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Mormon Life
Mormon Life – Family – Personal Reflections
Missionary work, common ground, ethics, and deception
A fascinating New York Times article and follow up blog post discuss negative reactions to a build-on-common-ground Christian missionary initiative among Muslims. The blog post details: An outreach technique that some Baptist missionaries use with Muslims. It involves stressing commonalities between the Koran and the Bible and affirming that the Allah of... Read More »
Sleep, Success, and Seminary
Sleep: it’s more important than you think, especially for teenagers. Here’s from George Will’s latest column, “How to ruin a child“: Only 5 percent of high school seniors get eight hours of sleep a night. Children get an hour less than they did 30 years ago, which subtracts IQ points and adds body weight. 5... Read More »
Forsake Your Sins
On the sweetness of Mormon life. 9 people like this post.Like Read More »
Higher Education and Mormon Culture
While discussing the development of Mormon culture at the recent Brazilian Mormon Studies Conference in São Paulo, Brazil, one friend told me that Mormon culture would really develop when there was an LDS University for members in Brazil to attend. 2 people like this post.Like Read More »
Ye Cannot Behold With Your Natural Eyes
On the sweetness of Mormon Life. 6 people like this post.Like Read More »
Putting the Sunday in the Super Bowl
Some time ago on T&S, I survived a discussion on the history of Sunday (got no t-shirt though). That knock-down drag-out event included some talk of sports, but overall was pretty general. In light of the upcoming Super Bowl I thought it might be fun(?) to look at the rise of Sunday sport more... Read More »
Feeding the Missionaries—in the Internet age
As life-long LDS Church members, my wife and I know the drill—how to feed the missionaries. Then, with our son serving an LDS mission, we got an email that changed everything. 27 people like this post.Like Read More »
Abstinence Education Works, Study Says
A new study finds that abstinence education works. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Testimonies of the Bloggernacle
A friend asked whether I was aware of any good collections of testimony or “Why I Believe”-type posts in the Bloggernacle. Nothing really sprung to mind, so I thought I’d issue a call for people to share their favorites here. I’ll compile a running bullet-point list below of the suggestions. 3 people like this... Read More »
Help Me Be Self-Reliant
On the sweetness of Mormon life. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Christmas with Autism
In April of 2008, our son Samuel was diagnosed with autism . . . But in this Christmas week, I wanted to share some specific experiences that we have had with our special needs child, first the challenges that the holiday posed and then the wonderful blessings that we have experienced together as a... Read More »
Calling All Introverts
There’s hope! At least that’s the message of a couple of posts I read through lately (here and here) presenting an interview with Adam McHugh, the author of Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture. By “Church” he means Evangelicals, not the LDS Church, but the discussion is still relevant... Read More »
Do We Need A Fifth Mission?
The news is out that LDS leaders are adding a fourth mission for the Church: caring for the poor and needy. According to an official LDS spokesman cited in the Salt Lake Tribune article, the new mission (or purpose or emphasis) will be included in the new edition of the Handbook of Instructions to... Read More »
I’m Sick and Tired of December
I’m not Scrooge and I’m not the Grinch, either—but December is enough to make me feel like one of those guys. It’s only December 6, and I’m feeling sick and tired of this month. Could we schedule anything else? Seriously. I cut back on parties and try to simplify, just like nice mommy articles suggest.... Read More »
Your View of Mormons in the Media
I recently had a short discussion with a journalism student about how Mormons and Mormonism get covered in the mainstream media and whether new online media, including blogs, do any better. I’ll summarize my responses below, but I invite readers to offer their own responses in the comments. 1. How do Mormons feel about increased... Read More »
Parents are people
It’s been a stressful time for us. My father in law had been battling leukemia for over a year, when he suddenly took a turn for the worse. FIL’s illness lasted a few more weeks, and he finally passed away. This has affected the family in a number of ways; most... Read More »
“Fathers do not mother”
Kaimi put up a sidebar link to a NYT piece on parenting. It had an interesting quote: “Fathers tend to do things differently, Dr. Kyle Pruett said, but not in ways that are worse for the children. Fathers do not mother, they father.” 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
True Adventures in Turning the Other Cheek, Pt. Two
For the next several weeks, I attended church when I could. Participation often included lowering my eyes when the bishop or his first counselor walked by and gave me stern “We’re watching you” stares. In some ways the whole business interested me so I wasn’t suffering as much as some might suppose.... Read More »
Halloween Costumes and Inner Conflict
Halloween scares me. Of course, I’m scared of lots of things—poverty, cancer, rape, gang violence, Satan, etc. I thought I should admit that up front. Make of it what you will. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
President Monson wins the prize
So Slate keeps track of who it considers the most powerful octogenarians and President Monson tops the list. If ever there was a list where Mormons could shine that did not have to do with singing and dancing I guess it makes sense that it would be “powerful old men”. To loosely paraphrase President Hinckley,... Read More »
Are the Books Available?
It is a bit of a coincidence that, as I prepared my regular list of the books and other media mentioned in General Conference, one of the LDS discussion forums in Brazil I follow was lamenting the decision to discontinue selling classic LDS works in Portuguese, like Talmage’s The Articles of Faith and LeGrand... Read More »
Diapers, Dishes, and Dusting
Yesterday, a Mormon Times article began with this opener: “For Finnish music star Mervi Hiltunen-Multamäki, trading in exotic concert locales, a prime-time TV show and platinum records for diapers, dishes and dusting was an easy decision. Maybe that’s because following the prophet has never been hard for her.” 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
A Call for Mormon Studies Papers — for Brazil
After a bit of work and discussion, a small group I’m working with has issued a call for papers for what may be the first academic conference on Mormonism not held principally in English. The conference will be held in São Paulo, Brazil this coming January. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Let Them Praise His Name in the Dance!
I went on one of the best dates I’ve been on in some time tonight – my daughter and I went to BYU’s World of Dance. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Overdoing Church?
Many years ago, a friend told me in jest, when I wondered about missing Church on Sunday, “There are only 48 lessons in the Priesthood manual. Attending anything more than that is brown-nosing.” 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
When Should We Fear Discourse?
In Nephi Anderson’s short story, “On the Border-land of Light,” his protagonist meets a woman who knows little of Mormons: “Have you never been down in the lower valley?” he asked. “No, never. You see we were afraid of the Mormons at first,… 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Sister Missionaries and Opposite-Gender Attraction
A wonderful woman who served as my Education Counselor a number of years ago served a mission for the church around the time she was 19. She fell in the fabulous loophole. Her father was a mission president, so she was allowed to serve while he served, even though she was “underage.” But George Durrant... Read More »
Remembering 18 Months
Saturday, my son passes the 18 month mark of his mission–and he will then also pass me, having served longer on his mission than I did on mine. I confess, I’m a little jealous. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Does the BYU Football Program Have a Spiritual Mission?
With the dawn of another much-anticipated season of college football nearly upon us, I’ve been thinking about a series of conversations I had this past year with a friend regarding the allocation of resources at BYU. This friend was bothered by the fact that the BYU football program has received such a tremendous amount... Read More »
The Macho Interpretation
In priesthood meeting a couple of weeks ago we discussed fasting and prayer and how long you need to fast or pray for it to be effective. It occurred to me then that many male members of the Church have a tendency to approach spiritual isssues like this as a macho exercise. 0 people... Read More »
Links
- Official LDS Church Site
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Conferences and Events
- - Utah State History Annual Conference (Sep 9, 2010)
- - SVU Education Conference (Jun 4, 2010)
- - BYU Women's Conference (Apr 29, 2010)
- - Marilyn Arnold: "Nibley on the Book of Mormon" (Mar 25, 2010)
- - John W. Welch: "The Lasting Legacies of Hugh W. Nibley" (Mar 11, 2010)
- - Helen Whitney's "The Mormons": Reflections and Analysis on Religion and Film (Feb 12, 2010)
- - Grant Hardy: "Reading the Book of Mormon" (Feb 19, 2010)
- - Eric Huntsman: "Nibley and Classical Scholarship" (Mar 18, 2010)
- - Daniel Walker Howe: "The Transformation of America, 1815-1848" (Jan 30, 2010)
- - Daniel Peterson: "Nibley as Apologist" (Feb 4, 2010)
- - Church History Symposium (Feb 26, 2010)
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