When you think of God, do you envision? a proper English gentleman a modernized Biblical patriarch an erudite English professor at a Ivy league university a tame Lion (returning to the C. S. Lewis reference)? Do you recreate God in your own idealized image?
Blog Archives
Am I my brother’s keeper? Undocumented workers and illegal aliens
My general experience with illegal aliens is similar to the one called to mind by George Bush: people who at great risk and significant hardship have sacrificed and done what they could to provide a better life for their children. It is tempered by my wife’s experience providing anesthesia to family oriented young women who are proud to give their children “American” names and to become a part of life in the United States. I am aware that historically the risk and hardships were greater, the financial rewards of coming to America were much less. Political and religious freedom...
What if somebody is watching me?
Firetag has brought up some things that are dual** — that is they are contradictory things at the same time. The classic example is that light is both a particle and a wave. Some times in the scriptures when we see things like that we have a “blind men and the elephant” situation, but sometimes we have things that appear to be dual because there is no elephant.* Sometimes the act of seeing, the presence of an observer and how the observer chooses to look actually changes recordable reality. That is, depending on whether you look, and how you...
Renee Olson just died
Her death was sudden and unexpected. For more about her: http://www.blacklds.org/renee-olson-full-testimony Her Facebook memorial page here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Renee-Olson-memorial/158092054201230 She will be missed.
Even beyond idle speculation — the worst things you’ve ever heard at Church?
I still remember a meeting where the speaker said “I was never part of your organization and knew nothing about it until I was called to be in charge of it, now I appreciate how important it is” followed up by a couple tone deaf comments about the organization. She quite successfully got the point across that (a) serving in the organization was insignificant insofar as any leadership position in it mattered and (b) understanding the organization was not necessary either. The only worse thing that happened was when one of the women complained about it, an elders quorum...
Duality, Doctrine and When Less is More
D&C Section 77 and its companion section 113 have an interesting history. An “older” high priest was publicly debating with local ministers about doctrine and was winning the debates. Local church leaders felt he was espousing false doctrine and decided to excommunicate him. At his trial he had a surprise advocate who spoke passionately in his defense, even though he was 100% wrong on the doctrine. The advocate who completely turned things around: Joseph Smith (whose corrections became those two sections). He gave what is one of my favorite sermons about how we have freedom to believe and how...
Job, Healing and Elder Oaks
Elder Oaks General Conference talk on healing has ended up as one of the talks widely used for an alternate week priesthood and relief society lesson. I almost got derailed into posting about the Book of Job and neo-Calvinism (the rich get that way because of the grace of God rewarding them for their merit, the unlucky, poor and distressed get that way because of their sins — that is the message of everyone in the Book of Job who God repudiates at the end …) but Elder Oaks talk was what I originally planned to write about.
Ok, time to speculate on gender essentialism
There are lots of ways to start this off. I could start with the more than forty sexes of slime molds (why stop at 4 or 5 gender types when you can have 47 sexes). Or I could start with race and culture differences and variety and how they relate to sexual differences. Or how about the differences between the terms gender and sex as the words were used in 1770, 1970, 1990 and 2010. Should I dredge up fetish behaviors and the animal companion marriage movement? And just what does it mean to be human? How much difference...
Viewpoints, Part Two
A viewpoint can change things. Consider Sir Thomas More, famous as a model of honesty, integrity and virtue. A man for all seasons and a Catholic Saint. He is also the man truly responsible for William Tyndale’s being burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English in addition to those he was able to prosecute and burn directly for owning copies of the scriptures in English such as John Tewkesbury.
Presiding in marriage and otherwise
Let me start with a true story, I recently observed and that resulted in this post: It is obviously a vacation weekend. The only member of the bishopric in town is a very junior second counselor. He spots a member of the stake presidency sitting in the back with his family. With a sigh, the poor brother walks up to the stand. The counselor relaxes, opens the meeting with the note that the “poor brother” is presiding and goes on. In our worship services, presiding means sitting there and, by being present, enabling other people to take the lead,...
Viewpoints, part one
It is delightful, some times, to see how the LDS Church is seen from the outside. For example, you might be surprised that one thing many Baptist scholars respect about the Church is the way the Church is open about the flaws in its leaders and history compared to other institutions. Further, it seems that the further in the past something is, the easier it is for people to be open. No one seems to blanch at the thought that Noah got drunk and passed out in public, that Peter after he began to lead the Church still bowed...
Commenting Styles, Posting Styles (and you expected a Sunstone Post, didn’t you?)
Ok, I actually have my entire presentation written down, and I could have posted it, so you could read it at Mormon Matters if you aren’t listening to me talk. But where would the fun be in that? Instead, it is my turn to do a meta post about the bloggernacle.
Higher Criticism, my viewpoint and the Church
I first learned about higher criticism in the context of the archeological excavation of Jericho. The German higher criticism read was that Jericho never existed and that part of the Bible was a bad gloss. Perhaps if I had gotten the introduction the other way around, I might have had more interest in something that has such a vainglorious name (“higher criticism” – really?). It did not get much better with my second introduction, when I was doing some research into Ba’l, since the Bible Dictionary reference we inherited for free from the Church of England publishers dates back...
Find heroes
I worked for a time on a project involving heroquests and myth structures. I analyzed historic, legendary and fictional stories and texts, rituals, narratives and constructs. I was once asked if I ever knew anyone who was truly heroic. Though I did not know it, I did. My dad.
Deconstructing Solomon
We tend to remember Solomon as either magically wise or the one who fell from grace with too many wives. Of his acts of wisdom, most remember only the “split the baby” story. Of the wives issue, all people remember is “hundreds.” But we rarely think about what the text has to say.
Lessons from Old Testament Harshness
Deuteronomy 6:10-12 seems incredibly harsh. As the Lord’s people enter into Canaan, they are given cities that they haven’t built, produce they haven’t grown, and all manner of things they don’t deserve, while the inhabitants of the land are wiped out. It is as if the only and true path to prosperity is to plunder those who have worked, built and sweated to create. Indeed, scriptures of that sort have been used to justify that very type of activity. In context with the next 27 chapters or so, it is an extended metaphor that no matter how we think...
Saw me in prison and came unto me …
The Dallas District Attorney’s office preserved DNA evidence. When advances in science occurred, they were able to retest many samples in cases where people claimed innocence. As a result, some men were freed. Other counties destroyed the same material. Those men are still in prison. The innocent who are still in jail we can sorrow for. But what about the guilty? Should we care about them? Really?
“As a new religion it is too bad you don’t have a theory of …
.. war” a friend of mine said. ” Once your theology develops, it should be interesting to see what kind of nuanced debates you have.” “Well,” I said, “we actually do have some doctrine and theology on the subject.” “Then why haven’t I seen more discussion of it? Or is it pretty simple, direct and pro-war or pro-pacifism. Is there a reason that there haven’t been many Mormons in the public eye? What does the doctrine say?” Ah yes, what does the LDS doctrine, practice and scripture say or imply?
So what is a Mormon? What is a Feminist?
To answer the question “what is a Mormon?” I found myself asking the question “what is a Feminist?” I was at a lunch. I was talking with someone who was putting a program together to support female attorneys and make them feel included. She was talking to several of us about how important it was to have good role models, to make certain that girls knew that any education they wanted, any choices they wanted or needed would be supported and were good and encouraged and how important it was to be inclusive. She was looking for groups to...
Being heard when you complain
I came home one day from Sacrament meeting and my wife had a sheet of paper, on official church stationary, titled “First Presidency Statement on Birth Control.” It had been passed out in Relief Society with instructions not to mention it to husbands. The statement seemed somewhat suspect, though I had a good idea of its actual author and why it had been promulgated the way it had been. It wasn’t long until there was a visit from Salt Lake and the matter was resolved. No one ever gave me any problems as a result of my complaint about...