This is a tribute to Wilford Woodruff, on the 201st anniversary of his birth.

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it is not my fault. It is not your bishop’s, your parents’, your friends’, or your teachers’ fault. It isn’t because of a book you read, a study you studied, an article you perused, a blog post you questioned, or a scripture you examined. It isn’t because you have been lied to your whole life, you were abused as a child, God gave your mom cancer, or Bill Clinton became president. It isn’t because of blacks and the priesthood, women and the priesthood, the priesthood, tithing on gross vs. net income, porn, sex, boy scouts, homosexuality, or double standards. It isn’t because the church is imperfect, the church members are imperfect, the church is on average worse than other churchs, the church believes itself to be the “only true and living” church, or your mission.

You lost your faith because you lost your faith. That’s all. You made a choice. You can choose one thing or choose another. This you chose. You are not a victim in this; you are where you are. That I (or another) have made different choices doesn’t really matter in this. I cannot give you faith just as I cannot take it away. My blogging, such as it is, is an expression of my testimony, such as it is. As such, it may inspire, disgust, baffle, enlighten, or bloviate. It may or may not work for you; it always works for me. C’est la vie.

So, to recap, your testimony is a product of your interactions with and expectations of God. I don’t have control over it. What you do with it is your decision. And that’s just fine.

I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him.

He then said to me, ‘Let me see that certificate.’ I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, ‘I cannot read a sealed book.’ I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.

(Joseph Smith - History 1:64-65)

Discuss.

A New Religious Movement is the academic term for what some people might call a cult (Sekte in German). Mormonism is typically considered a NRM. For example, the two main academic bodies for disseminating measured information on NRMs – INFORM and CESNUR — include Mormonism on their rosters. (more…)

How old is Islam? Non-Muslim textbooks will trace Islam’s origins to the Arabian desert around 600 AD (or CE if you prefer) with the life of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the establishment of the Islamic Ummah.

Muslims themselves are far more ambitious, tracing their religion to Creation itself, for in the beginning, God created Islam. Since then He has consistently revealed His true religion to the prophets, the last of whom was Muhammad. Thus, for Muslims, Muhammad was not the first Muslim. This honour belongs to Adam. Abraham was a Muslim, Moses was a Muslim, David was a Muslim, Jesus was a Muslim.

The followers of these earlier prophets (Jews, Christians) eventually apostasised from the true message. It was therefore restored in its fullness and finality to Muhammad.

Regarding David the Muslim, Islam cleans up his story considerably. David was a prophet and prophets are righteous therefore David was neither an adulterer nor a murderer. The Bible, it seems, is only true insofar as it is translated correctly.

Actually, this post’s title overstates the case a little bit. Mormonism in a general, worldwide sense is still very much a missionary endeavor. U.S. Mormonism, however, now has the demographic profile of an established intergenerational church more than a missionary one. These are the conclusions that I draw from Chapter 2 of the recent Pew Forum report on the U.S. Religious Landscape. (more…)

On June 5, 1900, Carrie A. Nation walked into Dobson’s Saloon in Kiowa, Kansas with her hands full of rocks in obedience to a revelation from God. She announced to the sad sacks present: “Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard’s fate.” She then began smashing the bar’s stock and bottles with her rocks. She was a leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and she and her sisters were arrested over thirty times between 1900 and 1910. They went into bars in Wichita and Kansas City, singing hymns and carrying hatchets which they used to destroy the fixtures and the alcohol they found there. They were the forerunners to the prohibition era which existed in the United States between 1920 and 1933.

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I’ll leave to colleagues with better organizational skills the provision of a methodical review of the latest Dialogue, which arrived in my mailbox today.
I just want to praise “Joseph Smith: Lost and Found,” a gorgeous essay from Jane Barnes, one of the key writers for the Helen Whitney documentary. Jane, a lapsed Episcopalian with Buddhist and post-theological spiritual leanings, provides one of the most sympathetic and thoughtful views of Mormonism by an outsider I have read in a long time. She captures what Harold Bloom was after, and does it much more clearly than he. She also knows her stuff–when I spoke with her at length a year or so ago, she clearly had mastered a substantial portion of the scholarship on Mormonism. I’m delighted that the Dialogue crew was able to provide a forum for her moving and delightful essay, a view of ourselves from a highly sympathetic observer. Her enthusiasm for the young Joseph is infectious, her sense of his insight into the great tragicomedy of life refreshing.

In which J and W explain their making – and eating — of gingerbread figures of President Hinckley in Primary; while Amri and Brad discuss sealing (courtesy of Zelophehad’s Daughters), Adam’s navel (Faith Promoting Rumor), and the arrival at BCC of a certain John Fowles, esq. (Mormon Mentality).

The Zeitcast welcomes listener feedback (it’s early days and we’re still working on the format) and can be added to your podcast player via this feed.

My family is in the middle of a job-related move from one city to another, so while we wait for the house to sell, I’m living in a small apartment in the new city during the work week.  A few nights ago, there was a knock on my door.  I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I checked out the window to see who it was.  Two young men in white shirts, ties, and name tags were standing on my steps.  As I crossed the room to the door, I briefly considered having some fun, hiding my identity, and pretending to be a golden investigator, but when I opened the door, I was just so happy to see them, I couldn’t do it.  I smiled and said “Hello, Elders!”

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I recently spent some time in Utah. As I am wont, I spent a couple days at the various archives (LDS, UU & BYU). I cast my net and received a bounty. One First Presidency letter I stumbled upon in Lester Bush’s papers at the UU reminded me of some of the comments in a previous thread on Brigham Young’s natural gifts: (more…)

I recently watched Wes Anderson’s film Life Aquatic again, something like an annual ritual for me now.

Every time I watch the climax, my eyes moisten. Steve Zissou (Bill Murray as an Andersonian Cousteau) is surrounded by the people he loves and who love him, straining to see an unimaginably beautiful creature that killed his closest friend at the beginning of the film. Then this “jaguar shark” swims overhead, so close it almost destroys the submarine Steve is piloting. Mourning lost friends and faded youth as he confronts Nature’s terrible beauty, Steve asks, “I wonder if he remembers me.” This line and the ensuing scene may be the highlight of Murray’s increasingly impressive acting career. (more…)

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

(Mal. 3:8-12)

Discuss.

It’s official: an SLC Skier/Snacker on Saturday, March 1!!! (more…)

There’s a short story on Dialogue Paperless titled “The Widower,” written by Eric Jepson. It is about a thirty-three year old Mormon widower who prepares to remarry. Although it is brief, it evokes a good deal of the perplexity and guilt that a surviving spouse feels over the prospect of remarriage. I can easily believe that the surviving spouse from any marriage that has been even moderately happy will suffer from perplexity and guilt when approaching remarriage. But it seems likely—as this story “The Widower” shows—that the internal distress of remarriage is magnified for Latter-day Saints who have been married in the temple. They aren’t really free to remarry. For them, there’s a touch of adultery about idea. Or a touch of polygamy, which for modern Mormons is almost as confounding as adultery because a man who takes second eternal wife inevitably feels disloyal to the first. (If you’d like to read “The Widower,” go to the Dialogue website and click on the e-Papers icon.) (more…)

Hell has officially frozen over.

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For the last few months, my down-time reading has been the main church organ of the Nauvoo period, the Times and Seasons. I guess it became my version of reading the Ensign. Tonight I finally finished volume 6. I read the History of the Church when I was in college, then my way of proving that I could “handle” Mormon history as a faithful Mormon (I could). I turned to the Times and Seasons this time for material relevant to my research on the meaning of death and religious enthusiasm in early Mormonism. This newspaper is a fascinating and exciting window into the lives of early Mormons. In honor of the time I spent with these texts and, figuratively, the people who produced and first read them, I thought I’d mention a few of the things I have learned from reading this newspaper. (more…)

Some friends of mine just adopted a baby through LDS Family Services. (more…)

It’s been almost five and half years since I stepped into the baptism font and joined the rank and file of the Mormons. My husband followed me into the waters just over two years later. The clock thus started ticking; in Mormon time, we are officially two and half years late for the Temple. (more…)

Another week, another Zeitcast. No bathroom roundtable this week (scheduling problems), but a pot pourri of Zeitcastian musings instead.

Featured posts: (more…)

When I was in law school at the University of Illinois in the early 80s, our student ward had a killer elders quorum. Our EQP was a grad student in music named Michael Hicks, who is now a professor of music at BYU. (Mike wrote a reminiscence of our quorum in his “A Quorum Memoir,” Sunstone 89 (September 1992), here.) One of our quorum activities was billed as “an evening with the Polysophical Society” (can you tell this was a university ward?), and at that event Mike and one of our choral students presented “The Soldier’s Tear,” which was one of Joseph Smith’s favorite songs. I really liked it; I thought it was haunting, and knowing its connection to Joseph made it special for me. (more…)

A Brief Survey of Ancient Near Eastern Beekeeping

by Ronan James Head (more…)

Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him. Wherefore, he saves all except them—they shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment— And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows; Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof; Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again; Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are ordained unto this condemnation.

And we heard the voice, saying: Write the vision, for lo, this is the end of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly.

(D&C 76: 43-49)

Discuss.

The ever-useful Urban Dictionary tells us that PLU is an acronym which stands for People Like Us. Every group has insiders and outsiders; the insiders are PLU, the outsiders are not.

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In case you missed it, there was a very intriguing article in the NY Times this past weekend dealing with household consumption. The argument is that household consumption is a far more reliable indicator of economic prosperity than household income, because raw income numbers don’t tell us how that money is being used and how the income disparities really pan out in terms of lifestyle disparities. In other words, just knowing how much you make in a year is not going to show the real differences between the have-s and the have-nots. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this article and the graphical data it holds — it would suggest that our lifestyle gaps are not as profound as we once thought, and that America’s consuming habits are homogenizing –and becoming increasingly ravenous — for both rich and poor.

I’ve never actually been to a Passover seder. I know the basic elements, though, because our regional Institute guy once held a seminary “Super Saturday” at which he demonstrated for a large room of kids what a seder is like, and he somehow persuaded me to learn and sing some traditional Jewish songs for the kids. So that is my very limited experience with a seder. But for years and years I assumed that the Last Supper had been a seder. But was it really? (more…)

Announcing (following Steve’s lead) a bloggersnacker in Ann Arbor Michigan! (more…)

Right now, life should be a bucket of rocks. My husband was laid-off a few weeks ago, we have three small children, and we bought a new house last year. You would think, with all that, things would be really scary and hard- and yet… and yet… I find myself shaking my head in wonder, because we’re in the best spiritual place we’ve ever been.

Do you all know how amazing this church is? Do you? Again, my convert eyes allow me to marvel at the work done, in the name of Christ, for the service of man. Case in point: The Bishop’s Storehouse. (more…)

How about we get together in Hong Kong next week?

I’m not making this up. (more…)

John W. Taylor once remarked, “Salt Lake City is a curious place.  It’s the only town I know where a man can get off the streetcar, head in any direction he chooses, and end up at home.”  So begins Thomas Carter’s fascinating article on nineteenth century polygamous housing in Utah.(1)  (more…)