Author: Kent Larsen
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Vote for Mormon of the Year
This post opens the voting for Mormon of the Year. Votes will be taken until midnight Eastern Time on Thursday, January 7th, at which time the voting will close. The voting mechanism will attempt to restrict votes to one per person. The order of the choices is set at random, and is different each time…
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Nominate the 2009 Mormon of the Year
Its that time of year again. The media are already reviewing the important news stories of the year, Time has selected its Person of the Year; so we should get busy selecting the Mormon of the Year. For those who don’t remember, last year at this time T&S selected Mitt Romney as the Mormon of the…
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Are the Books Available?
It is a bit of a coincidence that, as I prepared my regular list of the books and other media mentioned in General Conference, one of the LDS discussion forums in Brazil I follow was lamenting the decision to discontinue selling classic LDS works in Portuguese, like Talmage’s The Articles of Faith and LeGrand Richard’s…
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Peace Prize Shock
At first I thought it might be a joke of some kind. I waited for a “just kidding” qualification from the radio news announcer. Then the news item finished. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama.
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A Call for Mormon Studies Papers — for Brazil
After a bit of work and discussion, a small group I’m working with has issued a call for papers for what may be the first academic conference on Mormonism not held principally in English. The conference will be held in São Paulo, Brazil this coming January.
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Some Notes on the New Spanish LDS Bible
My copy of the new LDS edition of the Bible in Spanish arrived yesterday, one of the 750,000 copies printed recently (according to a contact I have in the Church department that prints these materials). So I thought I would pass on my impressions.
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Overdoing Church?
Many years ago, a friend told me in jest, when I wondered about missing Church on Sunday, “There are only 48 lessons in the Priesthood manual. Attending anything more than that is brown-nosing.”
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When Should We Fear Discourse?
In Nephi Anderson’s short story, “On the Border-land of Light,” his protagonist meets a woman who knows little of Mormons: “Have you never been down in the lower valley?” he asked. “No, never. You see we were afraid of the Mormons at first,…
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Remembering 18 Months
Saturday, my son passes the 18 month mark of his mission–and he will then also pass me, having served longer on his mission than I did on mine. I confess, I’m a little jealous.
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The Macho Interpretation
In priesthood meeting a couple of weeks ago we discussed fasting and prayer and how long you need to fast or pray for it to be effective. It occurred to me then that many male members of the Church have a tendency to approach spiritual isssues like this as a macho exercise.
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T&S is now on Facebook
No, we haven’t moved to facebook. But we have a page on facebook — http://www.facebook.com/pages/TimesandSeasonsorg/94901729600 — so those of you on facebook can add our page to your profile, share favorite posts and give us feedback and suggestions.
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Baseball History and Personal Significance
Yesterday, baseball history was marked when the Phillies’ Eric Bruntlett recorded the rarest play in the game–the unassisted triple play. If you think about it, there is a bit of a life lesson in this.
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A Mormon Don Quixote
Last week I was in Cedar City for my annual visit to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which has brought a lot of pleasure to my family for the past 24 years, thanks to the nearly 50-year-old impossible dream of a returned missionary, Fred Adams. His success is, today, an interesting counterpoint to other impossible dreams.
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Notes From All Over For Week Ended August 2
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
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Mission Websites — Mission.net or what?
Its been 25 years since I returned from my mission, and this past week I got an email from a friend asking me to join a new website for my mission. The first thing I asked myself, before joining, is ‘why do we need another mission site?
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What I Found Interesting and Unusual in the Pew Report
For Pioneer Day, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religious & Public Life released its report on Mormonism, based on responses to its 2007 Religious Landscape Survey. I was surprised that the initial coverage was so mundane, but when I read the report, so many details were fascinating!
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The New “Opiate of the Masses”
In 1844 Karl Marx said that “Religion is the opium of the people,” and seemed to suggest that its abolition would bring true happiness.
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Notes From All Over For Week Ended July 25
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
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January 1 of the year 40
Happy Moonlanding Day! When I was a youth, I read a science fiction book in which dates in the future were figured from the day that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, apparently because the date had such significance in the history of man.
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Notes From All Over For Week Ended July 18
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
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When Are We “In” A Ward?
Our ward here in New York City is undergoing quite a lot of transition at the moment, and I once again feel alienated from those who have left and those who are arriving.
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Notes From All Over For Week Ended July 11
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
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Notes From All Over For Week Ended July 4
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
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A Mormon Advice Columnist?
Could there ever be a Mormon advice columnist, dispensing advice to a Mormon audience? Or is that what Bishops are for?
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Jer3miah, The Great Mormon Novel, and The Problem with Mormon Media
The Book of Jer3miah phenomenon has been noticed on Salon, coincidentally just as an ill-advised Mormon Times essay touched off strong reactions by suggesting that the Great Mormon Novel could never exist.
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Where Will National Mormon Politicians Come From?
That may sound like the introduction to a bad joke, but I actually have a serious answer.
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Archuleta and Exceptions to the Rule
So David Archuleta hinted last week that he might not serve an LDS mission.