, but then reprinted in the Millennial Star (6, no. 9 (October 15, 1845): 140-142) and Dialogue (4, no. 1 (Spring 1969): 127-130). I do not currently have the time off work to track it down in the Neighbor, though I suspect on internal evidence that Phelps was the author (the vision uses Phelps’s sobriquets for church leaders, borrows a word apparently from the KEP, and emphasizes pure language, all characteristic of Phelps).[1]

The piece is a vision entitled “One Hundred Years Hence. 1945,” and its prophecies are fascinating:

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