My parents had a copy of Mormon Doctrine when I was growing up. I don’t remember reading it, although I may have cracked it open to write a talk or two. Despite my years of early morning seminary, I don’t remember hearing about whether or not Mary was technically a virgin. Views: 1250 ...
Some years ago, a co-worker expressed her frustration to me. I don’t know how we got on the topic, but she said she just wanted someone to tell her exactly what was in the bible and what it meant. I didn’t make a comment about this, as I wasn’t actively religious. I just remember thinking ...
A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some ...
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, of whose work I learned at BYU, every community, tribe, or nation requires an origin myth. The account of a community’s or practice’s origin has far reaching consequences because it implies how they relate to the cosmos, which is necessary for human beings to imbue their world with shared ...
Faithful Mormons often imagine that those commenting on Mormonism from outside their circle form one monolithic block of “antis”. Mormon culture encourages this view, so people are often surprised when they read the discussion on the Internet and find that the people who disbelieve Mormonism occasionally agree with the Mormons more than they agree with ...
Intellectually, one can only sustain the orthodox position against marriage equality if one assumes that gays are not fully human or somehow defective. Unfortunately, biology contradicts that notion. The Church is correct in asserting the freedom for the organization and its members. However, our liberty ends where it begins to take away the liberty of ...
I have been miserable at Church ever since my mission. I still couldn’t get out because I had to act on my testimony even though I experienced Church as toxic every Sunday. To me, the mission experience was dehumanizing and sacrilegious reducing converts to trophies and missionaries to tools. Any amoeba will leave an inhospitable ...
So says a court in Arkansas. I know lawyers are necessary, but since when do they believe they can determine the answer to longstanding theological, historical, and sociological questions? Oh well… I guess the next time someone asks if Mormonism is Protestant you can cite actual legal precedent when saying no. Views: 659 ...
Step one was to finish my degree at BYU and go somewhere else. When you’re at BYU (or you’re a kid in a Mormon household), Mormonism seems huge and powerful (in a bad way, since LDS Inc. aspires to be kind of a mini taliban). As soon as I was far away from it, though, ...
One of the things I find I disagree with some active LDS about is the extent of formal LDS charitable giving and service related activities. One of the arguments that I’ve read in various places on the internets is that the Utah LDS church DOES have a strong record of charitable giving. See the comments ...
To Lutherans Good Friday is the most important day of the year. I always regretted that Mormons do not properly celebrate Easter. Thank heavens for Johann Sebastian Bach whose Passions relate God’s suffering like no other. Good Friday is the day that God died and if there is a redeeming feature in Christianity, it has ...
I think we can all agree that the LDS religion is unique. If we compare it to a mainstream Christian religion, like the United Methodists – it is very different. Even LDS missionaries would be happy to point out the many doctrinal and organizational differences. Case and point, Methodists have paid clergy – while the ...
As expected, thoughts on Romney’s speech are all over the blogosphere: On the Bloggernacle: Times & Seasons provides a list of articles and Nine Moons some commentary. Andrew’s Miracle Drug is skeptical about Romney’s exclusion of skeptics while A Bird’s Eye View sees the speech as pluralistic. My favorites are the feminist Mormon housewives — ...
Recall we learned in part 1 that discrediting Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham is a dangerous tactic since the Mormons who are swayed by such evidence have an annoying tendency to continue this same line of reasoning and ask hard questions about Jesus. The next obvious tactic — to ...
Leave The Light On I was privileged today to witness a speech given by the Mayor of San Diego, CA, Jerry Sanders. You can watch the speech for yourself here. I suggest you do, it’s very moving. In a heartfelt declaration, he announced that after searching his heart, he decided that he would be signing ...