Here’s a fun party question: Who are your favorite commenters?
Year: 2006
How does Mormon doctrine die?
Over at some-other-blog, Margaret Young writes in a comment: “Card-carrying Mormons do often believe that Blacks were fence sitters in the pre-existence and that polygamy is essential to eternal progression. Neither position has been formally repudiated by the powers that be. We have merely distanced ourselves from them.” This comment, I think, highlights two different possible views on how Mormon doctrine dies.
Dangerous Stories
Driving to work today, I had an odd epiphany. It occurred to me that there is an odd symmetry between the danger that “liberal” and “conservative” Mormons see in story telling.
Spiritual Presence
In October 2000, Elder Oaks spoke to the Church about the difference between doing and becoming. He said many Church members treat progress in the Church as a spiritual checklist with the goal being to mark off each spiritual task in succession. His address was, for me, anyway, enlightening—it changed the way I live the Gospel. Specifically, it changed the way I view my day-to-day activity in the Church.
Eternal Progression and Nethack
As we become more like God — all progressing towards the same end point — will we lose our uniqueness as individuals? How can we maintain individuality as we become just like God? As with many questions, this one can be answered by recourse to the classic computer game Nethack.
Margaret Young’s Daughter Is Right
The fine thread which Margaret Young’s post kicked off yesterday reminded me of some equally fine ones from the past. I’ve posted on the topic before a couple of times as well, and so–given that there was a lot to say–I was having a hard time keeping my comment to managable size. So I decided I ought to just put up in a post of my own–especially since I’m going to take the contrary position, and suggest that, while I think Jim (in comment #1) is right that “judging the wealthy to be wicked” is potentially a sin against one’s neighbor, Margaret actually shouldn’t be “appalled” that her daughter views very wealthy people as wicked. Concerned maybe, but not appalled.
Sunday School Lesson #35
Lesson 35: Amos 3, 7-9; Joel 2-3
Camels and needles’ eyes in Mormondom
My daughter said recently that she had been raised to view extremely wealthy people as wicked. I was appalled, since I am one of the primary people who raised her. What messages had I communicated which elicited those words? I admit that my father, on first view of a cousin’s enormous mansion, said simply, “Well, that is obscene,� and that I have maybe repeated similar sentiments once or twice. I admit that my time living in 3rd World countries has affected my perceptions of wealth, and I have sometimes commented that the price of the richest homes in Utah could feed whole countries. But have I managed to communicate the idea that rich people are wicked? Apparently so. I would suggest that as a church, we generally do not give that message, though. In fact, we might give just the opposite.
And now, presenting: Margaret Young!
Margaret will be with us for the next couple of weeks, and with perhaps the exception of Rosalynde, we are all a bit nervous about her guest-blogging.
Cookbook Zion
I gave a talk yesterday; the text is pasted herein. It’s long, but easy reading, I promise.
Primary Lesson 32 Supplement
Jonathan Green joins Times and Seasons
The rumors are true: Jonathan Green has agreed to come on board Times and Seasons as our newest permablogger.
From the Archives: Why I Like DKL
David King Landrith is much-abused on LDS blogs, including this one.
From the Archives: Our Duty to Present the Church in a Favorable Light at All Times, Just in Case a Non-Member Happens to be Listening
Do church members have a duty to present the church in a favorable light at all times? (more . . .)
From the Archives: Condorcet, Brigham, and Succession to the Presidency
Condorcet was a French social theorist in the opening decades of the 19th century and is credited with first discovering a paradox of majority voting that bears his name. Here is the paradox: Imagine that you have a group of three people (A,B, and C) who are voting on three different alternatives (X, Y, and Z). A prefers X to Y and Y to Z. B prefers Y to Z and Z to X. C prefers Z to X and X to Y. If X is paired in a vote with Y, then X wins (A and C against B). If Y is paired with Z, then Y wins (A and B against C). But — and this is the kicker — if Z is paired with X, then Z wins (B and C against A). In other words, even if the individual preferences of A, B and C are transitive, the collective preferences of A, B, and C are not. Put in starker terms, if you control the order the votes are taken in, then you can get any outcome you want because any choice can be defeated by one of the others. I have often wondered if this paradox might in part account for how Brigham Young became president of the Church.
Getting it wrong, kinda sorta…
OK, let’s ask a relatively simple question: Why do non-Mormon accounts of Mormon theology so often seem grotesque? To avoid derailing the discussion immediately, let me concede that there are non-Mormon folks who “get” Mormon theology, etc. etc. etc. On the other hand, if you are a Mormon and have not seen, heard, or read some non-Mormon describing Mormon theology as a pastiche of ridiculous beliefs about magic underwear, visitors from outer space, and eternal sex in the hereafter you haven’t been paying much attention to what your neighbors think about you.
Why I Like DKL
David King Landrith is much-abused on LDS blogs, including this one.
Elder Oaks’ Public Affairs Interview
I decided that this is too important for a mere sidebar link. (I hope that it is an indication of things to come on other prominent topics.) I don’t want to take away from the discussion already under way at M*, so please head there to discuss. (Rosalynde and J. Stapley’s comments are particularly noteworthy.)
BYU Grads Get PhDs
Quite a few of them do, as highlighted in BYU News recently. I am not very impressed with the BYU News article, but the number is still good news to me.
“Whores” and Scriptures: Epithets, perceptions of women, and divine texts
Recent comment discussions at the Exponent II and Feminist Mormon Housewives blogs have examined the propriety (or impropriety) of using terms like “slut” and “whore.” A few male commenters used those terms in comments; in response, female commenters, making an argument I tend to agree with, have asserted that there is no place for these words in general discussion. I think that’s right; people should not use these kinds of terms in general conversation. And yet, how can I make that argument with a straight face, given the frequent usage of these kinds of terms in scripture?
Artists and Mormonism
Motley Vision has been playing host to an interesting discussion on Mormon aesthetics. The question du jour from the Sunstone Symposium seems to be whether or not one can be a Great Artist (or any kind of Artist) and still be a member of the Church. Two out of three panelists were apparently skeptical. For myself, I suspect that we are operating with a rather parochial definition of Artist, furthermore one that is ill suited to both the theology and demographics of Mormonism.
Sunday School Lesson #34
Lesson 34: Hosea 1-3; 11; 13-14
We Did It
We’ve finally read the entire Book of Mormon as a family, all of us (those that can read, anyway) taking turns verse by verse. It only took us four and a half years, and we’re ready to do it again.
Primary Lesson 31 Supplement
Apples
Wilford Woodruff’s journal entry for Tuesday, December 5, 1865, is short: “I spent the day packing away Apples.” (The entry for the 6th is equally short: “I undertook to make some Cider to day. It was to Cold to get the Juece out of the Apples.”)
Primary Lesson Supplement 30
Grudging Obedience
I was maybe ten years old when I complained to my father about having to go to church. I didn’t like it; it was boring; why couldn’t I just stay home? His response susprised me: “If you don’t want to be there, then stay home. God doesn’t want your grudging obedience.”
Garment (di)Strict
The current issue of BYU Studies publishes for the first time a very interesting letter from one of the first Hawaiian converts, Jonathan (Ionatana) Napela, to the Prophet Brigham Young.
Sunday School Lesson #33
Lesson 33: Jonah 1-4; Micah 2, 4-7 This is another long set of study notes.
Around the blogs: Mormon Stories and Bridge Building
Mormon Stories is no longer “open, honest, respectful”; however, they are now “building bridges.”