Category: News and Politics
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Peace and Zion
For me, one of the most beautiful concepts in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the idea of Zion. Yet, to achieve that ideal, we are going to have to think and act radically differently than we are accustomed to thinking and acting. In a recent interview with Kurt Manwaring, Patrick Mason…
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*Search, Ponder, and Pray* by Julie Smith: your essential guide to revisiting the gospels
“Tell me the stories of Jesus,” begins the primary song. You’ve read the stories of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You’ve heard them in church lessons and talks. You know the stories; you probably love the stories. But what if you want more? I recently used Julie M. Smith’s Search, Ponder, and Pray:…
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Making Sense of Prophecies (1): Preliminaries
For several years, my academic research has focused on late medieval and early modern prophecies.
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“A word of wisdom for the benefit of the Saints”
One of the paradoxes about the Word of Wisdom is that the name (drawn from the opening line of the text from the 27 February 1833 revelation) indicates that it is good advice while it’s treated as a commandment in the Church today. I’ve discussed this in detail in the past, so I’ll leave the…
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign has been an area of interest for several years now (particularly since the release of the Council of Fifty minutes), and Spencer W. McBride’s recently-published Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2021) is the latest in scholarship to be…
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Ruf aus der Wüste 5.3: Hyde on Missouri
The experience of persecution in Missouri was not just recent history. For Hyde, it was the literal fulfillment of prophecy about the last days.
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We did okay
If you survey the damage left by Donald Trump and Covid-19 in our neighborhood of the American religious landscape, a sigh of relief is warranted.
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Ruf aus der Wüste 5.1: Hyde on the end time
Hyde touches on his own life and perspective for the first time.
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Home MTC is good
At some point in the near future, the Missionary Training Center will likely reopen fully, and in some ways that’s unfortunate, because home MTC is good.
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Ruf aus der Wüste 4.15-16: Hyde on washing of feet
I think this is more about foot washing than I’ve ever read anywhere before.
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Happy Mother’s Day: A Review of Carol Lynn Pearson’s *Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World*
I started listening to Carol Lynn Pearson read her latest poetry collection — Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World — and I could not stop. And now I’m listening to it a second time. It’s vibrant and healing. I find Pearson’s words in this volume (and, in the audiobook, her delivery) irresistible. Pearson…
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Translating the faith healer
Was I comfortable with the topic? the prospective client on the other end of the video call wanted to know.
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Ruf aus der Wüste 4.13-14: Hyde on the Sabbath
Article 13 On prayer and on the manner of worship. Prayer is one of the primary obligations of the Christian, and he is reliant on it for any consideration that might stir his ambition or instill it in him, for it is just as necessary for his growth and thriving as rain is for the…
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Ruf aus der Wüste 4.12: Baptism for the dead
Orson Hyde blazes the trail for every Temple and Family History consultant ever since.
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Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.10: Orson Hyde on continuing revelation
The teachings are familiar, but the images are surprising.
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Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.9: Orson Hyde on blessing and baptizing children
This short sections feels quite familiar.
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Counterpoint: A Feeling of Loss–On Murals and Temples
I lived a significant portion of my life in Logan, Utah and frequently attended the temple during the time that I lived there. I had a lot of beautiful and sacred experiences while doing so, but I also rarely attended that temple without experiencing some feelings of loss. In the late 1970s, in order to…
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Point: It’s just art
Hezekiah didn’t consult with artists or historians before destroying the bronze snake Moses had made. He didn’t even try to preserve it somewhere else for its cultural value.
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Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.8: Orson Hyde on confession and disfellowship
On the confession of sin and the treatment of members acting contrary to law
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Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.7: Orson Hyde on the sacrament
For Hyde, the sacrament seems to be not quite as strictly symbolical as it is for us, and more directly tied to guilt and confession. Also, will Sunday always be the Sabbath?
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Redux: Responding to bigoted but famous texts—by Seuss and Doyle
The recent controversy over the decision of the literary estate of Theodore Seuss Geisel to stop selling six of his Dr. Seuss books because of their bigoted depictions of minorities reminded me of a somewhat similar situation. Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote the post Responding to Bigoted but Famous Texts about a Virginia school district…
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Ein Ruf aus der Wüste 4.6: Orson Hyde on confirmation
What is a priesthood ordinance’s method of action? What Hyde describes in this short article seems to be both less direct, and to emphasize the mediation of the priesthood and the priest conducting an ordinance, more than we typically would today. The gift of the Holy Ghost also seems conspicuously absent.