The principal event in Mosiah 25-28, which is also beautifully and familiarly described in Alma 36, is Alma the Younger’s miraculous conversion. To capture this, I looked for a literary work in the public domain that expressed either the agony that Alma felt or the ecstasy he obtained after his acceptance of the Lord. Read more »
LDS Newsroom
- Manaus Brazil Temple Opens To the Public May 16, 2012
- Ground Broken for Provo, Utah’s Second Temple May 12, 2012
- Released for Mother's Day: Bible Video Depicts Mary, Mother of Jesus May 11, 2012
- Pacific Mormon Helping Hands Come to the Aid of Their Neighbors May 11, 2012
- Mormon Story: Journalist Describes It Well May 10, 2012
- Church Preserving Legacy of Historic Buildings May 10, 2012
- “Stately and Magnificent” Mormon Kansas City Missouri Temple Dedicated May 6, 2012
- Mormonism in the News: Getting It Right | May 4 May 4, 2012
- Political Neutrality: Whiteboard Animation 'Draws Out' Church Position (VIDEO) May 3, 2012
- Mormon Helping Hands: Fix Up, Clean Up, Build It in California and Hawaii May 2, 2012
Mother’s Day, 1996
I sit, waiting for the phone to ring. I haven’t spoken to my parents since December and, though I love what I’m doing, I love them, too. But I’ve been sitting here for almost an hour. I’m not 100% sure of the time zone difference between eastern Brazil and... Read more »
Happy Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a bit like Christmas time in terms of the mass solicitations sent out from various NGOs. To be honest, these are perhaps the only mass emails... Read more »
Who to Watch for MOTY?
Can you remember everyone who has made the news during the past year? Neither can I. As a result, when we get input each December about who should be... Read more »
Reading the Bibles: Why Translations Differ (Part 4)
This is the third of four categories explaining why translations differ. 3) How does the translator resolve ambiguities on the word-level? Hebrew writing did not indicate doubled letters (which... Read more »
Reading the Bibles: Why Translations Differ (Part 3)
Here is the second of four categorical reasons why translations may differ. 2) How does the translator parse the mechanics (syntax, etc.) and disambiguate the text on the sentence... Read more »
Reading the Bibles: Why Translations Differ (Part 2)
Before looking at the two sample passages in detail, I want to familiarize you with some basic information about the Old Testament text and translation issues. And in the... Read more »
Mormon Talks, Christian Sermons
Krister Stendahl, the noted Swedish theologian who was unusually considerate of the LDS Church, listed “holy envy” as one of his three rules of religious understanding. Let’s see if... Read more »
Exploring Mormon Thought: Darwin
We’ve come to the last chapter of Blake Ostler’s first volume of Exploring Mormon Thought. After five months of reading and writing about this first book, I’m even more... Read more »
Reading the Bibles: The Problem (Part 1)
I received the following from an educated friend, and got permission to respond via blogposts. Slightly edited, he asks- >>As someone without training in the original languages, how can... Read more »
Adventures in Family History, part 2
One Sunday evening, several months ago, I was playing around on FamilySearch, clicking back through my father, his father, his mother (or something like that), etc. After twists and... Read more »
Literary BMGD #19: Baptism
I think the most significant event in Mosiah 18-24 is the baptism of Alma and his followers in the Waters of Mormon. There we find the great description of... Read more »
BMGD #19: Mosiah 18-24
CHAPTER 18 1 And now, it came to pass that Alma, who had fled from the servants of king Noah, repented of his sins and iniquities, and went about... Read more »
Mahana, You Ugly!
Let me tell you a little story. Not long ago, we moved to a new ward. After a few weeks, my husband and I were invited to come early... Read more »
Misattributed Quotes of Note: Henry Eyring (Sr.) on Babies, Bathwater, and Authority
This wisdom is often attributed online to Elder Henry B. Eyring, but none provides a source. It was Henry Eyring Sr., non-Apostle and brilliant prolific scientist who gave this... Read more »
The Same 10 Families
With the exception of student wards, every ward or branch I’ve attended seems to rely on a few families to fill all of the major callings. We’ll call them... Read more »
“For I am not Embarrassed by the Writings of Mormonism …”
In an interview on A Motley Vision, Scott Hales, a Ph.D. student at the University of Cincinnati and the brains behind the recent Mormon Lit Blitz, tells two stories... Read more »
Review: Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia
It is published as a reference work, but you can read it like a book, albeit a book of essays: Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2010; publisher’s page), edited... Read more »
Exploring Mormon Thought: Christ
I haven’t any real idea who or what or how—or even when!—Jesus Christ was. And is. And will be. As odd as I’m sure it sounds, I’m not terribly... Read more »
Sacrifice and retention: An unsolvable dilemma?
In Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith taught that “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary... Read more »
Literary BMGD #18: O give me back my Prophet dear
Perhaps the most striking part of the Book of Mormon covered in lesson 18 is the martyrdom of Abinadi. Like many martyrs who have suffered since his time, Abinadi... Read more »
Troubling Dreams
I keep my visions to myself.Have you any dreams you’d like to sell? Mormons tend not to keep their visions to themselves. In his recent General Conference talk “How... Read more »
Reading Tom Wright’s New Testament Commentary for Everyone
Writings on the scriptures often comes from one of two perspectives. 1) Devotional-but-clueless, i.e. the author is able to read/write devotionally on a passage because they don’t know any... Read more »
Dear SLCHQ,
Hiya, It has recently come to my attention that my ward and stake are in a gross state of apostasy. I was completely unaware of this until I saw... Read more »
Literary BMGD #17: The Seer
Often LDS lessons based on the scriptures cover such a broad range of topics in the scriptures given that the stated theme of the lesson doesn’t capture what is... Read more »
Exploring Mormon Thought: Sex
I don’t know much about God (which is probably pretty obvious), but I have thought a lot about sex. Read more »
Polygamy 2012
Once upon a time, family law was a marginal legal topic that didn’t make many headlines the way constitutional law or criminal law so often do. But gay marriage... Read more »
Conferences and Events
- Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Conference
- BYU Education Week
- BYU Idaho Education Week
- Sperry Symposium
- Utah State Historical Society Conference
- John Whitmer Historical Association Annual Meeting
- Association for Mormon Letters Annual Meeting
- LDS Semi-Annual General Conference
- Matthew Bowman: "Mormonism and American Progressivism"
- Samuel Morris Brown: "In Heaven as it is on Earth"
Calls for Papers
- Brazilian Mormon Studies Conference
- Colloque international sur le mormonisme (International Conference on Mormonism)
- LDS Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists
- Mormon Media Studies Symposium
- Sunstone Kirtland
- Sunstone West
- Sunstone Symposium: MORMONS AND MORMONISM AS A POLITICAL FORCE
- BYU Religious Education Student Symposium
- RESTORATION STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
- Claremont Mormon Studies Student Association