As my 15-year high school reunion looms dangerously close on the horizon, I’ve been thinking a lot about the classic 80’s movie of teenage sturm und drang: ‘The Breakfast Club’. For those of you who may have missed one of the 157 airings of the TBS ‘Dinner and a Movie’ versions of ‘The Breakfast Club’ (‘Twister’ is this weekend!), the story is about five teenagers all from very different backgrounds, forced to spend the day together in the school library one Saturday as punishment for various indiscretions or acts of violence perpetrated upon unsuspecting freshmen.
Sharing the Gospel Rewards Program
Rewards programs are all around us. Use your credit card, get frequent flier miles. Stay at a hotel, earn travel points. Buy 10 pizzas, get the next one free. If we want more converts, why not create a rewards program for sharing the Gospel? Not just eternal or psychic rewards, but immediate, tangible, worldly rewards. 10 converts = Trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center 50 converts = Dinner with President Hinckley It would work, wouldn’t it?
Why I Love My Ward
Sitting in Fast and Testimony meeting last Sunday, I started thinking about why I enjoy my ward so much, and it came down to the people in it.
Happy Ascension!
We don’t usually pay much attention to the Ascension. In some other religions, such as Catholicism, the Ascension has particular theological significance. For us, it’s sort of a theological afterthought. Part of this probably stems from the difference in focus — we don’t really discuss how or why he ascended, focusing instead on Jesus’s Atonement in Gethsemane and His Resurrection. And part may stem from our belief that He ascended and descended numerous times over this period, visiting the Nephites in America. But whether or not it has much theological significance, the Ascension is an undeniably wonderful event, with the great image of the two angels, asking the apostles why they are gazing into heaven. As we read in Acts: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Happy ascension day, everyone!
Comparing the evolution of two church policies: birth control and women working outside the home
For most of the years I lived with my parents, my mother and I didn’t make much headway in establishing a healthy relationship with each other. But, now that I’ve moved out of the house, and as far away from Utah as I possibly could while remaining in the same country, I have gradually come to the realization that I was a pretty much an ungrateful wretch from the age of ten on. My behavior contributed to a lot of bad feelings and family drama that sometimes made life miserable for all of us. I love you, Mom. Sorry I was so hard to get along with. I’m looking forward to being friends again.
A Theorist Amongst the Stories
I studied philosophy in college. I enjoyed law school. I work when I can as an appellate lawyer. I read few novels but a lot of philosophy and legal theory. I enjoy the clean, crisp flow of well-honed arguments and get a kind of goofy joy at watching the interplay of concepts and abstraction. By temperament, I am a theorist, but I, alas, live in world where as often as not stories hold sway.
Cartoon Christian Rock
I still remember the first time I heard Christian rock music in the early 1980s. I thought it was awful and vaguely sacrilegious. Of course, since that time, many Christian rock groups have crossed over into the mainstream market and became straightforwardly sacrilegious (tic, sort of). Now prepare yourselves for the arrival of Christian rock’s answer to The Archies.
Admin Note
At the request of a father, we have taken down the two other posts that were here earlier today so that his daughter can be the center of attention on her birthday. The posts will be back up tomorrow.
Sunday School Lesson 19
Lesson 19: Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19; 76:40-42, 96-112; 88:14-16; 138:55-56
Anticipating Mother’s Day
I have been thinking about Mother’s Day for weeks. This is not normal for me, but for some reason I have felt the urge to make this year something special. But what to do? Finally, today, inspiration came.
Slight template changes
are being made.
A Happy Ending
In most of the ways that matter, I grew up in a fairly typical Salt Lake City Mormon home. What this means is that I went through most of the various Mormon rites of passage right on schedule in an environment that looked very much like an photograph from the Ensign: baptism in the basement of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, priesthood ordinations by a faithful father surrounded by family, and all the rest. Coming home from my mission, however, was slightly different.
The End-Stopped Line
Sixteen years ago today, May 2, 1989, was a Tuesday. I got up and went to school that morning, along with my three other school-age siblings; I was fourteen, in ninth grade, an everting adolescent just starting to worry about my weight, thinking about my first AP exam in a few weeks. My mother probably stayed in most of that day, occupied with our new two-month-old, Abraham, and the three other home-age children. My dad went to work, and then to a school board meeting that evening. My grandma was in town, too, visiting for a few weeks.
Book Review: A Statistical Profile of Mormons: Health, Wealth, and Social Life
Anyone and everyone interested in Mormon Studies should read this book.
The Boundaries of Suicide
I just had an interesting discussion with my Catholic friend, “C.” The topic: What are the boundaries of suicide? In particular, when does acquiescence to harm, or deliberate participation in likely-death acts, become suicide?
How do you deal with questions?
Guest blogger: Elisabeth Calvert Smith
I’m happy to introduce our latest guest blogger: Elisabeth Calvert Smith. Elisabeth is an attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Labor. (The astute reader may realize that T & S seems to be returning to its law roots, with attorneys now constituting the past two guests, three of the past four, and four of the past six). She graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Political Science, and earned her law degree from Boston University. She currently teaches legal research and writing part-time to first year law students at Boston University. She also loves (most weeks) her job of teaching the five- and six-year-olds in Primary. Elisabeth is married with cats, and loves chocolate donuts, movies, books, The New Yorker, running along the Charles River. Plus her husband and family (they rank behind the donuts, though). And finally, I would be remiss not to point out that Elisabeth is the author of the best spiritual securities law analogy I’ve ever seen. Welcome aboard, Elisabeth!
Bloggernacle Party: Washington DC
I’m hosting a bloggernacle party this Friday night to coincide with the Joseph Smith conference at the Library of Congress. All bloggern are welcome.
Everybody Else is Doing It, so Why Can’t We?
Over at Volokh.com, there’s a fun little contest going on: Name the highest political figure of various minority groups. Thus, Eugene writes: Who are now the highest-ranked, and who have been the highest-ranked [minority groups listed] in U.S. government positions, federal or state, appointed or elected. For our purposes, though, let’s say that the rank of an office is generally inversely proportional to the number of people who hold that sort of office, so the President (1) beats U.S. Supreme Court Justices (9) who beat Cabinet officials (15) who beat Governors (50) who beat U.S. Senators (100) who beat state Supreme Court Justices (roughly 350, I think) who beat U.S. Representatives (435) and so on. On the other hand, I reserve the right to downgrade un-influential offices — there are fewer state Secretaries of State than state Supreme Court Justices, but I say the latter beat the former, and I’ll brook no argument on that. Eugene left Mormons off of his own contest (too easy), though some discussion of Mormons started anyway. I think it would be kind of fun to kick off our own Mormon-themed version of this contest, focusing both on church sects and other religious groups we’re often compared with.
Abortion, Conscientious Objectors, and Timing
There’s an interesting discussion over at M* about how an LDS health-care worker ought to handle a request by a patient for an abortion. The issues are similar to those that arise when discussing how to treat conscientious objectors in wartime.
Against King Benjamin
I am sorry to say that I think that King Benjamin’s great sermon has badly distorted the way that Latter-day Saints think about charity, the treatment of the poor, and the redistribution of wealth.
The Tumbaga Pla-ates La-ay Hi-i-dden
Deep in the mountainside . . . Okay, so the idea that the Golden Plates weren’t really made of gold, but rather out of a lighter alloy called tumbaga has now been kicking around for almost 40 years. To what effect, I wonder. Is this a theory which you accept, constant reader? A theory which you dispute? One that you cheerfully ignore? (One that you’ve never heard of, maybe?) And are Mormons in general subscribing to the tumbaga theory? Rejecting it? Have you ever heard the word “tumbaga” used during Sunday School? (How does one pronounce it, anyway?) Used during Sacrament meeting? And most importantly — Do you own any tumbaga kitsch jewelry? (Should you?)
12 (or so) Questions for Kathleen Flake
Back in November, we solicited questions for Kathleen Flake, author of the terrific book The Politics of American Religious Identity (2004). We are now pleased to present her responses. Thanks Professor Flake! 1. How have you negotiated the tension between focusing on Mormon studies versus the broader issues within your discipline? How have your faith and your interest in Mormon studies affected your career at Vanderbilt, if at all? My focus has not been on Mormonism as an end in itself. Rather, I have experimented with using Mormonism as a tool to understand the “broader issues.”
Updating the Expansion Theory
In 1987 I published the theory of the Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source. I wrote the article as a bit of apologetics to show that assumptions made by both believers and critics lead to unwarranted conclusions.