Elect

I tend to enjoy using the blog aggregation services provided by sites like Mormon Archipelago and Planet LDS for one-stop shopping in my blog reading. For those of us who like aggregators, there is now further cause for rejoicing — a shiny new player has officially entered the burgeoning world of bloggernacle aggregators. New portal LDSelect features the standard menu of blog feeds and comment feeds, plus intriguing added options like box customization.

Hexing the Pentateuch

Accounting firms move by subtraction: The Big Eight becomes the Big Six becomes the Big Five Four Three Two; eventually we will hit the Big Zero and financial statements will be unaudited thereafter. The nacle trends in the other direction:

On the Brilliance of Hollow Slogans

Last week, a bizarre demand was thrust on me by a flier advertising a leadership training program: “BECOME YOURSELF!” the photocopied handout vigorously proclaimed. Who, I wondered, does this flier suppose that I am being right now? Obviously not J. Nelson-Seawright; otherwise, there would be no reason to request that I become J. N-S, would there? Perhaps I have, without quite realizing it, been impersonating Woody Allen? Or Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Quick and easy

In the past, we’ve discussed favorite recipes and particularly tasty meals. (Some of those recipes are well worth checking out). This thread will take a different tack: Let’s talk about some quick and easy recipes that the cook of the house can fire up when he needs ideas.

Thanks, J.!

We’ve enjoyed having J. Stapley as our guest for the past two weeks. Alas, now it is time to send him back to his home blog. Err, blogs. Thanks for guest blogging with us, J. Your fans will be pleased to know (or remember) that you’re still blogging at Bloggernacle Times, Splendid Sun, and some other blog.

Götterdämmerung

There is no question that the earliest Saints held views of God and Heaven that were consistent with their protestant roots (1). Joseph’s visions continually transformed Mormon theology with the last months of his life capturing the most radical concepts in theogony and exaltation. He was martyred and his pyre was set against the creedal hall that enclosed God and His son. We are now left to search the Mississippi among the smoke and embers for the treasures he beheld.

Free speech versus respect for religion

The Islamic world is reacting angrily to the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. Demonstrations, threats, flag burning, forcible closure of Western offices — we know the scary pictures. In defense of free speech and to show support for the Danish editors, newspapers in France, Italy, Spain and Germany have also published the cartoons, exacerbating the wrath of Muslims.

Congratulations Wilfried!

It is with no small amount of pride that we remind our readers that Wilfried Decoo, one of our permabloggers, has been voted Best Blogger of 2005 and that one of his posts has been voted the Best Blog of 2005 (here). Wilfried brings to each of his posts his gentle personality and his erudition. But the most important thing he brings is his memory and his ability to write about those vignettes of memory in a way that reaches us all. They are thought-provoking without being critical in the negative sense. They are moving without being saccharine. Thanks, Wilfried, and congratulations.

What about the children?

One of the most distressing things about being a parent is the realization that you cannot control your children’s world forever. Inevitably, the institutions in which you allow or encourage them to participate will introduce ideas with which you do not agree, and which, in some instances, are contrary to the gospel of Christ. This is especially unnerving when the institution in question is the Church.

The right to believe

An Italian atheist, Luigi Cascioli, has started a lawsuit against a Catholic priest, claiming that the priest violates Italian law, which does not allow the abuse of popular belief. Such as when people are fraudulently deceived in believing falsehoods, namely, according to Cascioli, the historical existence of Jesus Christ. The lawsuit is drawing international attention.