It is going on ten years now since I have lived in Utah, but I still follow Utah politics from afar partly as a matter of tribal attachment but mainly because they are just so strange and fun. Read More

Why were Blacks denied the Priesthood from the early days of the church until 1978? Of course, the official (and only really undisputable) answer is, “we don’t know.” But what are the options, really? Let’s go over the list of conceptually coherent potential reasons for the Priesthood ban. Read More

A while back, Dave asked about possible narratives to structure 20th or 21st century Mormons. Another way of thinking about this question is how we bridge between modern experience and our historical narratives. We need not only new stories but also ways of maintaing continuity with our old stories. Consider the two images below. Read More

And who might they be, these cultural barbarians? You and me, according to the author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture (Doubleday, 2007). Will it kill the Church too? Read More

A T&S reader has a question about daily family scripture study. How have you made it work in your home? To what extent do the words “daily,” “family,” “scripture,” and “study” apply? Read More

Millennial Press has a new series of short books on controversial topics. Read More

Sir Poach-a-Lot: Is belief objective, or subjective? Read More

1. Four loads of laundry. Read More

“No, we don’t worship Joseph Smith,” I explained to the investigator. “We respect him as a prophet.” “You mean, like Mohamed?” he asked. “No, more like Moses, or John the Baptist.” Read More

A woman — or, perhaps, a group of men and/or women — bent on a practical joke and signing her letter as “Ethel,” once wrote to Brigham Young from St. Louis to propose marriage. Read More

This summer I had the chance to participate in a workshop at BYU put together by Richard Bushman. Bushman wanted to gather together Mormon academics working outside of Utah to discuss the question of how we explain Mormonism. My own sense is that when we explain our beliefs — even to one another — we often fall into the trap of repeating verbal formulations rather than actually thinking through and describing what it is about the Restoration that really drives our commitment. Read More

I know that this is controversial for some readers, but for purposes of this discussion stipulate that same-sex marriage in wrong. As an institutional shift it will damage the institution of marriage in ways that will harm society in the long run. Obviously, this is a hugely controversial claim, but for the time being just accept it. Notwithstanding this, however, a number of jurisdictions have adopted same-sex marriage statutes. Let’s also stipulate the homosexual conduct is sinful, a belief held by most Mormons and one that certainly seems to be church doctrine. Should Mormons who hold all of these beliefs,… Read More

That is what B.H. Roberts called it when he reached the point in his monumental Comprehensive History of the Church where he had to confront the Mountain Meadows massacre, which occurred 150 years ago today. Read More

When we first moved to our current ward, for an initial stay of only a year, I was asked to serve as a counselor in the elders quorum presidency before I had attended a single sacrament meeting here. A year ago, we returned to the same ward, and yesterday we discovered that that previous elders quorum president and my wife are eighth cousins. And all this time we had assumed we were the exceptions in a ward and stake where everyone seems to be related to each other. Read More

I have a vague recollection of President Benson telling a story about how (not) to do missionary work: he compared it to trying to convince a young girl to replace the doll she had with the doll you were offering her. He pointed out that ripping the head off of her doll to reveal its inferior contents may not be the most successful approach; you would be far better off in extolling the virtues of the doll you wanted her to play with. Good advice. I wish White and Thomas had followed it in their recent Dialogue article. Read More

I’ve referred a time or two to one of my heroes, Leon Fargier, the only Melchisedek Priesthood holder in France during World War II. Read More

In order to prevent inadvertent exposure of nursing mothers’ breasts during church meetings to the bishopric, or to the deacons passing the sacrament — and the related possibility of those men having bad thoughts — scarves or blankets should definitely be used to conceal the nursing from male eyes. Thus, effective immediately, all deacons and bishopric members will wear scarves or blankets over their heads. Read More

Get Religion has posted a review of an interesting Wall Street Journal article examining how cell phones are affecting Hutterite culture. The GR post uses that example to touch on the larger issue of religion and technology, which is one of those rare topics that hasn’t been kicked around the Bloggernacle much. Christian radio, televangelism, and online churches come to mind for American religion in general. How has technology impacted the LDS Church? Read More

Kage (err, KAGE) over at Tales posted recently about nut-free schools. She strongly supports the idea, given the possibility of an allergic reaction in vulnerable kids. Commenters have been even more adamant Read More

Claremont Graduate University has announced: Professor Richard Bushman has been appointed as the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies. Read More

“No other organization is so perfect as the Mormon Church, except the German army.” Read More

Let’s think about lines, circles, and time. Read More

There are all sorts of characteristics one wants in a Bishop. Ideally he’d be kind, honest, obedient, a good people person, in-tune spiritually, good at administration and delegation, care deeply about the youth, doctrinally aware, and so on. But all of these pale in comparison to what I consider to be by far the leading qualification for Bishop. Read More

My neighborhood erupted a little while ago. The issue was immigration. I found out about the eruption when I was doing my visiting teaching. I won’t go into the details of the neighborhood fight, just a few lines I heard as I prepared to do a typical visit. “Maria is illegal, you know. She has her sister’s social security number. I don’t even know if Maria is her real name.” Read More

This month’s Dialogue prominently features a discussion of gay marriage. Surprise number one: The lead article, by Randolph Mulhestein, is one of the best articles against gay marriage that I’ve read. Read More

In 1980, when I was nine, for thirteen weeks running, I watched Cosmos on Sunday nights with my father. Read More

Hard to believe it’s the end of summer, especially with temps around here expected to top 100 again. Read More