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4 responses
It’s always a bit of a booster shot for me, testimony-wise, when I see things like this month’s Ensign message. In an article that appears to have been prepared long before Katrina was around, President Monson delivers a message that is tailored for members dealing with grief and loss. Read More
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227 responses
I will frankly admit that I have been sickened by the lack of compassion for those victimized by Hurricane Katrina that I’ve seen in some corners of the Bloggernacle. Read More
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133 responses
The techniques that Evangelicals use to convert Mormons to ‘traditional Christianity’ do not work. The same cannot be said for the method proposed by David L. Rowe in his new book. . Read More
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15 responses
Early this morning my children clattered out the door to the schoolyard across the street, where they returned to freedom a tiny ground frog they’d captured yesterday. Read More
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47 responses
I wish that we didn’t use white bread for the sacrament. Read More
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20 responses
Today I heard many prayers and had to decide whose to answer. Read More
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41 responses
Natural disasters often lead people to think about the problem of evil and theodicy. This is, I think, probably a bad idea. Read More
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35 responses
I hope that each of us is praying and perhaps fasting for those who have been affected most directly by Katrina. As I thought about doing something more — specifically, donating to the relief effort — I wondered whether we could or should funnel donations through the Church. If not, what are the best options? Red Cross? Read More
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35 responses
Grant me a simple premise: How one thinks about the nature of reality has an impact on how one thinks about art. Read More
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55 responses
When the topic turns to marriage, someone in Gospel Doctrine class inevitably refers with derision to that famous phrase from traditional marriage vows, “’til death do us part.” To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, “I do not think this [phrase] means what you think it means.” Read More
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35 responses
While my brother and his family are safe in Texas, it appears that all of their possessions and their home in New Orleans will be under water soon. What I am hearing now is that about half of ‘well-contructed homes’ will be destroyed and the city will not be habitable for weeks. One million may be left homeless. Read More
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56 responses
A busy downtown intersection. No traffic lights, no road markings, no speed limits, no sidewalks, no pedestrian crossings. Cars, cyclists, pedestrians, all move on the same street level, side by side, carefully merging. Read More
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45 responses
Take a look at this state ranking. It ranks states by Iraqi-war casualties per 100,000 residents. The chart was made as part of a rather silly debate about red states and blue states that doesn’t interest me. What interests me is Utah. Read More
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14 responses
As valuable as the Clare Middlemiss papers were in writing David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, they lacked the subjective, third dimension of the real people portrayed in the book. In conducting some 200 oral histories, we found the third dimension we sought. Read More
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18 responses
Some poets are available for Mormon appropriation and some are only to be envied and enjoyed. John Donne is only to be envied and enjoyed. Read More
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25 responses
There is a tiny village, on a remote hill in Burundi, Central Africa, committed to my memory as the place where two priesthoods, Catholic and Mormon, joined. Read More
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24 responses
While David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is nearly perfect in every way, one thing it doesn’t do is provide an intimate portrait of President McKay. That lacuna is partially filled by Heart Petals: The Personal Correspondence of David Oman McKay to Emma Ray McKay. Read More
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33 responses
Being an American Mormon makes it difficult, perhaps impossible, for me to be a tory. Read More
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21 responses
Times & Seasons commenter and economist Ed Johnson (“ed”) has performed some sophisticated statistical analysis on general conference scripture citations. We discussed the same data, but with the aid of lesser tools and minds, in earlier posts here and here. The finding that most surprised me is that the surge in Book of Mormon citations evident in the previous posts can’t be attributed to President Benson’s famous general conference talks about the Book of Mormon after all: his talks coincide with the crest of the wave. Read More
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19 responses
Today, August 20th, the youngest of my eight siblings, Baden Joseph Fox, married Mary Ellen Smoot in the Salt Lake temple. We weren’t able to attend, which was doubly unfortunate, this being a particularly notable day in Fox family history. You see, on the same date their last child was married, my parents, James Russell Fox and Kathleen Jolley Fox, were married in the Salt Lake temple, 40 years earlier. This post is for them. Read More
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One response
Both of my parents (now divorced) have been deeply involved in Mormon studies for my entire life. (more…) Read More
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37 responses
You just gotta love any book that has a picture of a seven-year-old boy cleaning a toilet on the cover. Read More
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41 responses
I have a small herb garden: a couple of varieties of thyme, some tarragon, chives, basil, dill, oregano, rose geranium, parsley, lavender, sage, rosemary, and two kinds of mint, regular and chocolate, though the chocolate is gradually disappearing, replaced by the spearmint. Read More
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16 responses
Sandra Day O’Connor has retired from the Supreme Court and John Roberts will almost certainly replace her. History might have been different. Read More
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34 responses
I find the universal love of mankind a little creepy. Read More
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11 responses
Cyril doesn’t know how to dress, except for his tie. Read More
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22 responses
So says the New York Times. Read More
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Admin, Church History, Cornucopia, Latter-day Saint Thought, Life in the Church, Missionary, Mormon Studies
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78 responses
David O. McKay presented a dramatic contrast to his predecessors: an athletic, movie-star-handsome, clean-shaven figure who often wore a white double-breasted suit; contrasted to the dark-suited, bearded polygamists (or, in the case of George Albert Smith, son of a polygamist) who preceded him as Church President ever since Joseph Smith. In an age prior to professional image-makers, he instinctively grasped the importance of appearance, and coupled it to the substance of a professional educator to become an icon of Mormonism whose persona did much to change the negative image of the Church in much of the world. Read More
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12 responses
We are excited to welcome Gregory Prince, coauthor of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (published March 2005 and already in its third printing; reviewed here). Welcome, Greg! Read More
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42 responses
I didn’t really know it at the time. When we met, he was well disguised as a dirtbike racing, country music fan that was six months off his mission. Read More