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17 responses
This afternoon, one of my secret contacts on Capitol Hill (secret because he likes his current job and doesn’t want to lose it and return to K street) sent me the following message. I think it speaks for itself: Read More
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140 responses
Louis Midgley seems to think it is. My own feeling is that it probably depends on one’s reading of the phrase “anti-Mormon.” Read More
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28 responses
First thanks to everyone for actually allowing me to write on topics unrelated to my blog. Hopefully I can live up to some of the excellent guest bloggers from over the past year. (Damon Linker was among my favorites.) One thing I’ve noticed of late is that my favorite series on Times and Seasons has been neglected. I speak, of course, of the essential texts series that was so enjoyable in the early days of this blog. Beyond encouraging those who’ve not read through those lists to do so (and add their own comments) let me suggest another useful list:… Read More
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It’s again time to rotate our guest bloggers. We offer many thanks to Ryan Bell for his thoughtful posts. Given that I graduated in the bottom 10% of my high school class, his provocatively titled post questioning the value of a good education was especially welcome. We are pleased to announce that Clark Goble, Times & Seasons’ most prolific commenter, has agreed to write with us. Clark has been a staple on intellectual forums discussing Mormonism and philosophy for many years, being a prominent voice on the LDS-Philosophy and LDS-Law email lists, and then starting his own philosophy-intensive blog, Mormon… Read More
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220 responses
One of the more interesting aspects of Mormon theology is the basic ambiguity that it sets up about our ultimate origins. Read More
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Joe Spencer, Blake Ostler, Larry, and Ivan Wolfe have started talking about the interpretation of scripture on the thread on pride. Read More
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58 responses
In the fall of 1995 I enrolled in a critical theories seminar; first out of the block was feminism. One afternoon in September, I sat at a carrel in the old reading room on the south side of the HBLL and wrote on the inside cover of my reader a personal manifesto of sorts: “Why I don’t believe in gender essentialism.� Less than a week later, I sat in the Marriott Center watching the Women’s Broadcast on the big screen, and heard President Hinckley say, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose.� Read More
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80 responses
In Book X of Confessions (chapter 39), Augustine writes about various ways of being proud. Read More
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Lesson 44: Mormon 7-9 Read More
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24 responses
I’ve never seen the Disney version of “Pinocchio,â€? but I’ve absorbed by cultural osmosis the image of Jiminy Cricket cheerfully chirping, “Always let your conscience be your guide.â€? Our banal present-day version of conscience—and our uncritical acceptance of the concept as a stable psycho-spiritual category–belies the treacherous history of the idea. Read More
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29 responses
About 10 minutes after my first positive pregnancy test, I was at the bookstore, perusing the shelves of parenting titles, a pastime I’ve continued with some regularity for nearly a decade now. One of my favorite of these books is called 10 Principles of Spiritual Parenting. Read More
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24 responses
In one week, on November 19th, Times and Seasons will turn one year old. As part of our anniversary celebration…expect something big. Something huge! Something MASSIVE!! Well, big, anyway. Stay tuned. Read More
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I have to admit that I have a soft spot for what I think of as the virtues of commercialism. Read More
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116 responses
There are a lot of interesting things I ought to take the time to blog about, but instead I’d just like to ask our BYU audience a quick question: what’s the story behind this? What kind of changes have there been in the International Cinema program? Read More
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22 responses
This afternoon at lunch, my angelic three-year-old daughter said causally to her quesadilla, “I’m going to kill you by plunging my spoon into your heart.” Read More
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Because I’m hopelessly behind in everything I do, I hadn’t realized that I neglected to post a thank-you for our guest blogger Daniel Bartholomew. Yes, the Westchester invasion is officially over (whew!). But seriously, it was great having him on board for two weeks. Read More
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58 responses
I can’t claim to have an explicit link to LDS life with this post, but I think it’s topical nonetheless. There have been several discussions on this site about education– the various pros and cons of homeschooling, pre-schooling, small private colleges, etc. So here’s my little contribution: Why does it matter? Read More
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A Deseret News article reports a recent devotional by Elder Oaks where he expresses concern over some recent social trends. Discuss. Read More
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I’ve been witness to many discussions, in and out of the bloggernacle, questioning the importance of some of the stories in the Book of Mormon. Read More
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Although he goes to nursery in the Wakefield Ward each Sunday, my son attends pre-school twice a week at the Braddock Baptist Church in Annandale, Virginia. Read More
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89 responses
It was late spring in London, and just as the weather outside started warming up, things inside started heating up, too. Read More
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(Now updated!) We’re very happy to announce our newest guest blogger: Rosalynde Welch. Read More
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OK. I’m not sure if that title bears exactly directly on what this post is about, but as an R&B fan I had to use it before my time runs out. I’m a guest-blogger, which means I’m only supposed to get two weeks. I’m not sure if today is my last day or if I’ve managed to sneak past Cerberus at the gates. For about the past month I’ve been questioning an assumption that I had. My assumption has been that Mormons have a responsibility to base their personal opinions and positions on scripture — and not just on a… Read More
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14 responses
We lawyers have several disadvantages in trying to live the gospel. For one, everyone seems to hate us. However, there is one perk that almost offsets all the drawbacks of being a lawyer/disciple. That is that we have greater access to legal metaphors for the atonement. Read More
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35 responses
We LDS like to refer to ourselves as a peculiar people. Read More
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33 responses
This map, from the New Historical Atlas of Religion in America, shows the largest religious denomination in each US county. This does not mean that the majority of the county belongs to the denomination, only that no other denomination is larger. My guess is that Hancock County, Illinois (Nauvoo) will be the first purple county east of the Rockies. Maybe it already is (I don’t know the age of this map). What are the other contenders out east? Which will be the first purple county in California? . Read More
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30 responses
Paul Morphy was a New Orleans born chess genius who wowed the world (or at least that small and geeky portion of it that cares about chess) with his aggressive and imaginative play in the decade before the Civil War. Read More
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118 responses
If you’ve spent five minutes in the bloggernacle, you’ve heard a liberal-leaning Latter-day Saint bemoan the constant conservative harping among members of the church. Read More
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I was feeling a little jealous of all of these Bloggernacle get-togethers, so I flew to Washington D.C. to meet Matt, Nate, and Kaimi. Read More
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41 responses
I’m not a big fan of much of David Brooks’s writings, as he is often too Manichean to be useful (here’s a good parody). But in the opening pages of Bobos in Paradise, Brooks does a nice job of describing the shift in American culture from a class structure based on lineage or money to one based on education and achievement. Read More