BMS: The People of Ammon MBM: Anti-Nephi-Lehies
Month: October 2004
Getting with the (Primary) Program
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Primary programs all around. I have mixed feelings on these. Some of them are clearly disastrous. But some can be a fun experience for kids, and not too awful for adults either.
Happy Birthday, New York Stake!
Our former guest-blogger, the intrepid Claudia Bushman, has alerted me to the party of the year. It is (of course) the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the New York, New York stake. (What, didn’t you all know?) She writes: A special commemorative meeting of music, talks, and film will celebrate the organization of the NY NY Stake which began in 1934, and will take place on Saturday, November 13th at 7:15 as part of the Stake Conference.
Sharing the gospel of homeschooling
Some of you know by reading my posts here that my wife and I homeschool our children. Actually, my wife Kristen does most of the teaching, although I like to be as involved as I can. I really like talking about homeschooling. Jaymie, our oldest daughter, is 6, followed by Julia (3) and Stanley (1). Jaymie is the only child actively being taught, but Julia gets to participate as well, and Stanley participates whether we want him to or not. We’ve been doing it for a year and a few months now, and the results have been encouraging.
On the record
One of the more amusing things about this campaign season has been the struggle of politicians and the mainstream media to come to grips with the blogosphere. They try to define it, contain it, co-opt it, manipulate it, yet despite their best efforts, it keeps slipping away. I laughed out loud when I heard a commentary by Mickey Kaus of Slate magazine on NPR’s Day to Day introduced as a “radio blog�. Don’t blogs by definition live on the Internet? Kaus’ piece sounded just like any other radio dispatch, except that it happened to be done by a well-known blogger over the telephone.
Primitive Church
The missionaries found me when I was 17. That was back in 1964 in Antwerp, Belgium. I read Joseph Smith’s history and Moroni’s promise. I knew it was true. Immediately, fully. The Gospel unfolded like the rising sun.
An Event of Cosmic Significance
For some, it was a modern-day miracle. For others, it was one of the disasters foretold for the last days. And whatever one’s religious affiliation, it is almost certainly a sign of the Apocalypse.
Sunday School Lesson 41
Lesson 41: 3 Nephi 22-26 I’ll be out of town for each of the next three weekends, but I will try to keep up on the study materials for Gospel Doctrine class.
Teen Apathy
Now that I no longer teach Seminary, one of my biggest challenges is getting my daughter to Seminary on time. She has a driver’s license and would be happy to go on her own, but we can’t spare the car. So I am up at 5:30 (or so) every morning, just like last year. This morning she was stressed because we were running a little late. Not late for class, mind you, but late for her. She likes to arrive a early to write messages (jokes) on the Seminary chalkboard. These jokes often become a topic of conversation with the other youth when they arrive, and I appreciated having them when I was teaching last year. Her teacher this year also has nice things to say about them, but now I am getting off track. As we drove to the chapel, where the Seminary class is held, I was marveling at my daughter’s concern over the time. How did I get so lucky as to have a child like this? Although I was not a member of the Church during my high school years, I expect that I would have been a lot more like the young person described by…
Lawful marriage
No one else has commented on the recent First Presidency statement on Same-Gender marriage, so I’ll venture something. Forgive me if this has been hashed out before — I haven’t read all of the gargantuan threads in the archives.
Technical problem solved?
This should be a blog administrator post, but I’m not blog administrator. Anyway, I tracked down the bug in the comment code. Please let me know if you have any unexpected problems posting now by replying to this comment. Of course, if you are having problems posting, you might not be able to reply, but I don’t think this was that kind of bug — comments were still getting through before the fix.
Two Questions from Jim F (1)
A year ago I met a French philosopher, Michel Juffé, at a conference on Levinas and psychology at Seattle University. In August of this year, I took part in a conference on loss that he sponsored at Cerisy-la-Salle, in Normandy.
Two Questions from Jim F. (2)
Second question (go here for the first): This question is more philosophical.
Joseph and Sartre on Hell
Sartre once remarked that “hell is other people.� The remark, I think, is revealing. In a sense the brand of existentialism pushed by Sartre represents the apotheosis of individualism. In the end, he offers nothing beyond the authenticity of personal choice, which becomes the ultimate source of meaning and value. His view of hell suggest that within this vision of heroic intellectual and moral self-sufficiency lies a rather nasty strand of misanthropy and solipsism. Joseph Smith’s vision of hell, I think, is equally revealing.
Worlds collide
Seinfeld fans will remember this memorable speech by George Costanza, contemplating the impending meeting of his fiancee Susan and his friend Elaine: George: You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world then George Costanza as you know him ceases to exist. You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George. That’s the George you know, the George you grew up with… Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George. Jerry: I love that George. George: Me too, and he’s dying. If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand! Well, there’s Internet Bryce and Real-Life Bryce, and I’m pretty sure they’re different people. Will one kill off the other if they meet? We won’t know soon, since I won’t be in New York until Thanksgiving.
From Mormon to LDS in international perspective
I first had the title “We love the Mormonettes!”, but that would have covered only a tiny piece of my long text. But if you want to get to the Mormonettes, read on! Are you Mormon or LDS? In Utah, but also elsewhere in the U.S., the shift towards the use of LDS is inescapable. Language use has its own laws, stronger than official guidelines. Indeed, those guidelines are clear, as stated in the Church Style Guide for the Media, directly related to a statement from the First Presidency: “Please avoid the use of “Mormon Church,” “LDS Church” or “the Church of the Latter-day Saints.” … When referring to Church members, the term “Latter-day Saints” is preferred, though “Mormons” is acceptable. “Mormon” is correctly used in proper names such as the Book of Mormon, Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Mormon Trail, or when used as an adjective in such expressions as “Mormon pioneers.” The term “Mormonism” is acceptable in describing the combination of doctrine, culture and lifestyle unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Differences in kind vs. differences in degree
Rusty at Nine Moons has recently offered a tri-partite model of nudity: P0rnography: nudity with the intent to arouse (Playb0y, p0rn sites, p0rn movies, etc.). Nudity: lack-of-clothing with the intent to display beauty, non-beauty, or nature (Manet, Rodin, fine art photography, etc.). Lack-of-clothing: no clothing with no intent except utilitarian purposes (breast feeding, showering, sex, etc.).
Sunday with Prophet Bob
Last night, after helping get the kids to bed, I went to a Bob Dylan concert. I’ve never been to a rock concert on a Sunday before, but I made an exception for Dylan. I’ve had to pass up seeing him on several other prior occasions because of finals, work, or because the show was on a Sunday. But I just couldn’t bring myself to miss him again. I don’t regret it.
Will the Church Need Me / Will the Heathen Heed Me / When I’m Sixty-Four?
Ok, so it doesn’t work as well as the Lennon/McCartney original. Still. Consider this a more or less open thread on the topic of serving “senior missions” (has the church settled on a specific nomenclature yet?). Some months ago, after listening to a talk at a stake conference, or perhaps a general conference address, it suddenly hit me: by the time I am retirement age (sometime in the 2030s), serving a mission with one’s spouse as a senior couple will be nearly as expected, and perhaps even nearly as common, as is it for young men to serve missions today. My track record with predictions is spectacularly poor; still, given the continual and increasing emphasis the church leadership has placed on such missionary work, it seems inevitable that the numbers of those who serve will only increase, and with it an increase in expectations. I’m not sure how I feel about this, but let me kick things off with some preliminary thoughts:
Gathering at the temple
I had occasion to reflect upon 3 Ne. 11 recently in preparation for a Gospel Doctrine lesson. As I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have lived through the calamities that were a part of the sign of Christ’s death in the Americas, I was struck again by the fact that the Nephites gathered at the temple spontaneously.
Six Degrees of Times and Seasons
In a prior thread, Aaron suggested that we make a blogger family tree and Bryce gave his own information. It’s a fun question — who knows who, and how, outside of the loose cluster of LDS blogs that we call the bloggernacle?
Alooooha!
(awkward pause) (waits expectantly)
Galen, Holmes & Hot Drinks
One of the odder bits of Mormon interpretation is the strange life of “hot drinks.� These are the actual beverages forbidden by the Word of Wisdom. As we all know they have come to mean coffee and tea with hot chocolate and Diet Coke forming border cases for some, and no one really objecting to herb tea or hot cider. What is going on here?
Another technical problem
There seems to be a minor bug in one of the comment scripts, which is causing error messages when people enter comments. As usual, our crack team of elite experts (hah!) is investigating. In the meantime, as far as we can tell, all comments are going through just fine — it’s just giving an error message afterwards. So rest easy, your comment should be fine. And we’ll get this fixed, like all of the other little bugs that crop up around here from time to time.
International Church issues
Thank you, I feel honored to be a guest here! As a “foreigner”, I have been asked to add a Mormon international perspective. That means… non-American. Strange already that in our World Church the perspective continues to be U.S.-centered, with the rest of the world sensed as a large peripheral circle, referred to as the International Church. Of course, there is no American Church nor any (inter)nationally identified Church. There only is the Church of Jesus Christ. But we need to be realistic. Let’s turn the perspective around for starters. How do members abroad look at Utah?
‘And Many Other Women’ Part IV
Today I’m thinking about John 8:1-11, commonly called ‘The Woman Taken in Adultery.’
Book of Mormon Family Home Evening Lesson Seventeen
MBM: A New Convert BMS: Aaron Teaches King Lamoni’s Father
Thank You, Jana
Today brings to an end Jana’s stint as a guest blogger. Thank you, Jana, for sharing a slice of your very interesting life and for your thoughtful posts. We wish you well in your writing projects.
Welcome Wilfried Decoo
Professor Decoo, a Belgian convert to the Church in 1964 (hah! I beat him by two years), is a professor of French in the French and Italian Department of BYU, where he has been since 1999. However, he continues also to work in Belgium, during Spring and Summer terms, at the University of Antwerp, where he is head of the Didascalia Research Center. Most of his academic work is in the area of applied linguistics, but he has also ventured out from there, and he persuaded a major Catholic publisher to publish a book on Mormonism in Dutch. Wilfried has served in the Church as a branch a district president and served almost continuously as a counselor in the mission presidencies of the Belgium-Antwerp, Netherlands-Amsterdam, and Belgium-Brussels missions from 1975-2002. You’ll find his perspective on things both different than that of most who say something on this blog and insightful.
Internet Interactions as Faith
It’s amazing the amount of time and energy we put into commenting or posting on the blog, interacting with people who we’ve never seen. And isn’t this a little like faith? I’m not sure; sometimes I think it is. I’ve never met Jim Faulconer, but I have faith that someone called “Jim Faulconer” exists. Through my internet interaction with “Jim Faulconer,” I get to know his quirks and attributes and ideas. As I see a pattern of posts from “Jim Faulconer” that share the same tone and style, I begin to feel that I know this person, even though we’ve never shaken hands. Other people who I have met (such as Greg Call) add their own testimonies that “Jim Faulconer” exists. I like Greg, and I don’t think that he would lie to me. On the other hand, I’ve never met Jim. Jim’s existence could be a well-orchestrated conspiracy between, say, Nate, Greg, and maybe Dan Peterson, all trying to make me believe that “Jim Faulconer” exists.