How comfortable would you be if someone important – your prospective father-in-law, or that trophy client you’ve been courting – showed up at your door and asked to go to church with you?
Mormon Theology Seminar
How I spend my Sunday nights, and what it means for the future of Mormon thought.
Fruits
The standard reply to every bad-bishop or awful-ward story is well known by now: “The church is perfect, but the members aren’t.” Your interaction with an awful leader or member or ward — hypocritical, sexist, gossipy, unrighteous dominion, Red Sox fan, or otherwise unpardonable — is due to the humanity involved. The church itself is just fine, and please bear in mind that hide-bound church individuals are hide-bound only in their individual capacity. Why, the scriptures even tell us that unrighteous dominion is sadly inevitable. How exactly do we reconcile that line of reasoning with Matthew 7?
Miller-Eccles on Mountain Meadows Massacre
This Friday and Saturday, the Miller-Eccles group in southern California will hear a presentation from Rob Briggs on the topic: “Mountain Meadows Massacre: How could this heinous massacre have happened?” Information is as follows:
To the ABD fathers in Zion
Over the last several years, I’ve gotten to know a good number of Mormon men whose life goal is to land an academic job in order to provide for their family.
The 16th Century Origins of a Mormon Idea
The Mormon court system emerged from the much older tradition of ecclesiastical discipline among the English Protestants who settled North America.
Mormonism and War
Tomorrow will mark the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. Several bloggers have acknowledged that anniversary this month by responding to a challenge: link to whatever you wrote about the war in March 2003, and explain what, if anything, you were wrong about. I have put up my own response here. But for Times and Seasons, I want to reprint something else I wrote, just under four years ago: a post inspired by President Gordon B. Hinckley’s April 2003 General Conference address, “War and Peace”.
Revelation 11
The Book of Revelation was intended to be interpreted symbolically.
Needling Grandma
From the (FMH) Archives: Polyandry
Several months ago, I blogged on this topic at FMH. For Women’s History Month, I’d like to revisit the question, for this somewhat different audience: From a feminist perspective, is polyandry more or less acceptable than polygyny?
Memorial Quiz
Kristine’s pop quiz prompts me to ask a similar quiz I’ve had on my mind. Think of this as Memorial Day come early. Feel free to cheat if you have to: Name your great grandparents. Name 5 of your great-great grandparents. Name 3 of your great-great-great grandparents.
Mormonism and the Memo to the Dean
Earlier this week I engaged in what I am told is an annual academic ritual, and wrote a memo to the Dean explaining what I have done this year in terms of teaching, scholarship, and service. Since I have been engaged in a number of projects related to Mormon studies, the question arises should I include these in the memo? Does Mormonism “count†academically speaking?
The Roast Beast
Folks in the nacle are talking recipes lately. I’ll share a tasty winter recipe I made a few weeks ago: A basic (but quite tasty) Pork Roast.
Humility in the academic job market (or, why you shouldn’t forget about BYU)
In a job interview, the rhetorical approach you are looking for is “I can solve all your problems for you”: increase enrollments, raise the department’s research profile, advise the student club, pull in outside funding, the whole enchilada. (Can you really do all this? Of course you can! You now have a Ph.D., right?) Now is not the time for false modesty. Humility, however, is an essential part of your job search.
Around the blogs: WHM at Feminist Mormon Housewives
Feminist Mormon Housewives has been in superlative form in celebrating Women’s History Month. WHM posts so far have included Ronan’s discussion about an Akkadian princess and poetess; Julie’s feminist Family Home Evening lesson; Kiskilili’s discussion of women’s status in Ancient Mesopotamia; Margaret Toscano’s personal essay about her history; Heather O.’s post on pregnant women soldiers in the Civil War; Julie’s Young Women’s version of the anointing at Bethany; and now a guest post from Todd Compton about the life and feminism of Emily Dow Partridge. It’s simple — if you’re not reading FMH this month, then you’re missing out on one of the best sets of posts the bloggernacle has seen in some time. Kudos to Lisa and her crew (do I detect traces of Janet’s handiwork?) for putting together this event, which should finally put to rest the tired old myth of FMH frivolity. For the entire WHM series, check the WHM category page at FMH — or just the main FMH page this month.
Patriarchal Blessings
FYI. A change in policy effective this month:
Mormonism’s other glam rock star
By now, everyone knows about Arthur Killer Kane, the bassist of the New York Dolls who converted to Mormonism. But there is another significant Mormon connection to the 1970s glam rock scene.
Wells run dry
Wells run dry – TEST
Ora Johnson Dalton: Willing to Assist Him
Of all the women whose stories have been told in these pages, Ora Johnson Dalton would probably be the most astonished to learn that her life could be honored as a model of faith.
A Little Humor
These church bulletin bloopers have been making the rounds; on the off chance you haven’t seen them yet:
Amazon’s take on the Book of Mormon
Amazon.com has an algorithm for noting the “Statistically Improbably Phrases” in any given book. The idea is to look for word combinations that are uncommon generally but common in the book in the hope that this provides potential buyers some insight into what the book is about. Here are the ones for the Doubleday edition of the Book of Mormon:
Scholarship versus dissemination
Over at the great and spacious blog, Richard Bushman writes that “what I would hope for [in blogging] is more serious and focused thought, the kind that Nate Oman turns out, rather than off-the-cuff chatter that is fun but leads nowhere.” Similarly, recent discussion at DMI focuses on whether blogging can or should displace conventional scholarship. These discussions touch on the same questions: Why are we blogging, anyway? Are some types of blogging more valuable than others, as Bushman seems to suggest? Should we all be more like Nate?
The Poetry of Red Rocks
I am currently doing some research on Mormon legal history, and earlier today found myself reading through an old issue of Western Humanties Review from 1951.
Survey says . . .
A recent Gallup poll explored what Americans think of Mormons.