Author Profile: Mormon Heretic
Author Archive for Mormon Heretic
I want to let everyone know of a very unfortunate situation in Romania. According to this Deseret News article, Elder McKay Choy Burrows, 20, of Highland, Utah, and Elder Jace Edwards Davis, 20, of Logandale, Nevada, died from accidental natural gas asphyxiation due to a gas leak in their apartment sometime Friday night in Romania. It’s terrible that such a seemingly preventable tragedy happened to these 2 young men.
I wish I could claim credit for the title of the post, but it actually comes from this MSNBC article. Apparently the Pope is encouraging Catholic Priests to blog. It reminded me of Elder Ballard’s admonition back in 2007. Even though the pope doesn’t love computers, he said, Continue reading…
I’m teaching the Gospel Principles lesson #2 tomorrow. I’m going to attempt to utilize proper sources, only utilizing personal experiences and church magazines. We’ll see if I bore everyone to tears or if we can have an enlightening conversation.
The title of Lesson #2 is “Our Heavenly Family”, but I think it is mis-named. Most of the lesson deals with the pre-Mortal life. As I thought about this, I think this is one of the biggest theological innovations in Mormon theology. I can remember teaching about the pre-mortal life as part of the plan of Salvation. I also remember that missionaries are free to use A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards. I loved this book as a missionary. Elder Richards served as mission president to the Southern States Mission. Since I served in the South, this book was a wonderful tool in the Bible Belt, and highlights many biblical scriptures in support of Mormon beliefs and doctrines.
My wife brought this to my attention while reading the front page of the Deseret News: 2000s: The First Decade-Mormon Church Influence Soars. Without providing any sources, it says,
President Thomas S. Monson has been named the most influential 80-year-old in America and Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are listed among the most important 100 Americans in history
Other noteworthy items from the article include from the past decade: Continue reading…
I was asked to teach the lesson in Elder’s Quorum on Elder Eyring’s General Conference talk from October: Our Perfect Example (click here for video.) Inspired by Hawkgrrrl’s Virtual RS/PH lessons, I thought I’d give it a try again. I’m not sure if everyone is supposed to review this talk, but I believe this is the talk our stake has chosen. I think Elder Eyring’s talk is a perfect lead-in to New Year’s Resolutions. Shouldn’t we all resolve to be more like Christ? So, before I get to Elder Eyring’s talk, I want to discuss the History of New Years Day.
Many lament that Christmas has turned into a commercial gift-giving holiday. However, the Bible shows that gift-giving happened right after the birth of Christ. The Book of Matthew tells of 3 gifts the Wise Men gave: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Prof Deirdre Good of the General Theological Seminary in New York tells us the meaning of these particular gifts in Mystery of the 3 Kings: “The gift of gold is for royalty. The gift of frankincense is for divinity. The gift of myrrh is for death.”
Everyone is familiar with the Twelve Days of Christmas. It’s a funny song where the gift-giver gives strange gifts of “lords a leaping”, and various birds, including turtledoves and a “partridge in a pear tree.” (Really, who would want all those birds?) With the 12 days of Christmas, it seems the gifts are given the 12 days before Christmas. The Bible tells us of the first gifts given in celebration of Christ’s birth by the Wise Men, and one tradition holds that the Wise Men visited 12 days after Christ’s birth. January 6 is celebrated in some parts of the world as 3 Kings Day.
The Wise Men are a big part of the Christmas story. Oddly, they come in and disappear. The Bible seems to indicate that they were not Jews, and they came from the east. I came across a DVD called Mystery of the Three Kings by Questar Entertainment. I thought it brings up some really interesting points, and after learning a bit more about these Wise Men, I thought it brought up some interesting facts: these Wise Men probably came from Iran, and probably were members of a religious sect called Zoroastrianism, which is still in existence today.
It’s been some time since we talked about alternative Book of Mormon geography theories. For those new to the site, you may want to see some of these other theories I mentioned: Malay, and South America.
From time to time, I get an email from George Potter. He has a website called the Nephi Project. I heard him speak a few years ago on research he has done in Yemen. His research is pretty well-respected, and it appears he has a very good candidate for Nephi’s Harbor, and he may have found the River Laman in Saudi Arabia that is mentioned by Lehi in the Book of Mormon. (I really need to write a review of his and another researcher’s work–they are really good.) Potter thinks that Lehi and his family followed the frankincense trail to Yemen before setting sail for the New World.
So, what do you make of this? This AP article says that Hate crimes up against gays, religious groups – “Overall, the number of reported cases increases 2 percent.”
Now the FBI says this could be the result of better reporting, and not really an increase.
Ok, I am when someone who get bothered when someone makes disparaging comments about another ethnic group. Fox suspended LA Clippers announcers Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith for one game because of one email from “a viewer who e-mailed Fox to complain.” Give me a break. Please, what is so offensive about this conversation?
Andrew Ainsworth did a post back in March wondering if Mormon Culture is Depressing Utahns?
If we can blame depression on Mormon Culture, apparently it is fair game to blame Mormon Culture for making Utah the Happiest State in the nation, according to this MSNBC article. Let’s look at the Top 10:
*Note–This was posted this morning. Due to a technical glitch, it was erased. Some comments may have been erased from this morning as well. I am re-posting it this evening.
As you search across the bloggernacle, sometimes you’ll find antagonists who take great issue with the fact that a gun was smuggled to Joseph Smith at the Carthage Jail. These antagonists often act as if the church is covering up this fact. For years I’ve known a gun was smuggled to Joseph from personal visits to the Carthage Jail in Illinois. Tour guides do not try to hide this fact. Some antagonists love to quote that John Taylor believed that Joseph may have killed one or two of the assailants with this gun. However, this is inaccurate. Elder Dallin Oaks wrote a book called Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith which goes into great detail about the events surrounding Joseph Smith, as well as the trial of Joseph’s accused assassins.
members of the Lemba Tribe
The History Channel has a show called “Digging for the Truth.” In season 1, they did an episode called “The Lost Tribe of Israel”, which highlighted the Lemba Tribe in South Africa. This group claims to be a Hebrew people who were displaced around 700 BC, about 100 years before Lehi left Jerusalem. I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between their story, and the story of Lehi. (This is a short version of my post. The longer version can be found here.)
I saw this interesting photo in the Deseret News today, and just had to share.
Air Force Acadamy at Utah football game 10/24/2009
In the paper edition of the Deseret News, President Monson was “honored as the distinguished University of Utah fan of the game.” Pres Monson’s attendance may have been a deciding factor–the Utes won 23-16 in Overtime over the Air Force Falcons. Meanwhile, BYU suffered a loss without Pres Monson, getting crushed 38-7 at home in Provo to TCU (Texas Christian University.)
I recently learned that the University of Utah was designated as “the School of the Prophets” by Brigham Young, according to a Deseret News article from Dec 2, 1867. Continue reading…
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