My book club recently read Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. Despite my interest in all things mormon, I did not recommend this book to my group. I had read it before, and found it frightening. The Lafferty murders were especially heinous (to my mind) and disturbing on…
Category: Mormon Doctrine
So much for dualism, try googlism…
In reading through my morning dose of tech news, I caught this story about the medical and health ramifications of humans having over 1 trillion bacteria inside us (more bacteria than there are human cells). The health ramifications are fascinating, but because I relate everything back to religion I immediately…
What can repair the church’s race relations?
I guess that is the ultimate question of today’s post. On Mormon Matters, Mormon Heretic (the Mormon part’s the dominant side of that name, btw) wrote a post trying to discuss positive black history in the church. And I guess, stinker that I am, I just had to approach the…
Why Mormons Are Not Conservatives
Andrew Sullivan makes an interesting point: Most Americans have a healthy respect for religious teaching but in their lives give greater preference to common sense and practical experience. That includes almost all religious groups as well – Catholics, in particular, show conservative tendencies. The exceptions? Evangelicals and Mormons and Jehovah’s…
On the church’s uniqueness
…Sometimes, these blog entries just take too much time to set up…anyway, I was reading Mormon Matters and getting into the discussion there, and Bruce had said something that I found intriguing: …John Dehlin suggested that it was a mistake for modern Mormons to down play what he calls “19th…
Your Sunday School Lesson: The First Vision
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, of whose work I learned at BYU, every community, tribe, or nation requires an origin myth. The account of a community’s or practice’s origin has far reaching consequences because it implies how they relate to the cosmos, which is necessary for human beings to…
The Lord Helps Those Who Help Smite His Enemies
Remember California’s Proposition 8? Well, I hardly know what to make of this post…
Can Mormonism change?
I’ve been debating my brother about some issues surrounding same-sex marriage on my blog (no link; still trying to remain anonymous). In the course of that debate, a few ideas popped up that I think people here might enjoy. This is a good one having to do with religions changing….
Why not denounce Brigham Young’s racist statements?
It should come as no surprise to MSP readers that Brigham Young made racist statements. As there are 26 volumes in the Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young said a great deal about many things. I think most current LDS (including Brigham himself) acknowledge the doctrine that sometimes an LDS prophet…
I am Son of Perdition (And So Can You!)
As one of those ex-Mormons who has adopted the label Son of Perdition (SofP), I’d just like to toy with this a bit (continuing the discussion here). I think this label is a bit loser than some think. Here’s an intriguing post on BCC about those who would be considered…