There is no nationally available discourse to understand Utah and its region as other major national regions are understood.
In the United States a large and well-developed tradition of debate and discussion has developed around the US South as a distinctive region with its own culture and mores. The South has its literature, its folklore, and its kitsch. It is a strong part of national consciousness. (more…)
1. 5-year-old announces, “Yep, Mama is easiest.” When asked to clarify, she explains, “when a baby cries, it’s always Mama, and when a kid needs something or has a pain, she says Mama too. Mama is easiest to say.”
2. Dignified 75-year-old woman (one you would assume is extremely orthodox) pauses in the foyer of a wardhouse in Salt Lake City to comment to two men, skipping Sunday School with a young child each as they argue about how to effect cultural change on environmental stewardship. “It’s so wonderful to see fathers involved in caring for the children. It warms my heart. In my generation, it was all the woman’s job. I love to see you young fathers.” She walks away, smiling.
‘E’ is 25 years old. She received training as a singer at the pop/jazz conservatory and sang with a commercially viable pop group and a prestigious Lutheran cathedral choir before her mission. She now serves as the ward pianist.
‘V’ is in his early thirties. He has worked in several performance-related fields, including arranging music for television and stage managing for alternative theatre groups. He plays several instruments and sings. He serves as the ward music leader.
‘N’ is in his late thirties. As a hobby, he plays the trombone, and he has played in a big swing band, a ska band and a jazz trio. He is the bishopric member responsible for music in the ward.
It was at a meeting between these three that the idea for the ‘choir planted in the audience’ concept was discussed. All three thought it was interesting because it broke down the barrier between the audience and the singers and because it encouraged a measure of spontaneity, both which seemed like opportunities for emotional and spiritual interaction with music. N thought it was too manipulative, but both E and V argued that everyone would know it was a performance and appreciate it from that level: but we all realized most Mormons, especially in Finland, would never spontaneously stand and sing. (V pointed out that men had to be told to take off their jackets in hot weather.) We agreed to sit on the idea and to perhaps split the two concepts of a congregation-based choir and the encouragement of spontaneous involvement. (I showed them the comments from the first post, and they laughed at how seriously people took the concept of standing up to sing.) (more…)
On Wednesday I flew home from Phoenix after two days of tax group meetings with my firm. I was sitting at the gate waiting for my flight, when I looked up and to my surprise saw Rod Blagojevich, the Governor of the State of Illinois, who was going to be on the same flight. (I once shared a flight with Jesse Jackson when I was returning from D.C. to Chicago.) He is having a lot of political trouble in the state (when on board a businessman in my row muttered to no one in particular his displeasure with having to share a plane with that @%^##), but from his interactions with the people in the boarding area I could see why he has been a successful politician. He was glib, extremely friendly, very charming, chatting people up as if they were old, dear friends (and it didn’t hurt that he had his young daughter with him). (more…)
The polls for the Niblets are now open at Trash Calls (hat tip: Mormon Mentality). Show that you love liberty, justice and your Old-Tyme Religion by going here and voting for BCC. Vote early, vote often.
And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the aland of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people. And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off. And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done. Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.
From my mystery correspondent:
You are the bishop of the Splitsville 4th Ward. You hear from your wife, who is not above trading in gossip but is generally accurate about such things, that Brother and Sister Schism, an active couple in the ward, both 45 years old and temple-married to each other 15 years ago, are in the process of divorcing. Jim Schism is the Gospel Doctrine teacher. Jan Schism is the first counselor to the Relief Society president. They have one child, a 14 year-old son. (more…)
Because after a month of rotating infestations among my kids, £50 spent on treatments, and the wailing of miserable children who can’t stand their curly hair being forced through a tight, steel comb, I have come to understand that no loving God would carefully design the pediculus humanus capitis.
I believe in a Prime Mover, but the rest is evolution, baby.
(Of course, I realise that said Being, if omniscient, knew this particular parasite would evolve to crawl around on my daughter’s lovely locks. This complicates things somewhat.)
P.S. Before my wife starts to gripe: yes, dear, you are the one who’s been dealing with this.
P.P.S. We think they pick the lice up from church not school.
A while ago I reported concerning the dearth of white shirts in a certain continental European ward (”In the colonies, the locals quietly rebel against imperial attire“).
My spy in the ward sends the following update: (more…)
A few of us in my ward have been talking about the possibilities of church music. These posts have grown out of those conversations with the permission of the participants.
In sacrament meeting, a piano solo is announced. Brother H goes up to the stand and stops at the podium. He says, ‘ “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” is one of my favorite hymns, and if you would like, you could follow along with the words as I play the music. It’s number 136 in the hymnbook.’ And he proceeds to the piano. (more…)
In this time of economic uncertainty and crisis, it seems perhaps worthwhile to reflect on our basic theological orientation toward capitalism. After all, some aspects of late 20th-century and early 21st-century capitalism seem to be responsible for our recent run of investment bubbles and collapses, and for the current credit crisis that has placed the U.S. at greater potential economic risk than at any other time in recent memory. How does the Mormon gospel see the seemingly imperfect but nearly ubiquitous economic system that we call capitalism? (more…)
BCC’s weekly romp through the best of the Bloggernacle, hosted this week by Steve, Ronan, and Brad. Featured posts/sites:
In 1546 1517 [Editor's note: let's hope this correction satisfies you nitpickers], Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. Now it’s 2008, but theses—posted or unposted—are still a good thing to have. In conversations about Mormonism, I have encountered certain platitudes repeatedly. After hearing some of them for the last bearable time, I decided to write a couple of my own theses against ideas that threaten what I see as my religion.
Here is the first, posted in a doorless manner that Luther could only have dreamed about. (more…)
Presiders get their nourishment from cornmeal dusted kaiser rolls. Nurturers enjoy mini-croissants.
To comprehend the often-tense divide between Mormons and other people in Utah one must understand that Utah has had different population dynamics than most states. The issue of the divide is not simply the Church and its place in Utah’s society; it also is a matter of historical demographics. (more…)
That “Joseph Smith” photo…
Loading …Sam’s post puts me in mind of a poem that is only obliquely about Easter, but seems right:
The Caged Skylark
As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage
Man’s mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells—
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells;
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life’s age. (more…)
This Easter I have had the privilege of excising blisters from a burnt hand, wiping tenacious green excrement from the tender buttocks of a screaming child, placing a whining child on time-out, and picking up pens and toy dolls from the floor as a fussy child decides to play a game of fetch with her parent. My Easters were not always like this. I still remember with emotional and visual clarity a morning perhaps a decade ago. (more…)
I walked into the chapel and sat in my usual pew with, for my own sanity, very low expectations. It was in this very room, after all, that I endured an Easter sacrament service devoted to the concept of tithing (of all things) just three years ago. My mind was playing on the tasks I would need to perform after church was over: putting the folding chairs in the car, not forgetting the vegetables and the hot cross buns, and then driving to my sister-in-law’s house for Easter dinner. (more…)
I served my mission from 1977 to 1979 (in that most exotic of lands, Colorado), and I did not yet know Dialogue existed. But my mission was the beginning of my education in Mormonism. Each apartment had huge stacks of old, dusty copies of the Ensign, which most elders ignored, but I would systematically go through them and read the meaty stuff in the back issues. (There actually was some fairly meaty stuff back in those days, believe it or not.) Then I got turned on to Nibley, and from there I found scholarship (and the study of languages in general), and I was hooked. Most missionaries just stop studying when they come home, but I never stopped. (more…)
THE DAWNING
AWAKE, sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns ;
Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth ;
Unfold thy forehead, gathered into frowns ;
Thy Saviour comes, and with Him mirth : (more…)
Today I posted the following announcement on Dialogue’s website. Of course BCC needs no introduction to Kristine. You know her much better than we, though we are excited to try to catch up. Please join me in congratulating her and wishing her every success. (more…)
Pictures of an Austrian Good Friday from Peter LLC, frequent commenter and American expat in Vienna.
Overlooking Salzburg from a rise to the north… (more…)
The winner of the play in game was Sterling McMurrin who beat Clarissa Williams 61-39, obviously indicating that the church in the next century will devote less money to helping the helpless and more to pursuing a systematic understanding of Mormon Doctrine and belief.
On to today’s combatants! (more…)
Go to Dark Gethsemane
Go to dark Gethsemane,
ye that feel the tempter’s power;
your Redeemer’s conflict see,
watch with him one bitter hour.
Turn not from his griefs away;
learn of Jesus Christ to pray. (more…)
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
(Song of Solomon 1:2)
Good Friday–Christina Rosetti
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep? (more…)
That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection
CLOUD-PUFFBALL, torn tufts, tossed pillows ‘ flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs ‘ they throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, ‘ wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle in long ‘ lashes lace, lance, and pair. (more…)
Last act, and then some other posts about other things entirely…
We also learn one more crucial lesson from love. This lesson is one that Shakespeare lets us learn from Helena and God lets us learn from worship. And it is this: throughout the play, Helena loves Demetrius. She starts by loving him for specific reasons, but when he abandons her and loves someone else, she persists. At first, this persistence seems childish and undignified. And it is; it really partly is. But there is something strange about Helena. Even after Puck hexes two desirable men (Lysander and Demetrius) into loving her—even after she believes everyone is mocking her and her friends abandon her—she still chooses Demetrius. She still loves him. Now, we could make a thousand arguments about why this is: perhaps she has no self-esteem, or is certainly irrational, or that her worship has made Demetrius into a false god. And in the beginning, Shakespeare does seem to be making fun of Helena’s childish professions (protestations) of love. But we also know that Helena used to love Demetrius and he used to love her back. And so, while her actions seem laughable or irrational to us they are rational to her—they proceed from a memory of a great trust and an ensuing and confusing separation. (more…)
