Blog Archives

Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 4 (Literary Edition)

January 8, 2013 | 3 comments
By
Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 4 (Literary Edition)

In a 1944 essay (“Is Theology Poetry?”), C.S. Lewis remarked, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” As one who embraced Christianity later in life, Lewis had a keen appreciation of how a new discovery of belief can throw a bright reflected glory on the world and everything in it. The mind, which craves new connections of any kind, takes a special delight in those intellectual connections that carry an associated weight of affection. Who has not noted with pleasure... Read more »

Wearing Pants

December 15, 2012 | 30 comments
By
Wearing Pants

Everybody’s talking about pants. And having already recently conducted my own private (and unrelated) “wear pants to church” event, I thought it would be an opportune time to share my thoughts here. I had been contemplating wearing pants to church for awhile and had several reasons for doing it, although when it actually came down to it, the choice to wear pants on that particular Sunday had mostly to do with the fact that I was exhausted from taking care of sick family members and my dress pants were clean and pressed, while my skirt was not. Turns out,... Read more »

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

December 6, 2012 | 2 comments
By
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Two years ago, we spent one of my favorite Christmases ever in Italy. We were living in a little town nestled against a mountainside between the Ligurian and Maritime Alps. Every Sunday we drove a half hour through the Piedmont countryside to meet with our little LDS branch. I loved our branch to death, but it was in that awkward in-between stage where there are enough members to necessitate a full complement of auxiliaries, but not nearly enough to comfortably staff said auxiliaries. We generally kept things more-or-less together, but we didn’t have a lot of extra time or... Read more »

Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 3 (Eternal Polygamy Edition)

October 16, 2012 | 66 comments
By
Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 3 (Eternal Polygamy Edition)

Since polygamy will keep rearing its ugly head every time we try to talk about Heavenly Mother, I’ve given it its very own post, as promised. Polygamy occupies an uneasy place in the psyche of many Mormons today. Although the practice was abandoned by the church in the early 20th century, it is exotic and taboo enough that it continues to be one of the public’s primary associations with Mormons. However, even within the church, the idea of polygamy (and specifically, polygyny) continues to complicate theology and life. Today I’d like to take a deeply personal look at some of the... Read more »

A Mormon Holiday

October 2, 2012 | 10 comments
By

Sometimes I am a little envious of my friends whose religions involve a year full of meaningful religious holidays that strengthen and define them both culturally and spiritually. Ramadan, for instance, is a sort of month-long holiday for Muslims, complete with special foods and lots of family time. When we lived in Tunisia, I was amazed at the community cohesiveness produced by a holiday that disrupted people’s lives so much for so long. Not much work of any kind was accomplished during the month of Ramadan, but family ties were strengthened, religious convictions deepened, and there was a palpable feeling that... Read more »

Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 2

September 18, 2012 | 60 comments
By
Finding My Heavenly Mother, Part 2

 The same drive which called art into being as a completion and consummation of existence, and as a guarantee of further existence, gave rise also to that Olympian realm which acted as a transfiguring mirror to the Hellenic “will.” The gods justified human life by living it themselves—the only satisfactory theodicy ever invented.    - Friedrich Nietzsche   During part 1 I described for you my personal awakening to the existence of Heavenly Mother. In this post, I’ll explore some of the implications that discovery had for the way I view God, religion, and myself. It’s funny, it wasn’t until... Read more »

A Perfect Exhibit for the BYU Museum of Art

September 10, 2012 | 5 comments
By
A Perfect Exhibit for the BYU Museum of Art

A beautiful young woman sleeps, dreaming of her true love. When his lips meet hers, her eyelids flutter open. Their eyes meet, and they fall instantly in love. She’s already conveniently attired in a wedding dress, so they get married immediately and live happily ever after. The fairytale comes to life in an exhibit at the National Art Museum in Kiev, Ukraine. Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko recruited five women whom he described as “gorgeous, smart, and looking for love.” They took turns sleeping in the gallery, waiting to be kissed by onlookers. Both the “princesses” and any visitors venturing a... Read more »

Finding My Heavenly Mother – Part 1

August 11, 2012 | 15 comments
By
Finding My Heavenly Mother – Part 1

The Mormon conception of God encompasses both a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. However, we almost never talk about our Heavenly Mother. In this series, I’ll give you a peek into my own personal journey toward learning to know my Heavenly Mother. Like many Mormons, I grew up always knowing about Heavenly Mother, but never really talking about Her. And honestly, the relative absence of my Heavenly Mother didn’t ever bother me much. In fact, when I thought of Her at all, I thought of Her as a sort of special, beautiful secret, or an esoteric doctrine I... Read more »

The Way We Teach Our Children Modesty

July 26, 2012 | 94 comments
By

At the age of two, my daughter Axa could point out an immodest outfit in a shop window. At five, she added sleeves to the dress on the princess picture her babysitter had drawn for her. Although I don’t recall making any special effort to teach her about modesty, I was surprised and gratified that she understood the concept at such a young age. However, lately I’ve been having disquieted feelings when she brings up modesty, as I realize that something in the nuance of what I’ve taught has gone awry. And then just a few weeks ago, something... Read more »

Globetrotting, Mormon-Style

July 8, 2012 | 14 comments
By
Globetrotting, Mormon-Style

One of the things almost sure to be heard in testimony meeting after someone has traveled (whether it’s across the ocean or just to the next town over) is an expression of gratitude that “the Church is the same no matter where you go.” To a certain extent, it’s true. We all sing the same hymns, although every ward congregation seems to have its particular favorites. We all read the same scriptures. Sunday meetings follow the same general format, even if the meetings are in a different order. Thanks to Correlation, Sunday School and other lesson manuals are standardized... Read more »

Single Moms and Adoption — Another Perspective

June 12, 2012 | 45 comments
By
Single Moms and Adoption — Another Perspective

I have been fascinated by the idea of adoption for a long time. Growing up, I knew a few people who were adopted, and the idea of bringing home your baby from Korea or the Ukraine always seemed exotic to me. But my obsession really took off when I got my Patriarchal Blessing. After gushing about the children that would be born to me, a totally out-of-the-blue paragraph began with the words, “I bless the love of your family to extend to other children . . . ” Suddenly, adoption was part of my envisioned Mormon “happily-ever-after,” and I... Read more »

Mahana, You Ugly!

May 6, 2012 | 61 comments
By

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 to church to meet with a member of the bishopric. We figured, of course, that he wanted to extend a calling to one or both of us. When we arrived, he asked my husband to come in and speak with him first. So I assumed that my husband was getting the calling. To my surprise, after I was ushered into the room, the bishop’s counselor extended a calling to me.... Read more »

Mormons and Muslims

October 24, 2011 | 62 comments
By
Mormons and Muslims

I had a university professor who lived in Iran and ran a television program dedicated to classical Persian music prior to the Islamic revolution. He spent a lot of time during the seventies crossing sketchy borders into various ‘Stans. One of his tools for successful border crossing (not to mention survival) was a pamphlet he wrote himself, highlighting similarities between Mormons and Muslims; things like a founding prophet, directly revealed scripture, fasting, and polygamy. I was intrigued by his comparisons, and this class was one of the many things that prompted me to study Arabic and learn more about Islam.... Read more »

Homeschooling Then and Now

October 13, 2011 | 73 comments
By
Homeschooling Then and Now

As was mentioned in my introduction a week or so ago, my parents homeschooled us “back in the good old days when homeschooling was weird and subversive, not hip and progressive.” I’m now homeschooling my own children, and it’s interesting to note how the movement has evolved during the past 25 years. My adjectives describing the change don’t fit perfectly, of course, but they are representative of general trends, at least in how the perception of homeschooling has changed. When my mother decided she’d like to keep me home from kindergarten in 1985, it was a bizarre and scary... Read more »

Sister Beck and Daughters in My Kingdom

October 9, 2011 | 7 comments
By
Sister Beck and Daughters in My Kingdom

Having spent the past eight months in Tunisia, where our tiny L.D.S. group had very little formal structure, I had almost forgotten what it was like to go to a Church meeting without husband and children in tow. Attending the General Relief Society Meeting with a few friends was like a welcome home. I had found the new Daughters in My Kingdom book at my parents’ house when I arrived a few days before the General Relief Society Meeting, and somehow gotten the idea that it had come out months ago and was more or less required reading before... Read more »

WELCOME

Times and Seasons is a place to gather and discuss ideas of interest to faithful Latter-day Saints.

Notes from All Over

  • DSM-5 now includes “caffeine withdrawal” (Sam)
  • Sen. Flake’s son attracts attention for racist tweets. (Kent)
  • Big tent Mormonism. Well, bigger. (Dave)
  • “SLC betrayed its founders’ vision” – here’s how to get it back(James)
  • 4 slain youth (English version)(James)
  • Lincoln and His Critics(Adam G.)
  • Four LDS youth in El Salvador murdered following LDS event (in Spanish). (Kent)
  • Not again! – Mormon Bishop arrested for sex abuse (Kent)
  • Fired for being Mormon? (Kent)
  • Inequality by the numbers.(Julie)
  • A great article about missionary work.(Julie)
  • No way to represent.(Julie)
  • Weak families, weak faith–an Eberstadt interview(Adam G.)
  • The drug war in N. Mexico imprisons visiting Mormon mother(Kent)
  • Mormon Book Review joins the Maxwell Institute. (Adam)
  • Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys(Alison)
  • All kinds of awesome.(Julie)
  • Watched this last night for FHE (Dave)
  • QUIT WORRYING, WE’RE FINE! (Ben S.)
  • Sister Monson passed away.(Julie)

    • Blogroll

    RSS Conferences and Events

    RSS Calls for Papers