SideblogAnita #5 at this T&S post asked a question that deserves its own thread:
This is a little off topic, but I’m wondering what you (and those authors) make of the murder of Zacharias? Since Joseph Smith [words missing] the father of John the Baptist was killed, but other NT scholarship I’ve read suggests that when Jesus mentions the martyrs from Abel to Zacharias, he’s doing an A-Z from Genesis to 2 Chronicles in the Torah. Thoughts?
Aaargh! I’ve been outed as a pathetic failure at that most basic housekeeping task, providing clean schoolclothes, by my own child. Peter was asked to give a talk on courage as part of our ward’s Primary program. Here’s his opening:
“I often need courage in the morning when I don’t have a shirt or pants and I have to go down in the basement to get them. I wish our washing machine and dryer were upstairs.”
I remember several discussions where someone asked why it is that sometimes blessings are effectual and other times they aren’t or why sometimes prayers get answer and other times they don’t. My typical response is that it is a matter of faith. If you bless someone to be healed and they aren’t, there are several possibilities: 1) You lack the faith and don’t have the gift of healing; 2) you were actually not trying to heal but were trying to be prophetic. Alas, you lacked the faith to have the gift of prophecy; 3) the person you blessed lacked the faith to be healed. The common response is that these possibilities aren’t acceptable because it is essentially blaming the victim. Yep, it is. So what? 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.
Being single well into my twenties has given me a lot of time to think about kissing. At least once quarterly, I deliver to my roommates a Brief Statement on the Proper Approach to Kissing. Here it is: Read the rest of this entry »
If I had died this morning, the events leading up to my death would be unremarkable. I made breakfast and lunches, kissed my husband good-bye, got annoyed at the kid who left his rain boots at school and tried to wear his sister’s boots which are three sizes to small. I took kids to school, came home, did dishes, read blogs and then changed hurriedly to make a 10:00 a.m. appointment. I drove south on Highway 6, listening to The Current, thinking about my appointment and wondering what I should make for dinner for the two missionaries and investigator family that are coming for dinner tonight. Seconds later, my life flashed before my eyes. Read the rest of this entry »
So, when I was a mission greenie in the Austrian countryside, we were teaching this bloke about the Book of Mormon. In German, “Moroni” is pronounced “Mo-ro-nee.” Anxious to approximate an Austrian accent, I ended up getting the whole name wrong and said “Maroni.”
Our investigator (better: very casual contact) laughed out loud. “Maroni” is what they call roast chestnuts. In English (my German had put him off speaking to me in his own language) he said, “Venever I eating Maronis I be sinking about you guys.” I wonder whether he still does.
Seems like a whole post could be written about bad English-to-foreign-language foul-ups in Mormonese. In the meantime, enjoy some Maronis for starters.
(It’s Maroni season again over here. Bought my first batch from a street vendor today. Yum!)
I’m going to interrupt my plans for follow-ups to my last few posts here at BCC to talk about something more immediately relevant to my own life right now, the Relief Society. More specifically, I’m going to talk about whether it’s a good thing or not. Read the rest of this entry »
Elder Ballard’s October Conference address deserves careful thought and implementation. He counseled us to be innovative in service, adding that “to innovate does not necessarily mean to expand; very often it means to simplify.” And he suggested we make greater use of the phone, emails and snail mail to minimize meetings. Read the rest of this entry »
This weekend, I witnessed the baptism of my friends’ daughter. It was beautiful. I laid my hands on her head and listened to her father extend the Holy Ghost and bless her. I felt the power of God and hope. After, while people enjoyed the sundry baked goods, I spoke with the girl’s grandfather. He is a professional historian of the Church and is currently working on a history of the Tabernacle. Read the rest of this entry »
Every Thursday evening I get to be The Man. You know, the Seminary teacher who doesn’t teach Mormon kids about seer stones and polyandry, thus adding to their hopeless naivite.
In truth, it’s a great, great calling, and I have a really bright set of kids.
1964 was a year near the end of a golden age of LDS public relations, and the Church’s participation at the World’s Fair held in Queens, N.Y. goes down in history as one of our most celebrated efforts.
The church sponsored The Mormon Pavilion, described in the 1964 World’s Fair official guide book as:
A striking pavilion, dominated by an artificial cloud and set amid ever-blooming gardens … A white cloud, visible for a great distance, hovers around three towers — replicas of the east tower of Salt Lake City’s famed Mormon Temple.
Some time ago I introduced the “Larry King Rule,” which states that the veracity of any given Mormon doctrine can be determined by imagining how President Hinckley would respond to it on Larry King. It assumes, of course, that we are honest in public about our doctrines. I have no reason to believe that President Hinckley wouldn’t be.
Now for a new rule! Read the rest of this entry »
Interesting things sometimes happen to General Conference addresses between their delivery and their publication. Anyone who has listened to Elder Haight knows this. Here’s another example, for your curiosity. Read the rest of this entry »
I made the following remarks at a dinner celebrating Dialogue’s fortieth anniversary, held in Salt Lake City on September 22, 2006.
I consider it one of the signal honors of my life to serve as editor of this distinguished journal. I undertook the task knowing it would be a great challenge. I had no notion of doing more that leaving its tradition intact when I am through with my designated five years of service. That remains my ambition. I hope I have met the challenge so far. I recognize how completely dependent I am on others. I am deeply grateful for the indispensable contribution of my fellow workers on the editorial and production teams and for the support and encouragement of the members of Dialogue’s board of directors. Clearly, I am a part of a cooperative effort. My purpose is to be guided by collective rather than my private values. For one thing, I am appointed by Dialogue’s board of directors. Once a year, they exclude me from a half hour session of a board meeting to discuss my performance. For another thing, not only do I depend enormously on my subordinate editors and production workers but also on the expert reviewers who voluntarily referee submissions. Finally, all of us, the board of directors, the editorial team, our expert reviewers, and I myself try hard to judge what our readers value. Dialogue has a constituency. I judge that Dialogue’s subscribers share many of my personal biases–but by no means all of them. The goal is to appeal to a variety of interests, both liberal and conservative, without offending deeply felt taboos. In an attempt to achieve this balance, I have assumed a caution and conservatism as editor quite unlike what I will call the brash, friendly irreverence I often display in my essays and speeches. Read the rest of this entry »
The young women of the church should be invited to participate in visiting teaching, as junior partners, just as the young men participate in home teaching. Read the rest of this entry »
I felt really sorry for this JW bloke yesterday. There he stood in a Vienna U-Bahn station, silently holding his Watchtowers. No-one noticed him; those few who might have probably thought he was some cultish freak, a brainwashed dupe trying to sell us his silly Sekte.
I noticed him, and felt much Mitleid. He looked miserable, as if performing some pathetic duty, an ordeal endured in order to earn a place among the 144,000. 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 for the next two weeks.
I never thought I’d go inactive. I find just now that I already have. Read the rest of this entry »
What rough beast has slouched its way to the Bloggernacle to be born? Behold.
DKL is a familiar Bloggernacle presence. We solicited him to write the following obituary.
Jerald Tanner, that icon of anti-Mormonism who founded the Utah Lighthouse Ministry, died Sunday evening, October 1 at 7:20pm. Read the rest of this entry »
M. Miles is the busy mother of 3 living in the bay area. She often comments around the ‘nacle as mami. I also feel the need to note that this was written prior to her hearing Elder Bednar’s talk on Sunday. Great minds…
When my sister was about 12, a girl in our ward whom we knew fairly well became pregnant. She was fifteen. Upon finding this out, my sister went to my mother and said with great alarm, “Oh no! Now J. is going to hell!” My mother looked at her quite puzzled and, in all earnestness and seriousness, asked, “Where did you get that idea?” or maybe it was, “Why do you think that?” Read the rest of this entry »
I “e-know” Stan Shepp from when he used to participate on the Scripture-L list, which I’m still on. And a while back he popped up here at BCC and commented on a thread, so perhaps he will see this and comment. He won a victory at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The notice is here; I’ll also paste it below for your convenience: Read the rest of this entry »
Everyone please join me in giving CL Bruno a big round of applause for being a great guest for the past couple of weeks! All those who can show their support, please click with the right mouse button.
Besides being general conference, yesterday was the last day for submissions for the Mormon History Association Conference in 2007. Kris and I submitted this proposal on Friday and will be notified as to whether it is accepted by January 15th. As we would like to cover a large body of material, we have asked that we be allotted an extended period for our the presentation — I hope this doesn’t compromise our chances for acceptance. Read the rest of this entry »
C.L. Bruno concludes her guest stint here at BCC.
I’ve listened to all four sessions of Conference, and I feel refreshed. I even have some things I’m going to work on. Honesty, for example. (I’ve got a little pile of pens on the counter that need to go back to the workplace.) When the Ensign comes out next month, I’ll put it in the magazine rack in the bathroom and we’ll all page through it. I’ll read through the blogs and the comments about Conference, and I’m sure some bloggers will quote liberally from the talks for the next 6 months. But…must we listen to recycled conference talks again and again in Sacrament Meetings? Read the rest of this entry »
OK, it’s today, I promise…
LDS Headlines Authors Elsewhere
