By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Yesterday, Steve Evans informed me I have the honor of following Richard Bushman as a guest-poster at BCC. OH! Cool! The Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman? Sure, I’d love it if you posted me right behind him- me, sitting here with kids five, three and not-yet-one, in my fuzzy pink bathrobe with baby-spit spots, ignoring my kids’ pleas for more apple juice as I try and string together coherent thoughts? Greeeeaat. Yes, do let’s follow Mr. Bushman.

My name is Tracy M, and I am a convert. An adult convert, going on four years now. Married with three Monkeys children. In a former life, I was an artist who got paid for making art, now I just make art to stay sane in a household where I am allegedly in charge, but really the Monkeys rule the roost. I write for myself and for Mormon Mommy Wars, as well as run a design company from my home. In my spare time I ignore e-mails from Steve Evans asking me to write for him, too.

So let’s talk about art. A few weeks ago, J. Daniel Crawford wrote an intriguing post on how terrible and shallow the pool is for LDS art. I have to agree with him- and his thesis. My own thesis is a little different, but I am looking at it from the vantage point of the artist: Happiness does not beget fine Art. Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever we spend millions of dollars on a new temple, there are always a few naysayers who say the money would have been better spent on the poor, blah, blah, blah.

My feeling is that as long as you do in fact spend money on the poor, then it’s OK to build great and spacious buildings for God. In fact, it’s not only OK, it’s imperative, as our spiritual aesthetic needs things of beauty to inspire the soul. Case in point, Otto Wagner’s Kirche am Steinhof in Vienna. Speaking of this incredible building, J.A. Lux has said, “Whoever believes that the mystical-religious impulse is nurtured in the semi-darkness of a poorly ventilated, cold and damp interior is brilliantly contradicted by Wagner’s building.” Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Lyman Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History, Emeritus, at Columbia University and most recently the the author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.

Dear LDS Bloggers:

Many you are aware of the conference for LDS Religious Studies and Divinity School students to be held at Yale University on February 16-17. The aim of the conference is to address issues that create problems for LDS students in religion and to ask what can a Mormon contribute to the debates that go on in these fields. (For more information email Seth Payne (seth -dot- payne at yale -dot- edu). Read the rest of this entry »

Wikiality. A few months ago Stephen Colbert invented this word while praising Wikipedia for having a longer listing for “truthiness“ than it did for Lutherans. I have to echo his enthusiasm. Wikipedia serves a wonderful purpose in that it spares me the embarrassment of admitting when I don’t know something. Rather than having to ask someone and get a raised eyebrow in response, I just type in a few words and the wonderful world of Wiki enlightens me.

What was up with that huge red moon that appeared for a night last month? It’s called a hunter’s moon! In the event of nuclear war, will cockroaches really inherit the earth? Thankfully, no. They’re no more resistant to radiation than a fruit fly. There’s even an entry for “why.” Next time your 3-year-old asks that question, just refer them to Wikipedia. Read the rest of this entry »

First time I can remember a Church publication ever asking for feedback, but here it is. Read the rest of this entry »

While books are the traditional media of Mormondom, the compact disk and dvd have revolutionized how we do things over the last decade. Here are some notable new releases: Read the rest of this entry »

Why everyone is just as bad as we are. Or why I am in a quandry.

I recently moved to the capital region of New York state, an area known to be both crazy and dying. I also don’t have any friends, relatives or acquaintances here and the Mormon community is completely lacking in angst  so I decided to find some other churchy groups to make friends. I found a protestant non-evangelical discussion group that meets every Wednesday in a bar (I am not opposed) to discuss topics posted on The Thoughtful Christian.

Read the rest of this entry »

I made a pledge once to be civil. I shall try to do so in the following. There has been much discussion lately about who is welcome in the bloggernacle. Read the rest of this entry »

The eternal fate of the child who passes away is a subject which many have considered. Before the Church was officially organized, the Saints received the teachings in the Book of Mormon, which declared that the child who dies is saved in Christ and that such individuals need not be baptized. As Mormon conceptions of cosmology, resurrection and exaltation developed beyond the binary eternities of the Book of Mormon, the simple words of Moroni were complicated in the expanded vision. Read the rest of this entry »

I received my first vinyl Soundgarden album in middle school. I eventually fell in love with Pearl Jam, scorning Nirvana as no talent hacks. I was raised in a Seattle suburb, so I had some grunge cred even though I wore preppy shirts tucked in and leather shoes with matching belt. I even had a semi-grunge band during my first year at BYU. Just before I left on a mission to France and Belgium we released our self titled debut, Splendid Sun. One of the greatest lessons I learned during those years is that while angst makes great music it makes a crappy gospel. In the last couple of years I have learned further that it makes crappy Mormon Studies. Read the rest of this entry »

In my They Were Exceedingly Rejoiced thread, Wm Jas asks this question: “Is there a similar explanation for the BoM’s odd use of ‘suppose’ — as in ‘it supposeth me that thou art a child of hell’?” Baneemy at ZLMB asked a similar question without receiving any useful response:

In several places the BoM uses the word suppose anomalously, using “it supposeth me” to mean “I suppose.” As far as I can tell, the BoM is the only place the word is used that way. I haven’t been able to find “it supposeth me” or “it supposes me” used this way anywhere else. Is it just a little grammatical error by JS, or is it some archaic form analogous to “methinks”? Does anyone happen to know?

Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a brief review/description of Rick Phillips, “Rethinking the International Expansion of Mormonism,” Nova Religio 10(1):52-68, August 2006.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note to Church PR: next time you release a “famous Mormons” video, get rid of Steve Young and the Osmonds and turn the camera on Brother Brandon Flowers. I guarantee you that more people will join the church because of The Killers than hoteliers, jocks, corporate suits, and 70s puppy-lovers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Naomi Frandsen teaches English at a high school in Fairfax County, Virginia. She also sidles around the bloggernacle from time to time, and she’s honored to be able to guest post at BCC.

Marathons are a rite of passage in my singles ward. Since I moved in three years ago, I’ve gone to a marathon a year to cheer on friends and ward members, and I’ve congratulated dozens of other wincing runners as they’ve gingerly walked into the chapel the Sunday after their race. My family, too, has run about 20 marathons between four runners. So at the beginning of June when I received a pamphlet in the mail advertising the Baltimore Marathon on October 14th, it seemed quite natural to send in the registration card and take my turn on the starting line. Read the rest of this entry »

Patrick and I have been married almost two years now, which means we’ve started getting the inevitable question “when are you going to have a baby?” As annoying as this is, we don’t mind so much. This ward knew Patrick when he first started his graduate work, while he was single and dating women not as cool as me, and then they watched as I starting investigating, then joined the church, as Patrick and I became friends, started dating, and finally got married. They’ve been with us the whole way, so it’s only natural that they’re waiting for the next step.

So a few weeks ago, we were talking about the next step and Patrick mentioned that he wondered if adoption would be more ethical than having a child. I was floored. Initially, I think I was insulted. I mean, come on. I am woman, I have the potential to create and bring forth life. Bow down to me! Read the rest of this entry »

America just might have a Mormon candidate for President. Would you vote for him? Read the rest of this entry »

When I was called as an Institute teacher in Oxford, I tried to inject a little life into the non-devotional aspects of Mormonism. After all, it was Oxford. Success was mixed. We tried to move class to one of the colleges (Wadham, very old, very nice) but this only ended up increasing the town/gown divide that was rampant among the young adults in the ward. We had a few firesides and talks, one with Jack Welch and another with Stephen Houston, who was then a BYU Mayanist. Welch’s talk on Paul was well-attended, but conversation afterwards centered on the appropriateness of not using the KJV; Houston’s — where he talked about the BYU dig in Guatemala — was attended by only two Mormons, one of whom was me. (We held it at my college and had good Gentile attendance. They wondered why no wine was being served, though, a staple of Oxonian evenings.) Read the rest of this entry »

In writing this post, I must first admit my personal limitations. I am not familiar with much LDS art. In fact, the mediums with which I am most familiar are film and visual art and most of the visual art I know, I know from wandering the BYU bookstore and perusing the Ensign. So this cannot be read as a condemnation of all LDS art.

It is often the case that LDS art is accused of being treacly or kitschy. In part, this is because of the nature of its distribution. LDS art seems to be created to be sold and, as such, reflects the interest of the market. Average consumers don’t want difficult art or morally complex messages. They want to be assured that Joseph loved Emma, that Jesus will take care of them, and that their little girls will grow up to be beautiful brides. The quandary is that they feel the Spirit when looking at that sort of art. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since my mission I have had a long fascination with the literature and personalities surrounding Book of Abraham studies. One of the most enigmatic of these was a man named James Edward Homans, who wrote under the pseudonym R[obert] C[harles] Webb, with the title “Dr.” (although he did not in fact possess a Ph.D.). He was not LDS and never joined the Church, but he wrote three books and numerous articles defending the Church, both with respect to the Book of Abraham and on other matters. For the time period in which he wrote (during the first half of the 20th century, he was one of the Church’s most eloquent defenders. Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by James Lucas, this post is a continuation of yesterday’s review of microcredit and the United Order.

Here is how microcredit works: Read the rest of this entry »

Jana Riess comes to us as one of the regular Dialogue participants.
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Friends:

What follows is an excerpt from a satirical essay I have in this month’s Sunstone, posted with permission. (This is the sarcastic first half. The plaintive second half delves into some of the theology of preaching, and discusses what we can do in the Church to improve the deplorable state of sacrament “talks.”)

Dear New Member,

Congratulations on your recent baptism! There is so much to rejoice in, and you will be glad of your decision to join the Church. The good news is that there will be fruitful discussions and Spirit-led testimony meetings. Not to mention awesome potlucks! (You will grow to love funeral potatoes.) The bad news is that sooner or later, the bishop is going to ask you to speak in sacrament meeting.

Now you may feel intimidated by this assignment, especially if you converted from a religious tradition that has professional preaching. But, more good news! Mormons have extremely low expectations for what constitutes an acceptable sacrament meeting talk, so if you just use the following guidelines, everything will go swimmingly. In fact, unless you or the bishop reveals it, I guarantee that no one will guess that you aren’t Mormon already!

Read the rest of this entry »

James Lucas is an attorney in New York and co-author of Working Toward Zion: Principles of the United Order for the Modern World.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh was more than a recognition of a pioneering innovator in the international war against poverty. It was also, albeit unknowingly, a significant validation of the principles of the United Order as given in modern revelation. Read the rest of this entry »

Melissa is a self proclaimed loud and proud Texan who left that great state to attend Notre Dame, where she studied Political Science & European Studies and also where she joined the Church and married the illustrious Patrick Mason. After graduation, she worked with the local homeless population and became interested in issues of poverty. Melissa has taken the last few months to “find herself” and pursue art, selling her first painting earlier this month. She also looks forward to an Irish national championship. She will be joining us for the next few weeks. Welcome!

I’ve been called a bad Catholic before. Quite a few times actually. I’ve also been called a bad Mexican, but I’ll save that for another post.

Having grown up in an almost entirely Hispanic (read: almost entirely Catholic) town on the border, my childhood memories are filled with incense, candlelight posadas, and gory stories of saints burning at the stake. My entire education from day care through college save my years in high school was spent in Catholic schools. Because of this, I’m usually the one people turn to and ask “what do the Catholics think about that?” My usual answer: “Heck if I know.” Read the rest of this entry »

I just returned from a Single Adult Conference, where I gave two workshop presentations. My presentations were Q&A sessions, where people could raise any question they wanted about the Church, be it relating to scripture, history, doctrine or practice. The workshops went very well, and I am pleased by the result. My biggest fear was that no one would have any questions, but that was not realized; there were plenty of questions, and we enjoyed a vigorous discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

Another story from the Number 33 bus ride.

This morning I sat near a woman who was reading Marley and Me, the memoir of a dog owner that has been a national bestseller for some time. Those of you who have read the book know that there is a very poignant and sad part to it. I could tell, looking over the woman’s shoulder, that she had reached this part. She began to sniffle. She would look up frequently from the book, look around to see if anyone was watching, then return to the chapter, only to stop a minute later. Tears were welling in her eyes.

What would Jesus do? Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our doctrine of restored priesthood keys and ordinances, a prophet who communes with God for the whole world, we believe that we are the one true and living Church, that Jesus Christ stands at the head and actively leads us, as the true Church.

You’d think that that would be enough but it seems that we have to use the Other to establish our place as number one. Read the rest of this entry »