I was just reading a new blog for Mormon teens called “The Greenies,” and LJ used “Old Nick” as an alternative appellation for Satan.
It’s Coming on Christmas, They’re Cutting Down Trees
I have decided to forgo the Christmas tree ritual this year. For the first time in my life I won’t have a sweet scented evergreen in my front room during the holidays.
BYU and “Destructive” Entertainment
The utterly fascinating comments about rock concerts confirm one of my theories about BYU and Provo. I want to pass it by T&S readers for critique, criticism, comment. My theory is
A Balanced Life is the Devil’s Workshop
Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, currently President of Caltech, abhors the balanced life. He thinks it is destroying America.
Rock Concerts at BYU
Has anyone ever attended a rock concert at BYU? You may have noticed that they dried up in the mid-1980s, and I am trying to figure out why. In the 1970s artists such as Elton John, America,
One of the Dumber Theories of Mormon Temple Building (and Silly Mormon Movies)
The not-surprising Evangelical backlash against Rev. Muow’s we-have-sinned-against-the-Mormons comments in the tabranacle has produced one of the least plausible interpretations of Mormon action that I have read in some time.
Christmas Letters
Aaargh–’tis the season for those yuletide roundups of the activities of everyone’s perfect families and overachieving children. A couple of years ago, I decided to fight back with this parody, which I mailed on April Fools’ Day:
Town and Gown
I told Gordon that I’ve been doing some writing about the relationship between Provo and BYU, and if you don’t mind I’d like to enlist the assistance of T&S in helping me solve a few riddles. For those who have never lived in Provo, please pardon the indulgence.
The End of English
The demographics of Church growth suggest that our days as a lilly-white, Moutain-West denomination are limited, if they are not in fact already finished.
Faith, Doubt, Tennyson
I was just reading over Logan’s (re)post at BCC, and I recalled a familiar line about faith and doubt, from Tennyson’s In Memoriam.
“Visitors Welcome”
CBS and NBC have refused to air an ad from the United Church of Christ on grounds that it is “too controversial.” The message of the advertisement is one that I hope we would embrace, but I am not so sanguine about that.
The Protestant Reformers and “Prepared Ground”
I want to start a discussion using one of Rosalynde’s comments as a launching point. In a comment on my first post, Rosalynde reminded us that we in the church often talk about the Protestant Reformers as though they helped lay the groundwork for the Restoration.
Blogwatch
What’s going on in some other blogs: Lisa at Feminist Mormon Housewives wants to know how we can reconcile the Plan of Salvation with a world that allows thousands of children to be sold into sex slavery.
Christmas Shopping
Here are my suggestions for everyone on your Christmas list:
Skepticism, “Freelancing,” and Organized Religion
Greetings, Times and Seasons bloggers! I have been enjoying the discussion on T&S for months, reading here and there in between my own coursework, looking on from behind the glass as many of the visitors to T&S inevitably do. When Gordon invited me to guest blog,
A Sense of Place
It’s been five months since my family moved from the edge of the country to the middle, and I’ve never felt so out of place. The change of season is to blame, of course: it happened quite quickly, here, on the day before Thanksgiving, when the low sky let fall flurries of snow and something else, too–a dampening of the light that makes everything look different, somehow. I’m not pleased.
Sunday School Lesson 47
Lesson 47: Moroni 1-6
12 Questions for Travis Anderson
Everyone was excited to talk about International Cinema at BYU.
Ken Jennings Finally Stumbles
The streak is over: Ahead by $4,400 going into “Final Jeopardy,” Final Jeopardy!, Jennings stumbled on this Business and Industry clue: Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year. Jennings wrongly answered, “What is FedEx?” real estate agent Nancy Zerg of Ventura, Calif., responded, “What is H&R Block?” making her the new champ — and a likely future Jeopardy! answer. (She finished with $14,401; Jennings fell to $8,799.) Congratulations on a great run, Ken. For our 12 Questions with Ken, see here and here.
I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.
It has been over a month since we’ve had a post mentioning Bob Dylan. I’ll happily fix that problem.
In Defense of Suing Before the Ungodly
I recently had dinner with a good friend, who, according to his former doctor, is going to hell.
Are Supererogatory Acts Possible for Latter-day Saints?
King Benjamin teaches us that we “should not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition . . . in vain.� This is not merely passing advice we can choose whether to follow or ignore without consequence. In fact, Benjamin warns that those who stay their hand in the face of such requests have “great cause to repent and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever and hath no interest in the kingdom of God (Mos 4:18). According to this text, giving money to the beggar on the street is a duty, required of us by the Gospel with penalties attached to its omission. It is clear that imparting of one’s substance to the beggar is obligatory. However, what is not clear is whether there is a limit to this sort of obligation.
Uncategorized
Welcome New Guest Blogger, Jed W.
I am very pleased to introduce our newest guest blogger, Jed W. Besides being the Scoutmaster in my ward, Jed is a third-year doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, where he is studying the history of education on his way to a dual degree in American history and educational policy. He is originally from Bountiful, Utah and his undergraduate degree is from BYU. While there he worked for three years as an editor at BYU Studies and another year on the Papers of Joseph Smith project, which was run through the Joseph Fielding Smith Insitute for Latter-day Saint History. For the past two years, Jed has been assisting Richard Bushman in editing and research on his forthcoming biography of Joseph Smith. Reid Neilson and Jed also prevailed upon Richard to publish a collection of his Mormon history essays. The collection appeared earlier this year with Columbia University Press under the title Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays. We are looking forward to Jed’s insights over the next two weeks.
Belated (But Earnest) Thanks to Clark
The Thanksgiving holiday distracted us from thanking Clark Goble for his guest-blogging stint. It was a honor to have Clark join us at the same time we celebrated our first anniversary; his blog, Mormon Metaphysics, has long been and remains one of the very finest in the whole Bloggernacle, and the man himself is one of our all-time comments champs. While with us, Clark shared that blogging talent by way of inquiring about the political lessons of Mormon history, the relationship between science and Mormonism, the importance of Thanksgiving, and much more, including a rant about dating in Provo. Many thanks Clark, and keep up the commenting! Update: ok, so maybe our thanks weren’t quite so belated as we thought…Clark managed to slip in one more post, just under the wire. Way to push the envelope Clark!