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.
Blog Archives
Why I am a Tory
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...
From Black Panther to Mormon: The Case of Eldridge Cleaver
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.
The Larger-Than-Life Relics of Heritage, Part I: The Sweetwater Rescue
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...
The Almost-Right Place: Joseph Smith and the Texas Republic
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.
The Porter Rockwell Effect: Mormonism’s Soft Spot for Bad Boys
At BYU, I was a bit of a dabbler, at times, bordering on dilletantism.
What Darwin Could Teach Richard Dawkins and the Mormons
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,...
Why I Like the Correlation Committee
I am going to state what is bound to be a wildly unpopular opinion: I really like the Correlation Committee.
Sunday School As Ritual
“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...
In Search of the Historical Joseph…
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...
The Ghosts of Modernity in a Rural Mormon Town
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...
Blood Brothers: Mormons, Genocide, and the Nixon Administration
Charles Radford, a Navy yeoman, present some fascinating questions about Latter-day Saints’ relationship with the government, the law, and politicians. Charles Radford was serving as a navyman aboard a ship in India. He was an active, married Latter-day Saint. In various venues, Radford was a trained stenographer who took down highly-secretive government documents about war actions in various sections of the globe. And he was a spy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Thorns in the Side: Villains in the Mormon Mind, Part I
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.
Righteous Gentiles Part II
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...
Righteous Gentiles Part 1
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?
Stopping Time for the Unconverted
I had an interesting conversation with a woman today. Missionaries would call it a bash. I called it posing and answering meaningful questions. It prompted her to listen more than she would have.
The Gospel and Collective Memory
While I hardly want to be schmaltzy, I had a powerful experience this evening involving memory… this governing variable of my mind.
Tactical Morality
I revisit an old topic that is becoming increasingly relevant, especially in a culture where not only is bad called good and vice versa, but where neither is called anything. Indeed, we see this same element in part within our own theology where, as Joseph taught, “some things that are right under one circumstance might be wrong in another.” Our theology needs (and fortunately, has) a set of “inner controls” to keep its wild force in check and therefore, retain its usefulness to the world.
Eating Jell-O in the Ivory Tower: Scholarly Adherents and Adhering Scholars
So as one who utterly lacked a life, I did what most good, quality no-lifers do…go to graduate school. Traumatic. The structures that I had known all my life crumbled beneath my feet. Assumptions, core values, and folk beliefs were attacked at every turn by friend and foe alike. Before too long, I just didn’t know what to believe anymore…the earth was shaking underneath my feet…
“The Glory of Jacob Shall Be Made Thin”: Mormons, Marriage, and the Cold Realities of Physical Attractiveness
Alas, one wanders through the BYU campus and simply cannot escape its pervading influence: romance. One visiting professor from the University of Minnesota‘s renowned family science program, I’m told, called the BYU campus “sexually charged.” For our talk of spiritual compatibility, at the end of the day, are we just as superficial as the next Joe or Jane? Is the primary difference that active Latter Day Saints know how to keep their urges in check? What is the relationship between romance and spirituality, between noticing a pretty figure and “recognizing” (perhaps even in a Saturday’s Warrior sort-of-way…heaven forgive me...
Subscribe to Podcast
How to Support
