This evening, my wife (aka She Who Must Be Obeyed) and I were having an interesting discussion about the topic of her forthcoming Relief Society lesson. I thought that I would improve the average quality of the posts here by passing on her thoughts and questions. She writes:
Toward a Theology of Supermarkets
If you are looking for a morally, philosophically, and theologically fascinating place, I can think of few locations in contemporary life that can compare to the supermarket.
The Purpose of the Church
Today in Priesthood we studied Lesson 3 in the Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O. McKay. Rarely have I felt so out of sync with the lesson.
Sunday School Lesson 9
Lesson 9: D&C 20:1–36, D&C 20:68–69, D&C 20:75–79; D&C 21; D&C 27; D&C 115:1–4
Sunday School Lesson 8
Lesson 8: D&C 13; D&C 20:38–67; D&C 27:12–13; D&C 84:6–30; D&C 107:1–20; D&C 110:11–16; Joseph Smith History 1:66- 73 This lesson is on the restoration of the priesthood. I will spend two weeks on this lesson, the first devoted to the Aaronic priesthood and its restoration, the second devoted to the Melchizedek priesthood. I’m including study questions for both lessons here for those who do not wish to divide the lesson into two.
Prayer
Each month of this semester the Faculty Center at BYU is sponsoring a panel discussion of prayer. The participants are Julia Boerio-Goates (Chemistry), Thomas Griffith (University General Counsel), Roger Keller (Church History and Doctrine), and James Siebach (Philosophy).
Should We Prefer Avarice to Piety in CEOs?
In an interesting editorial in today’s Chicago Tribune (reg. req’d), my friend Professor David Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania Law School discusses the use of faith as a defense to criminal charges by several prominent CEOs, including Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom Inc., Richard Scrushy of HealthSouth Corp., and Kenneth Lay of Enron Corp. David wonders, “How did it turn out that the leaders of three of the most scandal-ridden companies all publicly professed their faith?”
Placing the Indian Placement Program
Two weeks ago I caught a few minutes of a story on NPR about the Church’s Indian Placement Program.
Mormon Resistance to the Government
Consider two different Mormon reactions to state-sponsored repression: the anti-polygamy crusade and Mormons in East Germany.
More on Media Bias
The topic of media bias comes up regularly on Times & Seasons.
Latin
Some of us like to throw in some Latin from time to time.
Ashes to Ashes
The idea of Ash Wednesday is to mark a period–a period of mourning and chastening, discipline and devotion–of 40 days before Easter. The significance of the 40 days goes without saying. But why ashes?
Fat Tuesday & Lent
Mardi Gras is early this year. Now I am scrambling to find a King Cake in Madison. I lived in Louisiana for one year, and I was fascinated by the Christian calendar. So how many of you, besides Kristine, are looking forward to Lent?
Thanks, Eric
We’ve all enjoyed the posts by Eric James Stone, who has been our guest blogger for the past weeks. All good things must come to an end, however, Eric’s guest-blogging stint among them. Fortunately, you can still read Eric’s posts over at his own blog. And you can read some of his stories in print (1 and 2) as well.
Academic Freedom & the Search for Truth
The University of Wisconsin takes great pride in its tradition of academic freedom. As a new professor, I was told repeatedly the story of Professor Richard T. Ely (watch the video), a labor economist who was accused by Oliver E. Wells, Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction and a member of the Board of Regents, of providing a moral justification for strikes and boycotts.
Finding God in Chess and the Appellate Brief
When my professional life is going well it consists of reading and writing appellate briefs. Fortunately, this is not nearly as pathetic as it sounds.
The Gospel in Paradise
For nine days at the end of January, my wife and kids and I were on the Big Island of Hawai’i, enjoying paradise in the company of my parents, who own a time-share condominium there and visit there every January. They’d decided that it’d been too long since they’d spent any amount of time alone with us or our children, and invited us to come along; we didn’t say no. We’d been to Hawaii before, but this was, without doubt, a vacation to remember: delicious fruit, beautiful weather, gorgeous scenery, long talks with my mom and dad, swimming and golf and snorkeling, and a night of kalua pig. For photographs, see here; for my typically long-winded ruminations on Hawai’i and vacations in general, see here. But for here at T&S, some thoughts about the gospel and the church in paradise. Of course, a couple of week-long visits doesn’t give me any expertise, though my parents have spent enough time there to supplement my observations somewhat. Still, let me throw some things out; perhaps I’ll be able to come up with something controversial enough to get Keith or other knowledgeable folks to chime in.
Unrequited Love
I just finished a ravishing little novel called “The Confessions of Max Tivoli.” It begins, “We are each the love of somebody’s life.”
Guest Blogging
In a reversal of the usual pattern (T & S asking other bloggernackers to guest-blog), I’ve just had the chance to be a guest-blogger myself. Yep, I was asked if I would do a guest post over at Various Stages of Mormondom, on the interesting topic: “Is it hard for you to say you’re Mormon? What baggage comes with that label?” Here is my post as a guest blogger at Various Stages — T & S readers may find it interesting. And don’t forget to check out the rest of the posts there on the same topic (VSM has seven bloggers post each week, all on the same topic). Thanks to the VSM crew for my first chance to be a guest blogger!
From the Pulpit: “A Mantic Celebration of the Holy Spirit”
“I wish to celebrate this morning the reality of the often ignored and too little heralded but very real outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the believing inhabitants of earth–right now, this morning, in the early evening of the last dispensation.”
268M in 2080
Most members of the Church are probably familiar with the estimate made by (nonLDS) sociologist Rodney Stark that, if current growth patterns hold, there will be 268 million members of the Church by the year 2080.
Sunday School Lesson 7
Lesson 7: Various scriptures on the First Principles and Ordinances Before I offer some study questions, let me say why I object to this year’s way of organizing our Sunday School lessons.
Interlocking directorates?
With the recent proliferation of group blogs, we’ve got a very complicated, interlocking blogger chain going on here: Kristine blogs at T & S. And also at BCC, where Steve and Karen also blog. Steve and Karen also blog at Kulturblog, where Bryce also blogs. Bryce also blogs at Millennial Star, where Matt and Adam also blog. And Matt and Adam blog here at T & S — we’re back where we began! Plus, Russell and Greg also post at Kulturblog as well as T & S; plus, Steve and Karen (BCC/KB), Bryce (Ms. Tar/KB), Clark, Ben S., Ryan, Grasshopper (all Ms. Tar), William Morris (KB) were T & S guest bloggers; plus there’s the Archipelago (Rusty is M-Arch/KB; Dave is M-Arch/BCC). And I’m probably missing a few connections. Ahh, what a tangled web.
An Anecdote on Obedience
Can y’all stomach a mission story right now?