My 80-something aunt, who is descended from pioneer stock and strongly into genealogy, lives in Utah and had never before been able to visit Nauvoo. She wanted badly to go, and she finally made it this past weekend. This was her one shot at it. She went with her daughter and brother, and I took my daughter and we met them there. We had a glorious experience; it was tremendous fun. (more…)
Inspired by Taylor Petrey’s “Mormon Perspectives Series” in Boston, we propose a similar tradition for the Wasatch Front, called “Working Papers in Mormon Studies.” Our goal is to provide a collegial venue for feedback on and discussion of scholarship-in-progress in Mormon Studies.
We propose to meet monthly or bimonthly, beginning in March 2009. (more…)
Read the following Matt and Mandy from the Aug 2008 Friend. Between the penultimate panel and the last one what happened? Here are some possibilities. Let’s assume that the car is not running for a mechanical reason and that there is a physical cause for its not starting. What are the possibilities in the missing panel? Let’s consider three: (more…)
You note that the Book of Mormon doesn’t contain the El=Yahweh parts of Second Isaiah, but isn’t the fact that it contains any of (post-Exilic) Second Isaiah problematic enough? Can you comment further on this?
I’ve just been advised that there is a two-paper panel on the nineteenth-century theological context for Mormonism that is to be submitted to MHA. They are looking for a third paper. Of course the deadline is tomorrow night. However, if you have a paper that you want to write for MHA and could throw together an abstract in a day (or if you were planning on submitting as a solo paper within this broad theme), you may consider combining with the other two papers for a panel. The contact persons is Ben at Juvenile Instructor–he’ll tell you where he can be reached.
Incidentally, feel free to use this space if anyone else is trying to throw together papers for a panel or need to negotiate anything else regarding MHA submissions.
[Editor's Note: Mathew is one of our most venerable alums. He is attracted to financial crises like the moth to the flame.]
Generally speaking we ask more from our institutions than from ourselves. We expect our courts to be impartial, our priests to be celibate and our banks to be conservative even as we are partial, promiscuous and profligate. On one level this makes perfect sense since we set institutions to create a buffer between us and the consequences of our actions. The problem is that the more successful our institutions are at managing risk on our behalf, the more risk we are able to assume as individuals without concern for the consequences. This is the very definition of moral hazard. (more…)
Editor’s Note: Mathew originally posted this in April 2004. It’s worth another look, in conjunction with Mat’s new post.
I think it is widely known among Mormons that, depending on which data set you look at, Utah has led the nation in bankruptcies for a few years. (more…)
Ronan: As you note, Barker’s argument depends on accepting the existence of the Deuteronomist(s). This is one of the foundations of the Documentary Hypothesis and undermines the notion that the Pentateuch represents the “Books of Moses.” Is this reconcilable with orthodox Mormon teaching? (more…)
In November 1940 the full fury of Hitler’s Luftwaffe fell on Coventry, England.
The first wave of bombers dropped thousands of incendiary bombs, putting the city to flame. Later came the heavy ordnance. After a night of death and terror, the people of Coventry awoke to a devastation so horrific, “Coventry” would become a byword for Nazi power.
The medieval cathedral was not spared, its roof collapsing into rubble, its windows melting, its relics burned. Behind the altar of rubble, a priest would later inscribe the words, “Father Forgive.” The words, of course, belong to Jesus who said, while dying on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (more…)
UPDATED.
Sometimes when people get “banned,” they’re actually placed in a queue where we can approve (or delete) their comments (the truly “banned” just show up as spam). It is very telling how people behave after they get some administrative nudges. In same cases (such as this), I think we see true colors for the first time.
That is all. Go your way.
Background: Alliance Defense Fund is like a conservative counterpart to the ACLU — basically a well-funded law firm with a socio-political agenda that operates in jurisdictions throughout the United States. (more…)
I asked Kevin to respond to several questions about Barker’s work. His latest discussion of Barker can be found in the FARMS Review.
Part 1 is an introduction to Barker and details Kevin’s view of her importance to Book of Mormon studies. I have closed comments on this post but subsequent posts will offer the opportunity to discuss and critique her work. (more…)
This is part of a series of guest posts by Bob King.
Part III – House of Representatives: Utah and Southeastern Idaho: One Change of Face but Still All Mormon
Currently of the 11 Latter-day Saints serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, four come from the Mormon heartland – Utah and southern Idaho. All three of Utah’s current congressmen are members of the Church. (more…)
Over the past month, I solicited feedback from friends of both sexes about several drafts of personal statements that I was considering submitting for an application. A draft that I have chosen not to use, but personally felt the need to write, focused in part on the topic of marriage, specifically on thoughts I have expressed in other posts on how marriage alters how women are looked at professionally. What I found interesting throughout this process was how polarized the response to this statement was along gendered lines. Somewhat surprisingly, every male that read the statement said it was his favorite, because it was honest, personal, and compelling. By contrast, women of my own age overwhelming thought that the topic was too “risky.” (more…)
Previous installments in this series have examined questions from the perspective of a priesthood leader. This post puts a wrinkle in the theme by asking a question about what a woman should do.
This is the third part of a three-part series. Part I can be found here, and Part II can be found here.
*As usual, please remember that I am not a financial advisor and that these posts of mine are not advice for you to take without talking to your own financial advisor and giving serious thought to your own finances. Seriously.
So we have good guesses as to the origins of the present crisis and have some good practical tips for the kinds of short-term things we ought to be doing. What next? (more…)
I have little sense of the prevailing views of BCC readers regarding either the morality of abortion or the desirability of government action to make abortions illegal, more difficult to obtain, and so forth. I can, however, imagine the picture that at least some readers must possess regarding the typical BCC writer’s views on these subjects. Being wildly liberal in all ways, as is widely known — are you even allowed to read BCC if you haven’t donated to a Ralph Nader presidential campaign at some point in your life — we are imagined to believe something like the following. Abortion is to be understood solely as an issue of women’s control over their own bodies. An embryo or a fetus are not alive and so deserve no consideration. Because abortion is really morally neutral, the government should not have any role in deciding who can have an abortion and under what circumstances. (more…)
Friday comes early!
Nearly all legislation pertaining to abortion considers the duration of gestation. The human mind has presumed to determine when “meaningful life” begins. In the course of my studies as a medical doctor, I learned that a new life begins when two special cells unite to become one cell, bringing together 23 chromosomes from the father and 23 from the mother. These chromosomes contain thousands of genes. In a marvelous process involving a combination of genetic coding by which all the basic human characteristics of the unborn person are established, a new DNA complex is formed. A continuum of growth results in a new human being. Approximately 22 days after the two cells have united, a little heart begins to beat. At 26 days the circulation of blood begins. To legislate when a developing life is considered “meaningful” is presumptive and quite arbitrary, in my opinion.
Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless,” October 2008 Ensign (not yet available online).
Discuss.
I will confess to having too many projects on my desk at one time. I also apologize for distracting readers with this request for collaboration. One project that I would very much like to complete but currently lack time to do it alone, is a study of mortality in Mormon Nauvoo, a detailed analysis of the sexton reports (from the Wasp and Neighbor) for 24 months from summer 1842 to summer 1844. I am half-done with a database of these reports—there are still several months of sexton reports from the Neighbor to enter into an Access database. In addition, a coauthor would need to do some legwork as well on historical diagnoses, sorting through what may have been meant by the various colics and cankers and the like.
(more…)
The fifth installment of our ongoing look at that most charming column of the Daily Universe. Previous installments can be read here , here, here and here.
This time, a special guest: Adam Greenwood.
A male was seen disposing of a cup out the window of his truck at Wymount Terrace on Jan. 16. A female witnessed the act and returned the cup to the owner. She asked him not to litter, and while driving away, the male threw the cup out of his window. A second witness called the University Police and reported the act. The male, a non-student, was cited for littering.
(more…)
Too sacred to share. I’ve been thinking about that for a few days as I readied a post on my faith-science blog that for a long time fell into the category for me. I changed my mind. There was some discomfort with it because we run across the words ‘too sacred to share”, but I’m not sure what they mean. Here are a couple of uses I pulled up on a search on the Church’s web site: (more…)
I just got back another round of student evaluations of my teaching. To imagine the feeling I get when opening a fresh packet of evaluations, mix together the dread induced by the phrase “[your boss] needs to speak with you,” and the anxiety-ridden adrenaline rush of Ralphie racing to translate Orphan Annie’s super-secret message with his decoder ring. I’ve done well in all my ratings, but that doesn’t mitigate the panic preceding each. (more…)
Is it enough to have been taught correct doctrines if you have not been prepared to defend those doctrines? … [I]f Mormon pedagogy fails to prepare some of our best students for what they encounter in the universities, part of the blame may lie with Mormon pedagogy. Our institutional teaching materials should be valued, not solely according to whether they fit a committee’s current notion of preaching the orthodox religion, but also for how they provide the light and knowledge that our students need to make their way through the world. [Melody Moench] Charles had correctly claimed that the Latter-day Saint commentaries on the Old Testament had relied on an overlay of modern revelation rather than on reading the text as it is. In the first number of the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Louis Midgley complained about the tendency of many Latter-day Saint scholars to rely on authoritative statements about scripture in ways that “divert attention away from the message and meaning in the text under consideration, and back towards what we already know. Such efforts do not enhance our understanding; they tend to make the very teachings they celebrate seem merely sentimental and insubstantial. Such endeavors also tend to close the door on the untapped possibilities within the scriptures.”
“The Deuteronomist De-Christianizing of the Old Testament” by Kevin Christensen.
FARMS Review: Volume 16, Issue 2
This is Part II of a series of guest posts by Bob King.
Part II – Senate: New Mormon Senator from New Mexico?
The open U.S. Senate race in New Mexico this year could produce another Latter-day Saint senator. Congressman Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) is the Democratic candidate in the race to replace retiring senator Pete Domenici (R). At this point most pundits consider Udall the frontrunner to win the seat – a Democratic pick-up in the Senate and another Mormon Senator. (more…)
On Thursday, no appointment, no arrangement, bee in my bonnet, I camped out at my bishop’s office door. In all fairness, I did email to warn him- it’s time for my Recommend. We have been dancing around this for years now, and this week was my personal Appomattox. For no reason in particular, it was time. And when I say it was time, I meant now.
At 9:33 on Thursday night, I left the Stake Presidents office with a bright, shiny, signed living endowment recommend and a two-year, bar-coded, bona fide Temple Recommend. (more…)
Guest Blogger, Steven Peck is an associate professor and evolutionary ecologist at BYU who blogs on issues of science and faith at the Mormon Organon. He is currently doing a year sabbatical with the United Nations in Vienna, Austria working on African tsetse fly population ecology.
After class one day, I guiltily grabbed one of those over-packaged lunches so indispensable for those in a hurry to gulp down something quickly. This one was canned tuna salad and crackers. I felt guilty at the amount of unnecessary material piling up as I squirreled through the packaging to find my meal. (more…)
Everything I have from my youth is located in a single box in the back of my pantry. If my parents still lived in my childhood home, I would probably have several such boxes in the garage, but they don’t, and with school and moves my entire past has been reduced to a single box. I usually get it out about once a decade and look through it, and today I decided to pull it out and reminisce a little bit. (more…)
This is the second part of a three-part series. Part I can be found here. Part III will deal with long-term investment strategies and policymaking.
UPDATED DISCLAIMER: As I noted before, these are just my thoughts are ARE DEFINITELY NOT financial advice that you should take without first talking to a financial advisor. Please do your own research before doing (or not doing) anything I mention. Also, I am NOT advocating a run on any banks!!
So let’s say you have a savings account at Washington Mutual…. (more…)
This is the first of a three-parter dealing with the current financial crisis. Part I deals with the causes and origins of the crisis. Part II addresses the issue of what, if anything, us lowly consumers should be doing with our money. Part III will focus on longer-term issues of investing and reforms.
Lehman Brothers is gone. Morgan Stanley may be bought by a Chinese concern. Merrill Lynch has been taken over. Bear Stearns — bought. AIG is the subject of a massive bailout. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are in conservatorship. IndyMac was shut down. Overseas, the crisis has taken its toll on Northern Rock and other banks (most recently the Halifax Bank of Scotland). Now it is clear that we are in the midst of a truly global economic crisis.
Over the last few weeks, I have been receiving increasing numbers of emails from people wondering about the financial problems in the U.S. markets. Questions I have heard range from “should I move my savings account away from X Bank?” to “which political party should I blame for this?” (more…)
I am reeling from the vast contrasts I have experienced in the past 10 days. (more…)
