…or Patricia Gunter Karamesines, to those who know her outside the blogging world.
Mamadou
Mamadou has AIDS.
Guest Post: The Apostles’ Creed and the Book of Mormon
This post was written by Bryan Stout; his biography appears at the end of the post.
Missing Essentials
Once upon a time, there was a book called Essentials in Church History. It was first published in 1922 and authored by Joseph Fielding Smith, who was made Assistant Church Historian in 1906 and an Apostle in 1910 (then President of the LDS Church from 1970 to 1972). For many years, this book (in one of its many successive editions) was part of every ward library and was found in most LDS homes. It was sort of expected that Mormons would read the book and know their history. It may have been faith-promoting history, but at least it spent 500 pages telling the story.
Elder Busche on Women and Priesthood
When F. Enzio Busche was a temple president, he was once asked by a priesthood leader “when [he] thought the Church would receive revelation giving the priesthood to women.”
Allodial Property and the Restoration
Oliver Cowdrey has the distinction of being one of the few Mormon dissidents to make his stand against church authorities on the basis of obscure doctrines of real estate law.
Vera Wang designed my marriage
Everybody’s talking about expensive weddings; let’s talk about expensive marriages.
Women and Sacrament
On an intermittent but regular basis, women alone perform a portion of our Sacrament blessing.
The Blasphemy of Truth
Suppose I claim that I am right about something (which I do with some regularity). Is there any way to avoid the fact that this is also claiming that God agrees with me? And doesn’t that seem blasphemously presumptuous?
A Note to Our Readers
A post recently appeared on Times and Seasons which we regret. While each post reflects the views of the individual writer and is not vetted by the group before posting, we acknowledge that each post also reflects upon Times and Seasons as a whole. Each of us bears some responsibility for the tenor of discussions here. We particularly regret that J.W. Marriott became the target of personal insult. It is specifically against our policy to question the worthiness of any church member. We would like our readers to join us in recommitting to conduct discussions in a manner that meets the standards we have previously established and that reflects our shared values as members of the Church.
Losing my Religion
I did grad work in biblical studies in Berkeley in the 90s, which means that the Documentary Hypothesis was one of the unquestioned tenets of my faith.
Notes on a Theory of Ordinances
Ordinances are a central part of the gospel, yet of late I find myself wondering what exactly they are. Here are some of my preliminary thoughts:
The Gathering
When Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith, he quoted a number of scriptures, including Malachi’s prophesy that “And he [ie the Lord] shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.” We generally read these words as a reference to temple work, but there is much more going on in them, I believe. This morning, after playing baseball with my son, I sat watching him play on the lawn with his stuffed seal (who had been transformed into a super hero) and I read the following poem, which unknown to the author, I am sure, is about Malachi’s prophesy:
Great Sermons: Beware of False Prophets and False Teachers
I think I must have missed this one when it came out in 1999. Elder Ballard takes the time to list out a few teachings he considers signposts of False Teachers.
A German mirror on Mormons in American religion and politics
Gerhard Spörl, reporter for Der Spiegel, surely did not have an easy task. After his editors at the finest German-language news weekly on the planet took notice of a German Mormon apostle and a Mormon candidate for the U.S. presidency, they gave Spörl the responsibility for interviewing Dieter Uchtdorf, visiting the church offices in Frankfurt, and trying to explain Mormons and their religion to a million German readers (article in English translation here).
The Limits of Tolerance
I suppose that I can support the legalization of polygamy with certain specific limitations.
New Pew Study
See here.
Bloggerstone
Some familiar names appear in the preliminary program for the upcoming Sunstone symposium.
Ph.D. versus Sci-Fi
Beliefnet is hosting an online debate of sorts on the topic (and I’m sure you’ve never seen this one before) “Are Mormons Christian?” Albert Mohler, who holds a Ph.D. (in systematic and historical theology) and is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, titles his post “Mormonism Is Not Christianity.” Orson Scott Card, an award-winning science fiction writer and an active Latter-day Saint, replies with “Who Gets to Define ‘Christian’?” I’ll take one paragraph to talk about Mohler, one paragraph to talk about Card, and one paragraph to talk about the mixed bag of comments to Card’s post.
LDS.org responds to Julie and T&S discussions
Apparently folks in the Church Office Building drop by T&S from time to time. Today, this press release was posted to LDS.org, responding in part to Julie’s post on the recently posted Ensign article on MMM.
The Creation of Mormon Lawyers
Brigham Young and Joseph Smith had some very harsh things to say about lawyers, but from the beginning, Mormon attorneys sought to create an ecclesiastical identity for themselves other than that of lying tricksters bent on stirring up litigation.
Laie and statistics
If you’re applying to BYU-Hawaii, should Dartmouth be your safety school?
Who Owns That Church?
There’s always an owner, of course — there are few concepts more disfavored in the law than real property without an owner. But when it comes to chapels and church buildings, the question of just who owns them can get messy. The latest example: a congregation in Orange County that is trying to leave the Episcopal fold and take its building with it. The congregation just lost the latest round in a fight with the national Episcopal Church and its Los Angeles Diocese over who owns the congregation’s building. [Hat tip: the Religion Clause; see also the Orange County Register story or, for all the legal details, the full appellate court decision.] This story raises a couple of interesting questions for Mormon readers.
“Larger Projects”
Last week, Adam Greenwood pointed out to me an essay by Sally Thomas in First Things, titled “Home Schooling and Christian Duty.” Her article defends home schooling against a very particular kind of attack–specifically, the claim that educating one’s children in the home, away from the public schools, is a failure to be a witness to others as a Christian, a failure to be “in the world,” and more specifically be a light unto it. It’s an interesting claim, one which comes down to, as Ms. Thomas puts it, the idea that homeschooling is selfish, that “homeschoolers [have] enthroned the needs of their own children at the expense of the larger society…[and therefore have] truly turned [their] backs on the lost of the world.”