- E on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “I agree with your points. I’m smiling at your memory of being restricted to listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Halfway through my mission our MP finished his service and we got a new one who imposed the same music restriction so we went from a mission rule that allowed us to listen to anything sold at Deseret Book to MoTab only. I, the most hardworking and obedient missionary ever, could not do it for long. I also recall the mission president’s wife driving us somewhere and she would listen to pop music on the radio. I loved being with her.” Oct 6, 05:50
- on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “In other words, we need to be realistic and meet people where they are. I agree.” Oct 6, 05:04
- on A Review: Richard Lyman Bushman: A Mormon Ambassador: “Two unrelated comments: 1. As to RSR and faith promotion/demotion, my own personal take is that if someone can’t still be active after reading RSR, it was probably just a matter of time anyway. That’s probably unfair, but not by much. At some point, we all have to understand our history and make peace with it. 2. I put this book in the same category of Leonard Arrington’s biography a decade ago–it’s a little weird and very meta to do a biographical history about someone whose occupation was to write biographical history. It’s like a hat wearing a hat.” Oct 5, 16:59
- on Mormon Studies Books in 2026: “I’m mostly keeping an eye on group of sites I know do a lot of reviews or interviews (T&S, Dawning if a Brighter Day, From the Desk, Cultural Hall). If I’m made aware of more of them through publishers’ newsletters, social media posts, the https://www.ldsblogs.org/ site, and the occasionally search, I’ll add them. But I wouldn’t trust this to be a comprehensive collection.” Oct 4, 13:55
- on Mormon Studies Books in 2026: “Chad, this is fabulous work. Thank you very much for doing it. One question: When you look for reviews of books, are you only looking at the sites you reference here? Or are you doing general searches for reviews of the books? I ask because I wonder how much I can rely on my assumption that the sites you list are the main sites where LDS books get reviewed (i.e., is it possible that there are other sites out there that review LDS books that you have excluded for some reason, or that you haven’t noticed because of the way you search)?” Oct 3, 17:28
- on A Review: Richard Lyman Bushman: A Mormon Ambassador: “Kristine, that would be fantastic (Especially since there’s only 1 out the 10 titles in the series so far that is about a woman.)” Oct 3, 12:20
- on A Review: Richard Lyman Bushman: A Mormon Ambassador: “Chad, I hope the reason not to include Claudia here is that she’s getting a book of her own in the series. She certainly should!” Oct 2, 19:58
- on Judging in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 9/20: “Alma—- don’t ever recall a fellow bishop using discernment as a “trump card”. Sorry you had that experience… ones I’ve worked with used it to guide them to members needing a word of encouragement or help or strengthening… not asca gotcha card or some tool of superiority… anyone doing the latter sure as shooting clearly has lost their way re: what spiritual gifts are for —- to bless and comfort and help” Oct 2, 15:56
- on A Review: Richard Lyman Bushman: A Mormon Ambassador: “Not a Cougar, Haws shies away from anything that might put Richard Bushman in a negative light, so he discussed what Bushman was trying to achieve (i.e., innoculation through introducing information) and focused on times that succeeded, though he mentioned general authorities being concerned about it. (And I don’t feel like this is a thread jack to talk about it! I would be interested in what Packer thought too, though I believe he was a driving force in shutting down the history department after encountering Bushman’s earlier work on Joseph Smith.) Dave, I have not actually read I, Claudia yet. It’s on my to-do list, but the book came out when Greg Kofford books was going through a transition of its publicists, and getting me a copy fell through the cracks. I haven’t bought a copy yet, but hope to get to it someday.” Oct 2, 14:20
- on A Review: Richard Lyman Bushman: A Mormon Ambassador: “I am rereading RSR with my teen age sons and admire the author and his work even more than when I read it when it came. He is a great man and a giant for the faith. Arrington, Bushman, LTU, and Givens are on my Rushmore of faithful post WW2 LDS historians. Grant Hardy is my 5th and Mauss my 6th. Happy to live in an era of faithful and smart academics.” Oct 2, 14:11
