I had an experience today related to Kaimi’s discussion of race and hymns. I am the new Elders’ Quorum Instructor in our ward, which like Kaimi’s includes a substantial number of recent, African-American converts. I was teaching from the first chapter of the John Taylor manual, and during my preparation, I decided to pull the full text of the sermons that are quoted in that chapter. It turns out the bulk of the chapter is taken from a really wonderful sermon given by John Taylor in 1860. One of my pet peeves is the way in which we tend... Read more »
LDS Newsroom
- Concern Over Changes to Home Storage Centers Unnecessary June 17, 2013
- Social Media Gives New Twist to Tabernacle Choir’s 2013 Tour June 17, 2013
- Mormonism in Pictures: Temple Square Attracts Millions of Visitors | 14 June 2013 June 14, 2013
- Father's Day Video: Remember What It Takes to Be a Good Father June 12, 2013
- Church Providing Relief After Most Recent Oklahoma Tornadoes June 6, 2013
- VIDEO: Moore, Oklahoma, Woman Leaves For Mormon Mission in Wake of Tornado June 6, 2013
- Mormons Around the World: Country Newsroom Websites | 5 June June 5, 2013
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Donate Wisconsin Historical Marker June 5, 2013
- "On Faith" Column: Scouts Policy Should Be Seen for What It Is: A Reaffirmation of Core Values May 31, 2013
- Mormonism in the News: Getting It Right | 30 May 2013 May 30, 2013
Blog Archives
Against Mardell
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Pratt is Back!
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We’re Disturbing
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Suing the Church
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ANGELS (AND MORMONS) IN AMERICA
Andrew Sullivan has a take down here of recent crooning at the New York Times about HBOs forthcoming production of Tony Kurshner’s Angels in America. Angles is a play that chronicles the AIDS epedemic in the 1980s, and won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1990s. What is interesting to me is that the play has a Mormon character (to be played on HBO by Patrick Wilson) — a closet homosexual — who in one scene appears on stage in a homosexual encounter wearing temple garments. Kurchner clearly doesn’t really know anything about Mormons or at least about temple garments.... Read more »
Sacred and Profane
In the spirit of getting some content on this site, I offer the following from the archives of A Good Oman: A thought on First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake v. Salt Lake City Corporation, 308 F.3d 1114 (2002), the Salt Lake City Main Street case: In his wonderful book The Sacred and the Profane, Eliade discusses the idea of sacred space. According to Eliade one of the things that religion does is orient the believer in the cosmos. It does this by interrupting the normal flow of space with sacred places — shrines, temples, etc. — that mark... Read more »
Conferences and Events
- LDS Semi-Annual General Conference
- Book of Mormon Lands Conference
- BYU Religious Education Student Symposium
- Reid L. Nielson: "The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair"
- Joseph and Marilyn Bentley: "Mormons and the Holy Land"
- Armand L. Mauss: "The Intellectual Journey of a Mormon Academic"
- Mormon Theology Seminar
- American Society of Church History Annual Meeting
- American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting
- Communal Studies Association Annual Meeting