“I am persuaded that many do not understand the Church’s teachings about personal criticism, especially the criticism of Church leaders by Church members.” Thus begins Elder Oaks’ 1987 article on criticism, its uses and abuses. Our Relief Society President used it as the basis for a Sacrament Meeting talk last month and I thought it deserved a renewed audience. As is typical of Elder Oaks, this is a well thought out piece. Enjoy!
Year: 2007
In Which Jules Verne Meets Clarissa
Clarissa, the daughter of commenter East Coast, is a seventh-grader, the only Latter-day Saint in a student body of more than 600.
From the Archives: Stop Cancelling My Church!
Up at 6:20am, into the shower, on with the shirt and tie and jacket. Grap some Grape-Nuts in the kitchen. Open the front door: a half-inch or so of sleet on the ground. No biggie, I think. Normally I walk, but this morning I’m running late, so I hop in the car, drive to the chapel for PEC meeting. No one there. Drive around the chapel twice: still no one there. Cancelled for sleet?, I ask myself. Drive home, log on the computer, check the e-mail. Yep, sure enough: the stake presidency cancelled all meetings yesterday evening (we were supposed to have been called by someone, but obviously weren’t). Arrrg. Yes, yes, I know, I know: rural routes, dangerous road conditions, better safe than sorry, people without back-up transportation plans, etc., etc. It’s all perfectly reasonable. Except that now we have a whole day to fill. At least last time there was actually snow on the ground me and the girls could go out and play in. (That’s the link to the archived post, if you’re wondering.)
News and Commentary on Romney’s Speech
As of this writing, Google News lists 769 newspaper reports about Mitt Romney’s speech yesterday, and 8,232 stories since yesterday containing the word “Mormon”. Please share your finds with the rest of us.
The Monolithic Myth
Much of the commentary and criticism swirling around Mitt Romney and the religion issue seems to take as its starting point the assumption that there is a single Mormon view on any particular issue, decided by LDS leaders and accepted by the LDS membership. Too bad there isn’t a Mormon view on particular issues. That kind of kills the theory.
Mitt Romney’s Speech “Faith In America”: Your Reaction
Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.
La Ville des Mormons
If I were Mitt Romney
We recently surveyed a bunch of politically savvy bloggernacle types — including some of our own T&S crew — and asked them to answer in a few paragraphs this question: “What would you say tomorrow (in the much-anticipated “Religion Talk”) if you were Mitt Romney?” Here are replies we’ve received:
Standing Strong and Immoveable
Each Monday they rotate drivers. Every three weeks it is my mom’s turn. She picks up Margarete and MaryLou in her Buick and they drive to St. George to visit Shirlee.
Polygamy: How Much Instead of How Many
In a 19th-century Utah newspaper, a wise and thoughtful satirist argued that the polygamy “problem†had wrongly been characterized as a numbers issue—how many wives a man had—rather than a quantity issue—how much wife a man had. The satirist offered this ingenious answer under the heading,
Thoughts from the Anvil
I suspect that on Thursday Mitt Romney’s Mormonism will perform the function that Mormonism has been fulfilling in American politics for a century and a half: It will be an anvil on which this mainly Protestant nation hammers out the place of religion in public life.
Orality, Literacy, Apostasy and Restoration
In the historiography of communication, orality refers to reliance on the spoken word as well as to the corresponding institutions and habits of mind, while literacy means not just the ability to read, but also the mental habits and social institutions that attend the use of writing, or more specifically the use of an alphabetic writing system, or the particular cognitive framework that has developed along with the alphabetic systems of Western Europe. The Mormon concept of a historical apostasy can be described in terms of orality and literacy. In fact, Brian Stock, an eminent historian of medieval literature, has already (if unintentionally) done just that
Personal Note
What Do Mormons Look Like?
In 1846 during the Mormon Exodus from Illinois, as the Saints were strung out in various camps across Iowa and farther west, Mormon Warren Foote went in search of a mill to grind some of his grain: “It is quite a curiosity for the inhabitants here to see a “Mormon,†he wrote.
Mitt Romney’s Mormon Speech
Mitt Romney has decided to formally address his Mormonism in a speech this Thursday. His campaign is stressing that he won’t be detailing Mormon doctrine, but speaking more broadly to the role of faith in America and in Mitt Romney. This speech will cause every major news organization on the planet to discuss Mormonism this week, with coverage that may exceed even that of the Salt Lake City Olympics, where Mormonism appeared only as a local interest sub-story. This week Mormonism will be at the center. Over the next week we will offer threads about the speech, commentary and global discussion. Let us know what your local papers are saying.
Times and Seasons Welcomes Paul Reeve
It has no doubt been noticed–for those that care about the deep red-blue rivalries of Utah, anyway–that Times and Seasons does pretty well when it comes to drawing upon the Cougars insofar as perma- and guest-bloggers are concerned, but until this point, our track record with the Utes has been lacking. With arrival of Paul Reeve, an assistant professor of history at the University of Utah, as a guestblogger for the next little while, we hope to turn that record around.
Terryl Givens: The Scholar as Celebrant
Terryl Givens is doing a great deal in People of Paradox.
Reflections on People of Paradox by the Author
Terryl Givens was kind enough to share some reflections on his book, People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture, in response to our questions. His answers follow, in italics.
Watching conference
Stake conference in the mission field. Still the mission field, for although we are a stake, there is no stake center, only a chapel in some of the main cities, and rented rowhouses elsewhere. The stake covers some 10,000 square miles. Therefore we gather in this huge, sparsely lit movie theatre—theatre number 14 in a massive cinema complex close to the highway.
Another Conference on Mormons
Call for Papers: “Interpretation: LDS Perspectives†Sponsored by Mormon Scholars in the Humanities and Mormon Scholars Foundation
Graduate Student Conference at Claremont: Call for Papers — CHANGE!
“May These Principles Be Establishedâ€: Mormonism in the Political Arena
The Wonder of a New Religous Art Tradition
Terryl Givens and Richard Bushman share a common pattern of scholarship. Both seek to put the Mormon experience into a broad cultural and historical framework. Both seek engage us by bringing Mormon history into dialogue with the broader history of our shared civilization. This is part of an encouraging direction in serious Mormon scholarship that seems to be moving beyond myopic focus of endless chronicles. Givens’ work had the added benefit of good prose that is actually fun to read.
Tracing Emily (updated)
This story begins at the bitter end, with suicide in a Butte brothel.
Givens’ Winter Wheat
His fruitful new study provides lots to chew on this winter.
People of Paradox Symposium
Terryl Givens’ new book, People of Paradox, provocatively explores how distinctive features of Mormon faith are expressed in Mormon culture. Times and Seasons has decided to hold a symposium to review it, and to take up the conversation it begins. The symposium will include
Grad Student Conference: Mormonism in Politics
Graduate Student Conference at Claremont: Call for Papers “May These Principles Be Establishedâ€: Mormonism in the Political Arena
Mission Thanksgiving Meals
Here’s a post for your afternoon stupor. What were your mission Thanksgiving meals like? Tell us in the comments.
Turkey: The Poll
What’s going to be on your plate tomorrow?
Brothers in Arms
Today, my older brother, James Daniel Fox, turns 40. That’s right: 40. Forty! Which means I’m thirty-nine, and that’s plain crazy. Something has gone dreadfully wrong, I know it.
Book Review: People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture
People of Paradox is unusual: Givens sets out four major paradoxes in Mormon thought and then shows how various aspects of Mormon culture (the life of the mind, architecture, visual art, dance, film, etc.), at various moments in history, negotiate those dilemmas.