By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

After reading the news of Faust’s passing earlier this morning, my husband and I naturally began to think about who might succeed one of our favorite leaders as an apostle. So, we began reading biographical sketches of our church leaders. With the exception of some foreign members of the Seventy, many of which served in the CES system, the vast majority of our leaders pursued careers in law or business. This did not especially surprise me, since in my experience this has been the case amongst local leadership as well.

Here are the stats for the Quorums of the Seventy as we read them on lds.org: Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by BCC Guest Gideon Burton

Latter-day Saints have noticed over the last few years a variety of independent Mormon films coming to theaters and on DVD, starting with God’s Army in 2000. But that’s just the tip of the ice berg! For the last few years, Randy Astle and I have been researching Mormons and film, and together with several film scholars we have assembled a special double issue of BYU Studies devoted to Mormons and film. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m opening a general thread for discussion of all things Sunstone over the next few days. Tonight at 8:00 p.m. will be the kick-off presentation by Helen Whitney on the PBS doc; as I understand it, she will be showing portions not included in the public airing. This one is open to the public and does not require registration, so if you are in SLC come on down to the Sheraton on Fifth South. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I made the surprising discovery that the NYPL hosts a large collection of documents pertaining to Mormon history.  The collection, begun by a donation in 1899, features not only some of Joseph Smith’s correspondences, but also such treasures as diaries by Brigham Young, an original Book of Mormon and Book of Commandments, and tons of Mormon periodicals, newspapers, and government documents.  Anyone can apply for a free research card and gain access.  For people in NYC, it is worth a look: http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/mormon/.

America is well known as the least secular of all the advanced industrial democracies on Earth. More Americans believe in God, attend church, and so forth than in any of the other wealthy countries. This has been true for decades, and the best data suggest that it remains the case. Yet there seems to be persistent worry from several quarters that America is, or is becoming, secular. What might these concerns mean? Do they have any validity? Can one be simultaneously secular and faithful? Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we left South Bend. We packed up the car and drove away in the early morning, familiar sights getting smaller in the rearview. We had each come to this place years ago separately and for our own reasons but last week we left together. We drove home to Texas to spend time with loved ones and relax a little, our own brief island of calm between packing up the house and unpacking it again an ocean away.

Today we fly out of the country to embark on our new adventure. Moving to Egypt. I hear it’s hot. Read the rest of this entry »

I just had breakfast at the Best Western Cottontree in Provo, and will be travelling up to SLC today for Sunstone. As I read the SL Tribune, I saw that Tom Green has just been released from prison. Apparently he will live in a quadplex with his four remaining wives (the fifth has bailed in the meantime, and it is a condition of his parole that he have no contact with either her or her five children). Read the rest of this entry »

Partly because I’m oblivious and partly because I don’t care, I have never noticed if people judged me, the way I do things, the choices I make or the way I see the world. I’m sure I’ve been judged, gossiped about, made fun of, but mostly I’ve had no idea.

Until I started planning a wedding. I feel extremely exposed and vulnerable through this whole planning process due in part to my lack of planning skillz and also because so many people have their idea of what a wedding should be, how it should look, what it should include. Because it is an activity in which almost everyone has participated in some way or another on multiple occasions, everyone has firm, even rigid ideas. It’s like true religion, wedding ideas that have come through inspiration, the Holy Spirit, given them a burning in the bosom that makes them know that their visions of a wedding are the one true wedding. But like religion, when one vision doesn’t match up with another’s vision, there’s tension. And one of them has to be false. Read the rest of this entry »

President G was not my favorite mission president. Little of his advice or influence has left any lasting impression on me over the years. But one particular Zone Conference speech of his stands out as one of the stronger memories of my mission, and in a good way. President G spoke about a certain sister in the mission who had been paired with a companion she didn’t like and who was vocally unhappy about it. Relations in the companionship deteriorated so severely that the exasperated sister finally accosted President G at a conference and let him have it:

President, you say you pick our companions based upon the “inspiration” of the Lord, but it’s obvious to me that I was not meant to be with my companion! Our companionship has been a disaster! You clearly were not inspired when you put the two of us together!

President G then shared with us his response to the sister. It came as something of a surprise to me. Read the rest of this entry »

Part of my ward calling is to publish the monthly ward newsletter. (I do the layout, and my wife proofreads.) The ward decided some time ago that a weekly bulletin was a waste of paper, and it would be more interesting to publish something monthly produced by the ward for the ward. There is a message from a bishopric member, a calendar for the next month, profiles of new members, excerpts of letters from missionaries and other articles from members. Read the rest of this entry »