- John Mansfield on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “I was born in 1966, and so was seven in 1973. Now and then I would take home from the school library some thick yet age-appropriate story book from before 1950. The book may have been no older than Harry Potter is now, but it was from the before-times when seven year olds did not watch re-runs of Bonanza, Gilligan’s Island, and Star Trek in the afternoon. I did not know about the divide then, but as an adult it made sense of something like The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, a book I remember as just going on and on and on as if the child reading it had nothing else to do that hour. So, I guess I should have sympathy with today’s children and youth and the point made above.” Oct 6, 13:19
- on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “Lol, I should have said “how much I hate *the music*, making sure I separated the handbell wheat from the choir tares ;) But seriously, I wonder what it would be like to have not grown up with it always playing in the background on Sunday and to just walk into a MoTab rehearsal without having ever been exposed to it.” Oct 6, 12:58
- on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: ““Mormon Tabernacle Choir (gosh how I still hate them.)” On the one hand, I understand getting sick of them from too much exposure. On the other hand, I feel like I need to feel mortally offended as a member of the Choir org.” Oct 6, 12:37
- on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “I don’t think we can downplay the dangers of a diet of digital “short forms”. That stuff is like processed food. It definitely lowers your spiritual life expectancy.” Oct 6, 10:22
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, September 2026: “Really enjoying reading https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/who-is-the-real-jacques-derrida Thanks for posting!” Oct 6, 09:34
- on Attention Spans and Spiritual Diets in the 21st Century: “I liked reading the Iliad. It probably helped that I read it as part of a class where the instructor would help point out the larger picture that I was probably missing as I read it. But I liked it so much that after I graduated I bought myself a new copy and read it again.” Oct 6, 08:47
- 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
