First the journalistic malpractice, then BYU-Idaho.
Category: News and Politics
Politics – Current Events – Media
Mythology, Apology, and Plausibility – Reading Nephi – 17:23-47 – Overview
In mythically promoting our history we risk undermining it—at least we do so in today’s information age. But this chapter with Laman and Nephi sparring makes me think that perhaps this is always the case.
10 Questions
We’re please to be working with Kurt Manwaring over at 10 Questions to bring you some really great interviews. The first one coming up in a little bit will be an April 10 interview with Spencer Fluhman. He’s the executive director of the Maxwell Institute at BYU and is the editor of To Be Learned is Good: Essays on Faith and Scholarship in Honor of Richard Bushman. On April 24th we’ll have an interview with Mark Ashurt-McGee and Sharalyn Howcroft on their new book Foundational Texts of Mormonism. Both these look to be very great books so we’re really excited.
Church History Symposium
The 2018 Church History Symposium will be held on March 1st & 2cd. They’re doing it in two locations. The first day will be at BYU while the second day will be at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. This is a pretty big conference with the focus on finance. Looking through the presentations there are a ton of fascinating topics.
Mormon Social Science Association Conference
The Mormon Social Science Association is having a conference at Utah Valley University on February 21st from 1:00 PM – 6:45 PM. This looks to be particularly interesting. The featured speakers are Marie Cornwall and Jana Riess. Marie Cornwall is speaking on “Lessons Learned from a Historical Perspective on Women’s Lives.” There’s been some amazing work on women in Mormon history the past few years. I think we’re getting some important attention on perspectives that have been unduly neglected in how people look at the past of Mormonism. Jana Riess is speaking on Mormon Millennials and generational change. I suspect this will in large part figure her recent survey and the associated data. There’s been a lot of recent statistical work, particularly from Pew, noting a pretty significant realignment both to a degree with Millennials but more particularly with the younger generation. Riess’ title for her presentation “From Institutional to Relational Authority” suggests the nature of that shift. There are several other presentations, many of which sound particularly interesting.
God’s Demand That We Suffer – Reading Nephi – 17:17-22
I don’t care what kind of faith you have, Nephi’s idea on the face of it is loony.
The Narrative of Divine Command – Reading Nephi – 17:13-15
Two remarkable items: the repetition of Nephi’s mantra concerning the need to keep the commandments of God in order to prosper and to see the hand of the Lord; the placement of this mantra immediately preceding Laman’s criticism.
The two fundamentals of Mormon scripture reading
There are, I think, only two fundamental requirements that a Mormon reading of scripture must fulfill.
Rereading Rasband’s “By Divine Design”
I did not have a positive reaction to Elder Rasband’s talk in the most recent General Conference, and I wasn’t happy when our Elder’s Quorum teacher announced we would be basing our lesson on it last week, either. But I decided to try re-reading the talk with an open mind, and I’m glad I did. The main reason the talk, By Divine Design, rubbed me the wrong way when I first heard it, is that I associate people who see God’s hand in numerous, small, every-day coincidences with the same class of superstitious belief that finds meaning horoscopes. This is, more than anything else, a cultural prejudice. The secondary reason is that I find the idea of a micro-managing God theologically vexing. Let’s start with the simplest question: how do the mechanics of divine intervention work out? When you pray to get the job you’re interviewing for, what exactly are you hoping that God will do for you? Send the hiring manager a vision, or contact HR directly on your behalf? And what happens when you’ve got multiple people praying for the same thing. Does the greatest faith win? But the most noxious question is this: if we have to give credit to God for the good coincidences, then why aren’t we giving Him credit for the bad ones? Sometimes a one-in-a-million convolution of circumstance saves a life. Sometimes it takes a life. If we’re giving God credit for the former but…
2018 UVU Mormon Studies Conference: Heaven & Earth, Feb 22-23, 2018
Heaven & Earth Mormonism and the Challenges of Science, Revelation and Faith February 22nd – 23rd, 2018 Classroom Building, Room 511 Utah Valley University Program PDF here; conference website here. The relationship between science and religion has been among the most fiercely debated issues since the Copernican revolution displaced traditional wisdom regarding the nature of the cosmos. Some have argued for a sharp division of labor while others have sought to harmonize spiritual and empirical truths. From its beginnings, Mormonism has wrestled with the implications of modern science and has produced a variety of theological responses. This conference will explore the landscape of Mormon thought as it relates to the relationships between science, theology, scriptural narratives, and LDS authoritative discourse. It will also examine abiding questions of faith, reason, and doubt and the reactions against the intellectualizing forces that bear on the truth claims of Mormonism. Keynote speaker Molly Worthen, Assistant Professor of History at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism and contributing writer for the New York Times, will speak on “Faith Seeking Understanding: The Evangelical Experience, and Mormon Connections.” Friday, 2/23 at 10:00 AM. The Eugene England Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Steven L. Peck, Associate Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University and author of Science the Key to Theology and Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist. Lecture titled “Mormonism, Evolution, and Science: A Cosmos of Unfolding Beauty and Novelty.” Thursday, 2/22 at…
Embodied Spirituality – Reading Nephi – 17:7-12
In passages like this one, Nephi strikes me as incredibly concrete and practical in nature—much more a Brigham Young than a Joseph Smith.
The Fleeting Joy of Bountiful – Reading Nephi – 17:4-6
Like the story of Moses (to which Nephi often refers) the story of Lehi’s & Saraiah’s exodus is epic and foundational, as well as typological.
Trump Approval 2018 Mormon Edition
So many were shocked by today’s Gallup poll breaking down Trump’s job approval rating by religion. More Mormons approved of Trump’s Job performance than any of the other religious groups. A staggering 61% of Mormons approved of his performance. Like many people I was shocked it was that high. I suspect the poll seemed worse given it came out on a day when Trump was once again enmeshed in controversy over racist comments.
Satan’s Plan Part 1
This week in Sunday School and Primary the lesson is on Abr 3 and Moses 4 with a focus on the plan of salvation. I wanted to go in a somewhat different direction than the lesson would go. You might call this my scribbling on the margins of the lesson.
Reminder: SMPT Submissions Due Jan. 15
Submissions are due this coming Monday for the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology’s upcoming conference at Utah State University, March 15-17. The conference theme is “The Exaltation Revelations,” D&C sections 76, 84, 88, and 93. For full details see the Call for Papers (PDF).
Thoughts on Monson’s NYT Obituary
The NYT’s framing of the life of President Monson was, to say the least, interesting. The obituary begins: Thomas S. Monson, who as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2008 enlarged the ranks of female missionaries, but rebuffed demands to ordain women as priests and refused to alter church opposition to same-sex marriage, died on Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 90. It’s just as illuminating to contrast the way the NYT approached President Monson’s death with that of other leaders. Here’s their tweet for President Monson. Thomas Monson, the president of the Mormon church who rebuffed demands to ordain women as priests and refused to alter church opposition to same-sex marriage, died Tuesday at 90 https://t.co/NKEHpAXzb1 — The New York Times (@nytimes) January 3, 2018 By contrast, here’s what they tweeted when Fidel Castro died. Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary who defied the U.S., died Friday. He was 90. https://t.co/2j6LKmaoz7 pic.twitter.com/fX8JlDCVCT — The New York Times (@nytimes) November 26, 2016 The comparison with Castro is particularly interesting because of Castro’s history with the Cuban LGBT community. As unwelcome and controversial as the Church’s continued position on sexual morality is, President Monson never presided over a repressive regime that literally rounded up homosexuals and sent them to forced-labor camps. (It is worth noting that although the Castro regime repressed the Cuban LGBT community for decades, Castro eventually had a change of…
Eight Years to Eternity in the Wilderness – Reading Nephi – 17:1-4
Sandwiched in between the Daughter’s of Ishmael’s complaints about their afflictions and Laman’s complaints about the women’s afflictions (16:35-36 and 17:20-21), Nephi acknowledges that they were indeed afflicted.
Mourning Brother Monson
One of the clearest signals of being one of the Mormon people is our unique experience of the passing of the head of our church.
End of an Era: Hatch Retires
Orrin Hatch is retiring from the Senate. McKay Coppins first broke a story months ago that Hatch was expected to retire with Mitt Romney planning on running for his seat. Then the last few months Hatch seemed to indicate he was reconsidering. He also made many favorable statements about Trump, much to the displeasure of some Utahns. Trump himself clearly wanted Hatch to run again. Today though it seems like Hatch finally decided to stick with his original plan.
“This Way Up”: An Outline for LDS Primary Temple and Priesthood Preparation Meeting
I’m excited about this new meeting. I’ve created a sample teaching outline for Primary presidencies below, so if that’s what you’re mainly here for, scroll down. For those who are interested, though, here’s how I’m thinking at this early stage about the deeper structure and future possibilities for this meeting. The pairing of priesthood power with temple proxy ordinances has intriguing theological implications. It effectively shifts the locus of priesthood in the children’s minds from the chapel (where the deacons pass the sacrament, the focus of the old Priesthood Preview) to the temple. I find this quite significant. It has the potential to recenter our discourse of priesthood away from the male-only administrative hierarchy evident in sacrament meeting and toward the more collaborative, expansive and inclusive vision of priesthood we glimpse in the temple. I’m thinking here of the interesting work done by scholars like J. Stapley, Sam Brown and Kathleen Flake on what they call the “cosmological priesthood”, a picture that is still coming into focus but seems to center on kinship structures (broadly conceived) that endow men and women with power and priestly authority. Granted, I won’t be doing a rigorous survey of cutting edge Mormon history with my 11 year olds! But this is the frame I’ll be working from as I try to devise an empowering, equitable, and age-appropriate experience for the children. (True, the temple baptistry is not a place where that female priestly power…
Moderate Worship Losing Ground
While it’s not really new news, Sociological Science had an interesting story on how American religion is becoming polarized and losing its middle ground. We’ve known for quite some time that mainline churches were rapidly losing members since the 1980’s. Further we’ve known that the rise of the Nones the past 15 years often came from people objecting politically to the social conservatism of religion. The question was whether the United States was secularizing like Europe. Quoting from the study,
Some Brief Thoughts on 2 Nephi 25
2 Nephi 25:23’s “we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” has proved surprisingly controversial the past few decades. I mentioned last week some of the views on grace during that period. My own view is that this is much more a rhetorical issue than a doctrinal one, despite the way the debate has frequently raged. That said the exegesis of 2 Nephi 25 does seem to be a point of disagreement. BCC a few years back did a nice overview of the issues.
The Ever-So-Slightly Endangered BYU Man
A recent leak revealed what appears to be an old scale for evaluating potential BYU students. Basically, you take 10*GPA + ACT and then add points for stuff, like being from outside the West or taking AP classes. The most one could possibly get is 100 points, but this would require being… rather unique. There was some excitement because, although this no longer is true, at the time BYU gave 1 point for being male, presumably to try and bring the gender balance closer to equality.
Mormons and Doubt
I really wanted to comment on recent articles of polls on doubt and Mormons but didn’t have time due to other commitments. I hope you don’t mind a few comments on the Huffington Post article about doubt based upon the Next Mormons Survey. The author Benjamin Knolls is a contributer with Jana Reiss in the recent Dialogue issue on doubt. He gets at an issue I’ve long been interested in – more objective analysis of Mormon retention. Polls and surveys over the past two decades have really allowed us to see what’s going on in a fashion that really wasn’t possible when I was younger. To my eyes, what’s been surprising about Mormon retention has always been just how high it has been.
Talking About Grace
The Deseret News today had an interesting article “Grace is not a Mormon heresy, LDS leaders and scholars say after doctrinal ‘climate change’” It’s an interesting story about how Mormons came to accept talking about grace. Reading it though I realized that the author seemed to make a fundamental confusion that really bothered me. He conflates the language we use to talk about grace with the doctrinal meaning of our beliefs. After all we may believe something yet simply use different language to describe it. Likewise a common problem in discussions with our Evangelical friends is finding we use the same language yet mean completely different things by it.
Unintended Consequences (or How Bad People Can Lead to Good Results)
There’s an interesting issue of distinguishing good consequences from good people. Good people can make bad decisions leading to bad consequences. My favorite example of that is apostle Reed Smoot who was made a Senator in 1902. I take it for granted that he was a good man. However he sponsored the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 which many think led to a deeper and longer depression than was necessary.[1] I think the opposite is true as well. Bad people can do good things. Two examples from the past are Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. I think the moral failings of both are well known but it’s easy to point to important policies they led the way on that many feel were extremely good. Often importantly so.[2] Recently the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault have come up. Many see the personal actions of our current President in this regard as deeply problematic at best and horrific at worst. It’s an interesting question though whether the current focus on sexual harassment and assault would have happened without him. I’m not arguing he intended this social change. Far from it. Yet would people have written about Harvey Weinstein with the associated actions had there been no Trump as President? It’s hard to know for sure, but given the past it’s unlikely. As I write more traditional attempts to avoid consequences from sexual scandal are ongoing in the Alabama election but…
God’s Favor and Human Arrogance and Contempt – Reading Nephi – 16:33-39
Perhaps I ought to be grateful that no such crisis demanding the voice of the Lord has come into my life. Or perhaps I should wonder at the silence of the heavens.
SMPT Events
The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology has a few upcoming events.
A note on my Reading Nephi series and scriptural interpretation generally
It’s hard for us, as humans, to pry apart the empirical from the normative—and for good reasons. Facts don’t come to us bare of value. Especially with regard to those facts that we appreciate and evaluate in existential contexts (i.e., contexts related to our identity and overall worldview), they always already appear normatively laden (i.e., as meaning something). At least as a pragmatic matter, bare facts are secondary abstractions (whatever metaphysical status we ultimately attribute to them). Nephi certainly saw Laman & Co. as acting in ways that had specific meaning and bearing, and I’m convinced that he saw his written record as likewise bearing an unavoidable upshot (this gets noted briefly in chapter 6 and becomes abundantly clear when we get to II Nephi 25). Similarly, we (all) do the same thing when we read commentary on the scriptures. Textual artifacts don’t simply get picked out—rather, the ways in which we pick combines with the social context in which we’re picking, and the picked artifacts’ display already has meaning (however neutral the language doing the displaying). In a public context like Times and Seasons, there are different, sometimes competing contexts, approaches to, and projects with regard to the scriptures. Consequently, a narrative that is candid about textual details is inevitably going to appear at least somewhat differently to different readers. [FN 1] For example, it’s an empirical fact of the text that Nephi only discusses Laman & Co. in…
Mysteries of a Diachronic Narrative – Reading Nephi – 16:26-32
Why did everyone tremble when they looked on the Liahona?