On every ward’s roster are a few zz’s, people who have requested no contact. In different wards, I’ve gotten different messages about these folks. In some wards, clerk/bishop/EQP/etc will say something like, “we can’t talk to Bro. Jones. We’re legally prohibited from talking to him.” Is that true?
Archive of Restoration Culture Database
Last year, BYU Studies announced that they were placing the Archive of Restoration Culture online. This database consists of statements from contemporaneous sources about doctrines that are now viewed as distinctly Mormon. If you’ve ever wondered, “Was anyone else discussing an idea like three degrees of glory, around the time Joseph Smith wrote?” — this is where you find your answer.
Anaïse Guyot: The Girl They Left Behind
Early missionaries carried the gospel to many corners of the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, baptizing converts in neighborhoods where there was no established branch to sustain them.
Today, I Lost My Faith in Humanity
“Bert” came into our lives his senior year in high school, after a torturous journey through adolescence and a broken home. He now attends a small college in northern Ohio – and he had the following experience yesterday. He gave his permission for me to share it with all of you. (I made slight editing changes to make it acceptable for this forum and to hide the exact location.)
Sleep is Over-Rated
Mary had a little lamb; it was a little sheep, but then it joined the Mormon Church and died of lack of sleep.
The great T&S scavenger hunt (a.k.a. “Outsourcing”) *UPDATED
1. Each link in the current “Abbreviated link list” that points to an outdated URL: 4 points. (Please list correct URL in your comment).
Scheduling the Primary Program
I don’t wish to detract from Adam’s lovely post, but after reading the comments, I am surprised at how common the late September Primary Program is.
Times and Seasons Welcomes Curtis DeGraw
There are those who get invited to guestblog at Times and Seasons because they’ve been a regular in the Bloggernacle for ages and we figure their turn has come. There are those who get invited because it collectively occurs to us that we and our readers would really benefit from hearing from a circus animal trainer/professional skydiver/registered Democrat/Hollywood movie star/John Birch Society chapter president/illegal immigrant/11-year-old chess master/French chef/member of President Hinckley’s security detail/quantum physicist/polygamy rights activists/dude on the corner handing out pamphlets/female panda/etc. And then there are those who get invited because we just plain like them. Curtis DeGraw is one of these.
Small Favors
I headed to the organ after choir practice. Twenty minutes till Sacrament meeting started — enough time to quickly run through the hymns and play some prelude. I knew what hymns we were singing (the music director e-mails me once a month), and none were too difficult. Suddenly the chorister approached me, with a worried look on her face. “There’s been a few changes to the music,” she began.
President Monson Goes FMH
President Monson told the following joke at the General Relief Society meeting:
Crossfire Canyon: A study in conflict, part three
See Part Two posted 9/27. On September 22nd, I rose early and hiked into Crossfire. Afterward, I stopped at the local market and ran into a women I’d seen at the BLM’s open house, one of the most vocal SPEAR members present that night. We greeted each other and she demanded to know who I was and what my interest in the canyon was. “Are you one of those tree-huggers or something else?” she asked.
Born to Run/Walk
Okay, everyone. The race is on. Feel free to post comments, times, discussion, and links-to-pictures (if you’ve uploaded them to flickr or something). Or e-mail me pictures (kaimipono at gmail) and I’ll post them. Good luck, everyone.
Crossfire Canyon: A study in conflict, part two
See Part One here. On September 18th, the BLM held an open house explaining the closure to local residents. The BLM’s acting field manager opened the presentation, telling everyone that the purpose of the closure was to stop traffic through cultural sites. It wasn’t intended to be permanent, he said.
Mormon Film Series at the University of Chicago
From Frank Bednarz, “a programmer with a student film society at the University of Chicago, Doc Films:”
In Defense of Commentaries
Let’s say that you learned to cook by watching others and that you’ve never picked up a cookbook or seen a cooking show. Could you become an excellent cook?
Crossfire Canyon: A study in conflict, part one
Crossfire Canyon is not the canyon’s real name. Following the trend in nature writing, I have refrained from providing any obvious identifying names or details. Otherwise, this three-part series describes actual events and conversations. Mormons in Utah, especially in southern Utah, often find their concepts of stewardship put to the test when predominantly non-Mormon environmental groups act to preserve resources they perceive Mormons (or any others) are abusing under their stewardship ethic or are allowing to be abused.
Relief in the Order
The town of Kingston, Utah, was settled as a United Order community, whose inhabitants pooled their economic, spiritual, and social resources and attempted to live the law of consecration
Taking On the Big Questions
Today’s colleges and universities have abandoned their most important task, en masse, says Anthony Kronman in his recent Boston Globe article. What are the prospects for getting back in the saddle?
Trib Columnist Accidentally Raises Interesting Questions
It is going on ten years now since I have lived in Utah, but I still follow Utah politics from afar partly as a matter of tribal attachment but mainly because they are just so strange and fun.
Blacks and the Priesthood: What are the options?
Why were Blacks denied the Priesthood from the early days of the church until 1978? Of course, the official (and only really undisputable) answer is, “we don’t know.” But what are the options, really? Let’s go over the list of conceptually coherent potential reasons for the Priesthood ban.
Pushing Toward the Temple
A while back, Dave asked about possible narratives to structure 20th or 21st century Mormons. Another way of thinking about this question is how we bridge between modern experience and our historical narratives. We need not only new stories but also ways of maintaing continuity with our old stories. Consider the two images below.
Barbarians at the Gates
And who might they be, these cultural barbarians? You and me, according to the author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture (Doubleday, 2007). Will it kill the Church too?
A reader wants to know…
A T&S reader has a question about daily family scripture study. How have you made it work in your home? To what extent do the words “daily,” “family,” “scripture,” and “study” apply?
Book Review: Setting the Record Straight: Blacks and Mormon Priesthood
Millennial Press has a new series of short books on controversial topics.