Enrique was the kind of member you don’t forget. He was a fifty-something former alcoholic, and a former evangelical Christian. He had given up his drinking, but the jury was still out on whether he had given up his evangelical tendencies. Actually, the jury had come back with a pretty solid verdict: Enrique’s evangelical tics were here to stay. And stay they did. Every time that a speaker mentioned a key concept — “we must have faith,” for example — Enrique would call out “amen, hermano!” He had a loud and beautifully resonant voice, and often after firing off a few amens, he would begin to sway back and forth in a rhythm. Our few long-term members mostly ignored him; newer members would look around, a little disconcerted. Was this what Mormons did? Every few weeks, it seemed, Enrique’s contagious enthusiasm would catch on — usually with the newer converts — and some of the other members of the congregation would join him, until we had a chorus of ecstatic amens punctuating the sacrament talks.
Author: Kaimi Wenger
Kaimi is a fellow who blogs every now and again, usually when he should be working.
Can Satan give the gift of prophecy?
One of the more interesting stories in the Old Testament concerns Saul and the Ewok Witch of En-dor. The ewok witch calls up a spirit, which foretells the events of the battle which will take place the next day: “The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David . . . Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” The events occur as foretold, of course. What does this story tell us? Well, if the witch did not receive this vision from God, but rather from Satan (and our Bible Dictionary explicitly states that this is not a vision from God), then Satan appears to be capable of granting prophetic visions to his followers. Is he?
A Gender Correlation to Topical LDS Group-Blogging?
Group blogging can be done in one of two basic ways: Topical or ad hoc. Ad hoc group blogs allow members to post at any time on any subject. Today Nate posts on sugar beets, tomorrow Jim writes about Heidegger, and the next day Kaimi is whining about gender issues. Topical blogs, as the name implies, stick with particular topics for a set period of time. The members agree beforehand that they will all write about faith in week one, repentance in week two, and same-sex marriage in week three. There are two topical group blogs in the bloggernacle. Both are run by women.
New LDS E-Journal
See here for the announcement.
Correcting Our Priesthood Leaders
Should members feel entitled to correct their Priesthood leaders, based on their own understanding of higher authorities?
Book Review: Fire in the Bones and Prelude to the Restoration
This review contains good news and bad news. I’ll start with the bad news: Fire in the Bones is pretty disappointing.
R.’s First Talk
I’m the primary pianist, and so I’ve seen R. nearly every Sunday over the past few years. She’s a bright and polite young woman who comes to church regularly with her mother. She just turned 12, and graduated from primary into young women’s. And like a typical 12-year-old, R. is just starting to turn into a young woman. The boys aren’t, that I can tell, paying her any attention yet, which is probably a source of mixed frustration and relief. Meanwhile, she’s a month or so into YW, and valiantly trying to make that awkward social adjustment. Last Sunday R. and her mother were giving talks in Sacrament meeting. Excellent, I thought — a good chance for her to start the public speaking that most LDS youth experience. She stepped up to the stand and announced that she had been asked to speak on . . . the law of chastity.
Blossoms of Blue
I don’t have a Mother’s Day post to contribute, really. Not a real one, anyway, and certainly nothing like the stories that three mothers have already posted here. But I do have a post that is tangentially Mother’s-Day-related. It’s mostly about a little girl.
Happy Ascension!
We don’t usually pay much attention to the Ascension. In some other religions, such as Catholicism, the Ascension has particular theological significance. For us, it’s sort of a theological afterthought. Part of this probably stems from the difference in focus — we don’t really discuss how or why he ascended, focusing instead on Jesus’s Atonement in Gethsemane and His Resurrection. And part may stem from our belief that He ascended and descended numerous times over this period, visiting the Nephites in America. But whether or not it has much theological significance, the Ascension is an undeniably wonderful event, with the great image of the two angels, asking the apostles why they are gazing into heaven. As we read in Acts: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Happy ascension day, everyone!
The Boundaries of Suicide
I just had an interesting discussion with my Catholic friend, “C.” The topic: What are the boundaries of suicide? In particular, when does acquiescence to harm, or deliberate participation in likely-death acts, become suicide?
Guest blogger: Elisabeth Calvert Smith
I’m happy to introduce our latest guest blogger: Elisabeth Calvert Smith. Elisabeth is an attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Labor. (The astute reader may realize that T & S seems to be returning to its law roots, with attorneys now constituting the past two guests, three of the past four, and four of the past six). She graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Political Science, and earned her law degree from Boston University. She currently teaches legal research and writing part-time to first year law students at Boston University. She also loves (most weeks) her job of teaching the five- and six-year-olds in Primary. Elisabeth is married with cats, and loves chocolate donuts, movies, books, The New Yorker, running along the Charles River. Plus her husband and family (they rank behind the donuts, though). And finally, I would be remiss not to point out that Elisabeth is the author of the best spiritual securities law analogy I’ve ever seen. Welcome aboard, Elisabeth!
Everybody Else is Doing It, so Why Can’t We?
Over at Volokh.com, there’s a fun little contest going on: Name the highest political figure of various minority groups. Thus, Eugene writes: Who are now the highest-ranked, and who have been the highest-ranked [minority groups listed] in U.S. government positions, federal or state, appointed or elected. For our purposes, though, let’s say that the rank of an office is generally inversely proportional to the number of people who hold that sort of office, so the President (1) beats U.S. Supreme Court Justices (9) who beat Cabinet officials (15) who beat Governors (50) who beat U.S. Senators (100) who beat state Supreme Court Justices (roughly 350, I think) who beat U.S. Representatives (435) and so on. On the other hand, I reserve the right to downgrade un-influential offices — there are fewer state Secretaries of State than state Supreme Court Justices, but I say the latter beat the former, and I’ll brook no argument on that. Eugene left Mormons off of his own contest (too easy), though some discussion of Mormons started anyway. I think it would be kind of fun to kick off our own Mormon-themed version of this contest, focusing both on church sects and other religious groups we’re often compared with.
Abortion, Conscientious Objectors, and Timing
There’s an interesting discussion over at M* about how an LDS health-care worker ought to handle a request by a patient for an abortion. The issues are similar to those that arise when discussing how to treat conscientious objectors in wartime.
The Tumbaga Pla-ates La-ay Hi-i-dden
Deep in the mountainside . . . Okay, so the idea that the Golden Plates weren’t really made of gold, but rather out of a lighter alloy called tumbaga has now been kicking around for almost 40 years. To what effect, I wonder. Is this a theory which you accept, constant reader? A theory which you dispute? One that you cheerfully ignore? (One that you’ve never heard of, maybe?) And are Mormons in general subscribing to the tumbaga theory? Rejecting it? Have you ever heard the word “tumbaga” used during Sunday School? (How does one pronounce it, anyway?) Used during Sacrament meeting? And most importantly — Do you own any tumbaga kitsch jewelry? (Should you?)
What is it with Mormons and Alternative Medicine?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever sneezed at church, only to have a church member suggest some sort of herbal remedy. Echinacea, goldenseal, St. John’s Wort, chapparal, clover honey, ginsing . . . you name it, and it’s been offered to me at some point by a church member. Along with suggestions for magnetic treatment, and intestine cleansing, and acupuncture. Have you ever had your LDS friend’s mother ask you, with a straight face, “How many bowel movements do you have each day?” I have. (I dodged the question; she told me that anything less than three was unhealthy). And there is the evil flouridation, of course. And all of the attendant conspiracy theories about how doctors already know the cure for cancer and AIDS and arthritis, but they’re shilling for the pharmeceutical companies, and so they won’t tell you their secrets. (But that’s okay — just hook up a battery to this radio device, and sit next to it every day for an hour, and you’ll be guaranteed to be cancer free). Why is it that Mormons are often believers in, shall we say, unorthodox medical practices? I mean, for crying out loud, we have a heart surgeon for an apostle! Isn’t it about time we came to terms with modern medicine?
Spanking
Yes, we’ve discussed it previously, last year. Still, it’s a topic that is sometimes on my mind, as I try to raise three kids with a minimal loss of sanity for everyone involved: To spank, or not to spank; and if to spank, how?
How did you find T & S?
An interesting threadjack began this afternoon, and I see no reason not to continue that threadjack in its own post.** Shawn Bailey asked: How did everyone here initially find Times & Seasons or the Bloggernacle in general?
Gender differences in permablogger origin?
Here’s a fun little mental exercise, which ends up with a curious result that I just noticed. First, let’s classify participants in a group blog as entering the group through either a top-down or bottom-up route. The top-down route begins with offline connections: Person A operates a blog; she offers a co-blogging position to Person B, who she knows through some in-person avenue (such as an old classmate). The bottom-up route is based on connections made through the blog itself: Person A operates a blog; she offers a co-blogging position to Person B who she knows solely through contact on the blog itself (a well-regarded commenter). We can divide T & S permabloggers into these two categories, and when we do, a strange pattern emerges.
Hau’oli la Hanau, Nate.
My esteemed co-blogger Nate often says that he considers me “older and wiser.” For the next few months, however, that description will only be half-right. That’s because today is Nate’s birthday!! (And so for a few months, we’ll be the same age). Congratulations on the big 3-0, Nate. Hau’oli la hanau. You can now officially cast your ostraka. I hope you’ll be able to escape Sidley enough to spend a bit of time with Heather and Jacob. (And if not, hey — we can always argue about chiasm some more, right? What could be more fun than that? Perhaps we can go out for some Brazilian food and split a bottle of grape juice).
Placement of Christ’s name in prayer
On another thread, commenter Benyamin Abrams asks: Most prayers are addressed to Heavenly Father and closed in the name of Jesus Christ. The Sacrament prayer has both the opening and closing in the opening. I asked some members of my Ward if there were any other prayers with the same format. It’s an interesting question. After all, the phrase “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen” is practically synonymous with LDS prayer. But does the name of Christ really have to come at the end of the prayer, rather than (for example) at the beginning?
Bloggernacking and Man-dates
There’s been quite a bit of buzz in the blogosphere at large about Jennifer 8. Lee’s New York Times piece on “man-dates.” Lee suggests that it is socially perilous for two heterosexual men to meet for dinner, without sports, business, or a bar to defuse the date-like-ness of the meeting. I don’t know how valid Lee’s thesis is in the broader spectrum (and there is some doubt being expressed on other blogs). But even if Lee is right, I think that the phenomenon may be one to which bloggernackers are immune. Or at least, to which I’m immune.
Further musings of a chiasm doubter, or, “Doubting chiasm, musing further”
We’ve all heard of chiasm, that Hebrew literary device of repeating elements in reverse order. Since 1969, when Jack Welch first suggested that the Book of Mormon contained chiasm, some Mormon apologists have argued that the presence of chiasm in the Book of Mormon is evidence of its ancient origins. Numerous chiasm articles have appeared in popular LDS magazines as well as under the imprint of FARMS, among others. Meanwhile, opponents have said, more or less, “you’re nuts.” I’m a skeptic. I’ve always thought that the alleged chiastic patterns were simply too susceptible to cherry-picking. Today, I stumbled across another piece of evidence that buttresses my own skeptical views on chiasm. It comes from an unusual source — the small non-Brighamite Mormon sect often called the Strangites.
Half a million bloggernackers can’t be wrong
Well, they can, perhaps, but we’d like to think that they aren’t. Lost in the technical issues last week was the fact that we registered our half-millionth visitor. I’m still often amazed at how much we’ve grown since we first started, in November 2003, with just four bloggers and a handful of readers. Not only has this site grown, but the rest of the bloggernacle has grown around us as well. It’s been a fun journey. And it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without you, our readers and commenters. So thanks for reading. Thanks for your comments. And hopefully we can continue whatever it is we’ve been doing that’s drawn you here, for another half-million readers, and beyond.
Hearsay
We’re told that we need to have a testimony of the gospel. And we’re told that we can’t rely on anyone else’e testimony — we must develop our own witness of the truth. It’s a formulation which is surprisingly consistent with the legal guidelines on testimony that one gives in a court case. Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 802 is clear: “Hearsay is not admissible.” [subject to certain specified exceptions].
Time for a Link War
In a blog comment at BCC, Ronan points out a disturbing fact. A google search for “Mormon Temple” is likely to be one of the first things a curious non-member does; but when you google the term Mormon Temple, the first site that comes up on the list is an ex-Mormon site. In fact, the first four sites listed on the front page are ex-Mormon sites. Of the 10 sites on the front page, five are ex-Mormon, two are links to LDS.org, one is apologetic and two are neutral. So the first page for Mormon Temple is 5-to-2 anti. Exacerbating the issue, the particular lds.org links that google gives for Mormon Temple are likely to be confusing or unhelpful to a nonmember. This is particularly aggravating since there’s already an easily accessible online resource for non-members. The site http://www.ldstemple.com is church-owned and redirects to a page at the also church-owned mormon.org. It will almost certainly be a redirect to the appropriate church site for the foreseeable future. (And it’s not even in the first 100 results for the google search Mormon Temple!). What to do? Well, google builds its database by noting which websites are linked by other websites. So it’s time to start linking, my friends, to rescue Mormon Temple from google hell. Here’s how to participate:
Happy Birthday to Us, and to Jesus.
The church is 175 years old. (The technical term is “terquasquicentennial,” in case you were wondering). And we also believe that Jesus was born on April 6th. (Don’t we?) (And is that a Julian April 6th? A Gregorian? An April 6th in some cosmic, platonic form? I’m not really sure.) Happy birthday to all.
Blogospheric discussion of conservatives in academia: Krugman, Kerr, Kleiman
An interesting discussion has been taking place in the blogosphere. It begins with recent studies showing that very few academics are conservative or Republican. (The ratio is about 15 to 1). Paul Krugman’s op-ed in today’s New York Times suggests a few reasons for this imbalance, among them the influence of anti-evolution politics and the idea that “today’s Republican Party – increasingly dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research – doesn’t respect science, or scholarship in general.” It is not surprising that Krugman’s op-ed has not been received with unanimous approval.
Is Mormon Feminism a Zero-Sum Game?
A sometimes charged little threadjack discussion has been going on in Julie’s latest book review, over a statement by Adam. Adam’s initial statement was “In my experience, the more sympathy and prominence paid to feminists, the more excluded people like my wife feel.” Adam’s reasoning is, I think, a good example of a broader phenomenon which I think deserves closer scrutiny, and which I will (with Julie’s permission) focus on in this thread. That is the argument that any movement towards feminism in the church necessarily demeans or diminishes Mormon women who do not consider themselves feminists. If this argument is accepted, that every step forward for outspoken Mormon feminists is a step backward for often silent Mormon women who are perfectly happy the way things are right now. This is a serious consequence, and that makes an examination of Adam’s assertion important. Is Mormon feminism really a zero-sum game?
Page Six Jesus
As I was reading the paper yesterday on the train to work, I happened across a short article discussing the use of religious images in today’s popular fashion culture. The article discussed shirts and sweaters from top fashion houses that are now bearing images of Jesus or scriptural verses, and it mentioned that celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton have recently been seen wearing clothing with religious messages. The text was accompanied by a large photo spread, showing celebrities including Kutcher wearing clothes with religious messages (his shirt read “Jesus is my homeboy”). Apparently, Jesus is becoming a fashion statement. He may even be hip. How pathetic.
Poached like an Egg
Over at Millenial Star, Davis Bell has posted a few thoughts on the phenomenon of blog poaching. This follows up on the protests that some blogs receive at regular intervals about blog poaching. Davis’s post may be kind of weak itself, but he does point to the interesting, broader issue. What is blog poaching, exactly? And assuming that it can be defined, why is it an issue? That is, why do some readers object to following up on a post on Blog A, with a post on Blog B?