[WARNING: This post contains self-indulgent navel gazing. Read at your own risk.] When I was in college, I bought into the liberal arts position, hook line and sinker. It has left me tortured by regret. Fortunately, Mormonism alleviates much of my anxiety that my education has basically been a train wreck. Read More

The last dance was always a slow dance. Something by Chicago or Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” or the latest R&B hit. Read More

LDS philanthropic organizer Chief Wiggles (who runs the charity “Operation Give”) has been on a roll recently. First, he has posted pictures last week of the Iraqi toddler who, though Op Give’s efforts, was flown to the U.S. for life-saving surgery. She’s doing just fine. Now, he’s lined up a Fed Ex plane ready to fill with help for tsunami victims. As usual, it’s a great cause. They’ve got suggestions and instructions for anyone who’s interested in donating. As for me, there’s a Rite Aid across the street, and I think I’m going to make a visit and put together… Read More

We read in the scriptures about people raised from the dead. We read of blind men and lame men instantly cured of their afflictions. And we read in church history of miraculous healings by early leaders like Joseph Smith. Read More

Many a conservative Mormon lawyer that I know is fond of those scriptures in the Doctrine & Covenants the exalt the place of the U.S. Constitution. Let me suggest, however, that this is less important for constitutional law than many of them assume. Read More

Jesus the Christ is, in my opinion, a pretty cool book. My question, however, is if it has anything to teach us about biblical scholarship. Read More

Last week we were over at a friend’s house and the missionaries stopped by. They gave the usual spiritual thought, and challenged us all to bear our testimonies this week. It worked. But the most surprising part was that my kids also participated. Read More

Despite our neverending discussions of various sorts of marriage, I don’t think we’ve had an extended conversation about divorce. Read More

Always a hot topic among Mormons. Discuss. Read More

Rebecca is discussing the wackiness of Mormon teen dating rituals. “Dating was a serious of creative ideas that ended revealing who it was that was asking me out,” she writes. “Is this stuff uniquely Utah?” Well, I can attest that these rituals extend at least to the quasi-Utah of Mesa, Arizona. I remember them well. Read More

I recently discovered that the number of active elders in my Oakland, Calif., quorum comprises less than ten percent of the entire population of elders and prospective elders living in the ward boundaries. Even accounting for move outs whose records were never updated (and I believe that an effort was made to go through the list two years ago so it’s semi-up-to-date), there are a lot of inactive (actually, I believe “less active” is the preferred term at the moment) men living within our ward boundaries. Read More

The sustaining of the second counselor in the Relief Society Presidency in our ward was unanimous. The bishop, who asked the question for opposing votes, had just a quick glance over the audience, while gathering his papers to sit down. No opposing votes. Of course not. But again, I felt relieved. Read More

People have been talking a lot about stinginess lately. With tithing settlement still fresh in my mind, I have been pondering the issue of Mormon generosity. Read More

Last year in his address to the approximately ten thousand members of the American Academy of Religion, then President Robert Orsi encouraged scholars to expand their research into new areas, among which he explicitly mentioned Mormonism. Scholars interested in pursuing this challenge have a unique opportunity to do so this Summer. The National Endowment for the Humanities has partnered with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for LDS History to offer a six week seminar on Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormonism. Read More

Why do we blog? What is it that makes us spend so much time informing an innocent unsuspecting public of our views on a myriad of random issues? Read More

Correlation is a dirty word among some Mormons. Or at the very least, in my experience, it is a topic of complaint that often comes up on LDS-related listservs, blogs and Internet fora. The charge usually leveled is that correlation has stripped much of what is interesting, unique and important from official LDS discourse. Read More

I just noticed this: Go to Philocrites’ blog and look at the google ads on the sidebar. (The ads run according to some pre-set computer algorithms that advertise for things relating to the topics discussed.) This particular post discusses a Mormon baptism, and the ads included, on a recent viewing, links to “Mormon dating” . . . “Mormon beliefs Biblical?” . . . “Mormon dating” again . . . so far, so good — ads for the kinds of things one would expect the algorithm to come up with. And then we get to: “Mormon Church for Sale. Discount Mormon… Read More

Announcements of new bloggernacle blogs are about as rare as birth announcements in a student ward. Or dating melodrama in a singles ward. Or semi-apostate ramblings in your ward’s geriatric section high priests group. Pick your metaphor. In any event, some recent new arrivals to the ‘nacle that I’ve noticed include: –Various Stages of Mormondom looks interesting. Read More

Yesterday, a new policy for our ward was announced. Let’s call it policy X. It was made clear that X came from the stake president, directly from training by a member of the seventy. I think X is a bad idea. Read More

In his most recent anti-PC rant, U.S. News columnist John Leo applies his characteristic sarcastic outrage to a subject that he loves to pontificate about — the problems of “PC” behavior. Christmas is being banned — or so Leo would have us believe. But Leo’s piece is sadly lacking in specific facts to substantiate that claim, as the most cursory examination of his piece makes clear. Read More

Please join me in sending off our crack team of guest bloggers, Shannon Keeley and Brian Gibson, with our collective thanks. Invariably funny and occasionally controversial, their posts were a delightful addition–and one of them even made it onto the T&S favorites sidebar! We especially thank them for blogging over a difficult holiday period and soldiering on through more than their fair share of Christmas travel woes. Back to work taking over the universes of reality television and educational literature, you two! Read More

Every year about this time fitness clubs swell with new members. Armed with New Year’s resolutions, people sign expensive contracts and buy new athletic gear in sincere attempts to lose weight or gain muscle as they try to improve their physical appearance. I respect their efforts and try to take them seriously, happily sharing the cardio equipment, free weights and yoga balls that I usually have mostly to myself. Experience has taught me that by the end of the month most of these new members will be but infrequent guests here. Read More

I was waiting for someone else to post the obligatory new year’s post, and to say something really clever. Read More

I would imagine that I know less about the Doctrine and Covenants than your average seminary student. Read More

You know the feeling. You’re visiting a blog, you like the post, and you want to add something in the comments. You want to come across as hip and well-read, but also down-to-earth and folksy. What to do? Read More

Since the first Sunday of 2005 is almost upon us, let’s take a good look at ourselves and consider our Sunday attire. More specifically, let’s look at who’s wearing pants in your chapel. If you hadn’t already noticed, it’s mostly men. Read More