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News and Politics

Anti-“Utah Mormon” Bigotry

by Stephen C • June 26, 2022 • 7 Comments

  A few scattered thoughts on both anti-“Utah Mormon” and anti-Latter-day Saint bias in general. (Sorry to mix the two but they are often synonymous and I don’t want to write two posts.)  I still remember the first time I…

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts, Joseph Smith

The Smith Family and the First Vision

by Chad Nielsen • June 25, 2022 • 2 Comments

One of the more interesting points of contention about the history of the First Vision is how much Joseph Smith’s family knew about the First Vision.  During his lifetime, only 4 accounts of the First Vision were published in English…

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News and Politics

The Church’s New Statement on Abortion

by Stephen C • June 24, 2022 • 39 Comments

As mentioned previously, I’m very pro-life. As far as we could tell, we were the only “Latter-day Saints” for life sign at this year’s March for Life, and living in the DC area I’ve had the opportunity to do pro-bono…

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News and Politics

The First AI Church Art Show

by Stephen C • June 22, 2022 • 4 Comments

I have grade school offspring that can draw better than me, and because of the accident of God ordained gifts (or lack thereof), I’ve been a little envious of those who are in a position to create meaningful, powerful art. …

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts, Hymns

Ghostwriter to the Prophet

by Chad Nielsen • June 20, 2022 • 0 Comments

I suspect that if we really knew and experienced the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for ourselves, we might be surprised by who were the most influential members in shaping the developing Church. In…

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News and Politics

Faith Demoting Rumors and Mormon Sexual Urban Legends

by Stephen C • June 19, 2022 • 36 Comments

This last semester I taught a class on sexuality and statistics (the Chair’s idea, not mine, but it turned out) at Catholic University of America, which is the closest thing to a Catholic BYU since it is directly owned and…

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Life in the Church, Race and the Priesthood

Juneteenth and Utah Territory

by Chad Nielsen • June 18, 2022 • 5 Comments

Tomorrow is Sunday, June 19, which is celebrated as Juneteenth National Independence Day in memory of the day that the Emancipation Proclamation began to be enforced in Galveston, Texas by the Union Army (19 June 1865).  In Utah, this also doubles…

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News and Politics

[Spiritual Languages] The End of the Beginning

by Mary Grey • June 17, 2022 • 3 Comments

I apologize for the long gap between my last post and this one. My husband is one of those *religious scholars*, and he supervises an archaeological dig in Galilee and just had to go back after two years’ Covid hiatus.…

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News and Politics

Fetishizing Doubt

by Stephen C • June 16, 2022 • 10 Comments

While some in the Church fear or are anxious around religious doubt, I feel that in some circles the pendulum has swung too far the other way, so I thought I’d directly address what I personally consider to be some…

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Images, Mormon Arts

Of Flags and Symbols of the Church

by Chad Nielsen • June 13, 2022 • 10 Comments

The state of Utah is looking into creating a new flag.  I was interested, so looked into best practices for flag making (vexillology) and found a handy guide from the North American Vexillological Association that suggested five basic principles of…

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News and Politics

Are Latter-day Saints Disproportionately Gay?

by Stephen C • June 11, 2022 • 35 Comments

Anecdotally, it has seemed to me for a while that Latter-day Saint families in particular tend to have a lot of gay family members. I don’t know of any hard data that has done any kind of comparison-of-means by religion…

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News and Politics

What Are The Odds of Being A Church Leader?

by Stephen C • June 9, 2022 • 8 Comments

An issue that came up in my last post on church leadership as a marker of righteousness is that people are occasionally told that they are going to be the future bishops and stake presidents of the Church. There are…

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts, Women in the Church

Susa Young Gates

by Chad Nielsen • June 8, 2022 • 2 Comments

When I was a child, I heard of Susan B. Anthony, Susa Young Gates, and John Sousa, but had trouble separating them out in my mind because of similarities in name.  The result was that I thought Brigham Young had…

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News and Politics

Church Leadership Callings as a Marker of Your Standing Before God

by Stephen C • June 5, 2022 • 27 Comments

  In one of my recent posts I talked about the connection between wealth and Church leadership; one of the issues that naturally rose to the surface in the comments was the connection between Church leadership and one’s standing before…

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Images, Mormon Arts

Jesus in Recent Latter-day Saint Art

by Chad Nielsen • June 4, 2022 • 6 Comments

At the Mormon History Association conference this weekend, Anthony Sweat shared a funny story during his presentation on “A White Jesus and a Global Church.”  Apparently there were some individuals who were visiting BYU from Saudi Arabia to observe teaching…

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News and Politics

Religious Studies and the Church, Part III: Graduate Training as a Ponzi Scheme

by Stephen C • June 1, 2022 • 8 Comments

The subject of education that does not pay financially is a sensitive one for me. Thankfully, my graduate training equipped me with enough marketable skills that I’m fine, but I’m close enough to people in other fields (sometimes adjacent to…

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts, Women in the Church

Considering Emma Hale Smith

by Chad Nielsen • May 31, 2022 • 2 Comments

Emma Smith isn’t just an elect lady, she’s a complicated one too.  Jenny Reeder, author of First: The Life and Faith of Emma Hale Smith, recently discussed reasons for why that is the case in an interview with From the Desk. …

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Church History, Come Follow Me Currculum, Doctrine and Covenants, General Doctrine

Collected Thoughts on the Doctrine and Covenants

by Chad Nielsen • May 29, 2022 • 2 Comments

I spent most of 2021 writing a series of posts to follow along with the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum for the Doctrine and Covenants.  I had a few reasons for doing this.  First and foremost, I wanted to challenge myself…

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From the Desk Co-posts, General Doctrine

The King Follett Discourse

by Chad Nielsen • May 28, 2022 • 15 Comments

The irony of the King Follett Discourse is that it is the most famous discourse given by the Prophet Joseph Smith, but still rarely quoted in general conference or other official publications of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…

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News and Politics

Why Do Church Leaders Tend to Be Wealthy?

by Stephen C • May 21, 2022 • 44 Comments

An uncomfortable apparent pattern in the US church is that Church leaders tend to be wealthier than average. I say apparent, since I don’t have any numbers, but this pattern is stark and widespread enough anecdotally that I’m going to…

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General Doctrine, Women in the Church

What is the Church?

by Chad Nielsen • May 18, 2022 • 23 Comments

I recently finished a review of the April 2022 general conference, and one of the talks that stood out to me most was Reyna Aburto’s talk, “We Are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.  I love the vision…

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From the Desk Co-posts, Old Testament, Scriptures, Women in the Church

Women of the Hebrew Bible

by Chad Nielsen • May 16, 2022 • 5 Comments

In a culture that is often male-centric, it can sometimes be easy to overlook women in the scriptures. While very few are mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine and Covenants, the Bible has many women…

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News and Politics

Religious Studies and the Church, Part II: Rabbis in the Marketplace, Celebrity-Scholars, and Firesides

by Stephen C • May 15, 2022 • 6 Comments

In the Latter-day Saint community the renowned gospel scholar has traditionally enjoyed a lot of social esteem. Much of what I’d say here I’ve already said previously, but to summarize: our attention is being fractured into a million pieces, making…

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Life in the Church

[Spiritual Languages] Thoughts From a Liberal, Feminist, Intellectual ProgMo. But Only If You Say So.

by Mary Grey • May 13, 2022 • 13 Comments

We are introduced to the concept of “chosen people” almost as soon as the bible opens. Though the earth is covered with the children of God there is one line (Isaac and Jacob’s) of one family (Sarah and Abraham’s) that…

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts

George D. Watt’s Journey

by Chad Nielsen • May 12, 2022 • 0 Comments

I’ve heard it said before that Leroy Anderson was America’s best-known forgotten composer. It could likewise be said that George D. Watt is Mormonism’s best-known forgotten reporter.  In a recent interview at From the Desk, Kurt Manwaring discussed why Watt…

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News and Politics

Religious Studies and the Church, Part I: Intellectual Authority as a Shortcut to Ecclesiastical Authority

by Stephen C • May 10, 2022 • 22 Comments

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is somewhat unique in that we don’t have a paid or professionally trained clergy. Nonetheless, there are Latter-day Saints who still pursue high education degrees in fields normally pursued by clergy trainees…

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News and Politics

The Future and the Church, Part VI: The Future of Religion Worldwide

by Stephen C • May 8, 2022 • 9 Comments

“The Future of Religion” is one of those big picture questions that has been addressed by a wide variety of intellectuals such as Freud, Rorty, and basically every European intellectual in the 19th century. (The fact that the end of…

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Church History, From the Desk Co-posts

Mormon Doctrine, McConkie, and Modern Mormonism

by Chad Nielsen • May 7, 2022 • 38 Comments

Bruce R. McConkie stands in an interesting place in the history of the Church. For some, he holds a place in the upper echelons of a pantheon of Latter-day Saint thinkers and writers who have shaped, advocated, and defended the…

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News and Politics

[Spiritual Languages] Sad? Angry? Frustrated? Confused? Good.

by Mary Grey • May 5, 2022 • 5 Comments

The Gospel of Mark really focuses, more than any other gospel, on the human experience of Jesus. The reader sees him experience a whole gamut of emotions, particularly negative emotions, like sorrow, anger, frustration, and fear. I am deeply moved…

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News and Politics

Of ProgMos and Pornography, and Latter-day Saints on Only Fans

by Stephen C • May 3, 2022 • 37 Comments

In progressive discourse, the person (generally either gay or female) who challenges conservative religious sexual strictures is seen as a courageous trailblazer. However, as liberal Mormonism generally tracks the norms and values of progressivism generally, it too inherits the ambivalence…

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25 Jun

The Smith Family and the First Vision https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2022/06/the-smith-family-and-the-first-vision/

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The Church’s New Statement on Abortion https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2022/06/the-churchs-new-statement-on-abortion/

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[Spiritual Languages] The End of the Beginning https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2022/06/spiritual-languages-the-end-of-the-beginning/

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