Category: Cornucopia

I have envy — calling envy. Yes, that’s a sin that’s endemic to Mormonism. Unlike some others, I don’t really want to be a bishop or a stake president of a general authority. I’m deeply jealous, however, of people who regularly get to participate in singing time.

“God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This was an argument I used often (and with relatively high success) as a missionary. God spoke to prophets in the past; God is unchanging; therefore, God speaks to prophets now. Is it really that simple?

Last night at 6:30 PM Pacific time, most members of my family dialed in to a conference call to Provo, Utah—to the lobby of Stover Hall on BYU campus, to be specific. My brother Benjamin—seventh child, sixth freshman at BYU, fifth missionary, third son, and a few days shy of nineteen—was about to open his…

Valentine’s Day 1996 found my own life in an interesting state of flux.

The high point in my Church career so far came at age two, when I stood and recited the first four Articles of Faith from memory in Sacrament Meeting . Alas, early precocity did not usher in mature perspicacity, and I confess that these days, while I can still recite most of the Articles as…

Melissa and the girls and I watched the opening ceremonies for the 2006 Olympics last night, and we’ll no doubt watch quite a bit more over the next two weeks. The spectacle, the drama, the stories of striving and succeeding and failing get to us every time. As I wrote before, as I watch these…

Martha was one of the older sisters in our branch. We counted a scant dozen of them, singles and widows, making more than half of the congregation and being its very backbone. When I got to know her, Martha was in her sixties. Huge by nature and strong from her lifelong labors as a market…

I tend to enjoy using the blog aggregation services provided by sites like Mormon Archipelago and Planet LDS for one-stop shopping in my blog reading. For those of us who like aggregators, there is now further cause for rejoicing — a shiny new player has officially entered the burgeoning world of bloggernacle aggregators. New portal…

Accounting firms move by subtraction: The Big Eight becomes the Big Six becomes the Big Five Four Three Two; eventually we will hit the Big Zero and financial statements will be unaudited thereafter. The nacle trends in the other direction:

(Actually, “J. Nelson Seawright,” but that “Roasted Tomatoes” moniker is too good not to use….)

We’ve been very pleased with the Akismet spam filter.

In the past, we’ve discussed favorite recipes and particularly tasty meals. (Some of those recipes are well worth checking out). This thread will take a different tack: Let’s talk about some quick and easy recipes that the cook of the house can fire up when he needs ideas.

We’ve enjoyed having J. Stapley as our guest for the past two weeks. Alas, now it is time to send him back to his home blog. Err, blogs. Thanks for guest blogging with us, J. Your fans will be pleased to know (or remember) that you’re still blogging at Bloggernacle Times, Splendid Sun, and some…

Let’s answer this debate once and for all, the easy way. Was the flood local? Sure it was. That’s easy. How do I know? Simple: If the flood were global, then Cain would have drowned. Q.E.D. Ask me something hard.

In an interesting post, Julie lays out a hermeneutic approach that reminds me of Plato’s ideals.

Anon over at one of those other blogs asked an interesting question:

There is no question that the earliest Saints held views of God and Heaven that were consistent with their protestant roots (1). Joseph’s visions continually transformed Mormon theology with the last months of his life capturing the most radical concepts in theogony and exaltation. He was martyred and his pyre was set against the creedal…

The Islamic world is reacting angrily to the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. Demonstrations, threats, flag burning, forcible closure of Western offices — we know the scary pictures. In defense of free speech and to show support for the Danish editors, newspapers in France, Italy, Spain and Germany have…

A friend of mine was recently pressing me for a clear account of faith. Here is the gist of what I said, and a bit more. Tell me if you think I’m on the right track!