It is tough to deal with being a member of a church which had polygamous founders. It’s not easy to look back through your religious history to the key figures, some of the ones on which the entire system rests, and note their ugly warts. Why did they choose to take more than one wife? Why did they even embrace polyandry, the taking of other men’s wives? Were these men sex addicts, deviants, or worse? How can a modern member deal with such a blatantly misogynistic practice? Not to mention the lying about wives. Is there any place in today’s society for a church based on such a barbaric law? It’s a tough question. Yes, I just don’t know how the members of the Jewish faith — and its little offshoot, Christianity — can go to sleep at night, knowing what they do about Abraham’s polygamy.
Author: Kaimi Wenger
Kaimi is a fellow who blogs every now and again, usually when he should be working.
The Silver Ring
This Easter, I have a story to tell, a story about the Atonement. I’m blessed in that I don’t have to look far for models of the Atonement, because a story from my own childhood suffices. It’s a story of a young father, a curious child, and a burning piece of metal. It’s a story about quick choices and searing pain. It’s a story about my father.
In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love blogs
“For I dipt into the ‘nacle, far as human eye could see . . .” New additions to the bloggernacle are practically a daily occurrence now. Let me point out a few that have caught my eye recently:
Getting Down to Brass Tacks: Right to Life, State Responsibility, Family Input
Despite John Welch’s admirable asserted desire to keep the Schiavo thread on the topic of “what does LDS theology tell us about end of life care options?,” much of the discussion has predictably become a political slugfest. So be it. However, it hasn’t been, in my mind, a particularly useful political discussion. And a primary reason is because so much of the Schiavo case depends on the particular evidentiary nuances of that case. What did she tell her husband, who is he sleeping with, blah blah blah. Evidentiary questions are boring. So let’s filter them out and see where people stand on the broader issues of right to life (assuming state responsibility to enforce any right) and family wishes in general. In particular, let’s try to figure out exactly what rights are at stake in the Schiavo case. Is it Ms. Schiavo’s right to live? If so, then what do her parent’s wishes have to do with it? Is it her parents’ right to keep a child alive? These are the interesting questions.
Book Review: City Saints
The interaction of the LDS church and its members with New York City is a fascinating topic. Someday, that story will doubtless be the focus of one or more great works of Mormon regional history which will have truly broad appeal to members. And those works will in turn acknowledge City Saints: Mormons in the New York Metropolis (edited by Scott Tiffany) as an important step in the examination of church members in New York City. However, City Saints itself, while interesting, informative, and quite readable, suffers from conceptual flaws that undermine its impact and ultimately result in a whole that is less than the sum of its more impressive parts.
The bankruptcy bill
You may have read about the new bankruptcy bill which is headed for the House. Major provisions include a required means test designed to certain filers from using Chapter 7, as well as added attorney certifications and disclosures. What should we, as church members, think of this?
Roundtable discussion at BCC
Steve Evans has posted a string of e-mails in a fascinating roundtable discussion on that never-dull topic, “Women and the Church.” Discussants include Jim Faulconer, Melissa Proctor, Chris “Grasshopper” Bradford, Lisa (Feminist Mormon Housewives), Kris Wright, Heather Pitts, and Claudia Bushman. Definitely worth reading!
Why I haven’t replied to your comment
You arrive at Times and Seasons, and you think “I’m home.” You read posts by Russell and Rosalynde and occasionally even Nate, and you agree with them. You feel that this is your community, and that you belong. And then one day you decide to do more than just lurk — you decide to comment. And so you spend a half an hour carefully composing a comment designed to elucidate and amuse. You imagine the smile on Kristine’s face as she catches your allusion to her post from three weeks prior. You ignore the butterflies in your stomach, and you click “Post Comment.” And then you wait for the replies.
The Purpose of Priesthood Lessons
A year ago Julie asked why we doze in Sunday School. Today, one topic that was touched on in priesthood was why we teach priesthood lessons. I’ve been thinking a little about the topic, and I must confess I’m not entirely sure there is a single reason why we have priesthood lessons.
If you missed the scintillating discussion at the LDS law conference a few weeks back . . .
. . . then you’ll be happy to know that Matt Astle has posted a nice blogged summary of the conference. The summary includes a report about some yahoos on a panel discussing “The Intellectual Connection Between Law and Mormonism.” (Who on Earth would want to talk about that?) And kudos to Matt, HL, Blaine, Jason, [UPDATE: and Jared, and Zeke], and whoever-the-heck else put together the conference. It was great. (Perhaps because this year it was held at a real law school, unlike in certain years past . . . ;) .)
Enforcing an Entitlement to Family: Beharry v. Reno
I earlier blogged about the idea of enforcing the Proclamation’s statement that children are entitled to be raised in a two-parent household. That post generated a number of interesting comments. Also in that post, I promised a follow up about some specific ideas for putting the Proclamation’s entitlement into action. I’m sure you’ve all been on the edge of your collective seat, wondering about these specifics. Turn with me, then, back through the pages of history — to 2001, when Kaimi was a mere law clerk.
Christ as an Apostle
We often hear that the apostle’s calling is to be a special witness of Jesus Christ. A few interesting questions about apostles came up in Priesthood this Sunday. One of them was how we are to reconcile the calling of an apostle, as a special witness of Christ, with the statement in Hebrews 3:1 that Christ himself is an Apostle.
An undiscovered continent
Overheard in passing — “No, no, we’re an archipelago. Not like those monolithic group blogs. We’re not Wal-mart or Target; we’re a mere loose association of web sites. It’s not like we have a group web page or anything . . .” . . . Welcome to the dark side, boys.
Gizoogling Times and Seasons
Do you ever find yourself wondering, “whizzay is a Proclamizzles anyway?” Did you ever want to read lines like “England took tha position that tha marriage relatizzles in tha Celestial Kingdom wizzle be monogizzle not polygizzles”? Or want to hear Nate Oman wax eloquent “In Memory of tha Metaphysizzle Elda”? You’re in luck.
Self-Aware Blogging?
There’s a new meme in the bloggernacle, and it’s self-awareness. The folks over at Various Stages are discussing the concept of self-consciousness (with some input from itinerant philosophers). Meanwhile, Ebenezer is wondering (in between some scandalous confessions about kissing) exactly how and why we construct our own bloggernacle identities. Finally, Geoff has a heartfelt post asserting a claim with which I wholeheartedly agree: God reads the bloggernacle. It’s an interesting confluence of posts: Are we self-aware? Should we be self-aware as we blog? Is God watching us? Should he be? Should we be “ourselves” on our blogs? Or is that even possible? I’m sure that there are interesting answers to these questions. However, I’m not certain that I’m self-aware enough myself to have any of those answers.
The Proclamation’s Establishment of an Entitlement to a Family
Yes, we’re talking about the Proclamation again. Please set aside, for a moment, gender issues. Please set aside as well the interesting interpretational questions (what is a Proclamation, anyway? what kind of normative force does it carry?) except as necessary to focus on what is, to me, the single most startling and loaded phrase in the entire document. I’m talking about this sentence: Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.
Welcome Guest Blogger Kevin Barney
We’re happy to announce another guest blogger, Kevin Barney. Kevin practices public finance law in Chicago. He served a mission in Colorado (’77-’79), received his undergraduate degree in classics from BYU (’82), his JD from the University of Illinois (’85) and an LLM from DePaul University (’90). He has published a couple of dozen articles, mostly on topics relating to LDS scripture, in such venues as the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Dialogue, The Ensign, FARMS Review and BYU Studies, and he is working on a book entitled Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints, scheduled to be published by Covenant in 2006. He is active in the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and serves on the Board of Directors of FAIR. Kevin is also a frequent commenter around here and his thoughts and comments are always interesting. Welcome aboard, Kevin Barney!
Fun with Foreign Languages
My children like to cheer for the Yankees. The two major cheers of choice are “Let’s Go Yankees” and “Red Sox Stink.” And recently, my son Sullivan has asked how to say those phrases in other languages. I’ve been able to help him out with Spanish — “Vamanos Yankees” and “Calcetines Rojas Huelen” (translating “Sox” as “socks”). However, he routinely asks me how to say these phrases in other languages — Russian, Chinese, French, German, and so on . . . pretty much every language he’s ever heard of, and he’s heard of a lot. I can’t really help him out there — sure, I can look things up on Altavista translation, but I don’t know how accurate that is (computer translation is notoriously goofy), and even if it’s accurate, I really know how to pronounce the phrases that come up. This is where you all come in.
Snow on the Gates
There’s snow on the Gates in Central Park. A number of photobloggers have captured images of this; see, for example, photos here, or here. The images bring to mind a stanza from a seldom-sung hymn: Pale through the gloom the newly fallen snow Wraps in a shroud the silent earth below As tho ’twere mercy’s hand had spread the pall, A symbol of forgiveness unto all. The Lord uses snow as a symbol of repentance: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” The snow on the Gates brings that image to life.
Prayer Roll
Geoff Johnston’s son is in the hospital after a serious accident. He’s hoping that bloggernackers can add his son to their prayers. I’m happy to oblige, myself, as well as pass this on to our readers.
How Much Message Board Crossover Is There?
I just saw a comment at Amira’s that made me wonder just how much crossover there is between T & S readers and Message Board readers. I know that some regular participants here, like Grasshopper and Clark, also participate on different forums like FAIR Boards or Nauvoo.com.
Passage of Hugh Nibley
Clark reports that Hugh Nibley has passed away. I thought we should announce this. I expect that some of my co-bloggers will have more eloquent things to say. I’ll only note that brother Nibley was a great scholar and a great man, and the world of Mormon Studies is smaller without him.
The Problem of Evangelical Anti-Mormon Arguments
You’ve all seen them, spoken with them, discussed things with them. They’re your evangelical anti-Mormon friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, relatives. (Not to mention those random strangers who accost you as you go to the temple.) We get comments from these folks around here sometimes as well. I’ve always been a little surprised by the types of arguments put forth by evangelical anti-Mormons, because it seems to me that they prove too much. Evangelicals, it seems, are best at giving Mormons a strong reasons to become an atheist (or agnostic, or Unitarian).
Blogging as Home Teaching
We don’t read the monthly Ensign message with you. We don’t start and end with prayer, and we’re unlikely to be much help if you need the sideboard moved into the dining room. But we talk together about church topics; we (sometimes!) check up on each other to see how others are doing; we make friends and provide support. We’re not called by the Elder’s Quorum president or given a formal route. But we’re likely to talk with each other a lot more than a regular home teacher ever does. And if the essence of home teaching is regular contact, then the bloggernacle looks awfully like a home teaching network — and maybe, in many cases, a better network than that provided by traditional home teaching.
Fear of God
We’re commanded in the scriptures to fear God. Why? What does this formulation mean, anyway?
Do Church Salaries Drive Mothers into the Workforce?
My wife just mentioned this to me, and it has me wondering. If the church really wants mothers to stay at home, then why do many full-time church employees seem not to be paid enough to make that happen?
Pink
Yes, Pink. Apparently the color scheme of at least one bloggernacle site is enough to deter workplace browsing. John F. writes that he cannot visit Feminist Mormon Housewives while at work, because “ I feel nervous about a fellow associate walking in (or a partner, for that matter) and seeing the hot pink and knowing what they are wondering.“
A Verse for the p0rn Addict
Here’s a verse for the poor slaves and servants to that vile master, p0rnography.
Thanks, Eric
We’ve all enjoyed the posts by Eric James Stone, who has been our guest blogger for the past weeks. All good things must come to an end, however, Eric’s guest-blogging stint among them. Fortunately, you can still read Eric’s posts over at his own blog. And you can read some of his stories in print (1 and 2) as well.
Guest Blogging
In a reversal of the usual pattern (T & S asking other bloggernackers to guest-blog), I’ve just had the chance to be a guest-blogger myself. Yep, I was asked if I would do a guest post over at Various Stages of Mormondom, on the interesting topic: “Is it hard for you to say you’re Mormon? What baggage comes with that label?” Here is my post as a guest blogger at Various Stages — T & S readers may find it interesting. And don’t forget to check out the rest of the posts there on the same topic (VSM has seven bloggers post each week, all on the same topic). Thanks to the VSM crew for my first chance to be a guest blogger!