If you’ve been on a cross-country trek visiting in-laws or golf courses (or both) instead of reading new blogs posts, here are a few good posts you might have missed.
Smells and Bells at FPR. That’s a snippy phrase referring to high church liturgy (i.e., Catholic), contrasted with “happy clappy” for low church liturgy of some Protestants. The post has some nice discussion of LDS liturgy and liturgical style — a topic not often addressed — and the comments predictably try to come up with a two-word LDS formula. “Sleeping and weeping” seems to be the best of the lot. If any reader can think of a religious word that rhymes with “exhorting,” you may have a winner.
JI reports on the 2008 Bushman Seminar at BYU, a summer program held each year that brings together about 15 scholars interested in Mormon Studies to research and publish on a particular topic. An intro post reviews the topic of this year’s seminar: how to help those who lose their faith over Church history. Two subsequent posts summarize the presentations given by scholars and students at the end of the seminar. Part 1 includes Stephen Harper’s argument against the “spiritual eyes” statements sometimes attributed to the Three Witnesses. The Part 2 presentations all sound interesting, but Spencer Fluhman’s consideration of Nauvoo-era plural marriage is particularly noteworthy. See more reviews of the presentations at Life on Gold Plates and at Mormon Chronicles.
Quick Links:
- Why Mormons Don’t Use the Symbol of the Cross, a nice explanation with good quotes, at the new blog Answering the Critics.
- On Criticism (sometimes packaged as “friendly advice”) by a blogging LDS bishop.
- Tim at Latter-day Commentary says something nice about Sunstone and the “young, intelligent denizens of the Bloggernacle.”
- More Prop 8 angst and a casualty at X2.
- Any post on the Kobayashi Maru is a must-read post.
In honor of all the bloggernacle types who hate so much of what happens in Sacrament meeting (and Sunday School…) I suggest “snorting and exhorting,” which rhymes so long as you don’t overdo the “h” in “exhort.”