- Kent Larsen on Overcoming Inattention: How Did You Participate in Church (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About) Yesterday, 5/24?: “Here’s a few of my thoughts in reaction to what happened in Church yesterday (5/24): In Elder’s Quorum there was a presentation about the Church’s addiction recovery program (leading to my thoughts at the beginning of the post above). I was surprised at the number of items in the “Life Help” section of the gospel library, and I realized that I probably should take a broader look at all of the resources available on the Church’s apps and website. The breadth of what is there is quite impressive.And since I brought this up, I should probably plug the “Unit History Tool” — https://unithistory.churchofjesuschrist.org/. If there aren’t any stories for your ward or stake, you might ask your leaders why!! During the presentation in EQ, several new members focused on what they thought was one of the most difficult addictions—YouTube. I do know that this can be addictive, aided by algorithms that encourage perpetual use. But I also think that we are most likely to talk about the problems that are closest to us—that affect us personally. ” May 24, 19:28
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “John, the signal that there is some ironic distance between Helen Mar Kimball the adult writer, and the teenage perspective of the poem, lies in the contrast between the gloom expressed in poetic diction and the sober prose statement of her happy adult life in the same document. Helen did not think her for-eternity sealing to Joseph Smith was horrific. Personally, I think Brigham Young had a better approach to organizing and supervising the principle of plural marriage than Joseph Smith did, and the approach of Wilford Woodruff (with the encouragement of the federal government) is even better. Since plural marriage was the historical path through which we arrive at the current teachings and ordinances around temple marriage and eternal families, which are highly meaningful to me and many others, I try to understand plural marriage in Nauvoo and Utah for what it was and accept the sacrifices made by others that I do not have to make myself. It’s part of the package deal.” May 24, 14:59
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “John C. Be careful when judging what you have not experiencedand yherefor cannot fully understand. The same goes for the rest of us. 1840s Nauvoo is an alien world to us. 1870s Utah is an alien world to us. We glean what we can from historical records and our commenaliyies, but we can never fully understand these people or the context they existed it” May 24, 13:52
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “Irony requires a signal to the reader. Where is it? And why does every interpretive option in this conversation require her distress to mean less than it says? This was a horrific practice. What happened to Helen Mar Kimball was indefensible. The historiography is interesting but it doesn’t change what it was.” May 24, 12:48
- on Ex-Member Anecdotes and Motivated Memories: “ji -Thanks for posting. I enjoyed the article.” May 24, 11:00
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “I think we moderns sometimes don’t know what to make of irony. I’m not sure why that is–but a lot of meaning can be lost on us as we try to understand how a beam can fit in someone’s eye socket or how a camel could possibly fit through the eye of a needle. Surely the early saints were well aware of the sometimes rather brutal ironies of life–and my guess is that Helen captured the feelings of her youth (in writing) in order to juxtapose them with her views as a mature lady in the faith. That’s good irony.” May 24, 09:12
- on Ex-Member Anecdotes and Motivated Memories: “Today, the Deseret News published an interview with the book author Jeff Strong — it may provide helpful background… https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/05/23/jeff-strong-latter-day-saint-faith-survey-research-religious-disaffiliation/” May 24, 07:43
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “John, they are not a child’s own words. They were written 38 years later by a 52-year old woman who believed Joseph Smith was a true prophet and plural marriage was an essential gospel truth.” May 24, 07:41
- on Historiography and Helen Mar Kimball: “This is actually shocking to me. When a child’s own words about being ‘doom’d’ and ‘fetter’d’ require scholarly reframing as melodrama, the question being answered is no longer what happened — it’s how to read carefully enough to avoid saying what it was. A 37-year-old man in a position of absolute religious and social authority sealed himself to a 14-year-old. The closing concern of this piece is that troubling interpretations of that fact need to be put to rest.” May 24, 05:53
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Eric, I hope you have people in your life who support you and love you. FWIW, when things seem to bunch up on you, you can always blame randomness — the nature of statistics are that its likely things will sometimes happen all at once. It is NOT God ganging up on you!! [GRIN] As for the OP, while I don’t think the Church can realistically do anything about it, I wish these hymns were all available somehow. I have a lot of respect for the efforts that went into writing and composing them. AND, I don’t believe that we can really compare them. They are different, and there is no use comparing apples and oranges. [So, I think the choosing of hymns to include is basically impossible.] The world would be a better place if we learned how to honor and respect EVERYONE’s contributions, especially artistic ones. And while we’re at it, we should stop comparing, and assuming that the ones not selected were not good enough. Comparison is almost always bad.” May 23, 22:15
