A common narrative in the church relates to new converts who join the church despite intense pressure from their family or community. But does the calculus change any if a promise is involved? How and when should religious promises be broken?
Month: July 2006
Fitting Friends
Does it say anything about me that I have friends who couldn’t be friends with one another?
Should My Wife Control My Hair?
My wife hates my hair. There’s no better way to put it.
Primary Lesson 29 Supplement
300 West
This is what you see as you drive on 300 West just past 300 North in Salt Lake City:
Enabling Grace
What is “grace”, really? We know we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8; 2 Nephi 25:23). Of course, lots of people (including some Mormons) think Mormons don’t believe in salvation by grace.
The Ugliness of Death
Sunday School Lesson #31
Lesson 31: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
Natural Succession or the Prophetic Death Card?
Does God control who is Church President by ending life (using the “death card”)? Or does he control who is President by controlling the order in which Apostles are called? Of course, both can be true (or neither depending on your theological persuasion), but let’s examine these questions systematically.
I colori d’Umbria
Most summers for the last twenty-two years, I’ve come to Italy for a week or more
Sunday School Lesson #30
Lesson 30: 2 Chronicles 29-30; 32; 34
Camels, Needles, Heaven
Rich people who pay tithing are, by all accounts, still losers compared to the poor. Or, anyway, though their ten percent is a lot more money, it is money that had little effect on their life and so is not a very impressive sacrifice. Thus their salvation is put in jeapardy by diminishing marginal returns! How does the Kingdom deal with this?
On the Value of Doubt
“A faith that has never been doubted is not as valuable or authentic as a faith that has been doubted.”
Wishing Well, Penny
A dear friend of mine recently wrote to me, confiding that she’s been coming to the slow and vertiginous realization that she’s never had a strong testimony of the gospel, despite a life of exemplary activity in and service to the Church. With her permission, I’ve shared my response to her letter below.
Constitutive v. Regulative Rules in the Church
Are the rules of Mormonism constitutive or regulative?
A Publication I Would Like to See (but won’t…)
There are two “religious” magazines that I like to read fairly regularly. Neither is Mormon.
Persecution and the Art of Mormon Writing
This is a post about Mormonism and Leo Strauss.
The Language of Scripture Alone
I can think of at least three different ways in which one can read the scriptures.
Defining the Bloggernacle
What is the bloggernacle? Good question. People’s views are likely to differ, and the quest to define the nacle is bound to be an ongoing one. It’s a fun question, but for now I’m just going to point out a significant new post on the topic: DMI Dave has been around long enough to have a better grasp of the community definitional issues than just about anyone else, so when he weighs in on the topic, it makes sense to pay attention. The don’t-miss-it nacle post of the [week? most-recent-short-period-of-time?] is Dave’s “Defining the Bloggernacle.”
How Wrong is it to Compare Yourself with Others?
A growing body of research (mine own included) in various social sciences finds that people report higher happiness levels when they do better than the people around them.
Broken Confidence
Simon, 5, loves this little boy. His family is a little bit too Conspicuous Consumption for me, but how can you deny a five-year-old his best friend? Which is why I’m spending an afternoon at his 500$ birthday party at the karate studio.
Could the Restoration have Happened Elsewhere and Elsewhen?
The common answer heard today in the Church is no. A variety of reasons are usually given:
The Smell of Tobacco in Church
On the whole, I am in favor of the smell of tobacco in church, but it is a tricky question.
Rationales for continued male priesthood exclusivity
A prior thread examined rationales for extending priesthood eligibility to women. This thread will examine the opposite question: If you believe that women should not receive priesthood eligibility, why not?
Rationales for womens’ priesthood
Some of our readers and participants have expressed a belief that eligibility for priesthood ought to be extended to women. I’m curious about the reasoning underlying different participants’ acceptance of this argument.
O’Dea’s The Mormons Part II: The Edited Volume Retrospective
The Mormon Social Science Association, under the direction of editors John Hoffman, Cardell Jacobsen, and Tim Heaton of BYU’s Department of Sociology, is currently putting together a volume of essays that retrospectively assess O’Dea’s 1957 classic The Mormons.
Sunday School Lesson #29
Lesson 29: 2 Kings 2, 5-6
O’Dea’s The Mormons Part I: Strain and Conflict in the Church
Thomas F. O’Dea’s The Mormons (1957) is a classic text in Mormon studies. So much that the Mormon Social Science Association is currently putting together an edited volume
Taking the Book of Mormon Seriously
Over at BCC Taryn has an interesting post on the Book of Mormon and socialism. Her basic claim is that the Book of Mormon endorses socialism. At one level, I think that she is absolutely correct, on another level I think that the claim is vacuous.
Endowment Effects, Women, and the Priesthood
“If you gave women the Priesthood and then took it away, would they be less happy than if they’d never gotten it to begin with?”