My friend was recently invited to an LDS bridal shower, and the invitation came complete with the bride’s personal measurements and sizing. Call me old-fashioned, prudish, and conservative,
Year: 2009
Mormon prayer and Mormon art
If you want to find a unique Mormon tradition of verbal art, you should listen to Mormons pray
When Prayers Become Talks
Of all completely meaningless things that annoy me, high on the list is when Young Women is referred to as “Young Women’s.” I’d spend more time elaborating on that, but I really need to finish this post so I can get on to my Relief Society’s lesson.
Alienated in Zion
“I say unto you, be one; and if you are not one ye are not mine (D&C 38:27).” And then comes the uncomfortable experience of sitting in Sunday School (or in the midst of some other group of Mormons) with the persistent, anxious thought, “I really don’t fit in here…”
A Mormon Don Quixote
Last week I was in Cedar City for my annual visit to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which has brought a lot of pleasure to my family for the past 24 years, thanks to the nearly 50-year-old impossible dream of a returned missionary, Fred Adams. His success is, today, an interesting counterpoint to other impossible dreams.
Spiritual Pickpockets
Does God want you to be rich? Certainly! If you believe Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, preaching their form of Prosperity Theology. They are the focus of an August 15 article at the New York Times. (H/T BCC)
FHE Lesson #12
Lesson #12: The Atonement of Jesus Christ
FHE Lesson #11
Lesson #11: The Life of Jesus Christ
Liveblogging Symposium – Stay-at-home Moms: On the Record
EDIT: Emily Jensen has a great article on this at Mormon Times, and offers a much better (and more readable) synopsis. See it at http://bit.ly/GOEdq Approximately 30 people in attendance, an engaging and personable panel: Moderator/ CAMILLE AAGARD, former account executive at a public relations agency; cleaned out her desk two days before giving birth to her first child in 1998 and began a new career at home rearing five children, ages one to 11
Online teaching resources
I’ve put together a list of sorts of online lesson aids (thanks in part to the very useful help of many T&S commenters) which I’ll be using in my talk. I’ve grouped them by category as follows:
Tired-blogging from Sunstone, Day 3
It’s early, and I’m still recovering from karaoke, but I’m at the Sonia Johnson panel. I’m sad to miss Kristine singing this morning, but this panel has a distinct advantage — I can sit with a laptop and write my talk for next time. I’ll try to type up some notes on this session (and not get them mixed up with my talk).
Live(ish)-blogging Sunstone, Day 2
I missed out on the morning, because I had to finish grading papers. I’m now at D’Arcy’s session on virginity. I’m not true live-blogging it, I’ll post some summary notes as we go along.
Selfishness Pays (Off)
So, what with Utah’s poor Iowa Test scores, I’ve had a few people asking me how I turned all my children into such voracious little readers. “Did you read to them every day when they were little?” friends query. “Why, no. Of course not,” I respond. “I’m much too selfish for that.”
Liveblogging Sunstone, Day 1
I’m going to be live(ish) blogging Sunstone, at least some. The level of effectiveness will depend on a lot of factors, including access to wireless (which seems to be a little spotty). If you’re here (or just here in spirit), please weigh in in comments with your own thoughts.
Your favorite online resources (or, crowdsourcing my Sunstone talk)
Apparently, I’m speaking on a Sunstone panel about online resources for LDS teaching. (I’m not quite sure how this happened, but it’s probably Kristine’s fault.) The panel is populated with familiar faces from the blogs, and the abstract is this:
Wednesday Conference Talk: Finding Joy in the Journey
I really liked President Monson’s recent talk, Finding Joy in the Journey. President Monson talks about enjoying life and focusing on our relationships with the people around us, especially family: Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us.
Van Camp’s Pork & Beans
A 1904 magazine advertisement for Van Camp’s Pork and Beans features a photograph of the Stonewall Andrew Jackson equestrian statue in New Orleans. Two cartoon children dressed in Dutch costume gaze at the monument, above this verse:
8 Seconds
I entered a rodeo once (and if you know me, you know how absurd that is). I rode a bull in the very arena that we watched the bull riders this weekend. It was my only rodeo, and I dominated that bull for the full 8 seconds.
Scenes from Sunday
Because I said something that might possibly have been interpreted as mildly irreverent [1],
FHE Lesson #10
FHE Lesson #10: The Scriptures
Times & Seasons Welcomes Two More New Permabloggers
We’re expanding the ranks a bit more here at Times & Seasons and are pleased to welcome two more new permabloggers to our ranks: Robert Ricks and James Olsen. Both have recently guest blogged and have bios available here and here. As with Alison and Rory, we look forward to their continuing contributions here at T&S.
Life on the Fringe
I’ve seen several links but no discussion of the Slate piece on the hypothetical future role of Mormons, “The Catholic Church helped preserve Roman civilization. Can Mormonism do the same for America?” It’s part of an eight-part series on the theme How is America going to end? by a Slate senior editor.
PSA — email junk from Wegame
So if you get an email over the next little while purporting to offer you pictures or a message from someone you know, and the email comes from Wegame, it’s very likely junk.
New Primary Lesson Needed
Suggested lesson topic: What to do when you are seven years old and do not want to go to church. Yes, I finally watched the video of the seven-year-old kid who drove away in the family car to avoid going to church (see posts at Get Religion or the SL Trib for details and the video). The story coyly refrains from noting which church the kid was fleeing, but the video comes courtesy of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, so I’m just guessing …
Two New Permabloggers
We are pleased to welcome two new permabloggers to our ranks: Alison Moore Smith and Rory Swensen. Both have recently guest blogged here, so I won’t repeat bio information from earlier welcome posts (see here and here for a refresher). We look forward to their continuing contributions here at T&S.
Out of the Best Books: Introducing the Mormon Review
Out of the Best Books Introducing the Mormon Review by Richard Lyman Bushman Inscribed in steel letters in the stairwell of the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU is the scripture that begins: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books
Notes From All Over For Week Ended August 2
Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.
Modernism and the Mormon Intellectual
The Enlightenment and its legacy of reason applied to human affairs has been tough on religion. One would think this would apply with even more force to the LDS Church, given how recent are the founding miracles of Mormonism and how prominently they are featured in discussions of our history and practice. But most Mormons seem strangely unaffected by the modernist critique.
Mission Websites — Mission.net or what?
Its been 25 years since I returned from my mission, and this past week I got an email from a friend asking me to join a new website for my mission. The first thing I asked myself, before joining, is ‘why do we need another mission site?
The Evolution of Excommunication
I recently went through every version of the Church Handbook of Instructions, looking at what they have to say about the operation of church courts and how it has changed over time.