A Mormon Image
General Doctrine
Charity Free Riding
As we all know, the gospel is overrun with economic doctrine. On that note, I noticed a quote about free riding from President Monson (which I just saw at Mormon Times): “I am confident it is the intention of each member of the church to serve and to help those in need,” he said. “At... Read More »
Hope and Children
Faith and charity get plenty of attention, but hope not so much. Pessimism, it seems, has become one of the guiding principles of modernity, reflected in the media, popular culture, and even academia. So I was surprised to find a philospher making the suggestion that children anchor our hope for progress and our conviction... Read More »
The Doctrine of Revelatory Justiciability
A good friend, while studying constitutional law for the bar exam this summer, emailed me some thoughts he scribbled down when he should have been hacking away at a few more MBE questions on judicial review. Instead, however, he hammered out a constitutional analysis on the justiciability of prayers. You see, in case you... Read More »
Sunday Morning in a Nutshell
President Monson conducted the Sunday morning session, featuring talks by President Eyring, Elder Perry, Elder Burton, Sister Dibb, Elder Nelson, and President Monson. Direct quotations (based on our notes) are given in quotes; phrases without quotes are our summary of the remarks given. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Priesthood Session in a Nutshell
President Uchtdorf conducted the Priesthood session, featuring talks by Elder Ballard, Elder Gonzalez, Elder Choi, Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Eyring and President Monson. Direct quotations (based on my notes) are given in quotes; phrases without quotes are my summary of the remarks given. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Two Kinds of Faith
I recently read Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, Terry Eagleton’s critique of the contributions to that debate by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (who he conflates via the memorable moniker “Ditchkins”). It’s less than I’d hoped for, but Chapter Three, “Faith and Reason,” raises issues and questions about that most... Read More »
Alienated in Zion
“I say unto you, be one; and if you are not one ye are not mine (D&C 38:27).” And then comes the uncomfortable experience of sitting in Sunday School (or in the midst of some other group of Mormons) with the persistent, anxious thought, “I really don’t fit in here…” 0 people like... Read More »
A Mormon Don Quixote
Last week I was in Cedar City for my annual visit to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which has brought a lot of pleasure to my family for the past 24 years, thanks to the nearly 50-year-old impossible dream of a returned missionary, Fred Adams. His success is, today, an interesting counterpoint to other impossible... Read More »
The Evolution of Excommunication
I recently went through every version of the Church Handbook of Instructions, looking at what they have to say about the operation of church courts and how it has changed over time. 1 people like this post.Like Read More »
January 1 of the year 40
Happy Moonlanding Day! When I was a youth, I read a science fiction book in which dates in the future were figured from the day that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, apparently because the date had such significance in the history of man. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
The Question of Pacifism
I’m not, by nature, a pacifist. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Speculation
Questions without solid answers, from teaching Elders’ Quorum today: 1. Did Jesus get His endowments during life? If so, how and where? If not, why not (and what does that say)? 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
AWOL: The Threefold Mission of the Church
I was cleaning up my blogroll yesterday and came across this post at Intelligent Life that prominently displays the threefold mission of the Church: preach the gospel, redeem the dead, perfect the Saints. It occurs to me I rarely hear this once-prevalent formulation in current LDS discourse. Where did it go? 0 people... Read More »
Grassroots-Style Dispensations
Are Mormons exclusivists or universalists? 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Four
Here is the last installment of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our last two questions. We’d like to thank Brother Perkins for the time and effort he’s put in to giving us a set of very substantive and thought-provoking responses. 1 people like this post.Like Read More »
12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Three
Here is Part Three of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our next five questions. See Parts One, Two, and Four for our introduction of Brother Perkins and his responses to our other questions. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Two
Here is Part Two of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our next four questions. See Parts One, Three and Four for our introduction of Brother Perkins and his responses to our other questions. 1 people like this post.Like Read More »
12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part One
Marvin Perkins has graciously agreed to answer a few questions from Times & Seasons. Brother Perkins is a Latter-day Saint music producer who is currently the Public Affairs Co-chair for the Genesis Group and who has worked to nurture understanding between African Americans and Latter-day Saints and attack misconceptions. As part of this... Read More »
Optimal Tithing
Suppose that we had a base 8 system instead of base 10, perhaps because, in this hypothetical world, we had 8 fingers rather than 10. Would we pay 1/8 our increase, or do you think it would still be one tenth? Or, to reverse causality, what are the chances we have ten fingers so... Read More »
What Does My Lack of Personal Trials Say About Me?
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I should talk about in my inaugural post on this blog. Quite honestly, when I agreed to do a stint as a guest blogger, I thought it would be pretty easy. But, lately, it seems that all my Mormonism-related thoughts have been trite and meaningless. For... Read More »
Obama’s Mom, Holocaust Survivors and Proxy Temple Work
The Mormon practice of proxy ordinance work has once again made its way into the news, this time involving someone no less prominent than our U.S. President’s late mother. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Compassion for the Unworthy
Can I remind us of something? The rhetoric here and elsewhere on the bloggernacle, the Internet, and evidently in the personal lives of some of us, seems all too often to be based on the idea that there is a worthiness test for compassion. 1 people like this post.Like Read More »
Four sources of the Apocalypse
With the past two months, I have read — for various reasons — four different novels laying out apocalyptic events within the United States. Here are the novels, in the order I read (or re-read) them, and with the reasons why I read them: – Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1977): a... Read More »
I’ve Seen All Good People
We know there are good times and bad times, but are there good people and bad people? Common sense says yes, as does virtue ethics, a branch of philosophical ethics that attempts to identify virtues worth having and tell good people how to get them. Alas, the story is not quite so simple. ... Read More »
Breathing the Breath of God
Genesis (2:7) says that God breathed life into Adam’s nostrils. Is our life a portion of God’s? Jesus quoted a Psalm (82:6) that said, “Ye are gods,” when confronted about his claims to divinity. Mormons are usually not so bold, but there is certainly an element in our tradition that states that humans are... Read More »
Ecumenically Missing?
I came across a news item (here and here) this morning that gives background on the 25 members of the President’s Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and it made me wonder a little about LDS participation in this kind of group. Shouldn’t there be a Mormon on this council? 0 people like this... Read More »
Sunday Afternoon Session Notes
Here’s a few thoughts on Sunday Afternoon’s session of conference. We encourage everyone to take notes during each session and post their thoughts in comments here. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Sunday Morning Session Notes
Here’s a few thoughts on Sunday Morning’s session of conference. We encourage everyone to take notes during each session and post their thoughts in comments here. 0 people like this post.Like Read More »
Priesthood Session Notes
Since we’re not doing open threads during the sessions of conference, we’re trying to start comment threads at the end of the session, so that once you have heard and thought a little about the entire session and the individual talks. So take your notes during the sessions, and let us know after the session... Read More »
Saturday Afternoon Session Notes
Since we’re not doing open threads during the sessions of conference, we’re trying to start comment threads at the end of the session, so that once you have heard and thought a little about the entire session and the individual talks. So take your notes during the sessions, and let us know after the session... 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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