• 69 responses

    It is the sense of Times and Seasons that the bowl system for college football makes no sense and that there ought to be a proper tournament of some sort. Read More

  • 7 responses

    Stumble–because the world needs more ways to waste time online. Read More

  • 103 responses

    In the Preface to New Genesis: A Mormon Reader on Land and Community, the editors cite an unidentified 1991 report that places each of the thirty largest Christian denominations in one of five categories based on their environmental stances. Read More

  • 54 responses

    Each relay team will consist of 5 runners. Over the course of a 48-hour period, each team will, collectively, run and/or walk a marathon (26.2 miles). Here are the current (draft) rules. Feedback is welcome. Read More

  • 95 responses

    Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends. Sally: Why not? Harry: What I’m saying is – and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form – is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way. Read More

  • 7 responses

    August 2007 has seen the passing of two fine Mormon historians Read More

  • 107 responses

    There’s some discussion online about whether Idaho senator Larry Craig (recently in the news for lewd acts) is LDS. According to his official biography, he is not. For some anti-Mormons, this isn’t enough. Here’s a (real!) comment from one blog: Read More

  • 33 responses

    It was one of the last zone conferences I attended. President Gonzales paused in his talk, and then pulled out a small greenish-colored jade bracelet. Read More

  • 88 responses

    The tension between “official” Mormon history and other sorts of Mormon history is a central narrative for a lot of Mormon intellectual discussion. D. Michael Quinn, for example, who is a fabulously tenacious researcher at times seems to have little in the way of a historiographic agenda other than to do “honest” history rather than “official” history. This is very laudable, of course, but it is an intellectual agenda that depends decisively on being able to identify “official” history and its scholarly lapses. Which brings me to my question: Where do I find the “official” history of the church? Read More

  • 27 responses

    This summer, Times and Seasons was fortunate enough to host three superb guest-bloggers: Dave Banack, of Dave’s Mormon Inquiry fame; Patricia Gunter Karamesines, who came to us by way of A Motley Vision; and Kathryn Lynard Soper, who blogs and writes at her pseudo-eponymous blog and the journal Segullah. We are proud to announce that, one by one, all of these fine guestbloggers have succumbed to our desperate pleadings and wholly fictional promises of shiny new kitchen appliances stuffed with cash have agreed to make their presence here at Times and Seasons more permanent. For more proper introductions to them… Read More

  • 66 responses

    New York Post: “‘September Dawn’ succeeds completely at failure; the unified incompetence of its writing, directing and acting suggest a man who manages to be on fire and drowning at the same time, just as the bus runs him over.” New York Daily News: “‘September Dawn,’ written by an evangelical Christian, may be the worst historical drama ever made.” New York Times: “The maudlin, grotesque western ‘September Dawn,’ . . . apes ‘Schindler’s List’ in hopes of creating a Christian Holocaust picture.” Read More

  • 99 responses

    A reader writes: Read More

  • 2 responses

    Another remarkable series is running at FMH: “How I became a mother.” Contributors have posted ten stories so far, many of them remarkable discussions of adoption, battles with infertility, emotional issues, family, and more. The series itself doesn’t yet seem to have a page (hint, hint!), but they’re all listed under FMH’s “Motherhood” category. This series — like Day in the Life before it — highlights why FMH is such a unique and vital part of the bloggernacle. Good work, Lisa and cohorts, and all of the series authors. Read More

  • 57 responses

    The function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs are in the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to… Read More

  • 40 responses

    Matt has kindly invited me to continue guest posting at will. And I’m glad, because my mind is spinning this week with thoughts I’d like to dump on you guys. I’m going to start with a long preamble: this sacrament meeting talk that was assigned to me a few months ago. More to follow tomorrow. We don’t call this earth life “the lone and dreary world” for nothing. We are strangers here, homesick for our heavenly parents, our heavenly home. In our mortal bodies we are subject to all kinds of difficulties and infirmities, both mental and physical and emotional.… Read More

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    72 responses

    A couple of months ago I heard a presentation on the general topic of historical sites that the Church owns and manages. I came with a pocketful of snarky questions but left with some appreciation for how tough the task is and (on the whole) how well the sites are set up and managed. I’ll give a couple of paragraphs summarizing the talk, then a couple of paragraphs commenting on historical sites I have visited. Read More

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    74 responses

    The people who bet money on their ability to predict political events are bullish on Mitt Romney. Read More

  • 34 responses

    BYU shot up over 50 places in the university rankings that were just released this week. Not in the US News and World Report rankings, where BYU continues to bounce around the 70s, but in the Washington Monthly rankings of universities’ based on their contributions to society, where BYU went from 124 to 68, right between Loyola Chicago and Brown. Read More

  • 17 responses

    The writer of the gospel of John worked really, really hard to make it clear that no one suspected Judas: Read More

  • 110 responses

    We seem to discuss issues of homosexuality ad nausum around here. Surprisingly, one particular subtopic that hasn’t really come up in the past is the real problem of anti-gay violence. Read More

  • 12 responses

    Baseball cards and Pokemon cards are the modern descendants of the 18th and 19th century trade card Read More

  • 43 responses

    The Old Testament gives us all sorts of strange stories. One that I’ve been thinking about lately is the delightfully wacky book of Esther. In particular, I’ve been wondering about the lessons on sex and morality that we can learn from this book. And I find the answers a little surprising, to say the least. We’ll start with lesson one from Esther: Use sex to get power. Read More

  • 22 responses

    We left our hotel late Sunday morning, heading home from Utah. We weren’t sure whether we’d make a 2-day trip of it, stopping in St. George or Vegas, or whether we’d pull an all nighter. It would depend on how we felt. Read More

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    94 responses

    The day before the cliff swallows return to traditional nesting sites in canyons near where I live in southern Utah, the sky hangs quiet, with only a few ravens, hawks, and eagles spiraling through. The next day, whoosh! Swallows arrive reeling in their folklorico like revelers at an unseen party spilling onto a quiet street. Read More

  • 71 responses

    I don’t know of any Americans planning to move into my ward soon. If there were any, I wish they would understand a few things from the outset. (If you’re contemplating a foreign assignment in an industrial nation, some of this might apply to your situation as well.) Read More

  • 44 responses

    Comments expressing love for President Faust have been left by readers in India and the Netherlands Antilles. Read More

  • “The Faust family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Church Missionary Fund or to the Perpetual Education Fund.” There is a site at lds.org/Faust available for making donations. Read More

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    41 responses

    It is the destiny of mint to be crushed. –Waverley Lewis Root June 12, 2007 Rained most of the night. Morning’s cool and sweet. Good day to venture into a canyon. Because the storm has left behind puffy white seeds that could blossom suddenly into rain, I replace my extra water bottle with a rain poncho. In honor of the sky, scrubbed to a deep, shining blue, I wear my turquoise tee shirt. Usually I wear a white one with sleeves, but I like to wear this color when I hike. Weather permitting, I do. Read More

  • 70 responses

    President James E. Faust, second counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley, has passed away at age 87. Read More

  • 20 responses

    It is surely one of the more unexpected voices to go to bat for Joseph Smith: Harold Bloom in his 1992 book The American Religion, which gave serious (if unconventional) consideration to Joseph Smith’s role as a religious figure and which famously described him as a “religious genius.” As sort of a post-script, in the March 2007 issue of Sunstone there was a two-page essay by Bloom entitled “Perspectivism and Joseph Smith.” I can’t say I follow every remark in the essay, but I do appreciate his continued interest in Joseph Smith. Here are a few points Bloom makes in… Read More