There’s a new meme in the bloggernacle, and it’s self-awareness. The folks over at Various Stages are discussing the concept of self-consciousness (with some input from itinerant philosophers). Meanwhile, Ebenezer is wondering (in between some scandalous confessions about kissing) exactly how and why we construct our own bloggernacle identities. Finally, Geoff has a heartfelt post asserting a claim with which I wholeheartedly agree: God reads the bloggernacle. It’s an interesting confluence of posts: Are we self-aware? Should we be self-aware as we blog? Is God watching us? Should he be? Should we be “ourselves” on our blogs? Or is that… Read More

If you want to review a book, send me the title and your street address. There’s a category called Book Reviews for your posts. When you post the review, I’ll send the link to the publisher. Please don’t sit on the book forever. I’ll keep a running list of everything requested. God on the Quad (Adam) (St. Martin’s Press) DONE Black and Mormon (Julie) (U of Illinois) DONE The Latter-day Saint Experience in America (Julie) (Greenwood) DONE David O. McKay: Beloved Prophet (Julie) (Covenant) DONE David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (Julie) (U of Utah) A Different… Read More

About 18 years ago, Eugene England published his essay, “On Fidelity, Polygamy, and Celestial Marriage,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20/4 (Winter 1987): 138-54, which has since been reprinted in a couple of different venues. A copy is available at the University of Utah Dialogue archive, here. This article was an exercise in speculative theology, in which England took the position that the marriage relationship in the Celestial Kingdom will be monogamous, not polygynous. Read More

Noted LDS filmmaker Richard Dutcher recently addressed the Southern California-based Miller-Eccles Study Group. Read More

Sundays are a nice break during the session. Though I like being stopped by constituents to discuss issues in the store or at a restaurant, I used to bristle that every other conversation at church is on some issue the legislature is facing. I thought there should be one place I could just relax. Read More

As a Nibley memorial, BYU Studies has created a page with links to free down loads of Nibley’s BYU Studies articles. Sunstone has a similar page set up. Also, BYU has set up a kind of electronic guestbook for Nibley. They are inviting people to send in their messages of appreciation to hughnibley-at-byu.edu. My understanding is that the messages sent to this address will be compiled and sent to the family.* Read More

Yes, we’re talking about the Proclamation again. Please set aside, for a moment, gender issues. Please set aside as well the interesting interpretational questions (what is a Proclamation, anyway? what kind of normative force does it carry?) except as necessary to focus on what is, to me, the single most startling and loaded phrase in the entire document. I’m talking about this sentence: Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Read More

What would a guest blogging stint be without a little friendly ark steadying? To wit: I propose that the Church do away with its policy that requires a one-year wait between a civil marriage ceremony outside the temple and a temple sealing. Read More

We’re happy to announce another guest blogger, Kevin Barney. Kevin practices public finance law in Chicago. He served a mission in Colorado (’77-’79), received his undergraduate degree in classics from BYU (’82), his JD from the University of Illinois (’85) and an LLM from DePaul University (’90). He has published a couple of dozen articles, mostly on topics relating to LDS scripture, in such venues as the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Dialogue, The Ensign, FARMS Review and BYU Studies, and he is working on a book entitled Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints, scheduled to be… Read More

Politicians lie because they can. Read More

We are pleased to announce that Steve Urquhart, the majority whip for the Utah House of Representatives, will blog with us for the next two weeks, including the final days of the 2005 legislative session. Steve grew up in Houston and graduated from Williams College and BYU Law School. After working at Morrison & Foerster for two years, he moved to St. George, Utah, where he practices law with two other attorneys. He served a mission in Curitiba, Brazil, and now serves as stake auditor and Sunday School teacher. Steve and his wife Sara Stanley have four children. Read More

I don’t think that I am alone among Mormons in having had very strong reactions to Elder Bruce R. McConkie. My sense is that his theological influence is on the wane, although I understand he continues to be very popular amongst some CES types. A while back, I blogged on my own process of making peace with Elder McConkie. (continue to original post…) Read More

My children like to cheer for the Yankees. The two major cheers of choice are “Let’s Go Yankees” and “Red Sox Stink.” And recently, my son Sullivan has asked how to say those phrases in other languages. I’ve been able to help him out with Spanish — “Vamanos Yankees” and “Calcetines Rojas Huelen” (translating “Sox” as “socks”). However, he routinely asks me how to say these phrases in other languages — Russian, Chinese, French, German, and so on . . . pretty much every language he’s ever heard of, and he’s heard of a lot. I can’t really help him… Read More

There’s snow on the Gates in Central Park. A number of photobloggers have captured images of this; see, for example, photos here, or here. The images bring to mind a stanza from a seldom-sung hymn: Pale through the gloom the newly fallen snow Wraps in a shroud the silent earth below As tho ’twere mercy’s hand had spread the pall, A symbol of forgiveness unto all. The Lord uses snow as a symbol of repentance: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” The snow… Read More

NOTE: I wrote most of this yesterday, but thought perhaps it was too sentimental. This morning it seems horribly appropriate, as I’m praying (and crying) for Geoff’s little boy. Kaimi’s post puts me in mind of a favorite poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (“golly,” you say, “it doesn’t take much to get her going, does it?”): The Lantern out of Doors Sometimes a lantern moves along the night. That interests our eyes. And who goes there? I think; where from and bound, I wonder, where, With, all down darkness wide, his wading light? Read More

Geoff Johnston’s son is in the hospital after a serious accident. He’s hoping that bloggernackers can add his son to their prayers. I’m happy to oblige, myself, as well as pass this on to our readers. Read More

That is, truth-teller. Far greater than his scholarship, in my opinion, was his unwavering determination to speak plainly about what he understood to be the plain teachings–the social, economic, political and cultural teachings–of the prophets. By so doing he changed lives, and even, I think, saved souls. Of course, the actual “value” of his interpretations can be disputed; certainly it is the case that his somewhat flaky, scripturally inspired socialism/environmentalism/pacifism/agrarianism/what-have-you-ism never amounted to a solid foundation upon which one could erect laws, establish policies, distribute goods, enforce treaties, and basically get things done. It was, in other words, strictly speaking,… Read More

I just saw a comment at Amira’s that made me wonder just how much crossover there is between T & S readers and Message Board readers. I know that some regular participants here, like Grasshopper and Clark, also participate on different forums like FAIR Boards or Nauvoo.com. Read More

Clark reports that Hugh Nibley has passed away. I thought we should announce this. I expect that some of my co-bloggers will have more eloquent things to say. I’ll only note that brother Nibley was a great scholar and a great man, and the world of Mormon Studies is smaller without him. Read More

You’ve all seen them, spoken with them, discussed things with them. They’re your evangelical anti-Mormon friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, relatives. (Not to mention those random strangers who accost you as you go to the temple.) We get comments from these folks around here sometimes as well. I’ve always been a little surprised by the types of arguments put forth by evangelical anti-Mormons, because it seems to me that they prove too much. Evangelicals, it seems, are best at giving Mormons a strong reasons to become an atheist (or agnostic, or Unitarian). Read More

We don’t read the monthly Ensign message with you. We don’t start and end with prayer, and we’re unlikely to be much help if you need the sideboard moved into the dining room. But we talk together about church topics; we (sometimes!) check up on each other to see how others are doing; we make friends and provide support. We’re not called by the Elder’s Quorum president or given a formal route. But we’re likely to talk with each other a lot more than a regular home teacher ever does. And if the essence of home teaching is regular contact,… Read More

I think that people ought to be able to sell their kidneys. Especially poor people. Read More

My a capella group, The Longfellow Singers, will present “Sacred Harmony: A Celebration of Worldwide Choral Traditions” this coming Sunday as a benefit concert for the victims of the recent southeast Asia tsunami. We will be singing selections from Renaissance-era Europe as well as folk songs and hymns from Africa, Korea, New Zealand and the United States. The music is absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Although a collection will be taken, it is a free concert and there is absolutely no obligation to make a donation of any kind. So, if you will be in the Boston… Read More

Lost in all of the buzz about the Bloggernacle Awards (I was tempted to make a big acceptance speech until I realized that I got only 21 of the votes cast for the category I won, meaning that the vast majority of the voting public was against me) was an interesting set of comments asking about which blog could claim the honor of first Mormon blog. Read More

That’s the implication of this angry piece by David Velleman, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan. Reading about the activities of certain evangelical groups to proselytize in the wake of the tsunami catatrosphe (some of which, I agree, are more than a little insensitive), Velleman reflects upon his discovery, over a decade ago, that his long-dead family (Dutch Jews, all) had been subject to some proxy proselytizing themselves: Read More

OK. I know that this will mark me as a total geek, but I recently came across a copy of Census of 1850, which is the first census with information on Utah. The numbers provide a fun snap shot of the Mormon commonwealth three years after its founding. Read More