{"id":43927,"date":"2022-11-13T07:01:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T13:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?page_id=43927"},"modified":"2022-11-13T07:17:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T13:17:32","slug":"recent-comments","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/recent-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul id=\"better-recent-comments\" class=\"recent-comments-list\"><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.walkerwright.net\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc external nofollow\">WalkerW<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/a-review-nourishing-the-roots-seeking-the-foundations-of-latter-day-testimony\/#comment-562944\">A Review: Nourishing the Roots: Seeking the Foundations of Latter-day Testimony<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Thanks for this very kind review, Chad!    In case it&#8217;s of interest, I do briefly touch on the Strang plates in Chapter 6, but only in the footnotes. I didn&#8217;t want to upset the flow of the chapter by putting it in the main body. I also have some metaphysical discussions in the footnotes of Chapters 1 and 3, specifically on the nature of intelligence and its relation to element. Since I repurposed the classical theism arguments for certain aspects of LDS theology (e.g., light of truth), I wanted to provide those for philosophically-minded people who might initially feel the tension between these arguments and our metaphysics.    Thanks again for reading and reviewing!<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 4, 12:55<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc\">Jonathan Green<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/a-review-nourishing-the-roots-seeking-the-foundations-of-latter-day-testimony\/#comment-562943\">A Review: Nourishing the Roots: Seeking the Foundations of Latter-day Testimony<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Sounds like an interesting book. I spent some time looking at the Voree plates a while back. They&#8217;re interesting, but kind of underwhelming as a counterexample.<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 4, 12:28<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc\">Jonathan Green<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/the-irascible-old-pepper-box-kerry-william-bate-on-pioneer-john-steele\/#comment-562942\">The &#8220;Irascible Old Pepper Box&#8221;: Kerry William Bate on Pioneer John Steele<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">He even monologues about the significance of his name? What editor approved this?<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 4, 12:16<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\">Not a Cougar<\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/a-great-work-in-our-meetings-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-8-2\/#comment-562941\">A \u201cGreat Work\u201d in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8\/2<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">&#8220;That undoubtedly makes the meeting more entertaining, but I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s always good. Are we there for the entertainment? Or for spirit? Of course you can have both, but I worry when you don\u2019t.&#8221;     Kent, what I am about to say is said with love in my heart for you. This kind of attitude is exactly why so many of our talks, lessons, and meetings are like watching paint dry and why people were praising the Lord when our meetings got cut from 3 to 2 hours. We as a people have decided for some reason that boring meetings are obviously good and invite the Spirit. They aren&#8217;t and they don&#8217;t. As evidence in support of my position, I&#8217;ll point to Jeffrey R. Holland. He was far and away the most popular speaker in General Conference for decades (the last GA to be that good a speaker was Paul Dunn &#8211; I know that&#8217;s a bit awkward to admit). President Holland dared to be engaging and entertaining because he realized that his audience was all over the spectrum of belief and understanding. If he could get people to pay attention for more than 30 seconds, there was a much better chance that they would take something away from his talk. We need more of that attitude and more entertainment in our Sunday meetings not leas.<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 3, 20:11<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\">Kent Larsen<\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/a-great-work-in-our-meetings-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-8-2\/#comment-562940\">A \u201cGreat Work\u201d in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8\/2<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Here\u2019s a few of my thoughts in reaction to what I experienced in Church yesterday (8\/2):      \tI\u2019m on vacation and attended an unfamiliar ward, and I was surprised to see that the deacons were sitting on the stand. At first I wondered if this was some kind of \u2018\u2019 Unnecessary Spiritual Hierarchy\u2019\u2019, as Stephen C. recently discussed here. But then I also remembered my own experience as a deacon, and thought it might also help parents and others keep an eye on them. Even for those who are usually on the stand, its harder to spend the entire meeting watching videos on your phone if everyone can see you.  \tA couple of the speakers in Fast and Testimony meeting had quite a lot of personality. That undoubtedly makes the meeting more entertaining, but I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s always good. Are we there for the entertainment? Or for spirit? Of course you can have both, but I worry when you don\u2019t.  \tAnother speaker mentioned running into a friend who asked him, \u201cdo you really like going to church?\u201d The assumption that seemed to be behind this, as far as I could tell, was that there was something wrong if you didn\u2019t like going to church. I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s that simple. While in these posts I\u2019m suggesting that you can get something out of, and even enjoy, church even when its not as we expect, I also don\u2019t want to put all of the responsibility on the attendee. Those who give talks or lessons, or plan the meetings have a responsibility as well, and they don\u2019t always put the effort in that they should.  \tAn RM of a couple of years said that \u201ccoming home from my mission was the hardest thing I\u2019ve done.\u201d By chance I asked another recently returned missionary about that later in the day, and was told that the transition home was not a problem at all. And that matched my experience also (of many years ago). This is something specific to each individual \u2014 like church \u2014 and IMO we should realize that there are a wide spread of experiences, all of which are valid.        <\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 3, 12:46<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\">Kerry Bate<\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/the-irascible-old-pepper-box-kerry-william-bate-on-pioneer-john-steele\/#comment-562939\">The &#8220;Irascible Old Pepper Box&#8221;: Kerry William Bate on Pioneer John Steele<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Dr. Evil McFiendish was aware of the metaphor. &#8220;Sooner than I would be driven I would let them all have all the steel that was in me,&#8221; he wrote of the Illinois mobbers,<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 3, 09:33<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\">Chad Lawrence Nielsen<\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/the-irascible-old-pepper-box-kerry-william-bate-on-pioneer-john-steele\/#comment-562938\">The &#8220;Irascible Old Pepper Box&#8221;: Kerry William Bate on Pioneer John Steele<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Steel yourself, Jonathan. The truth is often stranger then fiction.<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 2, 18:16<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc\">Jonathan Green<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/the-irascible-old-pepper-box-kerry-william-bate-on-pioneer-john-steele\/#comment-562937\">The &#8220;Irascible Old Pepper Box&#8221;: Kerry William Bate on Pioneer John Steele<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Oh, come on. A rigid enforcer, sent to the Iron Mission, and you name him &#8220;Steele&#8221;? That&#8217;s like calling the villain of the story &#8220;Dr. Evil McFiendish.&#8221; Who comes up with these names, anyway?<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Aug 2, 15:34<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/BenSpackman.com\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc external nofollow\">Ben S<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/a-review-the-deseret-alphabet-a-fixed-and-unalterable-sound\/#comment-562936\">A Review: The Deseret Alphabet: A Fixed and Unalterable Sound<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Hey, Shosted was my home teaching companion in Urbana, lo these several decades ago!<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Jul 30, 14:32<\/span><\/div><\/li><li class=\"recentcomments recent-comment\"><div class=\"comment-wrap\"><span class=\"comment-author-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.motleyvision.org\" class=\"url\" rel=\"ugc external nofollow\">Kent Larsen<\/a><\/span> on <span class=\"comment-post\"><a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/second-nature-reactions-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-7-26\/#comment-562935\">Second Nature Reactions (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7\/26<\/a><\/span>: &ldquo;<span class=\"comment-excerpt\">Anonypup:  I like your reaction to the A\/C issues in the building. No one can easily control things like that, so you might as well find a way to see what you can get out of it anyway. Maybe learning to live without A\/C on occasion has a value.    jader3rd:  Your talk sounds great. I\u2019m glad your talk was a response to the assigned GC address instead of a summary. That\u2019s valuable!<\/span>&rdquo; <span class=\"comment-date\">Jul 30, 10:50<\/span><\/div><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43927","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43927"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43936,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43927\/revisions\/43936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}