Author: Julie M. Smith

Should the stories of miracles that Jesus performed be considered historically accurate? Did he walk on water, or was there a conveniently placed sandbar that made his disciples think he was walking on water, or did Mark just make this story up?

I recently participated in a TribTalk about Ordain Women. Pretty much the first words out of Neylan McBaine’s mouth were something along the lines of “ordaining women won’t end sexism.”

Here are a few things from General Conference that I loved:

It looks like one of the major responses that will be offered in the current discussion of women’s roles is that “equal does not mean the same.”

On 30 March 1842, Joseph Smith spoke to the Relief Society. He said that he “was going to make of this Society a kingdom of priests as in Enoch’s day— as in Paul[‘]s day” (Citation).

Brother Peterson, You asked a question on your blog that I will answer here.

Several years ago, I read this from Elder Nelson:

It dawned on me today that I have achieved Introvert Nirvana in Callings Roulette:  

This is a guest post from Julie Hartley-Moore, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University.  She taught at BYU for 9 years, was a Dean at Elgin Community College in Illinois, and is now director of the Utah State University Campus in Tooele.  She is a wife and mother of two.

Mark’s writing style is characterized by parataxis, which means that he writes really short, simple sentences and then joins them together with the word “and.” (It’s the kind of thing your elementary school teachers were always trying to get you to stop doing.)

According to the de facto Mormon liturgical calendar, it is the time of year to talk about goal-setting. Most Mormon discussions of goals make me want to poke myself in the eyeball with a fork–a reaction I initially did not understand, since I set goals for myself all of the time. But after thinking about…

The January 2014 Friend has an Old Testament reading chart.

When I was in college, I took a Shakespeare class. The text was one of those huge editions of the complete works, with lots of notes further expanding its length.

This announcement from the newsroom (related to ENDA and a statement from Harry Reid that “the church is changing” [ftnt1]) contains this sentence: “As such, traditional marriage is a foundational doctrine and cannot change.”

The Church has announced that starting in 2014, there will be a General Women’s Meeting twice per year, with women, young women, and girls ages 8 and up invited to attend.

The 2013 Conference of the European Mormon Studies Association, in cooperation with the Brigham Young University London Centre, will take place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th of December in London. 

 J. B. Haws, The Mormon Image in the American Mind:  Fifty Years of Public Perception, Oxford University Press.

There is an embarrassment of riches on the Mormon Studies scene in the next few weeks.

Ronan’s post this morning reminded me of something I had written but hadn’t gotten around to posting:

Here’s Mark 2:14:

Here’s Mark 3:13-14:

Notice how similar these three passages are:

What kind of associations does the idea of fishing raise for you?  Leisure time?  Quiet?  Peace?  Stillness?  (Hopefully not a few beers.)

You are probably familiar with Mark 2:1-12, because it is hard to forget a story about a guy getting lowered through a roof.

A good portion of the next RS/PH lesson concerns the story where Jesus states that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.

I never re-read books, but I decided to read this one, twenty-two years after I first read it, because “he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” That’s a quote from the first sentence of the book, but it is true, literally true, for me, too.  I…

 L. Tom Perry:  An Uncommon Life:  Years of Preparation by Lee Tom Perry.