- REC911 on Filet-O-Fish and Keeping Mormonism Weird: “I think all the changes that the church has done in the last 7 years has been for two reasons; 1- Help keep younger members from leaving. 2- Make the church look more main-stream Christian to other faiths for more converts and a better convert experience. (retention) I am for any change that makes us act/look less cultish.” Jun 17, 06:59
- on Filet-O-Fish and Keeping Mormonism Weird: “I think we should “Keep Mormonism weird,” to crib from Austin’s unofficial slogan. Stephen, what rules would you want to see created to keep some tension with the larger environment?” Jun 17, 06:17
- on Mimicry or New Religious Hotspot: Jesus-Figures and Joseph Smith-Figures in 1st Century Palestine and 19th-Century New York: “My father was a firm believer that Roger Williams helped prepare the way for JS and the Restoration. Williams was expelled from Massachusetts Colony for advocating for religion freedom and separation of church and state. He and his followers settled the Rhode Island area.” Jun 16, 17:29
- on CFM 6/22-6/28: Thoughts and Poetry for “Hear Thou in Heaven Their Prayer”: “Some of us believe that prayer is a form of meditation. A chance to clear our mind of effluvia and hopefully better understand and evaluate our situation. It provides an opportunity to assess the things we are happy about and things we can improve. How we are blessed. It’s unrealistic for God to answer our prayers. He’s not near Kolob stirring the pot. We have 9 billion proofs of that. We need to be prepared to make our own decisions.” Jun 16, 17:02
- on Finding Meaning in Sacrament Meeting: Participation and Meaning in Church (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About) Yesterday, 6/14?: “I’m not convinced that we have real (or absolute) freedom of thought. Besides physical traits, we inherent memory and concentration abilities. We may even have genes that affect our relationship with God. We also have strong environmental influences. Including such things as education. Both affect our thoughts. What we think is influenced by both our genetic and environmental heritage. All this affects our ability to be optimistic. To react to adverse situations. I’m all for some forms of genetic and environmental determinism. Our thoughts are not totally free.” Jun 16, 16:43
- on Finding Meaning in Sacrament Meeting: Participation and Meaning in Church (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About) Yesterday, 6/14?: “Meaning in LDS Sacrament Meetings? Hmmmmm…..now that there is a paradox; if I’ve ever encountered one. While I LOVE taking the sacrament and singing the hymns; beyond that the rest of the meeting is nothing but pure pablum. “Follow the Covenant Path”…..”Go to the Temple”…..”President Nelson said”……”Isn’t Missionary Work just awesome?”……Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah….” Jun 16, 15:00
- on Musical Archaeology: Recovering the Sophisticated Sound of Pioneer Utah: “Last Lemming, I imagine this would take after the West gallery band tradition in the uk, prior to the advent of organs for church music, a mix of strings and woodwind primarily, though sometimes brass as well. Anything from 3-12 musicians. I imagine these guys would be very familiar with this type of music. Thomas Hardy refers to the antics of such a band replaced by an organ in his story Under the Greenwood Tree. I wonder, now brass are no longer disapproved for sacrament meeting, might we see a return to virtuosic brass bands… This trumpet player can always hope.” Jun 15, 23:53
- on 15 Thoughts on The Thing This Week: “He has brought it up, maybe more as a statement than a complaint, much more recently than that. I was surprised when he mentioned it at the Christmas devotional last year. It hadn’t been that long since the time before that, and it had nothing to do with Christmas, let alone anything in that talk. And please, spell my name right next time.” Jun 15, 15:03
- on 15 Thoughts on The Thing This Week: ““Now President Oaks complains quite often in Conference, etc. how some member parents are not letting their children play with non-member children.” One thing that AI is really good at is giving it a defined data set and asking it to analyze it. I asked Perplexity AI to go to the churches website and look at all of the talks that Dallin Oaks has given in general conference that mentioned nonmember children playing with member children. It could only find a single example, a talk he gave in October 2014. Here is what he said; “Too often non-Mormons here in Utah have been offended and alienated by some of our members who will not allow their children to be friends with children of other faiths. Surely we can teach our children values and standards of behavior without having them distance themselves or show disrespect to any who are different.” So John Tabor, why do you have to make things up to try and make your point? Dallin Oaks hasn’t complained “quite often” in conference about this issue, he mentioned it once 12 years ago. And isn’t what he said exactly what we would want to hear? Why is Oaks the bogeyman here?” Jun 15, 11:52
- on 15 Thoughts on The Thing This Week: “This! This! Our 5th Sunday discussion was led by a retired federal judge in my ward, who’s now temple president and has been stake president, etc. The point I tried to make a few times is that for all the Church’s talk of religious freedom, etc., in Utah there’s an even stricter standard in the state constitution for church-state separation that has basically always been ignored. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against prayer at high school graduations. Elder Oaks came right out with an article that quoted David O. McKay that ending school prayer cut the spiritual umbilical cord between schools an students, and said that American tradition had always included public prayer. (Never mind Jesus’s direction to pray in our closets and not make outward public appearances.) Now President Oaks complains quite often in Conference, etc. how some member parents are not letting their children play with non-member children. Gee, I wonder where that started? President Hinckley wanted to have it both ways, between being good to our neighbors (member or non-member) on the one hand, and maintaining the existing church-state Gordian knot on the ground in Utah on the other. To be fair, the folks I crossed paths with at BYU and on my mission had very different views on appropriate church-state separation, depending on whether or not they had grown up in Utah. And Elder M. Russell Ballard came out in General Conference about being good neighbors, and acknowledged that what happens with the Church in Utah is a very small part of the Brethren’s big picture.” Jun 15, 10:25
