- Jonathan Green on Bah Humbug: Why We Don’t Do Santa: “Although Santa has 5 fingers, you can tell it’s AI because people are sitting on the front row of the chapel.” Dec 22, 11:44
- on Catholic Integralism and the Constitution: “I know this is very late, but I figured it’s relevant and timely. J.D. Vance yesterday at AmericaFest: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation. Now, I want to be explicit because, of course, the fake news media will twist everything that I say. I’m not saying you have to be a Christian to be an American. I’m saying something simpler and truer. Christianity is America’s creed.” President Oaks in the October 2020 General Conference (“Love Your Enemies”): “The United States was founded by immigrants of different nationalities and different ethnicities. Its unifying purpose was not to establish a particular religion or to perpetuate any of the diverse cultures or tribal loyalties of the old countries. Our founding generation sought to be unified by a new constitution and laws.” Two very different visions of what the United States is and should be.” Dec 22, 11:07
- on Bah Humbug: Why We Don’t Do Santa: “Being active in online homeschool groups for years, I’ve participated in or observed what feels like about a million Santa vs. not-Santa debates. None of them have changed my mind. I grew up with Santa, never felt lied to, we’ve done Santa with our kids, and I feel like we struck a good balance and handled the transition from believing to knowing the whole story successfully. I’ve never felt like Santa overshadowed having a Christ-centered holiday. My favorite tradition is the lighting of Advent candles each Sunday for four weeks before Christmas, so I made that a big deal in our home. But mainly I’m curious about the photo you used… is that a real LDS chapel (I’m thinking not)? Because I *want* that organ in my ward!” Dec 22, 10:27
- on Beyond the King James Version: The Church’s New Handbook Policy on Bible Translations: “Wilfried – thanks for posting the link to your past article. I enjoyed it and the comments very much.” Dec 20, 07:04
- on When We Are Proselytized by Others: “Well written, thanks for sharing. I also think that relationships are predicated on having a common goal. If their goal is to convert me and I have zero goal to be converted, that’s not going to be a relationship. But if we work together or have a common hobby or interest, and the person happens to be of a different faith and the topic comes up, then it’s totally normal to chat about faith in a respectful way. But if they want to really get into a deep doctrinal conversation, usually I’d prefer to just politely tell them that I don’t really do deep doctrinal conversations, but they are welcome to look up lots of stuff on the gospel library app if their authentic desire is to learn more.” Dec 19, 17:42
- on Beyond the King James Version: The Church’s New Handbook Policy on Bible Translations: “The change in policy, occasionally allowing “some” to use other Bible translations, has also important international implications, in countries where Translation Committees have compelled members to use only one “official” Bible translation, while many other translations exist, more suitable for some members or more in line with their cultural backgrounds. As to thee-thou-thy, reminded me of this post of mine at T&S: https://archive.timesandseasons.org/2009/05/thou-thee-thy-from-other-angles/index.html” Dec 19, 08:00
- on The Restored Gospel, the Great Apostasy, and the Didache: “Not sure, I just googled around and clicked on the links that came up, and then I switched translations midstream when I couldn’t find the first one again, but I didn’t notice anything significantly different in the two versions.” Dec 19, 04:42
- on The Restored Gospel, the Great Apostasy, and the Didache: “What translation did you use?” Dec 18, 18:08
- on The Restored Gospel, the Great Apostasy, and the Didache: “Good stuff. These early documents are important evidence for what the early Christians thought Christian teachings meant, making it harder today to hand-wave away inconvenient Bible verses, for good and for ill.” Dec 18, 17:21
- on Beyond the King James Version: The Church’s New Handbook Policy on Bible Translations: “A curious fact about the pronouns used in prayer is that the English forms “thee”, “thou”, and thine”, when in common use, were never the dignified or honorific forms of address. The forms used to show respect and deference were “you”, “your”, and “yours”. That first set of pronouns were the intimate forms used in everyday life to address your friends, spouse, and children, and even your dog. It was the “you” forms that were used to address persons in authority such as kings and magistrates. “Your honor”, not “thy honor”. In modern European languages that retain familiar and formal levels of address (for example: Spanish “tú” and “usted”, French “tu” and “vous”, German “du” and “Sie”), the first (familiar) forms are the ones used in prayer. These are, in fact, historically equivalent to the archaic English “thou” and “thee”, but they are not honorific – rather, they express intimacy and familiarity.” Dec 18, 06:31
