Last week I had dinner with three other people at a law professors’ conference in Washington DC. Two of the other people are Mormons. The third is a friend and former colleague, the daughter of two avowed atheists.
Orthoglossy
The people of Zion were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness. Our goal is to be like them. Are we? It’s hard to be sure, since we can’t easily know what’s in another person’s heart.
The Bushman Diaries
On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author’s Diary by Richard Bushman is a very difficult book to get a hold of, which is unfortunate.
Primary Lesson #4 Supplement
John 20:12
John 20:12 is a rather curious verse:
Sunday School Lesson materials
Nothing exciting here, just an administrative note: I’ve been posting materials for studying the Sunday School lesson materials on Times and Seasons for a while. However,
Abigail Smith Abbott: Mormon Battalion “Widow”
Abigail Abbott’s life in 1847 was not unfolding as she had probably expected it to be.
A Really Long Post about Mitt Romney, Damon Linker, and Pope Pius V
In 1570, Pope Pius V issued his bull Regnans in Exelcis, a pontifical act that seems to be creating problems for Mitt Romney and the Mormons.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
I had a revelation in Gospel Doctrine class yesterday.
Primary Lesson #3 Supplement
The human face calls us to responsibility–sometimes
Years ago, I responded to one of those philanthropic commercials inviting viewers to request some “no obligation†information about their charitable organization. I requested it and soon received the photograph of a little girl in the Philippines, along with the invitation to sponsor her. How could I say no? There she was, looking right at me, calling me to responsibility. I had the means to provide for her, and surely I had to do it–and did. But a change has happened over the years. I now have a daughter with an eating disorder. On her binder, she has put a picture of a young woman who appears to have just been released from a concentration camp. She is more than gaunt; she is cadaverous, and she’s wearing absurdly incongruous make-up. She is poverty’s clown, an emaciated pied piper, a grim reaper of teenage souls.
Dressing the Dead
From the day she learned it was part of her Relief Society calling, my mother lived in dread that she would need to prepare the body of a ward member for burial.
Mitt, the Mormons, and the Democrats’ Mountain West Strategy
The Democratic electoral strategy for 2008 and Mitt Romney’s candidacy might just give Mormons more political influence than they will ever have again in a presidential election. The combination of the two will certainly give the McCain campaign a bad case of indigestion.
Primary Lesson #2 Supplement
One Thing Damon’s Article (Probably) Gets Right
Damon Linker’s TNR article “The Big Test” came out last Friday. Despite the holiday, his argument about Mitt Romney’s all-but-certain presidential candidacy and the problems which at least some Mormon beliefs pose for people looking to decide who to vote for has already caught the eye of many, and will no doubt be talked and argued about for some time to come. If you’re looking for a lengthy take on his argument…well, I’ve put one up on my blog here. But here, writing for T&S’s Mormon audience, let me pick out one paragraph of Damon’s article, and see what I can make of it.
(He’s A) Tiny Little Baby Born in Bethlehem!
I have a tendency to envision Christmas as a time of quiet joy, peaceful awe, hushed delight–the snow, the candlelight, the embers on the hearth, the distant stars, the bells and choirs reverberating into silence, the baby in the manger who “no crying makes.” Very New England, very northern European, very medieval, very traditional.
“Will Heavenly Father Be Mad if We Go to Another Church?”
So asked my oldest daughter, Megan (now 10) yesterday morning, as Melissa and I were discussing our Christmas Eve plans.
Are Mormons American? Can They Be?
Thanks to Mitt Romney’s candidacy, I suspect that the Mormons-as-bizarre-ridiculous-and-perhaps-dangerous theme will be increasingly with us in the months to come. There are two reasons for this: one parochial and one fundamental.
The Cursing of Mormon Lawyers
Cursing, it would seem, forms something of a theme in Mormon legal history. Not only was it a way of dealing with unsolved crimes, but it also seems to have been used as a way of controlling frivolous litigation.
Sunday School Lesson – Between the Testaments
The Surgeon and Brigham Young
The westbound stagecoach upset near Gold, Colorado, in October 1866, tossing its passengers violently to the ground.
Primary Lesson #1 Supplement
Science and Nihilism
The Judicial Use of Mormon Cursing
I have posted before on the now largely forgotten Mormon tradition of cursing. As you would expect, I have found that Mormon cursing also has a legal angle.