By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

From time to time I see complaints that the Church should be much more proactive and vocal in trying to root out the practice of polygamy. The latest example is from today’s Deseret News.

What are your thoughts about this? What responsibility rests on the Church’s shoulders given its historic practice of polygamy? What is its moral culpability? If it has some, what practically could and should it do? Is there a difference between the Church’s preference for quiet, local actions as opposed to the demands for vocal, centralized actions?

Helsinki, Finland. Saturday, 12 May, 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

My family moved to northern Illinois in 1965 when I was seven years old. Like many Mormon families in the “mission field,” we went back to Utah every year for vacation to visit relatives. My dad liked history, so on the way out we always spent a weekend at Nauvoo and Carthage (staying at some crappy motel that looks like the motel in the recent movie Vacancy). So I started coming here (I am writing this from my room courtesy of the wifi at the Nauvoo Family Inn and Suites) in the early days of Nauvoo Restoration Inc. As a result, I’ve been to Nauvoo many, many times (at least two dozen, I’m sure). One of my favorite memories was getting a personal tour from T. Edgar Lyon when he was still alive, since by dad had been one of his students. Read the rest of this entry »

JAB is a busy stay-at-home mom living in the Midwest. She recently regrets her decision to teach her kids responsibility via a paper route.

Welcome to the alternate dimension otherwise known as Primary. You can find us at the end of the hall after passing through the black hole. Just follow the sounds of “I Am a Child of God”, “I’ll Follow Him in Faith”, and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, and you’ll be there in no time. Very few escape the pull of Primary. Some days, the minutes creep by so slowly that you’d swear you’d been in Church for 3 hours. Other days, the time zips by and you wonder where the morning went. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you have deluged BCC with your emails, asking that we clarify and discuss the key issues separating liberal and conservative mormons. We report. You decide. Read the rest of this entry »

As a boy, my father summered with his grandfather on the Kaibab plateau. On horseback, they drove the cattle for a week at a time. Recently, when I drove with my family to the great desert monuments, his stories filled me. There are more stories than his, though. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m reading Hugh Nibley’s memoirs from his experiences in WWII, compiled by his son Alex (a fine filmmaker who presented at several sessions of Sunstone last year). They are entitled Sergeant Nibley PhD. Nibley was not your ordinary grunt; he had served a mission in Germany in the 1920s, had a Ph.D. in ancient history from Berkeley, and had been a professor of Claremont. The following charming vignette (from pp. 251-53), which I read on the train this morning, illustrates the continued interplay of the life of the mind even during one of mankind’s darkest hours: Read the rest of this entry »

A friend recently sent me a link to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and the Rev. Al Sharpton regarding the existence of God. It is fairly standard stuff. The existence of God cannot be successfully proven or disproven in rational debate (not that one would necessarily suspect Hitchens or Sharpton of producing rational debate). It is tired, increasingly so, to attempt it.

At one point in the discussion, while debating the role that Christianity played in the US civil rights movement in the 60′s, Sharpton quipped, “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don’t worry, that’s a temporary situation.” This was apparently in response to a comment by Hitchens, who believes that Mormonism is a big racket. I assume this exchange was good-natured and jocular. Read the rest of this entry »

Announcing a new contest: BCC’s summer look. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I was chatting with the institute teacher, and he handed me a 500-page book called Five Classics by Truman G. Madsen, and said it would increase my testimony tenfold. (My wife thinks I should be offended.) I’ve never read Madsen before, and I was curious. I’ve gotten through the first ‘classic,’ ‘Eternal Man,’ and skimmed some of the other chapters. Read the rest of this entry »

This is an open thread for people to share any allusions from rank and file members to the PBS doc at today’s testimony meeting. I’ll get things started with a report from my own testimony meeting, from which I just returned. Read the rest of this entry »

In an official statement of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, church members were instructed to avoid “dances that require or permit the close embrace and suggestive movements.” Also condemned was immodesty in dress, “the shameless exhibitions of the human form purposely presented in modern styles of dress, or rather undress.” Here was the ringing conclusion: “Let not the brilliant prospects of a glorious millennium be clouded with such shadows as are threatened by customs and costumes and diversions of these licentious days.” (Davis Bitton, “These Licentious Days: Dancing Among the Mormons,” The Ritualization of Mormon History and Other Essays, pg. 98)

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I just finished watching a one-hour review of the documentary, hosted by Doug Fabrizio. I highly recommend it.

I’ve seen quite a number of comments from people that they thought the little vignette about Mormon dancing from night one of the recent PBS doc was weird, even stupid. This is interesting to me, because Helen has said this was actually her favorite part of the whole documentary. I too really liked it. Read the rest of this entry »

At least he didn’t raise his hand during tonight’s GOP presidential debate when the moderator asked those who don’t believe in evolution to “raise their hands.”

Does this profoundly affect my view of his presidential candidacy? Does anyone care? Did this question even make sense in the context of a presidential debate? No.

But at least now, when I have to explain to incredulous LDS Churchmembers that there really is such a thing as a “Mormon evolutionist,” I can point to one of our most famous members as Exhibit A. Woo-hoo!

You already know basic LDS doctrine–the idea of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And that PBS special gave you glimpses into our homes and our peculiarities, and introduced you to some of the controversies and oxymorons we live with. But I still want to answer your question, What does it mean to be LDS.? Read the rest of this entry »

When I teach Catcher in the Rye, students spend a period writing a short guide for adults who deal with teens: teachers, parents, coaches etc. I’ve been doing this for about five years, and I’m usually surprised by the depth of the response, this year especially. Read the rest of this entry »

The revamped LDS Newsroom has an interesting article about reactions to the recent documentary, ‘The Mormons.’ It’s interesting not because of what the reactions are, per se, but because this is the first time to my recollection that the official LDS press dept. has made specific references to blogs:

Blogs that focus on Mormon themes have had an increase in activity as well. On the Article IV blog, one reader wrote….

The Washington Post/Newsweek’s religion blog, On Faith, has made the following their question of the week….

Article IV and On Faith are the first specific blogs I’ve seen mentioned by the Church — correct me if I’m mistaken, folks. When will the Church recognize the Bloggernacle?

Please explain to me how “The Mormons” can be seen as an anti-piece? I am bumfuzzled by people who seem to think that the producers have been communing with Ed Decker or Sandra Tanner. Is there anything that was brought up in the documentary that hasn’t been brought up by people in the Bloggernacle? Were there negatives that were not balanced by positives?

I don’t honestly see how this could have gone better for the church, but if you have ideas, please state them below.

When I started finding out some of the things that Joseph Smith actually did and said, I think he was struggling with trying to bring together spirituality and sexuality. And quite frankly, Christianity has been really bad at this, and most major religions have been really bad at spirituality and sexuality.

You’re supposed to be spiritual on Sunday, sexual when you’re in bed with your partner — your legal husband or wife (right? no-one else!) — and then yet you’re supposed to deny your sexuality in all of these other contexts.

Well, it doesn’t make sense!

Once we avoid the reduction of polygamy into the “sacralization of Smith’s adultery” (Ken Clark, I’m looking at you), then the expansive vision of family, sealing, and eternal lives offered by Joseph’s theology — of which sexuality is an unashamed component — is an intriguing one.

If polygamy was not about Joseph’s sex, was it about sex at all? Are there ills of sexual monogamy that sacral polygamy was intended to overcome? (Did 19th century pro-polygamy apologia ever make such an argument?)

“As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.” “Gods in embryo.” “God himself. was Once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret.”

Has President Gordon B. Hinckley implicitly vetoed the use of these phrases by virtue of his famous Larry King interview? Read the rest of this entry »

For those who have overdosed on discussion of the PBS doc, below is an article on a Mormon Prom that took place in Naperville (the stake just to the south of me in Illinois). I read this in the Chicago Tribune while on the train home last night. The deejay mentioned is a friend of mine, a patent lawyer here in Chicago: Read the rest of this entry »

While there is much to discuss in Helen Whitney’s currently airing documentary, I thought a reasonable background discussion would be some attempt to situate the voices that were included. I knew most, some I had never heard of. I’ll start with the ones I know, but I’m interested to hear from others what they know about the rest. Let’s not be ad hominem here, though it’s appropriate to discuss in polite terms people’s credentials as independent sources of insight. I’m assuming people know our internal heroes and leaders so won’t discuss them specifically.

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There are open threads all over the Bloggernacle on this documentary (to which I direct you for general commentary), and so here I simply want to comment on one particular ramification of it. But first let me say that I enjoyed it and thought it was very well done. There was the occasional mistake, and there were choices made that I wouldn’t have made, but overall I think Helen did a superb job. Read the rest of this entry »