- rogerdhansen on A Review: Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971: “It used to be that Mormons were one of the best educated religious groups in America. Yet BYU was unable to attract much of the Church’s top notch talent because of Wilkinson’s paranoia. It is sad that the university was willing to sacrifice talent for the sake of indoctrination. BYU had the potential to be so much more. Could Wilkinson’s accomplishments been achieved some other way? Probably. For example, provides scholarships to all worthy college bound students. And have Institutes at a wide range US and global universities. The latter has been partially achieved.” Jul 16, 17:31
- on Spiritually Inspirational Art by Not-So-Inspirational Artists: “This isn’t unique to art, though it definitely applies to art. We’re rightly comfortable saying that the Lord uses imperfect people to do his work, but what about people we might reasonably label as “bad”? It’s worth asking whether the Lord recognizes a difference. I think a case can be made from the Book of Mormon that the Lord puts people who deliberately harm others in their own category (call it “the wicked”), and they’re the ones who are proactively punished. See 3 Nephi 10:12, for example. But it’s not a slam dunk. The best-explained example of the Lord using bad people is the King of Assyria in Isaiah 10/2 Nephi 20, but his “contribution” to the Lord’s work (destroying Israel) is bad and Isaiah makes it clear he’ll still be punished for it. I’d put Christopher Columbus in the same category, and insist that the Spirit of the Lord may have “wrought upon” him to persist in sailing west, but not to underestimate the size of the Earth and definitely not to enslave or murder the people he met when he got there. But the post focuses on people who make positive contributions to the Lord’s work despite their own failings. Thomas Jefferson stands out to me here: it seems to me that it must have taken the influence of the Holy Ghost to make a slaveowner write such true and stirring words about equality and unalienable rights. I think Steven’s right that the Spirit sometimes surprises us by whom it inspires…and by when it inspires us. I love his last paragraph. We need to stop judging–if we refuse the fruits of inspiration because the person inspired also harmed others, we’ll cut ourselves off from a lot of beauty and a lot of wisdom. God will ensure there is justice for perpetrators and healing for victims. (Samson is definitely a cautionary tale, but in a different direction. His flaw was to take the gift the Lord gave him–his strength–and use it for selfish purposes rather than to free Israel like the judges had before him. That and flouting his Nazarite vow: all that bizarreness about eating from lion corpses and fighting with jawbones is there to illustrate that he was ignoring the rule that Nazarites can’t touch the dead. It was when he finally abandoned the last remnant of the Nazarite vow, never to cut his hair, that the Lord withdrew his gift. Most likely Samson no longer believed it was a gift.)” Jul 16, 15:46
- on Spiritually Inspirational Art by Not-So-Inspirational Artists: “Samson comes to mind as a cautionary tale … seems more a reflection of how we use our gifts in the final accounting, than a reflection of whether the Spirit touches us to create something in some moment.” Jul 16, 06:44
- on A Review: Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971: “I tried hard in preparing the diaries to be as balanced as possible. I also wanted the diaries to speak for themselves, supplemented as needed by other contemporary materials. I think the introduction to the diaries may contain a more nuanced discussion of how I’ve come to view Wilkinson. He strikes me as a complicated man, driven by his own needs and insecurities to succeed. He accomplished a lot during his years at BYU. He–and others–also paid a high price for his singleness of vision. I guess one of the questions today is was it worth the cost? Could Wilkinson’s accomplishes been achieved differently?” Jul 15, 12:43
- on A Review: Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971: “Gary, your interview on Mormon Stories seemed overly kind to Wilkerson. You seemed to focus on the quantity of students, while barely mentioning the quality of the education and staff. Because of the tattletale environment, many bright Mormon educators wanted nothing to do with BYU. Which deprived the university of some potential high quality staff. In DOM’s biography, Wilkinson is portrayed as a bit of a conniver. And the biography is not very kind to him. The religion department was full of right-wing nuts. Anti-evolution, biblical literalists, etc. For Wilkinson, a university was for indoctrination, not encouraging a free flow of ideas. Calling BYU the Harvard of the West was a joke. It was more like a Bob Jones of the West.” Jul 15, 12:16
- on A Review: Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971: “It’s tempting.” Jul 15, 10:05
- on A Review: Educating Zion: The Diaries of BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, 1952–1971: “Will this lead to a biography?” Jul 15, 09:15
- on What You Should Talk About in the Foyer (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7/12: “SVbob: I like how you have approached this. I think it borders on the question of agency vs. God’s control. I suspect that many of the challenges in life come because of the agency of others, and not God’s specific attempt to give us trials. That whole question is a big can of worms that seems quite mixed up in LDS thought. Raymond Winn: Meeting your friend in the foyer is a great story. As I’ve aged I’ve realized that relationships need to be maintained — they require constant investment (which seems to be something few people do outside of family). I hope that relationship is reciprocated. As I’m trying to suggest with Church meetings, how you see and react to the other person determines what you will get out of it. John Mansfield: Yes, fascinating! Looking at these meetings both spatially and temporally is very perceptive. And like any way of looking at meetings, they can even end up a source of conflict — I remember a news item years ago about someone firing a gun at an Idaho LDS building because someone sat in “his” row in the chapel. We can easily end up unnecessarily in a rut or fixed on a particular spatial or temporal relationship to church. Maybe we should try some kind of rotation to mix things up. As for your timing coming to class, you remind me that it isn’t so much what we do as how open we are to the experiences we end up with. I think that when you go to a class (early, late, on time, whenever) is more about your relationships with others than it is about how much you receive from the class. I’m glad that you are noticing what you are doing. That’s the only way you can decide whether or not to make a change.” Jul 14, 23:07
- on What You Should Talk About in the Foyer (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7/12: “With the coming shift to a shorter priesthood meeting and a shorter Sunday school class in quick sequence, I have been thinking a lot about the various preferences people in my ward have for gathering. Spatially, many will usually choose left, right, center, front, middle, or back. The last row is strongly desired by many. Some will pick up a chair and place it well behind the back row. Some stick to the foyer. Temporally, some arrive early, some on time, and others always 20 minutes after things have started. I was once told that giant flocks of hundreds of birds wheeling through the sky maintain there structure because each bird has its preference for where it wants to be: in the middle surrounded by other birds in every direction, closer to the edge, on the edge, a bit past the edge. Talking to my wife about this, I realized that for Gospel Doctrine, I have a srong tendency to walk into the room 3 minutes or so after it starts, preferring to skip the teacher’s carefully thought out preamble and arrive with motion underway, like hopping on a train already pulling out of the station. (When did that become a prohibited safety violation?) My wife, who sits in the classroom waiting for things to start said, “I’ve noticed that habit. I figured you had something you need to do.” “I can also find something useful to do instead of coming in and waiting.”” Jul 14, 14:30
- on CFM 7/20-7/26: Thoughts and Poetry for “Our Eyes Are upon Thee”: “Apostle Orson F. Whitney taught that poets are prophets. The poems above along with many, many more all demonstrate a tradition of Mormons seeking peace. I wish that tradition was more apparent today among church members.” Jul 14, 11:55
