In the Latter-day Saint community the renowned gospel scholar has traditionally enjoyed a lot of social esteem. Much of what I’d say here I’ve already said previously, but to summarize: our attention is being fractured into a million pieces, making…
Author: Stephen C
Religious Studies and the Church, Part I: Intellectual Authority as a Shortcut to Ecclesiastical Authority
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is somewhat unique in that we don’t have a paid or professionally trained clergy. Nonetheless, there are Latter-day Saints who still pursue high education degrees in fields normally pursued by clergy trainees…
The Future and the Church, Part VI: The Future of Religion Worldwide
Of ProgMos and Pornography, and Latter-day Saints on Only Fans
In progressive discourse, the person (generally either gay or female) who challenges conservative religious sexual strictures is seen as a courageous trailblazer. However, as liberal Mormonism generally tracks the norms and values of progressivism generally, it too inherits the ambivalence…
The Future and the Church, Part V: When Will There Be More African Wards than North American Wards?
Under the Banner of Heaven: Review of First Two Episodes
I suspect a fear among some conservative Latter-day Saints is that a blockbuster, widely viewed movie will come around that presses on uncomfortable pressure points in a sophisticated way, and the 1-3 things that people know about the Church offhand…
The Future and the Church, Part IV: China
Like US exporters eyeing a potential 1.4 billion person market, the Church entering China is one of those white whales for hopeful, growth-minded Latter-day Saints (except with the everlasting gospel of the living God instead of widgets, but you get…
The Church Should Not Be Your Project
In Latter-day Saint parlance “making somebody your project” is the act of approaching your relationship with them mechanistically; only viewing your relationship with them through your ability to get them from point A to point B spiritually, and generally it’s…
Spiritually Moving “Great Art”
The Future and the Church, Part III: Artificial Intelligence
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, gains in machine learning technology are a “known unknown.” Unlike some other future changes and development, we are reasonably confident that the machine learning revolution (also known as artificial intelligence, but that is a loaded term)…
Scattered Thoughts on Conference
Asking and seeking are clearly not the same as demanding. The former is Joseph Smith at 14, the latter is Martin Harris with the lost pages, and I think this distinction is evident to most people who watched the talk…
“Royal Families” in the Church and Spiritual Special Sauce
And think not to say within yourselves,We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. –Matthew 3:9 The mythos of the Latter-day Saint royalty that…
The Future and the Church, Part II: Longer Human Lives
How Old Are Latter-day Saint Bishops?
The Future and the Church, Part I: Reproductive Technologies
In Defense of Boundary Maintenance at BYU
BYU’s recent policy changes that appear to be geared towards reinforcing the institution’s Latter-day Saint character are causing consternation in some circles, so I thought now would be a good time to be the bad guy and make a case…
Are Black and Hispanic Men Called as Bishops as Much as White Men?
Big Science Questions and the Gospel, Part IX, Free Will
Free will is one of those issues where you have to think deep and hard about your definitions. Many philosophers will subscribe to one definition, but not another, so sometimes the whole debate on whether we have “free will” revolves…
Glory to Ukraine
Big Science Questions and the Gospel, Part VIII, Time and God
When I was a Wikipedia editor years ago the Joseph Smith page stated that “[Smith] began teaching that God was…embodied within time and space,” and they cited Busman’s statement to that effect. I removed the “embodied in time” and explained…