By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Perhaps you’ve heard about the “Jesus Tomb” thing being promoted by James Cameron? Initial reactions are mixed and have not been helped by James Cameron’s involvement or its Dan Brown-y narrative. But some respected voices (notably James Tabor, a NT scholar from UNC) are suggesting we should perhaps take it seriously. I give you the theory. No endorsement should be implied. Let’s discuss strengths and weaknesses. Read the rest of this entry »

I have some tithing-related questions. Your input and assistance is greatly appreciated…
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When I was a teenager I often found my father to be embarrassing to me, in numerous half-remembered ways. This is a common enough phenomenon.(1) Some of that embarrassment found expression at Church. In particular, he seemed to lack the deference to local authorities the other kids’ fathers had, and he also seemed to be embarrassingly smart. Read the rest of this entry »

Another Lex Ronanis:*

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We often say that the sacrament of our Lord’s supper is the renewing of our baptismal covenants. This focus has lead me to take a solitary perspective of the ritual. It is my communion with God, my penitence, my rejuvenation. This singular perspective lead me to tacitly refuse the sacrament to my children. However, over the last two years my perspective has slowly shifted and today as I ate the bread of His body, I experienced a different ritual. Read the rest of this entry »

Nicole Kelley, in this number of Church History (75/4: 723ff), argues that early Christian martyr texts were designed as philosophical exercises intended to prepare Christians for their own deaths, even though most of them were quite safe from the lions of the Coliseum. Kelley’s interpretation set me to thinking about the use of Joseph Smith’s Martyrdom by Saints no longer under threat of mob violence or privation during forced migrations. Read the rest of this entry »

Some time ago I wrote an ill-advised post on the nature of memory and on our amazing capacity to recall the negative and forget the positive. Canadian researchers in a minor study have concluded that traumatic memories are in fact easier to remember than positive ones. While the study doesn’t explore any physiological or other physical reasons for this, it’s nonetheless an interesting notion. Again the challenge arises for us to be civil and love each other, when it seems it is far easier to hold on to grudges of the past.

I thought we deserved a little break from arguing about politics and the skeletons of the Mormon closet, so, in the interest of arguing with the esteemed but poorly credentialed Reverend Mr. Gladhand, I thought I would throw out a classic epidemiology/probability problem, one that stumps easily 90% of epidemiologists in training (though I’m sure many fewer engineers, lawyers, humanities scholars, and non-academically inclined participants in blog culture will miss it; I got it wrong by way of confession). I’m not going to name the source in hopes of avoiding cheating through googling, as I’m sure the solution is posted on the web.

There are three refrigerator boxes and a prize inside one refrigerator box. You make your choice, and tell the boxkeeper (who looks like a female Brad Pitt on Survivor: Morocco) your choice. The boxkeeper then removes one of the other boxes, showing it to be empty, and asks you, “do you want to change your mind?” So, do you? Should you stick by your guns, or should the melodramatic gesture of the boxkeeper (clearly designed to unsettle your conviction) make you doubt your initial choice?

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The European Mormon Studies Association (EMSA) has just announced details of its summer conference in Worcester, England (2-4 August). The theme is the relationship between European Mormons and America since 1837. The keynote address will be given by Armand Mauss. The conference will also include a tour of the Mormon historical sites near Worcester.

As this is my neck of the woods, I would be delighted to welcome any Yankee visitors to the conference and will be happy to show people ’round and suggest places to stay etc. The area around Worcester is picture-postcard England. This will be the first of many EMSA conferences and we’re really rather excited about it.

Once a month, I attend Fast and Testimony Meeting in the morning, then sing in the choir for an Episcopal Evensong service as dusk falls. One of these services is appealing to me as a theological abstraction, but usually leaves me cold in practice; the other regularly moves me to tears and is a major source of spiritual sustenance. Read the rest of this entry »

So yesterday I took my sister-in-law and daughter to see Venus at the art house theater in Highland Park. Afterwards, my daughter convinced her soft touch dad to stop at Anthropologie so I could buy her a dress. While I was standing around waiting for her, I noticed a book, entitled something like Letters to My Former Self. The idea was to try to convey what you wished you had known then but have since learned by dint of experience, education and maturity. I didn’t even browse the book, but I thought it was an intriguiging idea. (Sort of like future Hiro conveying a message for current Hiro on Heroes.) So I would like to write a letter to myself as a missionary. (My hope is that others in the comments will similarly write notes to some version of their former selves.) Read the rest of this entry »

If you are making the haj from the Mormon heartland to Nauvoo on I-70, you will drive through downtown Topeka, Kansas. There are two good reasons to take exit 361B. First, you can go visit the state capitol building and see my son’s fifth grade art project, assuming that the objet d’art is still on display. The second reason is to visit Sumner elementary school. Read the rest of this entry »

File under: random observation.

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Several months ago I was sitting in a San Antonio airport, waiting to board a flight back home after an enjoyable week with my family in South Texas. I looked up at a girl walking past the gate and started laughing. She was wearing a black t-shirt that said “I’m okay, my grandma rubbed an egg on me.”

When I was around six years old, my grandma rubbed an egg on me too. Read the rest of this entry »

Blog posts are the worst valentines you can send. Worse than e-cards, worse than forwarded spam poems. But here goes anyhow. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sweet Sixteen! Did you think we would ever make it this far? My wife sure is happy we have.

Our winners from the last round are: 1. The Angel Moroni, 5. Large Families, 3. CTR Rings, 11. Scripture Marking
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As a people, Mormons are not afraid to see their chrism in the dead and take them as their own. We take heroes and poets. God has inspired many and their words and examples are a balm to the Church. Sometimes, even, we have changed enough to accept our enemies as friends. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been deeply melancholy today, feeling aware of those who have suffered and died tragically, represented on this sad cold day by my neighbors. Wanting to honor but not tire the memory of those who have passed, I have decided, I hope without sanctimony, to limit comments to Auden’s memorial of Yeats, his dear friend and mentor.

he disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
O all the instruments agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day

At the end of President McKay’s life, two men in Church hierarchy had the same idea. Though intellectually sharp, McKay’s health had been up and down for at least a decade and was definitely failing him then (he died when he was 96). These two men, Ernest Wilkinson and Hugh Brown, talked about changing the policy of lifetime calling to be apostle or prophet. There were a few versions of their idea, because as you may know, they weren’t best friends and did not entertain this idea together. One was that once an apostle reached a certain age, he would be moved into emeritus status and not considered for prophet/president position if the time came. Another was that if incapacitated, he would be moved into emeritus status so the Church could be led by the next in line. Read the rest of this entry »

My ward contains a “Mother’s Lounge,” and it is plainly labeled as such. You can find it on the other side of the foyer from the chapel doors, right next to the Bishop’s office. Young mothers with newborn children (and there are many of them in my ward) often use the room as a respite from the noisy commotion out in the hall, or as a place to change their baby’s diaper, or as a refuge where they can move their screaming babies out of earshot from other ward members, or what have you. The lounge consists of a sofa and some chairs hidden behind a shear curtain that partially provides another layer of privacy in the event the outer door is left open. There is also a changing table just inside the door, and various other items in the room. For all I know, many wards have just such a lounge (I’ve never had my own baby before, so I’ve never bothered to notice), so you can probably picture what I’m talking about. Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Brown. Amri Brown. Tracy M (Maiden name: Brown). SMB (B is for….). And now, Mark Brown. We’re extremely proud and happy to welcome Mark Brown aboard as a permanent blogger at BCC. Infused with the power of yet another Brown, BCC inches its way towards corporate sponsorship by UPS.

Over at my Who’s Your Daddy? thread Deep Sea asked me the following question:

This is off-topic entirely but I don’t know where else to ask the question. I’m curious about your career path and your decision not to become an academic. You have an immense capacity of knowledge and learning, and many of us readers are grateful for your continuing willingness to share it so generously.
For the benefit of younger LDS scholars deciding on career paths, would you mind sharing–perhaps in a separate post??–what led you to take the path of the part-time (but still prolific and influential) scholar? thanks in advance!

This is my attempt to answer the question. My hope is that others will similarly tell the tale of how they ended up where they are now. Read the rest of this entry »