As some of you may know, we are holding an online, multi-part book club discussion around Chaim Potok’s first novel: The Chosen. This is the first discussion post of the series. Expect 2 or 3 posts per week over the next few weeks until we all become sick and tired of Reuven and Danny. (more…)
This is the first of a series of guest posts by our friend John Dehlin.
How could I teach my son the way I was taught by my father, and not drive him away from Torah? Because this is America, Reuven. This is not Europe. It is an open world here. Here there are libraries and books and schools. Here there are great universities that do not concern themselves with how many Jewish students they have. I did not want to drive my son away from God, but I did not want him to grow up a mind without a soul. I knew already when he was a boy that I could not prevent his mind from going to the world for knowledge. I knew in my heart that it might prevent him from taking my place. But I had to prevent it from driving him away completely from the Master of the Universe. And I had to make certain his soul would be the soul of a tzaddik no matter what he did with his life. — Reb Saunders, The Chosen
In September and October BCC published a five-part series of guest blogs by Bob King looking at the prospects of the 16 Latter-day Saints serving in Congress in the November 4th Election. Now that election day has come and gone, Bob gives us a quick summary of how the Congressional Mormons fared in the polls.
Mormons in Congress: How Did LDS Candidates Fare in the 2008 Election?
The 2008 election has been called “historic” – the election of the first African-American president; the highest percentage of the vote for a Democratic president since 1964; the smallest number of Republicans in the House of Representatives since 1993.
For the 16 Mormons serving in Congress at the beginning of the 110th Congress (2007-2008), the election produced relatively modest changes. (more…)
This is part of a series of guest posts by Bob King.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V – House of Representatives: Pacific Mormons: California Mormons to Drop from 3 to 2;
Mormon Delegate in American Samoa
California has more Latter-day Saints than any American state except Utah, and in numerical terms, it has twice the number of Church members as live in Idaho. According to the Church statistics, over 750,000 Mormons reside in the state. Since California is the most populous state in the nation with well over 36 million inhabitants, however, Latter-day Saints make up only 2.12% of the state’s population, which makes California only slightly more Mormon than the average for the United States as a whole. (more…)
This is part of a series of guest posts by Bob King.
Part IV – House of Representatives: Mormons in the Mountain West: Tough Reelection Race in Nevada; No Problem in Arizona; New Mexico to Lose its Mormon Congressman
Nevada, a state that is home to legalized gambling and other adult entertainment that is not generally associated with Latter-day Saints, has had a surprisingly strong and consistent Mormon political presence. Mormons number 170,000 in the state and make up just over 7% of the population. Yet three Church members have represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate – all of them Democrats. Nevada has also had four Latter-day Saints elected to the House of Representatives – two Democrats and two Republicans. (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…)
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…)
Part I of a series by Guestblogger Bob King
Two Latter-day Saints are candidates for the U.S. Senate this year. One is a Republican incumbent in a tough race to hold on to his seat. The other is Democratic congressman running hard for an open Senate seat. Ironically, the two Mormons are second cousins. Their success on November 4th will determine whether there will be four, five or six Latter-day Saints serving in the Senate in January 2009. (more…)
Written by Aileen
Aileen is a frequent commenter and erstwhile Seattleite.
It was two years ago this December, my youngest, our fourth, had just been born. I was returning to the rituals of sitting on the couch every 2 hours to feed his hungry mouth. This was a pattern I knew well. Book in hand, boppy pillow and baby, I plopped down. The book that started this babe’s ritual with me was Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. You may know it. I didn’t. The cover caught my eye with promises of homicide and religion – the makings of a good story – but, better yet, it was true. I was fascinated. (more…)
Submitted by Fake Elder Wirthlin. Fake Elder Wirthlin is most definitely not an apostle.
When Latter-day Saint home teachers go to visit Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve, they usually do not take The 5 Browns to perform live in a family’s living room.
But for Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve and his home teacher, Skip Daynes, visits like these are common occurrences.
Daynes has shown up at Elder Wirthlin’s Salt Lake City home with musicians The Crimson 4, Josh Wright and The Call Sisters. (more…)
Dr. Warner Woodworth, Utah Educator
On June 8, 2008 I made the drive to Temple Square from Provo to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the priesthood to all worthy Black males in the tabernacle. It was a thrilling event and the day brought back rich and painful memories. I want to share a bit of personal history from my experiences with Black Mormonism in Utah and Brazil, and then raise a few concluding issues. (more…)
I want to begin this post with an acknowledgment. Everyone described in the following is, to my best knowledge, acting from good intent and in a manner that they feel will best lead themselves and the other parties involved back to God. That said, there is a minor disaster afoot in my ward. (more…)
This from our Viennese correspondent Peter LLC, recently seen scouring the Vienna words looking for sex slaves while Ronan stood idly by.
For the second* time in less than two years, an Austrian man has been found with prisoners in his cellar. (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…)
David Knowlton is an associate professor of Anthropology at Utah Valley University (the institution FKA “UVSC”). He studies religion in Latin America as well as Mormonism in the United States. The ideas in this post were originally presented at the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College. David will be posting with us for the next couple of weeks.
Some seven years ago the Salt Lake Tribune announced that Utah suffered an “unspoken divide” that split the people of the state into two divergent and often tense life worlds, Mormons and non-Mormons. The division, once spoken, motivated counsel in General Conference and numerous discussion groups in the Salt Lake Valley, yet it still continues. As a result the division is a sociological phenomenon worthy of exploration. It is both more and less than simply a divide of religious membership. (more…)
Joe Walker is the Online Editor of the Deseret Morning News and the editor of its new LDS online portal, The Mormon Times. He agreed to write a little about this new initiative at the DMN.
For some months now people have been noticing changes on the Deseret News website with regards to coverage of all things Mormon. (more…)
Note: a version of this review will appear in the Summer 2008 issue of Dialogue.
If you’re at all familiar with literary talk these days, you might be aware of the chatter about children’s and young adult literature being the hot new thing. Everyone’s wondering what will be the “next Harry Potter.” What was once a ghettoized field of study—because children are a self-perpetuating lower class, and literature for children must therefore serve a purpose: teach a lesson or make kids get good grades—is now legitimate at many institutes of higher learning. Adults are getting reading recommendations from children and teens, and vice versa. Despite frenzied reports to the contrary, reading is not dead among the younger set. (more…)
Our guest, Brad Kramer, grew up (debatable verbiage) in Utah. He attended BYU, where he earned a degree in Russian, followed by a stint at the University of Utah where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in US History. He now resides with his family (wife, three sons, one newborn daughter) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he teaches Russian and is earning a PhD in Anthropology. He did his master’s research on late nineteenth-century Mormonism, focusing on the dynamics of conflict, accommodation, and transformation, with a case study on the founding of Rexburg, Idaho. Brad writes: “As an anthropologist I plan to study Christian conversion in post-Soviet states (I served a mission in Russia), from the perspective of sociolinguistics and Marxist theory. In addition to being a husband, father, Mormon, and academic, my other salient identities include mediocre musician, amateur chef, Hollywood liberal, and Capricorn.”
Brad will be guest posting with us for the next couple of weeks.
The post:
The following story is true. I have withheld the actual location of the stake in question, because I’d hate for my comments to be taken personally by any of the individuals involved; but the story is verifiable (for those interested in doing a little detective work) and really, actually took place: (more…)
Author: Professor Warner Woodworth, BYU
As a lifelong church member and professor at BYU’s Marriott School, I’ve observed our political leaders for many years. As a longtime Utah resident, I grew up attending Salt Lake City schools. The high quality of my teachers motivated me to attend college at both BYU and the U. From there I went on to receive two masters degrees, and then earn a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and have loved university teaching all my life. (more…)
George Handley is President of Mormon Scholars in the Humanities.
Let’s face it: LDS scholars in the Humanities are a strange breed. (more…)
By David Howlett. Thanks for being our guest at BCC, David!
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In early June, I drove to Nauvoo, Illinois to teach an intensive three-week history course to the Community of Christ summer guides at the Joseph Smith Historic Sites. I soon made the acquaintance of an angry resident who lived near Joseph Smith’s Mansion House on Water Street. Walking from my apartment in the William Marks’ residence to the Community of Christ Visitor’s Center, I felt my hair brushed by what I thought was a large insect. To my surprise, I was being buzzed by a rather upset black and red-orange bird. Twice it buzzed me as I walked past its roost in a tree standing in the Mansion House yard. My experience was not unique. As I ventured into the visitor’s center, I found that my feathered pursuer had done the same to every one of the staff who venture to walk past its roost. The bird did not simply pick on lone wanderers like myself; it also attacked tour guests in large groups. (more…)
This is another post from our guest, David Howlett.
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Literary scholar Lori Branch argues that by the end of the eighteenth century in England, “a broad-based cultural sense had coalesced that located spontaneity–an unpremediated emotional freshness coveted in phenomena as disparate as poetic effusion, enthusiastic worship, romantic attraction, and consumer desire–at the heart of meaningful human experience” (Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth, Baylor UP, 2006, p. 2). In America, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century evangelical Christians epitomized the ideal of spontaneity; often such religious seekers derided prepared prayers and prepared sermons. Preparation was too reminiscent of. . . well. . . Catholicism (boo-hiss! our ancestors would have cried). (more…)
The following post is the contribution of Tom, one of our regular commenters.
I am pleased to report that next year’s Relief Society/Priesthood manual has been released: Joseph Smith. This is a good book; I would argue that for those who may have found faults with previous manuals will find, upon a quick glance, much to be pleased with. In my own opinion, this is the best manual to be released by correlation. (more…)
From MikeInWeHo
HBO kicked off the new season of Big Love with big hopes that it will replace The Sopranos as its primary moneymaker. The series has received excellent reviews, lots of positive buzz, and a multi-million dollar marketing campaign. The executives at HBO are good at what they do.
If HBO succeeds and the show is a hit, it may present PR issues on a scale never-before encountered by the contemporary Church. Why? (more…)
From MikeInWeHo
In my youth I had a pen-pal in Japan named Tashihiro. We corresponded for years, and even though we never met I considered him a friend. Sometime late in high school I inscribed a Book of Mormon for him and sent it to the missionaries in his area. To this day I recall his oh-so-polite response after they finally located him and delivered the book: “I am sorry, but I am not interested in Mormon.†We lost touch in college and now he remains but a fond memory. (more…)
JAB is a busy stay-at-home mom living in the Midwest. She recently regrets her decision to teach her kids responsibility via a paper route.
Welcome to the alternate dimension otherwise known as Primary. You can find us at the end of the hall after passing through the black hole. Just follow the sounds of “I Am a Child of God”, “I’ll Follow Him in Faith”, and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, and you’ll be there in no time. Very few escape the pull of Primary. Some days, the minutes creep by so slowly that you’d swear you’d been in Church for 3 hours. Other days, the time zips by and you wonder where the morning went. (more…)
The following is the text of the speech given by graduating BYU senior Ashley Sanders at the BYU alternative commencement. It is posted with permission.
A lot of people have asked me: if you disagree with what BYU or the government does, why don’t you just go someplace else? (A favorite suggested location is Berkeley.) I only know one way to answer them, which is to tell them that I love this place, and want it to be what it can be. After I answer this way, there is always another question: If you love it, why do you criticize it? My answer is the same: because I love it, and because I believe that integrity requires a mix of staying and going, charity and chastisement, and because I want to go to a school and live in a country that let me do all of the above. (more…)
From Joanna Benson aka JA Benson.
Maybe, like us, you are a proud descendant of Mormon pioneers, confident in your knowledge of your Western European heritage, a typical DNA Mormon-American. Are you ready for a big surprise? We weren’t! (more…)
Daniel Bartholomew lives in New York. He works at Yeshiva University. (more…)
