Adiaphora is a term that has played an important role in Lutheran history but not much in our own, although perhaps it should.
Author: Jonathan Green
Your apocalyptic hymnbook
Hymns are useful evidence of religious practice. Hymns are a basic element of personal devotion, but at the same time the compilation of the hymnbook is carefully monitored by church leaders and the performance of hymns is modeled during the…
If this goes on—
If we wanted to hazard a guess at what the upcoming years and decades hold in store for the church in the United States, the decisive factors will likely be to what extent the country as a whole becomes more…
An International Church in an Isolationist Age
The most paranoid fantasies your persecution complex can dream up will probably come true eventually, although not where you live, but somewhere else in the world. It’s an unavoidable risk of establishing local branches of the church in places that…
Don’t Reform the Honor Code
The current round of dissatisfaction with the BYU honor code will hopefully result in some tinkering around the edges and perhaps a few personnel changes, and then quickly be forgotten before it has a chance to undermine the university’s educational…
Some tips for your obituary
For some time, I’ve been writing obituaries for a secular educational institution (which, for the sake of the failing hearts of its remaining alumni, will remain anonymous).
Of early modern English and the Book of Mormon
I don’t think the language usage patterns of the Book of Mormon require the participation of anyone besides Joseph Smith.
Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families: A progress report
Why I Wrote a Sex Manual for Mormons
Earthly Parents is the pen name of the author of And It Was Very Good: A Latter-day Saint’s Guide to Lovemaking. He agreed to share some of the book’s background here. * * * On the top of my parent’s…
This is how you do it
If you want to reach an audience of church members on a sensitive topic, watch and learn from Earthly Parents.
Satan’s troll farm
If Satan hired a Russian troll farm, what would the Mormon corner of the Internet be like?
Interfaces of modernity: proselytizing, universities, politics
Avoiding controversy would make our lives easier, but it would not be good for the church.
Uto-Aztecan and Semitic: Too much of a good thing
Brian Stubbs’s argument for extensive ancient contact between Semitic and Proto-Uto-Aztecan has received some attention recently in Mormon apologetics, but I don’t think Stubbs’s proposal is going to pan out. First, though, a few important messages.
Church is not boring
To correct one misconception, our Sunday meetings are not boring.
Notes on faculty gender balance at BYU
Michael Austin reported in a 2016 post that women constitute just 11.7% of BYU-Idaho faculty members. This appears to be an error, although the error isn’t Michael’s fault.
This is what it looks like when the prophet speaks as a prophet
It is a mistake to apply the heuristics of edge cases to central and paradigmatic examples.
Bonsai
In one of the most profound scenes in The Karate Kid—a movie that fortunately has had no sequels or modern remakes, la la la la I can’t hear you—Daniel LaRusso comes upon Mr. Miyagi pruning his bonsai trees.
I know this church is true
This statement is not nonsensical or trite. It is the essence of our belief in six words. It is, in its own way, even lyrical. One occasionally hears objections to the effect that statements can be true, or friends can…
The Last 4,000 Years
The last 4,000 years of religious history, up to and resulting in us, can be described as a series of questions and answers, with each new question arising out of the previous answer over generations or centuries as the full…
In the world
Is the world a generally wonderful place that is constantly improving and generally better today than it ever has been? Or, to restate the obvious, do we live at peril every hour in a world we must avoid becoming part…