Last week I read _The End of the Spear_, a book by Steve Saint about evangelical missionaries who had gone to the deep Ecuadorian jungles in the 1950’s. The first five missionaries were killed by the natives, but the son a slain missionary (the author himself) returned to the place where his father died.
Tooth Bugs
Recently my husband and I came across a set of rather old LDS song books. As my ward’s primary chorister my favorite was The Primary Song Book: Including Marches and Voluntaries. The edition is missing the title page and so I’m not sure when it was published (and am at a loss as to how I would find out). Let’s just say that it’s really old. Among the very few songs that have survived from this edition to the current one are, “Give said the little Stream”, “I Thank Thee Dear Father”, “Can a Little Child Like Me”, and “Tell Me Dear Lord.” The most interesting songs, though, are the ones that didn’t make the cut. My personal favorite among these songs is #148 Tooth Bugs, by Ivy W. Stone and N. Lorenzo Mitchell:
Cars, Buses, and Suicide Bombing
Going without a car means giving up some control over the safety of yourself and your family, or the illusion of control.
From Russia With Love- Updated
There is a certain sort of person that is just so self-absorbed and generally unaware that it just doesn’t feel wrong to gossip about them, they’d just enjoy the extra attention. In my childhood ward it was Brother L.- in that ward people traded gossip about Brother L. like baseball cards. In fact it feels so normal to gossip about him that I’m having a tough time not filling this post with endless stories about stupid things he’s done. He was, in short, a tough person to get along with, and take seriously (I think it was his Dracula hairdo, but that’s neither here nor there). I eventually came to think of him as an egotistical-yet-harmless old bachelor. A man that, despite his annoying ways, had probably gone through his fair share of disadvantage and heartache. He was still a child of God who deserved all the respect, love and compassion the ward could muster. This past Christmas I heard something that shook my resolve to not think poorly of him to its core: he was taking a trip to Russia for just about the only thing an egotistical lonely old man would go to Russia for, a mail-order bride.
Joseph Smith Legal Trials (Missouri Period and Missouri Extradition attempts) at Miller-Eccles
This weekend, Morris Thurston will present on Joseph Smith’s legal trials, at the Miller-Eccles group meeting here in California.
Star Fox Adventures
Our latest guest blogger is not quite a video-game character, but she’s probably the next best thing. She’s the blogger P. Anderson — also known as Starfoxy (and occasionally as Andermom) — and she has the following to say about herself:
An Abortion Retrospective
A regular reader asked me why Times and Seasons let yesterday’s anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, honored in much of the blogosphere as “Blog for Choice Day,” go by without any comment. I replied that probably the main reason was that everything has already been said which can be said here on that topic. Really, he replied? When? Oh, you recent arrivals, I thought to myself…
Primary Lesson #6 Supplement
Snow Sundays
Melissa and I can’t be the only LDS parents out there whose first reaction upon hearing that church has been cancelled due to bad weather is “Oh crap–what are we going to do with the kids all day?!?”
Finally Feminist–and How
Susan Wise Bauer has a review of (what sounds like) an interesting book.
Without Purse or Scrip
Arriving in Salt Lake City in 1898, a young preacher named James Hart tested the generosity of the people among whom he had landed.
Nostalgia
My youngest daughter has discovered a trove of photos at her grandmother’s house, and she has been going through them
Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration–what did you do?
Over the past several days, I’ve attended some magnificent presentations at Utah Valley State College in commemoration on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. Besides asking myself the obvious (“Why aren’t we doing this kind of thing at BYU?â€), I have been taking notes and thinking about how my life can change because of the things I’ve heard and been engaged in.
Further Complications in Excommunicating the President of the Church
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post on the procedure for excommunicating the President of the Church. In doing a bit of research on the history of the church court system, I came across some interesting complications in the story.
The Conversation in My Head
You’re being greedy. You’re acting like Madame Blueberry before she gets religion.
The Institute for Mormon Studies
The various threads about the position at CGU has gotten me thinking about what Mormon scholarship needs, and I think that it is probably not a chaired position in Mormon studies, welcome as such a thing might be (especially if it allows a prolific scholar to churn out a lot of high quality work on Mormon studies). Rather, I think that Mormons ought to look to the libertarian wing of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for models.
Primary Lesson #5 Supplement
Thanks from Afghanistan
Four months ago, I passed along my cousin Bob’s request for humanitarian donations as part of his work as a JAG officer in Afghanistan. His request has paid off: as the weeks have gone by, he and his fellow soldiers have received clothes, toys, shoes, hygeine kits, school supplies, blankets and much more from friends, family and numerous anonymous donors. To see his first post on the distribution of these donations, filled with some wonderful photographs, click here. (To see his post on how he successfully recruited Superman and Wonder Woman into the humanitarian cause, click here.) And to all of you who helped out–thank you!
Cars, Buses, and the Von Trapp Family Singers
Public transportation is a wonderful thing.
A knotty virtue
Imagine these questions in a worthiness interview: Are you honest? Yes. – Do you keep the Word of Wisdom? Yes. – Are you humble? …
Academic search for Mormon Studies chair at Claremont
The following comes via the search committee for the Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies at the Claremont Graduate University School of Religion: The Claremont Graduate University School of Religion is soliciting qualified applicants to fill the newly-created Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies.
Ward Shopping
We’re in the market for a new house. (If you want a home in North Austin that looks as if a pack of large dogs instead of a pack of small boys had been living in it for the past five years, please email me.)
Missionary Food
“Moulding Surprise” was a stomach-churning concoction of pasta, ketchup, shredded cheese, vinegar, and spices.
First day of class
Today is the first for my Winter semester class, and I’m excited.