- ji on My Problem with the Trinity: “Stephen, You mention (1) cultural Latter-day Saints who hold to a more secular version of Christ and (2) Latter-day Saints who are secretly Protestant Nicaeans, but can there also be diversity among (3) true and faithful believing Latter-day Saints? Or does everyone in (3), in order to be included in (3), have to be part of the “We” you described? I think there is diversity of thought on this matter even among true and faithful believing Latter-day Saints. Thus, for me, your use of “We” to describe a normative belief among Latter-day Saints (and not just the (1) or (2) you describe and dismiss) is problematic.” Apr 3, 19:40
- on The Next Generation of AI Lit: 5-7K Word AI Mormon Horror Short Stories: “Lol, a Church Office Building version of “The Office,” I love it!” Apr 3, 15:28
- on The Next Generation of AI Lit: 5-7K Word AI Mormon Horror Short Stories: “Title: Manual Labor Genre: Workplace Comedy Logline: A group of quirky office workers at the Salt Lake City headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are tasked with modernizing the official lesson manuals—only to find themselves entangled in bureaucratic chaos, absurd theological debates, and an escalating prank war that threatens their deadline (and their sanity). Summary: Elderly supervisor Brother Farnsworth is about to retire, leaving his legacy in the hands of Sister Jensen, a no-nonsense editor, Elder Wiggins, an eager but clueless intern, Brother Cruz, a former seminary teacher turned graphic designer, and Sister Kimball, a tech-savvy but socially awkward writer. When a directive from leadership requires them to update all lesson manuals with more engaging content, they face ridiculous challenges—like deciphering 19th-century handwriting, debating whether emojis belong in church materials, and attempting to make a lesson on patience “exciting.” Meanwhile, an overzealous rival team on the Primary Manual Committee keeps trying to sabotage their progress, convinced their materials should be the top priority. Things escalate into an all-out prank war involving hymnbook rewrites, sneaky page swaps, and a “scripture scavenger hunt” gone wrong. As the deadline looms, the team must learn to put aside their differences, embrace their unique talents, and—after one too many root beer-fueled late nights—pull off the impossible: a lesson manual that’s both spiritually uplifting and actually fun to read.” Apr 3, 11:09
- on The Next Generation of AI Lit: 5-7K Word AI Mormon Horror Short Stories: “I’d watch some of these. Maybe I’ll try a Church “Office” Building sitcom script about the lesson manuals department.” Apr 3, 11:06
- on On a New Edition of Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: ““You have to be pretty invested in TPJS to care about “plac[ing] Joseph Fielding Smith’s compilation in a side-by-side comparison with the original sources.”” RLD, that’s very much what I was thinking with this one.” Apr 2, 22:18
- on My Problem with the Trinity: “The trinitarian verses in the Book of Mormon deserve review and consideration. The LDS theology of God has changed over time.” Apr 2, 14:58
- on Cutting-Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2025: “Stephen, I think RHW refers to Real Housewives, clearly an unexplored scholarly frontier!” Apr 1, 11:09
- on Cutting-Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2025: “Now I’m glad one peer reviewer thought I was taking too long to get to the point of my article. I front-loaded it into the first paragraph, and now people at least know what my article is about. Thanks, anonymous reviewer! I wondered a few times if JMH would ask me for an abstract, but they never did. I could get behind a requirement for academic writing that you have to explain what you’re talking about and what the point is on the first page. RHW is probably “Real Housewives (of SLC).” I think popular culture is a valid and useful object of study that can reveal interesting things about a society, but based on the abstract, the approach taken and its vocabulary are not things I understand. I only had two graduate courses on critical theory and it was a long time ago.” Apr 1, 11:03
- on Cutting-Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2025: “Thanks for these posts, Stephen. They’re really useful.” Apr 1, 10:36
