- ji on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “sute, Thank you! In my ward’s sacrament meeting last Sunday, all the hymns were four-digit. And we probably haven’t had more that three or four of the 30-50 favorite hymns in this year.” Sep 2, 14:13
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, August 2026: “Books from August: * Educating for Eternity: The History of Latter-day Saint Primary and Secondary Schools, by E. Vance Randall, Scott C. Esplin, Casey Paul Griffiths (RSC, BYU; Deseret Book) * Nourishing the Roots: Seeking the Foundations of Latter-day Testimony, by Walker Wright (FAIR) Pretty small crop this month overall, though.” Sep 2, 10:07
- on Seeing Responsibility in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/30: “Last week I taught my annual bootcamp for grad students starting to do research. While I love teaching, the sheer length of the bootcamp takes a lot of out of me. A big part of it is that I’m a classic introvert who gets drained by interacting with people, but I’m also very hard of hearing and my brain has to do a lot of extra work to try to figure out what people are saying. Going into the weekend, I confess I was feeling a bit resentful about having a ward social, a visit from the missionaries, and a family gathering on my calendar when all I wanted to do was crawl in a hole and play video games. Shouldn’t introverts get a pass on all this socialization? The talks in sacrament meeting were on the character of Christ, and both speakers focused on Elder Bednar’s observation that Christ turned outward in situations where others would turn inward. Once again I recognized the Lord’s message for me immediately. It’s not that I shouldn’t build in recovery time for myself–even Christ needed be alone sometimes (which is classic introvert behavior, and so much for my theory that there should be lower standards for introverts). But interactions with others are what’s important in life. (And I probably could stand to spend less time playing video games.) On who is responsible for us having a good experience at church, I think the fact that the Spirit can inspire us with the messages we need to hear regardless of the quality of the speakers means it is ultimately our responsibility. Often, the people who most need the experience of pondering a gospel principle and becoming an advocate for that principle are the weak members who are not accomplished speakers. Church is not all about us and our experience.” Sep 2, 00:12
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “To clarify, when I said I see a decline in participation in music in the Church, I meant primarily fewer people singing in choir, to the point that many wards struggle to keep a choir going at all, and fewer musical numbers. I’m quite sure that’s not because choirs are singing too many unfamiliar hymns–choir members expect and want to learn new music. I’m not seeing a decline in congregational singing. People not singing confidently while they’re learning a new hymn is expected and temporary. But there’s certainly a variety of experiences out there.” Sep 1, 23:34
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Man, God give me the problem of singing too many unfamiliar hymns! In the wards and branches I have been in across multiple states and countries I have never once had this problem. Instead, the congregation has *always* had a narrow collection of hymns that for the most part they refuse to deviate from. Hymns that I love! But I also love the “less familiar” ones too. And to Jonathan’s point about knowing what songs “are actually familiar to people in your congregation,” the narrow collection of “familiar” hymns that I described varied across units. For example, I had never once sung “Each Life That Touches Ours for Good” until I was a missionary, yet in my current ward we sing it at least twice a year! Or “O Thou, Before the World Began,” which is possibly my favorite sacrament hymn and one I sang somewhat regularly growing up, but I haven’t sung in . . . maybe ten years now? Even though we have such a limited selection of sacrament hymns, and in my current ward we’re singing “Jesus, Once of Humble Birth” every two months!” Sep 1, 17:15
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “I do think the point that suit is making that some repetition of hymns on a regular basis is a good thing is true. I’ve had wards where the person choosing the music focused exclusively on stuff people weren’t used to singing, and it was not a good situation (and I got blamed for it by ward members, since they assumed I was choosing as organist, when it was the music chair who was doing that). There is always a need for balance between the familiar and unknown, and if you go too far in either direction in music selections, it can be a problem.” Sep 1, 06:22
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Sute, you’re making several assumptions that I don’t think are true: – Willingness to sing in a congregations is primarily about familiarity with the song (it’s only one factor of many) – People feel the spirit more with familiar than with unfamiliar hymns (unlikely to be true; people can take special notice of unfamiliar lyrics, or fail to notice lyrics that have become rote) – Choosing unfamiliar songs is a failure of stewardship (some songs are for the 99, but others are for the 1) – The songs you think are familiar are the ones that are actually familiar to people in your congregation (I’ve been surprised several times when I’ve picked a hymn to play for elders quorum, assuming it would be familiar to most people) – You can predict how others will respond spiritually to a song (you generally can’t) If you’re in a position to pick hymns, the best you can do is try to pick good hymns that are within the ability of the accompanist and congregation. If it’s new but a good fit, people will learn it.” Aug 31, 18:54
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): ““I’m not sure there’s a decline in musicality in the Church, but I do see a decline in willingness to participate in music.” That’s a direct result of not singing powerful, familiar hymns they are comfortable singing. And if you have a batch of hymns a group is comfortable singing, and they are, by and large struggling spiritually, and those hymns can help them feel the spirit, and instead you choose hymns they don’t sing, and consequently don’t feel the spirit, then you are failing to do your job in helping those you have stewardship over to feel the spirit. We can all say, “yes, but you can feel the spirit if you want to give it a chance and put your heart in it and commune with God as you sing that unfamiliar hymn.” That’s absolutely true. Have a nice time being “right” and maintaining such an attitude that creates a situation where others do not act in a way that enables them to commune with God and feel the spirit. I can list 30-50 hymns in the next few minutes which most of the congregation would be familiar with and more strongly feel the spirit than the other 100 that are often picked. And again, to be clear, I have not once said none of those other hymns should be sung. I will note, not once in the last year has my ward sung, the Spirit of God, Praise to the Man, Come Come Ye Saints. I’m pretty sure you would not be “bored out of your mind” if those 3 got used 3 times each over the course of the year. And if you were of such a demeanor, that’s probably more important for you to get over that than the other side of the coin in asking the congregation to sing three unfamiliar hymns six times each every six months.” Aug 31, 16:43
- on A Schism of Loyalty: Aidan and Tristan Caplan on the Third Convention: “TexasAbuelo, I’m glad to hear that! I have loved learning about the history of the church with Mexicans. Currently, I’m writing a biography of Rey L. Pratt, so there’s a good chance more stuff will appear here at T&S over the next little while.” Aug 31, 11:23
- on Seeing Responsibility in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/30: “Here’s a few of my thoughts in reaction to what I recently experienced in Church: One member of our congregation has trouble sitting still in meetings. He is in church every Sunday, and his movement and talking to others during the meeting likely distracts many people frequently. But I don’t think anyone should speak to him about it. I don’t think it’s intentional (likely part of his neurological and mental differences), and I think it’s probably also good practice for the rest of us. We get to learn when to allow things to distract us, and when to let it go. A comment in class suggested that we often outsource our responsibilities to others and vice versa. But in thinking about it, I realized that often ‘outsourcing responsibility’ is more about the social relationships between people than it is about the responsibility. We may shift responsibility not because that’s where it belongs, but because the other party demands it, or the group expects the responsibility to be there. Talking in class about an example in the scriptures, someone observed that “he changed, but maybe not for the good”. That’s an underlying assumption we make, isn’t it, that changes are either for the better or the worse. Apparently no change can be neutral? A speaker here in New York talked about arriving at the Temple through the hustle and bustle of the city and feeling a sense of sacredness there. As a result, I’m wondering about how much of the sacredness of a place is about our psychological attitudes and perceptions, and how much is a gift of God. Personally, I have times when hustle and bustle feels spiritual, a way of connecting to the vast number of children of our Heavenly Parents around me. Does that not also count as a sacred place?” Aug 30, 13:47
