Yearly Archives: 2006

Years ago, I responded to one of those philanthropic commercials inviting viewers to request some “no obligation” information about their charitable organization. I requested it and soon received the photograph of a little girl in the Philippines, along with the invitation to sponsor her. How could I say no? There she was, looking right at me, calling me to responsibility. I had the means to provide for her, and surely I had to do it–and did. But a change has happened over the years. I now have a daughter with an eating disorder. On her binder, she has put... Read more »

From the day she learned it was part of her Relief Society calling, my mother lived in dread that she would need to prepare the body of a ward member for burial. 7 people like this post. Like Unlike Read more »

So asked my oldest daughter, Megan (now 10) yesterday morning, as Melissa and I were discussing our Christmas Eve plans. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Cursing, it would seem, forms something of a theme in Mormon legal history. Not only was it a way of dealing with unsolved crimes, but it also seems to have been used as a way of controlling frivolous litigation. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I have posted before on the now largely forgotten Mormon tradition of cursing. As you would expect, I have found that Mormon cursing also has a legal angle. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Feminist Mormon Housewives is having another one of those unexpected conversations that seem to appear only on that blog. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I was still single when I was sent to Central Africa as an international aid worker, to work as a teacher in a slum suburb of Kinshasa, capital of Congo. I got a room in a frail school building, part of a convent of Catholic nuns. The space had a bed, a table, a toilet, and a sink. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

In 1847, the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and set up a frankly theocratic government. The highest legal authority was the High Council, which had the right to promulgate laws, as well as to try and punish criminal offenses (usually with fines or public whippings). Just as one would expect from a fanatical theocratic despotism, the High Council spent most of its time legislating about cows. Initially this was done by passing a law whereby all stray livestock was impounded and the owner of the strays was required to pay a fixed fine. The rule was... Read more »

“Revolutions” is probably not the right word: what I’m getting at is turning points, watershed events, or paradigm shifts. What got me thinking about this was the “Mormon Culture Tournament” over at By Common Consent. It’s basically just a fun exercise (go ahead: vote!) but there’s an interesting project lurking within it: the attempt to identify which, out of many historical habits, references, and signifiers, really are the most telling, the most unique, the goofiest markers of the truly, authentically “Mormon.” And if you look at the answers and comments, a pattern is made clear…. Be the first to... Read more »

I largely agree with Kaimi’s thoughts on how the Church is usually content to let teachings and statements of earlier authorities fade into obsolescence through silence, rather than through any kind of formal pronouncement. But I think that the opposite, that the silent treatment is intended as an informal repudiation, might not be true in all cases. I don’t think that any general authority will provide a clear answer on nineteenth-century polygamy any time soon, but I don’t think their silence will provide any guidance, either. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

The ninth amendment to the constitution is one of those wonderfully vague constitutional provisions that delights arm-chair theorists and annoys judges who might actually have to figure out what it means. It reads: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. It turns out that this provision was an unlikely character in some of the earliest legal battles over polygamy. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

It was the first time in years a baby would be blessed in this tiny Belgian branch. The missionaries had explained how it worked and the handbook provided some scanty instructions. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

So if a friend said to me, “What do you think about that Mormon prophet who got arrested for polygamy?” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

On a day when TV news programs carry images of 170 million Americans storming shopping malls in a frenzy of consumerism, here’s an account of a different kind of economic system 1 person likes this post. Like Unlike Read more »

I once spent an uncomfortable few hours wedged in economy class on a flight from Boston to Salt Lake City. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Since we are entering the holiday season I am thinking about building some of my posts around the holidaies and maybe some of my evolving ideas of a personal liturgical calendar. I seem to have needed this calendar all of my life and over the last ten years or so I have been actively and successfully pursuing it, including a thoroughly Mormon Passover and some beginning stabs at celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Today is the first time I’ve seen advertising directed at Mormons that didn’t scream ‘priestcraft.’ Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

In case it may have escaped your notice, Ardis Parshall has been posting and commenting a great deal lately. Actually, she’s so quickly made herself at home here at Times and Seasons, with her superb series of historical posts, as well as her reflections on everything from running a business to doing archival research, all from her own unique yet thoroughly Mormon perspective, that it almost escaped our notice as well. But not quite! So allow this to be a somewhat delayed official introduction of Ardis to the Bloggernacle as T&S’s newest permablogger. Welcome, Ardis! (We’ll be getting you... Read more »

I teach all of the youth in my ward. I suspect this is because nobody else will do it. Also, most of the youth (whether or not I’ve given birth to them) pretty much live at my house. So I am very able to tell them to behave and get a quick response. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

If we’ve learned one thing in the past week, it is this: Mice are not good Mormons. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

For many years, northern Bavaria had a duplicate Church geography, with a stake for American servicemen sharing the boundaries of a German district. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

In 1870, the Utah Territorial Legislature passed an act giving women the right to vote, making Utah the second jurisdiction in the United States to given women the vote. (Wyoming was the first in 1869.) In 1887, Congress revoked the territorial law in the Edmunds-Tucker Act, and women were denied the vote until Utah was admitted as a state in 1896. Less well known is that there was an 1880 judicial attack on women’s suffrage in Utah. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

There are lots of legal stories in the Book of Mormon, but there is not much in the way of legal reasoning. One of the few exceptions is found in Alma 30, which tells the story of Korihor the Anti-Christ. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

The problems of following the prophet is a perennial favorite source of Mormon intellectual angst. What if the prophet is wrong? After all, prophets are human and are prone to mistakes? Indeed they are. Which brings me to the topic of Levi Savage. 9 people like this post. Like Unlike Read more »

Hooper never told the full story of his association with Mrs. Pulitzer; such accounts as he did give were conflicting and incomplete. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Why are babies busting all over? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

About two weeks ago I went to the University of Richmond to do some research on Mormon history. Thanks to Terryl Givens, Richmond has acquired a set of the Selected Collections DVDs that were released a while ago by the Church Archives. Hence, I found myself in a library carrel in Virginia reading Orson Hyde’s handwritten 1834 minutes for the Kirtland High Council. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

A question that keeps coming back to me: does God write? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Contact between religions is a lot like contact between languages. One way for two language communities to interact is through invasion. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Some of our readers may have felt like this cartoon when Dave Landrith’s last blog met a(n un?)timely demise. Fortunately for those readers, Dave has now made like this cartoon — the resemblance is uncanny, really — and started a new party blog. Fellow inmates travelers include a random John, John F., annegb, danithew, and Proud Daughter of Eve. The blog’s tagline suggests that it is written by peculiar people; truer words, I am relatively sure, were never spoken. Also, it looks really spiffy. Welcome (back) the bloggernacle, folks! Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Here’s the lead from an article in today’s New York Times: “IN the 1830’s, when men’s pants were first tailored with buttons visible down the front of the fly, the Mormon leader Brigham Young discouraged the population from wearing them, calling them ‘fornication pants.’” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

For those engaged in the perennially fun pastime of Mitt Romney watching, one of the more interesting places to go is the Evangelicals for Mitt blog. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

UVSC and Utah State have growing Religious Studies programs. The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology will hold its fourth annual meeting at BYU in March 2007 (they are still accepting paper submissions). The broad title of BYU’s new Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship could be construed to include theology in its scope Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I found this post today on a Craigslist San Francisco real estate forum: Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

If you want to write the great Mormon novel, or the great Mormon dissertation, don’t play video games. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

It turns out that law-and-economics is not only the dominant theory of private law, but it also helps you think about the idea of Zion. 2 people like this post. Like Unlike Read more »

I registered my two oldest children for school on Friday. The principal needed to know which church they belonged to so that he could assign them to the proper religion class. For a first and third grader attending public school in Bavaria, there is a class for Catholics, a class for Lutherans, or a course on ethics. Actually, we’re Mormons, I said, prepared to explain that I have only one wife and that we do use electricity. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

We want to give our hearty thanks to Tyler Johnson, who took a break from his wonderful blog Mormon Hippocrates to grace Times and Seasons with a brilliant series of posts on achievement, spirituality, survival, and God’s grace. Thanks in particular, Tyler, for sharing your father’s story (though really it was a much larger story than that) with us; it made great reading. We hope to see you around T&S often in the future! We are also pleased to announce that, after a long and delightful engagement, Margaret Blair Young–fine scholar, wise teacher, thoughtful author, superb blogger, sympathetic listener... Read more »

Linguistics, the study of language’s inner workings, is a source for concepts and technical vocabulary that are also useful for thinking about religion, because language and religion are both, among other things, mental constructs for making sense of the world around us. Each provides categories with which to organize the way we think about life: singulars and plurals, nouns and verbs, sinners and the saved. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Alive with new spiritual splendor, Teresa immersed herself in the Gospel. Active in her Denver ward, she found special joy serving in the House of Lord during the Denver Temple dedication—she attended every dedicatory session, savoring the succor she found. One morning, as a session ended, she called my Father in tears and said: “Kimball, I heard Papa—you remember his tenor voice?—singing in the choir.â€? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Taryn Nelson-Seawright has originated a lively thread on BCC presenting some new data on the gender disparity in Mormon Studies and inviting ideas on the reasons and remedies for that disparity. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Generally speaking, we tend to think that the institutional structure of the church is either administrative or pastoral. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Alas, my other lives (teacher, wife, mother, producer and writer) are calling me, so I will contribute less frequently to T&S and other blogs–though this has been really fun. I promised to publish a post about writing the trilogy with Darius. I’ve written elsewhere about some of that experience–the miraculous parts–and thought I’d write here about the more difficult parts. The most obvious difficulty I dealt with in writing about Black Mormons and the history of the Church in regards to race was the research. Not the research per se–I loved doing that–but the things I... Read more »

My Father has never been one to speak much of himself; he is almost painfully shy about being honored, even in private. Not surprisingly, then, I have only ever heard snippets of his life story. Still, I have become acutely interested of late in better understanding my heritage generally and my Father’s story specifically. This summer, with his begrudging permission, I read through his old journals and letters, marveled as I watched his story come to life, and tasted—though distantly—the deep sorrow and joy that run like rivers through his history. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Kiskilili poses the following very interesting question: Often appearing to be caught between pronounced sacramentalist tendencies (ordinances effect real change that goes beyond their symbolic import) and an underdeveloped theology regarding the significance of our so-called “non-essentialâ€? ordinances (no transubstantiation for us!), we seem at a loss to explain clearly the difference between a non-priesthood holder reciting the blessing over the bread and water of which people then contemplatively partake, and the same situation when a priesthood holder pronounces it. Implicit in Kiskilili’s question, it seems to me, that the presence or the absence of the priesthood must make... Read more »

What follows is a summary of some of my research notes. I have been reading Puritan legal history of late, looking for ideas and ways of thinking about Mormon legal history. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Up until about a year ago, if you had asked me why I had studied German, I would have said that I started in the ninth grade and just didn’t know when to stop. At BYU, my major in mechanical engineering lasted about 20 minutes into the first orientation meeting, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to study after that, but I didn’t worry too much about finding another major at the time. I thought I would figure out what I wanted to study on my mission. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Over at some-other-blog, Margaret Young writes in a comment: “Card-carrying Mormons do often believe that Blacks were fence sitters in the pre-existence and that polygamy is essential to eternal progression. Neither position has been formally repudiated by the powers that be. We have merely distanced ourselves from them.” This comment, I think, highlights two different possible views on how Mormon doctrine dies. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Driving to work today, I had an odd epiphany. It occurred to me that there is an odd symmetry between the danger that “liberal” and “conservative” Mormons see in story telling. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

My daughter said recently that she had been raised to view extremely wealthy people as wicked. I was appalled, since I am one of the primary people who raised her. What messages had I communicated which elicited those words? I admit that my father, on first view of a cousin’s enormous mansion, said simply, “Well, that is obscene,â€? and that I have maybe repeated similar sentiments once or twice. I admit that my time living in 3rd World countries has affected my perceptions of wealth, and I have sometimes commented that the price of the richest homes in Utah... Read more »

Margaret will be with us for the next couple of weeks, and with perhaps the exception of Rosalynde, we are all a bit nervous about her guest-blogging. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I was maybe ten years old when I complained to my father about having to go to church. I didn’t like it; it was boring; why couldn’t I just stay home? His response susprised me: “If you don’t want to be there, then stay home. God doesn’t want your grudging obedience.” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

The current issue of BYU Studies publishes for the first time a very interesting letter from one of the first Hawaiian converts, Jonathan (Ionatana) Napela, to the Prophet Brigham Young. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Mormon Stories is no longer “open, honest, respectful”; however, they are now “building bridges.” Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Let’s face it — we haven’t hit the mainstream until we’ve broken into horror movies. And the possibilities for Mormon horror are enormous. After a quick brainstorm with danithew (of Blog-Diss fame), I’m chuckling about some of the possibilities. In the best Julie-Smith tradition, let me present: Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

This is not the kind of article you see every day. 1 person likes this post. Like Unlike Read more »

A common narrative in the church relates to new converts who join the church despite intense pressure from their family or community. But does the calculus change any if a promise is involved? How and when should religious promises be broken? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

What is the bloggernacle? Good question. People’s views are likely to differ, and the quest to define the nacle is bound to be an ongoing one. It’s a fun question, but for now I’m just going to point out a significant new post on the topic: DMI Dave has been around long enough to have a better grasp of the community definitional issues than just about anyone else, so when he weighs in on the topic, it makes sense to pay attention. The don’t-miss-it nacle post of the is Dave’s “Defining the Bloggernacle.” Be the first to... Read more »

On the whole, I am in favor of the smell of tobacco in church, but it is a tricky question. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Some of our readers and participants have expressed a belief that eligibility for priesthood ought to be extended to women. I’m curious about the reasoning underlying different participants’ acceptance of this argument. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Over at BCC Taryn has an interesting post on the Book of Mormon and socialism. Her basic claim is that the Book of Mormon endorses socialism. At one level, I think that she is absolutely correct, on another level I think that the claim is vacuous. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I like Michael’s post about seer stones. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Two long-time members of Times and Seasons, Kristine Haglund Harris and Melissa Proctor, have decided that their season with this blog has come to an end, and that it’s time for them to move on. This is our farewell to them. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

We sojourned in the wilderness for seven years, spending years of famine and frustration in small apartments. Our children learned to play indoors; our driving skills deteriorated. Worst of all, we neglected our food storage. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

How seriously ought we to take Satan? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

A few weeks ago I visited a charming Amish and Mennonite “visitor’s center” in a nearby town. I noticed something I think Mormons can learn from. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I have a friend who is thinking about joining the Church, but he does not have a testimony of the prophet. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I can think of four different ways to change the structures we’ve been talking about. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

The face I have in mind is not the face of the young man (from the Two Faces post), who was to be ordained a teacher today and was instead initially pronounced a deacon instead. ‘Teacher!’ someone whispered, his face remained calm (I peeked), and it all got fixed. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

According to Mormon doctrine, children who die before the age of accountability are fast-tracked straight to the Celestial Kingdom. This idea creates all sorts of numbers problems. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »