Author Profile: John Nilsson
Author Archive for John Nilsson
I hope everyone enjoyed their turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving last week. One thing I appreciate about the Puritans, other than their fondness for a good feast, burning witches, cool hats, repression of normal sexual desires, and providing the grist for great dramas like The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, is the good sense of their descendants in religious matters.
They decided you could be a half-Puritan, which technically sounds like you’re half dirty today, but hear me out. Continue reading…
Who wrote this, and why wouldn’t the Correlation Committee allow it to be published today?
Every teacher is obligated by his responsibility to others to become a scholar in the gospel. Continue reading…
Here’s another quote from a discarded Church manual predating Correlation. Who said it and why wouldn’t it fly in today’s Church?:
The pragmatic or experimental view of life has penetrated widely into the educational program of America, in the form known as Progressive Education…Most teachers who accept some of these ideas would indignantly reject any suggestion that the universe is naturalistic or Godless, that there are no fundamental moral truths, or that man is really an animal in the ultimate sense. Continue reading…
Here is a quote from a dusty, forgotten, once-official Church manual. Who said this and why wouldn’t this get past the brethren and sistren at Correlation?:
Inequality of inheritance and opportunity among the children of men leads many people to question the Creator’s impartiality and justice, and, therefore, his very existence… Continue reading…
Our quote this week is from another church manual predating Correlation. Who wrote this, and why would the Correlation Committee disapprove?:
Just what is the function and role of religion in one’s life? Let us suggest an experiment. Take a piece of paper, divide it into two columns, place a plus sign above one and a negative sign above the other. On the basis of your experience with life to-date list in these two columns respectively a) those things which have brought you most satisfaction in life and b) those things which are frustrating and destructive to fine living. Continue reading…
Another week, another great uncorrelated quote from an LDS Church manual that would never see the light of day in today’s church:
Every discussion of faith must distinguish it from its caricatures. Faith is not credulity. It is not “believing things you know ain’t so.” Continue reading…
Hi everyone,
Welcome to my new series where I provide you, the reader, with an excerpt from an LDS church manual, uncited, which I LIKE. That means no Journal of Discourses nonsense like blood atonement, racism, or Adam-God for starters. (Sorry to disappoint some of our readers with that caveat).
You can guess if you want, such things as the author (the Church used to have individual authors stand behind their words), the title, the era, or which church program the lesson was used in. But that’s all trivia, really, compared to this: You get to list ALL THE MANY REASONS why the excerpt I give you wouldn’t make it past the Correlation Committee today!
Here’s our first one:
Young people sometimes doubt the truth of the Gospel or some part of it, and feeling the worthy desire to be sincere, they cease to be active in the Church. Continue reading…
There are many positions on which century the Book of Mormon originated in, but most seem to fall into two general camps: the book was largely produced in the fifth century by Moroni, or in the nineteenth century by Joseph Smith.
There is a third view: the text was largely produced in the 20th century by committees of LDS Church employees.
As a Mormon kid growing up in the area of Southern California largely settled by Dust Bowl migrants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, evangelicals (we called them born-agains) were the enemy. They were the ones circulating anti-Mormon movies like the Godmakers, they were the ones telling me and my friends of the “swing-set set” that we weren’t saved, that we weren’t even Christian. Continue reading…
Take this assessment and find out:
(Taken from D. Jeff Burton’s For Those Who Wonder : forthosewhowonder.com. Similar to a Correlation Department survey on Religion and Life conducted among LDS Church members in the mid-1980s)
Section I: Measures of Participation and Activity in Standard Church Programs
1. How often do you attend the temple? Continue reading…
I attended the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium on Friday, August 8th. I hadn’t been to Sunstone in ten years.
The last time I came, I was a young, single, childless university student. The world was my oyster, and Mormon Studies was, for me, a new phenomenon. I went to celebrity-gaze.
Whether I would continue to be involved with the Church was an open question for me. Continue reading…
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Amos 5:21-24
For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times;but remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-13
This is why I love President Monson! He has the common touch and appears to love people.
If you watch the video linked above, you will see the news piece on Salt Lake TV. At the very end, President Monson ends the informal report by flashing a peace sign, saying “Peace!” and chuckling. I was completely enamored of him once again. Continue reading…
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
Matthew 28: 1-2
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
Mark 16: 1-5 Continue reading…
What does it mean to say you believe something or “believe in” something? Would a child say they believe in Santa Claus? Or would they simply act and react to situations as if Santa Claus existed? That is, if their parents took them on the Polar Express would they expect to meet Santa Claus tucked away in a cozy brick house at the North Pole checking his naughty/nice list and getting fist-bumps from Mrs. Claus before he gave rousing speeches to the elves?
Is belief as expectation the best way to understand religious belief in general? Continue reading…
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