I know some people who assiduously avoid buying Nike shoes. The moral logic of this position, however, is tricky. Read More

Sister Murdoch did not want to go on a mission, but she went anyway. Read More

If you are interested, email [email protected]. Read More

Back by popular demand, here is the second installment of the Sacrament Meeting Edition of “What Not to Wear” – Women’s Edition. Read More

August 11, 2005 To Whom It May Concern: I hope that you will not find an unsolicited letter presumptuous, but I wanted to give you my thoughts on what I see as Dialogue’s problems and some things it could do to improve. Read More

It happened in the back of the former living room we called our chapel. The church itself was an insignificant Flemish rowhouse. Thirty-six chairs crammed the room. Six rows of six. When half of them got filled, we boasted on the Church’s growth in our city. Read More

This Saturday at 5pm in Springfield, Virginia. If you are interested in coming, please email me at [email protected]. I will send details and directions via email. Read More

Like most rugged and red-blooded American men I have long enjoyed the work of Jane Austen. Read More

Those of us who live a peripatetic (peripathetic?) life come to know the Elders’ Quorum Moving Company pretty well. Read More

This past Sunday was our last in the Jonesboro ward. We’re moving to Illinois on Saturday, and while we’ll have a chance to say goodbye at greater length to some of our closer friends over the next few days (to say nothing of when the elder’s quorum shows up to help pack the truck!), for the most part our partings on Sunday were final. (At least in the short term, that is; in the long term, who knows? We may well find ourselves visiting or even living in Jonesboro again someday, a prospect which I wouldn’t mind one bit.) Read More

It’s time to say goodbye to Kirsten and thank her for being an oustanding guest blogger. I appreciate the way that she formulated potentially-explosive and oft-discussed topics in a fresh, creative way that led to great discussions. Thanks, Kirsten, and we hope you’ll continue to stop by and comment. Read More

I am sure most of you are familiar with the types of “Mormon t-shirts” like these, these, these and these. To me, they are beyond kitschy and have entered the realm of horribly tacky. Read More

Several weeks back, I posted a short thing on Conglomerate and Blogcritics about my search for Harry Potter & The Half-blood Prince. Read More

I have always thought that one of the most telling and subtlety vicious aspect of segregation was the fact that a white person regardless of age or economic status could always call a black person, regardless of age or economic status, “boy” or “girl.” Read More

It happened. From pictures and testimonies we can grasp somehow what happened. Read More

Despite Brigham’s frequent attacks on the profession, there are a lot of Mormon lawyers. Some LDS thinkers have posited all sorts of troubling reasons why this is so. Nibley sees it as a symptom of moral decline, and I have repeatedly seen it used as evidence of excessive Mormon materialism or anti-intellectualism. However, today I realized that it might be about something else entirely: book binding. (more…) Read More

Being in the fashion industry, I have always been bothered by the constant references to “costly apparel” in the BOM and its link to pride and the downfall of nations. Read More

Our worldwide missionary effort is plurilingual. The Church has always been involved in outreach efforts to other tongues, now translating material into 185 languages. There are wards and branches, led in the local idiom, in 165 countries. Read More

Today on my way to work, I passed by the Lincoln Memorial where the great man’s sermon on blood atonement is inscribed in marble. Read More

By popular demand, here is the first installment of the Sacrament Meeting-Men’s edition of “What Not to Wear” Read More

This post has two main parts — both involve being Mormon and engaging one’s brain. I think they’re still two distinct issues, but I’ll bring them up together, nonetheless, not least because my guest-blogging days are quickly drawing to a close. (Thank goodness — I feel as if I’ve been sucked into some fascinating and time-swallowing vortex that could be impossible to get out of if I didn’t soon…. How I admire [I think… :-)]all of you permanent bloggers.) Read More

Bloggernaclites! For those in the Washington, D.C. area there is going to be a get together at Casa Oman (sans, alas, Heather and Jacob, the more interesting Omans) on Saturday, August 13th beginning at about 5pm-ish. It will be a bring your own food kind of BBQ. I will provide watermelon, drinks, and fresh salsa from the Oman garden. If you are interested in attending, please email me at [email protected]. I will send out an email with directions. UPDATE: I have changed the email address to a functional account. Sorry to anyone who tried to send an email to the… Read More

OK. I don’t want to go to film school any more. Read More

Nephi teaches that many plain and precious truths that were once had among the Jews have not made it into the Bible handed down to us via the Gentiles. We tend to talk as though these are truths revealed by Christ, but not passed on as his church fell into apostasy. But could many of these be truths lost before the time of Christ, or revealed before Christ but lost shortly after he left the Earth? Read More

My wonderful wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed, as left me. Read More

OK, lets talk about antitrust law and the plight of persecuted Mormons. Read More