CBS and NBC have refused to air an ad from the United Church of Christ on grounds that it is “too controversial.” The message of the advertisement is one that I hope we would embrace, but I am not so sanguine about that.
Year: 2004
The Protestant Reformers and “Prepared Ground”
I want to start a discussion using one of Rosalynde’s comments as a launching point. In a comment on my first post, Rosalynde reminded us that we in the church often talk about the Protestant Reformers as though they helped lay the groundwork for the Restoration.
Blogwatch
What’s going on in some other blogs: Lisa at Feminist Mormon Housewives wants to know how we can reconcile the Plan of Salvation with a world that allows thousands of children to be sold into sex slavery.
Christmas Shopping
Here are my suggestions for everyone on your Christmas list:
Skepticism, “Freelancing,” and Organized Religion
Greetings, Times and Seasons bloggers! I have been enjoying the discussion on T&S for months, reading here and there in between my own coursework, looking on from behind the glass as many of the visitors to T&S inevitably do. When Gordon invited me to guest blog,
A Sense of Place
It’s been five months since my family moved from the edge of the country to the middle, and I’ve never felt so out of place. The change of season is to blame, of course: it happened quite quickly, here, on the day before Thanksgiving, when the low sky let fall flurries of snow and something else, too–a dampening of the light that makes everything look different, somehow. I’m not pleased.
Sunday School Lesson 47
Lesson 47: Moroni 1-6
12 Questions for Travis Anderson
Everyone was excited to talk about International Cinema at BYU.
Ken Jennings Finally Stumbles
The streak is over: Ahead by $4,400 going into “Final Jeopardy,” Final Jeopardy!, Jennings stumbled on this Business and Industry clue: Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year. Jennings wrongly answered, “What is FedEx?” real estate agent Nancy Zerg of Ventura, Calif., responded, “What is H&R Block?” making her the new champ — and a likely future Jeopardy! answer. (She finished with $14,401; Jennings fell to $8,799.) Congratulations on a great run, Ken. For our 12 Questions with Ken, see here and here.
I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.
It has been over a month since we’ve had a post mentioning Bob Dylan. I’ll happily fix that problem.
In Defense of Suing Before the Ungodly
I recently had dinner with a good friend, who, according to his former doctor, is going to hell.
Are Supererogatory Acts Possible for Latter-day Saints?
King Benjamin teaches us that we “should not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition . . . in vain.� This is not merely passing advice we can choose whether to follow or ignore without consequence. In fact, Benjamin warns that those who stay their hand in the face of such requests have “great cause to repent and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever and hath no interest in the kingdom of God (Mos 4:18). According to this text, giving money to the beggar on the street is a duty, required of us by the Gospel with penalties attached to its omission. It is clear that imparting of one’s substance to the beggar is obligatory. However, what is not clear is whether there is a limit to this sort of obligation.
Welcome New Guest Blogger, Jed W.
I am very pleased to introduce our newest guest blogger, Jed W. Besides being the Scoutmaster in my ward, Jed is a third-year doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, where he is studying the history of education on his way to a dual degree in American history and educational policy. He is originally from Bountiful, Utah and his undergraduate degree is from BYU. While there he worked for three years as an editor at BYU Studies and another year on the Papers of Joseph Smith project, which was run through the Joseph Fielding Smith Insitute for Latter-day Saint History. For the past two years, Jed has been assisting Richard Bushman in editing and research on his forthcoming biography of Joseph Smith. Reid Neilson and Jed also prevailed upon Richard to publish a collection of his Mormon history essays. The collection appeared earlier this year with Columbia University Press under the title Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays. We are looking forward to Jed’s insights over the next two weeks.
Belated (But Earnest) Thanks to Clark
The Thanksgiving holiday distracted us from thanking Clark Goble for his guest-blogging stint. It was a honor to have Clark join us at the same time we celebrated our first anniversary; his blog, Mormon Metaphysics, has long been and remains one of the very finest in the whole Bloggernacle, and the man himself is one of our all-time comments champs. While with us, Clark shared that blogging talent by way of inquiring about the political lessons of Mormon history, the relationship between science and Mormonism, the importance of Thanksgiving, and much more, including a rant about dating in Provo. Many thanks Clark, and keep up the commenting! Update: ok, so maybe our thanks weren’t quite so belated as we thought…Clark managed to slip in one more post, just under the wire. Way to push the envelope Clark!
Modern Gadiantons?
One last post, before my non-philosophical blogging stint is done. One thing I’ve thought of with recent events in the middle east was the parallels to the Book of Mormon. I know that’s not exactly an original point to make, but I think the Book of Mormon has a lot of parallels both regarding our enemies as well as how we act towards our enemies. Dan Peterson has long written about the strong parallels between the Gadianton movement and various guerilla movements and insurgencies. I’ve listened to him describe extensive parallels, for instance, between Mao’s insurgency in China and events in the Book of Mormon.
The Church as a Franchise System
In my class on Law & Entrepreneurship, I teach a section that focuses on franchise agreements. We just completed that section last week, and it occurred to me that the Church is a lot like McDonald’s.
A Scripture for Thanksgiving
It’s one of my favorites, and particularly applicable during the Thanksgiving season (so of course I didn’t think to post it until now):
The Unreality of Life
As I sit another day in my office, feeling strangely detached from the world — a feeling that I seem to have more often these days — a verse from the book of Jacob comes to mind.
A tribute to simple saints
Her name was Sister Pooters. Petite, energetic, single. She was around seventy when I, a young convert, met her at our local Mormon branch.
Chess, Computers, and Spiritual Knowledge
As part of my on-going attempt to convince myself that my chess reading is not a complete waste of time (even for my chess-playing ability!), I offer the following thoughts on the important relationship between chess strategy, computers, and spiritual knowledge.
Simple Things
Over the past few days, I have been engaged in some much-needed family immersion. Among other things, I rediscovered the joys of eating jello pudding with children, playing an impromptu “turkey bowl” football game (with players ranging in age from eight to forty-something), and whipping some teenagers at the board game Risk.
Reading Poetry Aloud
Now that I finally have a child, one of my enjoyable activities with him is to read to him before bed. The one problem I face is not in selecting poetry I want to read, but learning how to read it properly aloud. I’ve scanned Google for some suggestions. They all tell me what I already know. Don’t put too much emotion in it (over acting). Don’t pause at the line breaks – it makes it choppy. Basically they tell me not to do the thing I can’t seem to keep from doing!
Quick admin note
Following a string of spam attacks, I’m tinkering with the settings to try to allow it to catch more spam. I’ve tightened a few controls to “wait list” comments that might be spam. (These aren’t deleted, but they’re kept in a queue until they can be individually approved). I’m trying to keep the settings right, and I don’t think that I’ll be catching many legit comments, but there’s a chance that your comment will be put on a wait list, as I figure out how best to work with spam fighting tools. I’m not sure if this particular tool is going to work well. Apologies in advance for any inadvertent wait listing.
Post-Thanksgiving Recipes
Yes, it’s that time of year again: Time to figure out what to do with half a turkey, a big pan of stuffing, and a lot of surplus pumpkin pie.
Quick admin note — comments restored
In the switch to WP, certain threads lost some comments. I’ve just fixed all of the threads that lost any comments.
What the Smith Boys Said This Year
What I’m not good at is keeping a journal. What I am good at is writing down in my planner the funny things that my kids say and then printing them up to put in our Christmas card each year:
How Darth Vader was Slain (as told by the children of the Wenger household)
First, Luke Skywalker chopped off Darth Vader’s hand.
The Importance of Thanksgiving?
I confess, having grown up in Canada that I still have a hard time thinking of this week as Thanksgiving. To me it was back in October. (That’s Columbus Day for you Yanks) Since my parents lived way out in Nova Scotia I never went home for the US Thanksgiving either. So my memories of Thanksgiving consist either of going hiking or climbing, joining in a “joint-sorrow” dinner of singles trapped in Provo, or else driving up to Alberta to hang out with my brother, eat pizza and ice climb. Now that I’m married and with a bride who has family in the area, I’m still getting used to it all. Truth be told, I think I’d rather be out skiing. But that’s me.
A Mormon-Evangelical Rapprochement?
I’m a little behind — I just saw this fascinating article (via Speak Up For Truth). The title of the story alone (on BeliefNet) speaks volumes: “‘We Have Sinned Against You’: A leading evangelical speaks at the Mormon Tabernacle and says evangelicals have spread lies about LDS beliefs.”
Thanks a Lot
Last year, at this time, I shared my favorite Thanksgiving hymn. This time around, let’s go with a much humbler song, but one no less appropriate to the day: