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The Top 10 LDS Musicians You’ve Never Heard Of: Roxy Rawson

April 17, 2010

The Top 10 LDS Musicians You’ve Never Heard Of: Roxy Rawson

When I created Linescratchers, I began with a desperate hope that I wasn’t commencing on a long wild goose chase. After all, the idea that I could create a website featuring talented LDS musicians who don’t write LDS music was based wholly on two premises: 1) that they exist somewhere, and 2) they are easier to find than, at minimum, Bigfoot. The next two years of hard work have completely paid off. I’ve been tirelessly scouring the Internet for musicians who happen to be LDS, and I’ve been surprised to find out that LDS musicians are EVERYWHERE. They’re just...

Bednar Was Wrong About Facebook

March 19, 2010

Last year, Elder Bednar gave a talk at BYU-I on a subject that weighed deeply on his soul. At the time, I read his words and felt a twinge of sadness. How could he fear something as useful and worthwhile as online social networking? Sites like Facebook have integrated themselves into the fabric of our society like gold thread in a brilliant tapestry, or like the deep, misty green of kudzu here in Kentucky. It has become a part of who we are. Now, a year later, I still think that Elder Bednar was wrong. Facebook has and will...

The NDE and its Interpretation

December 17, 2009

I’ve delayed publishing this essay for several months due to the fact that, the more I seem to learn about this subject, the more I know that I don’t know. I suppose it’s that way with anything. However, it’s a subject that I think is absolutely remarkable in its implications. You’ve seen them on talk shows, the radio, best-selling books, and now the Internet: people who claim to have had a near-death experience (NDE). We’ve known about NDEs for years now, and, though they were once seen as “fringe science,” due to sheer numbers of experiencers, psychologists, neurologists, and...

Death to the World!

November 18, 2009

Death to the World!

In my endless search for connections between faith and music, I came across a stark and beautiful sight last month. First of all, I finally bought a Sleep album after knowing about them for years. Sleep is a sludgy, brutal Doom/Stoner Metal band from the early ’90s, and I really can’t explain why I love them so much. But that’s beside the point. I was reading about their history, and discovered that one of their original guitarists, Justin Marler, had left the band to become an Orthodox monk.

The Church of the Big Bang

October 29, 2009

I remember a remarkable conversation I once had with another Elder when I was a missionary. He and I had been talking about the relationship between God and science, which was a notoriously hot topic in my mission. Darwin is a dirty word in West Texas, and words like “radiometric dating” and “natural selection” aren’t necessarily swear words, but shouldn’t be used in polite or mixed company. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned in passing the Big Bang. He was quite taken aback. “You don’t actually believe in the Big Bang, do you?” he asked. I told...

The Word of Wisdom and animal cruelty

September 3, 2009

I had one of those “oh, great” moments today as I was searching the news online. I have “oh, great” moments now and then. For instance, about a week after the semester started here at the University of Kentucky, as I was locking up my bike, I realized none of the other bikes had helmets with them. It then dawned on me: no one on campus wears their helmet. I’ve been the one geek on campus who wears a helmet! All the people that looked at me and smiled- were they really just laughing at the helmet? Then I...

The Fruits of Guru Nanak

July 27, 2009

The Fruits of Guru Nanak

I’m not even sure how I got it, surprisingly, but in the short time I lived in Idaho, I received an interesting gem. It’s a book called Religions of the World: A Latter-day Saint Perspective, by Spencer J. Palmer. I’ve always enjoyed books about world religions, especially the obscure and forgotten, but I was expecting something rather bland, or apologetic, or dismissive. I was pleasantly surprised. This one was actually very unbiased, concise, and interesting. It didn’t break any new ground, necessarily, except that it offered interesting comparisons and contrasts with other major world religions. I found that book...

Time and Art, Part 2

June 11, 2009

Last Sunday, I mentioned a philosophical question I had in my mind and the comfort I received from the Lord after receiving an answer. In that post, I also mentioned that this question and answer led me to rethink the way I pray. Let me start with some information. In Logic, we learn that it is a fallacy to use something to verify itself. Let me give you an example from my Logic textbook from class (I’m not making this up): The Book of Mormon is true because it was written by Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith wrote the truth...

Time and Art, Part 1

June 7, 2009

The way we experience time has never been too fascinating to me until the last week or so. I can’t pinpoint exactly when it hit me, but all of a sudden I found myself attacking the very fundamental nature of time itself. This has led me to look at prayer in a completely different way. Let me explain. As I type, I can see that the desk in front of me has width, length, and depth. I can perceive all three dimensions simultaneously. People like Steven Hawking insist that time is a dimension also. And yet, while the first...

Consecrating our Illness

March 19, 2009

I was sick over the bitterest month of the winter. It was just one grueling, annoying, or depressing illness after another. First it was a flu, which turned into a sinus infection, and then an awful throat infection, followed by a cold. I was miserable, and, no doubt, miserable to be around. Late one night in the middle of it all, I considered my roommate. He was a friend of mine and also the Elders Quorum President. It came to my mind to ask him for a blessing, using consecrated oil. I desperately wanted to be healed from this...

Interview with David Murphy

February 28, 2009

The chance to do an interview like this doesn’t happen too often. David Murphy is a kind, energetic young man who does promotions for Simeon “Young Sim” Lawrence‘s clean record label, Feel Good Music in Salt Lake City. On Friday, a 45-year-old man named Jeffrey Boyd Ackerman was shot and killed in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and a suspect with a weapon ran from the crime scene, pursued hotly by the police. David was working and witnessed the pursuit, in front of the business where he worked. What did he do? He ran out of his business and tackled the...

What is the Holy Ghost?

February 21, 2009

One of my favorite parts about BYU-Idaho, or rather, one thing I actually liked about BYU-Idaho, was the religion classes. Systematic, academic study of the Standard Works was something I’d never experienced before and I loved it. One thing that hit me like a ton of bricks in the middle of a religion class at BYU was this: I don’t know who the Holy Ghost is. Even my religion instructor admitted ignorance on the subject, though speculation abounded.

Where would you go?

February 11, 2009

A few posts on MormonMatters got me thinking once about my relationship with other faith groups. For instance, a recent post on why it seems that ex-Mormons have a hard time joining other denominations. Valoel wrote a blog post on what you’d do if you found out that the Church weren’t true through some sort of revelation (from God or otherwise), however the post had the caveat: “For simplicity, the assumption for this topic is that no other church is a true alternative.” For me, I’ve found that if, for some reason, I discovered that if the Church isn’t...

The Symbolic Image of Christ

February 1, 2009

The Symbolic Image of Christ

Much has been said in church magazines and the Bloggernacle about the image of Joseph Smith. Do we know what Joseph Smith really looked like? Are our statues and paintings truly representative of him? This is not the point of my post here, though. I recently had a conversation with my fiancee about Rastafarianism, mentioning that Rastas believe that Jesus Christ was black. I admitted that, though I personally don’t see much evidence for that, I did concede that Jesus probably looked very different than what most Mormons envision.

Secret Combinations

December 27, 2008

There seems to be a common thread running through the fringe theorists that I’ve talked to, and that is the idea of “secret societies.” Illuminati, the Freemasons, Skull and Bones. It’s the stuff of great novels, like The Da Vinci Code, and I’ve been surprised lately by those who even put secret societies behind recent events such as the election of Obama and the crash of the Stock Market. I’ve found that generally the idea is scoffed at by most “rational” thinkers.

Orson Scott Card and LDS Music

December 19, 2008

Orson Scott Card recently made ripples with his recent column on his experience listening to a “new” LDS album, and the dire state of current LDS music. While I’ve heard these sentiments from many individuals, it usually takes a respected name like Orson Scott Card to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, and it’s not a moment too soon. Most of the singers sounded as if they were talking down to Primary children. You know what I mean: that smiley, condescending tone that used to be heard, not just in Primary, but in Relief Society meetings as...

Keep Pedaling

December 4, 2008

One thing that I don’t see very often at Mormon Matters is the bearing of testimony. Some see the bearing of testimony as a form of social control, some may see it as people trying to convince themselves of truth, and so it seems that it doesn’t have much “place” in academic discussions. Yet there is something powerful in the bearing of testimony, and sometimes I feel that it’s all I truly have to offer. Here is a part of mine, and it is a testimony of the Apostles, in the light of Elder Wirthlin’s passing.

Interview with Mark Hansen

October 21, 2008

As the LDS church continues to grow, the art that its members create continue to fill new and different niches. Most of us are familiar with LDS music, the kind of music you’d see at Deseret Book, etc., and praise-type music like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I’ve focused quite a bit on members of the church who write non-LDS music, or music that doesn’t necessarily have LDS themes. I interview these musicians on Linescratchers. However, I’ve stumbled upon artists that don’t really fit either way. Mark Hansen has quite an online presence, and his music is a mix. It...

Poor Pontius Pilate

October 12, 2008

I usually post about music here, but this particular entry is something I’ve been considering for a couple weeks. I remember when I was younger I often, for some reason, considered the case of Pontius Pilate. I remember reading about him and perceiving him as a helpless, unwitting player in Christ’s death. I saw him as innocent, washing his hands of the blood of Christ, wanting to help but not having the power to stem the relentless tide of the throngs of angry people wishing to put the Savior to death. I remember one time in particular when I...

Lyrics as Scripture

October 4, 2008

First of all, I’d like to bring attention to a new publication that has recently been published called Mormon Artist (http://mormonartist.net). It seems to be right up my alley, anyway, and features Mormon sculptors, painters, musicians, dancers (even glass-blowers, reads the site).

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