Author Profile: Russell
Author Archive for Russell
This essay has almost nothing to do with the September 11th attacks. If anything, the attacks that many of us saw only served as a catalyst. I am thinking of 9/11/1857. And the hero? Not a fireman, but rather a lumbering, stuttering, 200-lb councilman from Ft. Johnson, Utah. Continue reading…
Perhaps it is the heretical imp in me, but I have often shifted in my seat uncomfortably as I sit in classes at BYU and in the church house while folks accept as axiomatic all the talk about the American revolution as merely the harbinger of the Restoration. The argument goes like this: the gospel could not be established in a land of tyranny, it is argued. Whatever the errors or skeletons of our founding fathers (if they be admitted at all), they served as Cyrus figures for the Saints. They were “wise men” who helped to shake the shackles of tyranny from the colonists (“shake” here should be read as war and destruction of human life—just so we’re on the same page). I have two problems with this: 1) I hate war. Continue reading…
He’s the stuff of kitschy seminary teachers who like to make the Church hip to their edgy adolescents: Eldridge Cleaver. A real Alma the Younger story that those white kids in Utah Valley can understand. Continue reading…
I’m not one of those “let’s prove popular stories incorrect so we can watch the orthodox-squirm” kind of fellows. You know the kind…they start their debunking by saying: “You won’t find this in the handbooks,” and top it off by saying: “I just think it’s so ‘interesting’ that we want to forget our history” (and if you listen closely, you can hear them snicker as they utter the word ‘interesting’). I tend to think of these folks as the Mormon Jokers–they just like to watch Mormon theology burn.
On that note, please know that I want to watch nothing burn unless it can keep you warm.
By the time my FHE activity was over, I had the counselor in the bishopric grumbling about how I was on the high road to excommunication (“like those historians at BYU”). Why? Because I suggested that Joseph Smith might have actually temporarily imagined a different “right place” besides the Rocky Mountains. Where? Texas. Continue reading…
At BYU, I was a bit of a dabbler, at times, bordering on dilletantism. Continue reading…
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system – with all these exalted powers – Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.–Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
Incidentally, this post will say precious little of Rhodesian man, “missing links,” or opposing thumbs. I’m not a scientist. I don’t pretend to be. Believe it or not, this post is about kindness, about skepticism, indeed, even about forbearance. Most importantly, it’s about how creationists, Latter-day Saints, and Richard Dawkins might have something to learn from Charles Darwin. Continue reading…
I am going to state what is bound to be a wildly unpopular opinion: I really like the Correlation Committee. Continue reading…
“Read your scriptures”
“Go to Church”
“Watch Saturday’s Warrior” (heaven help the Sunday School who has a Saturday’s Warrior faction)
“Sunday School answers” generally do not receive very good press from many Latter-day Saints, especially those of the blogging ilk. Instructors beg, plead with their students: “Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?” The typical response is either befuddled silence or a massaged version of the above. Normally, it is explained in the context of a personal experience…after all, we note, this means we’re applying the doctrine (note the almost elixir-like aura surrounding the word apply–as though all applications were equally relevant to classroom discussion). I mean, seriously, does that story about your dog finding a bone really tell us much about missionary work and scripture study? And then, if one expresses frustration about the intellectual drain that such questions have on your mind, you invariably hear a response–either then or later in a Sacrament meeting talk: “Primary answers are primary answers for a reason *insert some chestnut about how they are “primary” to our faith and always reliable, so forth, so on*” And all in the name of uplifting one another when all we’re doing is banalizing hackneyed stories and analogies… Continue reading…
If you think the title tips my hand, hold onto your hats. Indeed, I am consciously borrowing from Albert Schweitzer’s famed work, In Search of the Historical Jesus, itself the culmination of a century of scholarship that had essentially denied the Messianic nature, instead promoting an entire movement of scholarship that promoted the Gospels as an ex post facto radical recreation of this Jewish charismatic, social revolutionary’s mild-mannered teachings. Given the paucity of evidence concerning him, these scholars concluded, we might as well give up on ever getting into Jesus’ head in any traditional sense. Schweizer’s summation, as goodly and moral a man he was, made for rather pessimistic conclusions: the search for the historical Jesus had been an abject failure. But fortunately, we don’t have to deal with more modern figures, such as Joseph Smith, do we? While we may not be able to find the coordinates of the First Vision or the dimensions of the gold plates, we can at least attest to his chracacter. We have witnesses, documents, remembrances, affadavits, right? Don’t believe me? Good, because you shouldn’t… Continue reading…
The land of Star Valley is an almost mystical one, surreal in its environs and mystical in its origin. The last of the Mormon settlements, it is nestled in the foothills of the Tetons as the one of the last outposts of the Mormon colonial experiment. Entering the valley is not unlike a drug-induced quaintness that leads one to, at once, blink to ensure he’s awake/sober and refrain from blinking lest he pass the town entirely. One might even expect to hear this music played from the rooftops of such a valley. Even now, I can hardly take a few steps in the local grocery store without meeting an old acquaintance.
Everyone loves a good villain…the bellowing laugh with hands thrown up in the air utter triumph. As a child, I found Dr. Claw of Inspector Gadget fame to be wildly amusing. The Joker has quickly reached pop-culture stardom as people would practice their Joker impressions of “Why So Serious?” Good cartoonish villainy makes for good parties. Continue reading…
So methinks that we have a few clairvoyants on-board. That said, behold the top four “Righteous Gentiles.”
A few caveats…
A) No, C.S. Lewis fans…he did not make the list and for good reasons–primarily because his spot is being reserved a future, top-10 list that Arthur and I will co-arthur, I mean, author (*drum riff for comedic effect*).
B) I must give Howard Hughes a hat-tip…while he doesn’t make the official list (his contribution wasn’t wide-reaching enough to really lodge himself in the Mormon mind beyond esoterica), he fits well within the tradition of businessmen appreciating Mormons for their discipline and hard work. This also intersects some with the fourth Continue reading…
So, in honor of the broad-mindedness that is Mormon Matters, I would like to suggest a list of the top ten “Righteous Gentiles.” In orthodox Judaism, these are known as gerim toshavim, “resident aliens.” These are Gentiles who either formally or informally have associated themselves with the people of the Jews by agreeing to abide by the mitzvot or Noachian laws.
What great men/women among our people have demonstrated similar affinity for our cause, while they themselves remain outside the fray of the Mormon center? Continue reading…
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