Folks, I’m from Canada. Like the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, your civilization puzzles and frightens me. I don’t really understand your Congress, or your system of checks and balances… because, as I said - I’m just a caveman Canadian! My primitive mind can’t grasp these concepts.
But there is one thing I do know… and that is, that I cannot believe that the USA is about to decide that it should be McCain vs Hillary. What is wrong with you people?!?
The smooth transition that we all currently take for granted following the death of the President of the Church, has not always been so. Much of the way we do things now has slowly been worked out over time. Consequently (and inspired by Justin’s fine post), I thought a nice potpourri of succession history would be nice. (more…)
It is something of a commonplace to note that the system of Apostolic succession all but guarantees that presidents of the LDS church are quite old by the beginning of their time in office. Thomas S. Monson (barring unprecedented changes in Apostolic succession) will be no exception; he is currently 80 years old. What this means substantively is a complicated issue. Medical developments stretch people’s lives substantially compared with past centuries, and they often also help people retain higher levels of physical and emotional functioning than would have been the case for people at a similar age in past generations. (more…)
Owing to the recent death of church president Gordon B. Hinckley, supreme ecclesiastical authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is currently held by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.[1] The president of the quorum is Thomas S. Monson, who will soon be sustained by the quorum as the 16th President of the Church. He will then organise a new First Presidency, the Mormon church’s highest council. (more…)
Some of you may already know of the Mormon Artists Group and subscribe to their newsletter, Glimpses. To those who are unfamiliar with the MAG, I give them a hearty recommendation. I reprint with permission of the author, Glen Nelson, the latest installment of their newsletter.
In front of me are two hymnbooks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One is the 1927 edition. It is 8” x 5.5”. Its dark green bookcloth cover is embossed with the words Latter-day Saint Hymns and decorative scroll work of a harp and floral pattern. The front cover features a severe geometric border at its edges; the back cover has a small, round embossing of a harp at its center. It was published by the Deseret Book Company, copyrighted by Heber J. Grant, and printed by the Press of Zion’s Printing and Publishing Company. It is the hymnbook my parents grew up with.
The other hymnal will be familiar to anyone reading this newsletter. The 1985 book which includes 341 hymns, ending with “God Save the King,” sells for $16.95 for the coil-bound version I use at home. It has a blue-green cover with the word “Hymns” printed boldly in gold over an embossed relief of the Tabernacle organ pipes.
But enough of comparisons.
What will the hymnal of 2043 be like? (more…)
I still haven’t had the chance to see the new Beowulf but advertisements for the film and anticipation of seeing it eventually prompted me to use my daily commute to re-read the epic poem a couple of months ago. It was very rewarding. (more…)
As I’ve been reflecting today about Gordon B. Hinckley’s legacy, I returned to what an old friend said about marriage as he wedded two of our close friends, that it’s the stories we create about, the “attributions” we assign to, people’s actions that both determine and reflect the quality of our relationships. (more…)
President Hinckley was eight years old when President Joseph F. Smith died. He has, like no other Church President before, taken the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. We thank thee, oh God, for him.
Sometimes the church releases results of internal studies which are conducted to determine what is effective and what is not effective in the effort to help our young men and women live up to church standards and make the transition into adulthood as active members. Invariably the studies reach the conclusion that parents and home life are the major determining factor. Ironically, in our efforts to emphasize the importance of home and family, we simultaneously reduce the importance of the various church youth programs.
One of the greatest canards in the last decade has been that Mormons somehow are starting to hide their doctrine of theogony, which previously had been a deep and foundational principle of Mormon identity. Cast up your arms in disbelief, ye paladins of cultural caricature. (more…)
Not to treat sacred things lightly, but could someone please explain to me how it is that when I buy a new pair of pristine white garments, for the first six months or so of wear they produce baby blue lint in my belly-button?
“May These Principles Be Established”: Mormonism in the Political Arena
The balance between church and state has always been a lively and sometimes contentious issue, even, and perhaps especially, in the United States, a country with long-declared freedom of religion. From the time of Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign, through the tumultuous integration of Utah into the wider American political body and up to the present day in which Mormons dot the political landscape, Mormonism has sought to define its relationship to the body politic. In the process, it has raised issues ranging from theocracy to the place of private beliefs in public policy creation. (more…)
As time goes on I take more and more pleasure in the simple quirks of married life. (more…)
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Discuss. And have a good weekend.
Next week: the curelom comes out of its stable as the Zeitcast returns. Here’s the last one, to refresh your memories.
When we premiered Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons last Saturday at the LDS Film Festival, our senior editor, Jim Hughes, sat by a Caucasian man who wept throughout much of the film. Jim didn’t know who the man was until Darius Gray (my co-director/producer), a proud Black man who joined the Mormon Church in 1964, finished up the q/a section by saying, “I need to acknowledge someone. Dr. Dodge, are you in the audience?” Donald Dodge (seated by Jim) stood up, weeping again. Darius could barely speak. “This is one of the missionaries who taught me,” he said.
Brother Dodge had given us pictures of himself as a missionary, which are in the doc, but I had never met him. (more…)
(I posted another version of this earlier today and decided I didn’t like the tone and specificity of it. This is a revised version.)
My sister coined the term ‘Latter-day Snitches’ after a ward member informed my mother that my sister had been seen canoodling with a boy. (I called them ‘concerned citizens,’ like when Boss Hogg made anonymous calls snitching out the Duke Boys to the state police.) Indeed, there were enough snitchy ward members around our SoCal suburb that I couldn’t be sure any misdeed would go unnoticed. (Which is why we started hitchhiking over the hill to anonymity.) (more…)
I finally met someone associated with the private LDS university on the East Coast called Southern Virginia University. Meant to serve as an alternative to Brigham Young’s University, this recently founded institution has come to dominate a small mill-town in rural Virginia. By report, the town, Buena Vista, has the densest geographical wards of any East of the Mississippi, housing a variety of student and married wards, as the vast majority of students, faculty and administrators are involved Latter-day Saints. By report, some local residents have strongly resented the encroachment of the LDS, have staged “secret” town meetings, and have actively sought to have life return to what it was before the Mormons arrived. For those of us who have been wanting more access to the Missouri or Illinois conflicts, this seems an ideal experiment occurring before our very eyes. (more…)
Last week’s firestorm about raising children reminded me of a speech I heard by Leonard Arrington, in which he told a story about the Brigham Young household. [1]
Of all the wonderful things that can happen in the Bloggernacle, few are as full of schadenfreude as a good banning. (more…)
A post over at the Juvenile Instructor is causing me to reflect on that most juvenile of poetic forms: the limerick. This has led me to write a couple of very bad limericks (inspired by our intrepid leader). They are both very bad. Keep that in mind.
Joseph Smith is now known as a Mormon
He told us all God was a ‘fore man
So swallow your pride
In your newly won bride
Prophet Joseph tells you to take four, man!
It is well known that Mormons love weddings
More peculiar’s the state of their beddings
While fashioned with silk
And cloths of that ilk
They’re best known for their multiple headings
That’s right. Cheap polygamy jokes that don’t even necessarily make sense find in limericks the perfect vehicle.
I say why limit this bounteous pleasure to myself. I invite all to post Mormon-themed limericks to their hearts content (just don’t actually mention Nantucket, if you know what I mean; we’s a family blog).
john f. is a lawyer with an interest in literature, foreign languages, history, theory, and comparative religion. He has been blogging with his brother Jordan F. at a bird’s eye view since July of 2004 and has been commenting at By Common Consent for even longer. In ancient Bloggernacle history they were once described as “the most dangerous minds on the net” although they never quite figured out what this meant except they are pretty sure it wasn’t a compliment.
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The anniversary of Roe v. Wade today falls within an election season that could conceivably threaten a fissure in the coalition that the Church seems to have formed in recent decades with Evangelical Christians on certain social issues, including abortion. Specifically, the vocal opposition of many Evangelical Christians to Mormonism and the faith of its adherents has found new outlets in the mainstream media because their view of Mormonism and its adherents now has some relevance on the national political stage as a result of Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the presidency. The increased intensity of Evangelical denunciations of Mormons has also given opportunity to reflect on the political positions of Evangelical Christians (and other creedal Christians) and, more specifically, why they take those positions. (more…)
Since we are on the topic of gender, I thought I’d throw in a reflection on how my views have changed after one year of a very happy marriage. Any thoughts on how these observations relate to the other posts?
One year ago my husband and I went to the alter fully committed to nurturing a loving partnership in marriage, a partnership in which we envisioned supporting each other equally in our professional pursuits, sharing housework, and engaging together in social activities that we value. This vision, a wonderful ideal, seemed like the natural way to govern a relationship. I belong to what has recently been termed the generation of “alpha girls” – the highly educated and achieving women who only learn that they can be anything they want, but not everything, when they hit the workforce. And my husband, surely, is an equivalent alpha male. We were both products of an era largely committed to gender equality, whatever that means.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one year of marriage has schooled me in how difficult it is to achieve the kind of partnership we wanted – a partnership that involved mutual support for each other in all areas of life rather than dwelling in separate spheres. I was certainly unprepared for the change in how various people perceived me that came as a consequence of marriage and for how soon cultural assumptions about gender roles – assumptions I naively thought my generation was beyond – cropped up. (more…)
For those that are not familiar, Elijah Able is one of a cadre of black men that were ordained to the Priesthood in Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Elijah is a great hero of the Restoration. The following is the first paragraph of his patriarchal blessing, delivered by Joseph Smith Sr.: (more…)
The fearsome spectre of mixed-gender bishoprics/presidencies has reared its hideous head again in the comments. Unfortunately for the innocent commenter who always manages to provoke me without trying (I heart johnf, really!!), this happened on a day when I had to tell my children, who desperately want to have the missionaries over for dinner, that we can’t do that, because, apparently, I can’t be trusted to refrain from seducing boys half my age in front of my preschoolers. (I phrased it differently to the children, in case you’re wondering).
May I ever-so-humbly suggest that learning to regard women as human beings, and not always first and foremost as potential sex objects (who are, weirdly, also more “naturally” spiritual and righteous than men) might be an important step in the establishment of Zion?
In a moment of weakness last month, I assented to our ward music chairman’s entreaties to do a special musical number of some sort. Today at Church she cornered me and asked me to shoot for the third week of February. So I just now dug around in an old file cabinet in the pantry to find the music I want to use. Sitting just under the music was an outline for an old EQ lesson I gave many years ago (before the Presidents of the Church series of lesson manuals), a lesson which in the manual must have had the captioned title. I have no recollection of this lesson whatsoever, but as I scanned my outline I had to chuckle at my obvious discomfort with the way the manual had framed the whole thing, and how I obviously felt it necessary to broach the issue of whether we shouldn’t just give women the priesthood directly (which in fact is my view). (I’m pretty sure this was before I had heard of the whole “women have had the priesthood since 1843″ idea.) Note how I don’t even get to the point of what the lesson was supposed to be until the last third of the lesson. Anyway, I thought it might be fun to post this outline of my ancient lesson plan here: (more…)
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
I like your movies. States of Grace is wonderful. That scene where the ex-gang member buries his weapons is one of my favourite moments in recent cinema. It’s not quite up with Keanu Reeves’ bullet time move in the Matrix, or when Simon Pegg lobs old LP’s at rampaging zombies in Shaun of the Dead, but it’s close enough. Good work so far, sir. (more…)
“To avoid crumbs. No-one wants to have to vacuum-up Jesus.”
- Anglo-Catholic priest friend.
Apologist: a defender of the faith, from the Greek word apologia, meaning speaking in defense. I would think that an apologist would be skilled in all matters of written and oral rhetoric, but in particular that they would be good at apologies. As it turns out, this isn’t really the case. (more…)
FAIR has a service called “Ask the Apologist” where people can write in with questions about the Church. Volunteers, including myself, try to answer as many as we can. It’s actually fun and sometimes a challenge. (more…)
I’ve been asked to participate in a fireside about how to give a church talk. I was invited because I teach composition and oratory classes and because I do a fair amount of public speaking around town, so my presentation will focus on process and structure, while others will handle other aspects, such as spiritual preparation. I thought I would approach it in much the same way I teach students to write a strong speech. I am not saying that this is the only way to give a talk in church, only making suggestions.
Here are some points I’m planning to make: (more…)
