…it’s been a great year, one of the best my father can remember. The Fox family farm brought in over 90,000 bushels of wheat, including about 30,000 bushels of our high-protein dark northern spring (averaging about 80 bushels an acre for the latter, a particularly good crop). Some wild oat grass got into part of the farm, cutting down on the yield from about 400 out of our total 1800 acres, but otherwise there is little to complain about. The Amoths–a Mennonite family that have managed and farmed land for our family for three generations, and soon four–have every reason to be proud.
Anne comes home
I read and enjoyed Orson Scott Card’s book Sarah. In fact, that book sparked an interest in me to find out more about what exactly we knew of ancient times, both New and Old World.
The Inevitability of Pain in Mormon Intellectual Life
Twenty years ago, there was an interesting debate between two political philosophers at Harvard that ultimately does a lot to explain the inevitability of pain for Mormons who embark on intellectual discussions of their religion.
In the -Hoods: Are Motherhood and Priesthood Equivalent?
Julie: This dialogue is the outgrowth of a few comments at one of those other blogs that Rosalynde suggested might make an interesting discussion.
Sukkot
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur get all the press around here, but one of my favorite Jewish holidays usually sneaks in just before or just after the high holidays. This year in particular, with news of floods and earthquakes filling my heart and head, the festival of Sukkot seems especially worthy of
Holy Men and Hucksters
This post is ostensibly by way of reminding our Southern California readership that it’s not too late to catch the last day of the Claremont Conference on Joseph Smith. It’s also an excuse for me to ruminate on the ever-engaging question of what sixteenth-century blogging might have looked like had they, you know, invented computers and the internet and everything. Here’s a possibility:
Bloggernacking
A few recent highlights: -Lisa at FMH writes a Feminist Polygamy Manifesto — don’t miss it. -Aaron at BoH: Faker or fakir? -Bloggernackers (heart) Elise Soukup: DMI, Mormon Stories, and a nice interview at M*. –Chloroform in print on iPod. -DMI wants to start a discussion group about whether discussion groups are permitted. Clearly he has forgotten “the first rule of discussion groups is you do not talk about discussion groups . . .” -Reminder: Volunteers sought to participate in polygamy . . . survey. -Finally, if you like your navel-gazing with a healthy dose of snark, you may want to look at a relative bloggernacle newcomer, doubtless administered by famed ‘nacle urban-legend-buster arJ.
The Fortunate Failure of the Doctrine & Covenants
In many ways, the Doctrine & Covenants is my favorite book of scripture, and as it now stands it is the result of a failure.
Thinking about the Trinity
It is hardly news to this crowd that Mormons don’t accept the traditional understanding of the Godhead, the Trinity.
Drat! They’re on to us!
From the informative and helpful New Zealand Cult List
Maggie Gallagher’s tautology
Over at Volokh, Maggie Gallagher makes the curious argument that society needs marriage because without marriage, people would be having children out of wedlock.
Remain in your homeland
In last General Conference, Elder Uchtdorf reiterated the 1999 counsel of the First Presidency, a counsel that has actually been given since the 1950s.
Our Enemies List
Like Nixon, Times and Seasons maintains a detailed “enemies list.”
The Deep Meaning of the Bloggernacle (Abridged)
It seems to have been a bicoastal weekend for real-world discussions of the bloggernacle. John Dehlin gave a great talk on blogs at the Seattle Sunstone Symposium (pod cast here), and I gave a brief presentation to Naomi Frandsen’s “Saturday Night Discussion Group” (a name that carries all sorts of unfortunate disco connotations for me.) Lacking the technical sophistication do a podcast, here is a shortened version of what I said:
On the Blowing of Noses and the Bearing of Testimonies
While I was running errands with my children one morning last week, I glanced up at the rearview mirror to see my four-year-old daughter’s finger probing her nostril. I reprimanded her, gently, and asked if she needed a tissue. “No thank you, Mom,” she answered cheerfully, “This kind comes out only by a fingernail, right?”
Malcolm Gladwell on the Future of Religion
In its latest issue, Time magazine “assembled some of the smartest people we know to identify the trends that are most likely to affect our future.”
A Marketing Hypothetical
This season The University of Notre Dame has been airing a student recruiting advertisement called “Candle”.
Jerusalem
Last week Janice and I spent several days in Cornwall, Great Britain, with the BYU students doing London Study Abroad.
An Announcement for DC-Area Bloggernaclites
Former T&S guestblogger, Naomi Frandsen has started a semi-formal discussion group for Capital-area Mormons. There first meeting will be this Saturday. Here is the announcement from Naomi:
The Romantic Usefulness of Military History
Ronan has a thoughtful post about his trip to Gettysburg and the meaning of war. For my part, I will always think of Gettysburg as the sacred soil on which I successfully wooed my wife.
Book Review: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball
If you liked the recent President McKay biography, you are going to love the new biography of President Kimball.
Senator Hatch Takes Sin Money
A long time ago, when I was a practicing lawyer, I concocted a scheme with another Mormon lawyer to raise an investment fund targeted at companies that cater to vices. Alcohol, tobacco, p0rn, etc.
Supplementing Angels
A not-so-hypothetical from a reader: Your daughter’s AP English class is using Tony Kushner’s Angels in America as a central part of a semester’s curriculum. You are friends with the teacher and would feel comfortable suggesting that she supplement the Angels module with another book or short story dealing with Mormonism from a different, hopefully “insider,” perspective. What work of Mormon literature would you suggest?
A Paradox of Our Own
One of the more prominent strands of modern political philosophy is what has been called “luck egalitarianism,” which of course raises basic questions for Mormon theology.