Culture

Passage to Zarahemla: An Interview With Chris Heimerdinger

February 3, 2008
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Passage to Zarahemla: An Interview With Chris Heimerdinger

Anyone who has ever set foot in Deseret Book should recognize the name Chris Heimerdinger. His signature novel, “Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites,” was the first in what became a sizable collection of LDS fiction targeted primarily at a young Mormon market. Now, he steps into the film making arena with his new feature film: “Passage to Zarahemla.” Chris uses his time-tested narrative device of modern characters converging in one way or another with scriptural settings and events to tell the story of Kerra and Brock, two young people who somehow collide with a parallel universe which brings them...

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Avoiding the Very Appearance of Evil… (the CleanFlicks story)

January 29, 2008
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Latter-day Saints are often taught to avoid the “very appearance of evil. ” This makes sense for any group that believes deity has called it to be “a peculiar people.” The individual examples of LDS members speak far louder than tens of thousands of missionaries in white shirts and ties (and dresses or skirts, of course). While this wise counsel can be taken to extremes, most seem to understand the principle behind it. A recent news story from Utah, however, has me thinking about appearances vs. reality — something Jesus addressed when he talked about “whited sepulchres.” Several years...

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Culture Shock in Orem

January 26, 2008
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A couple Sundays ago in our singles ward, we were reminded on no uncertain terms that if we were not currently enrolled in a BYU religion class, then we should attend an institute class. I have finished all my BYU required religion credits, and as such, fell into the speaker’s target audience. I figured he was probably right and I could benefit from an institute class, so I looked around for what was available. Apparently there was a Stake institute held at the stake center, and also the Orem Institute, located on UVSC campus. I was able to get...

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Bigfoot, the Three Nephites and the Lost Tribes of Israel

January 23, 2008
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Today’s post is by SuperNerd.  I would like to give a shout out to all the Ward crazies…Where have you all gone? Every Ward has them and every Ward needs them for comic relief. You know who I’m talking about, that member of the ward who bears his/her testimony every month and always has a miraculous story about angels, the Three Nephites, Bigfoot, the return of the Lost Tribes of Israel, the building of New Jerusalem or some other end time event. As a teenager my friends and I used to sit in the back pew next to the...

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Got Gender?: A Modest Proposal

January 22, 2008
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Men don’t understand women very well. I understand them even less because I grew up with brothers. No sisters. This may have contributed to my girl-craziness in high school and college. Getting to know my wife better has helped me to begin to understand women and their motivations, but I’m still learning. I work with women. My boss is a woman. The majority of my co-workers are women. Such is a career in education. I really like it, because I’ve been able to see that women are no different from men in very fundamental ways. We are all capable...

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Scientologists – The Only Ones Who Can Really Help

January 18, 2008
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This post is by Chris W.  You may have seen this video of Tom Cruise floating around the tubes. It’s a video from an award ceremony where Tom was given some kind of medal for being an upstanding scientologist. It’s jargon-ridden, so it’s hard to follow what’s going on most of the time, but there are some priceless gems of Maverick wisdom. Money quote: “When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help… We are the way to...

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