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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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23 responses
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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16 responses
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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10 responses
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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32 responses
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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15 responses
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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24 responses
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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24 responses
(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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9 responses
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
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19 responses
Times and Seasons is my main way of wasting time these days, but I do have other vices, one of them being chess. Read More
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33 responses
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. (Psalms 122:6) News reports are rampant with rumors that Yasir Arafat is either dead, in a coma or on life support. What seems certain is that Arafat’s end is nigh. Read More
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6 responses
This is off-topic, but I thought I’d put in a word for the 9/11 Commission Report. Read More
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78 responses
George W. Bush, in my mind, is very much like Bill Clinton. Both men seem to have the ability to make otherwise sane people on the other side of the political fence become nutcases. Read More