By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

There is one story from the scriptural account of Jesus’ life that haunts and troubles me, like a Zen koan–the story of Mary and Martha hosting Jesus. It is a good story and a useful corrective to (Mormon) women’s tendency to privilege the meeting of others’ physical needs (real or imagined) over the sating of their own spiritual hunger. And yet I find myself wanting to defend Martha from the Savior’s gentle rebuke. Particularly at Christmas, I’m inclined to assert the value of hustling and bustling and busy-ness. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is possibly history making. I’m going to relate “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” to the gospel. (I watched this movie in a trailer park with a bunch of armed security guards, so I just have to be a fan.) Anyways, at one point, Ricky Bobby prays to “Dear Lord baby Jesus” then, just to mess with his wife, escalates to praying to “Dear 8 lb. 6 oz. baby Jesus.” Heretical? Hypocritical? Scandalous? Nahh. This is why I love Christmas… Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of a post I wrote for a different blog. I like it. I hope you do, too.

The title of this post is Narnian, a description of the world as it was when in the grip of the White Witch. Coincidentally, Dante saw the lowest circle of Hell as equally cold and inert, with Satan eternally gnawing on the trapped souls frozen into his maw. Hardly a satisfying meal. Read the rest of this entry »

We often characterize the gospel as a distinctive source of peace. This is true enough, yet it is equally true that it’s a strange sort of peace we put on offer. Our gospel gives us a peace that is not of this world, to be sure: our scriptures characterize Christ’s peace as filled with strife, trial and sorrow. Matthew’s gospel, thus, gives us Jesus explaining to his followers,

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. (Matthew 10: 34-36)

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I once had a paper trashed, not because it was rubbish (it was OK), but because I got the punctuation wrong. Being a new Brit at an American university, I thought that as long as I dropped my u’s and added some z’s to words, I’d be ok. I thought American English only fouled-up a few spellings.[1] But no, it turns out even colonial punctuation is different. Read the rest of this entry »

As has been widely discussed, the priesthood and Relief Society manual for the next two years focuses on the discourses and writings of Joseph Smith. A BCC post about the manual this summer, by friend of BCC Tom, expressed the opinion that the manual is very good and that those dissatisfied with earlier manuals will be pleased by this one. In fact, I think the manual has fixed all of the weaknesses of earlier manuals except the most important one: the pervasive lack of trust in the leaders being discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Paulos, ed., The Mormon Church on Trial: Transcripts of the Reed Smoot Hearings (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2007). [1]

Paulos and his publisher have chosen a timely moment in American political history to publish relevant and readable extracts from the primary documents of the hearings to determine whether an evangelical protest movement could remove Reed Smoot from his duly elected Senate seat. At a time when a Mormon leads the Senate and another aspires to the American Presidency, issues relating to Mormon exceptionalism and the ability of Mormons and their church to integrate into the broader American society have taken central stage. In some respects, although Harry Reid took his Senate seat without protest, little appears to have changed in the rhetoric of the evangelical establishment. Read the rest of this entry »

Our teachings on the principle of forgiveness leave us some room for improvisation.  We speculate about the nature of the unpardonable sin, and wonder, since we are commanded to forgive seventy times seven,  if we are justified in holding a grudge upon the 491st occurrence of the offense.  And sometimes we itch to settle a few scores, Old Testament style.  This week, I reached the limit of my ability to forgive, and I find myself wanting to call down plagues of frogs and lice and locusts and boils on the bozos responsible for dragging something precious through the mud.  I speak, of course, of the owners, player’s union, and commissioner in major league baseball.

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A day or so ago, I wrote a post about Mike Huckabee using a standard Anti-Mormon trope in an article that will be published in the New York Times Magazine. I pointed out why I thought the trope was silly. Since then, Huckabee has apologized. Perhaps it is time for me to do the same.
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Franz and Gretel are converts of a few years. They have a few of children, and are doing their best to institute all the changes the Gospel brought to their lives, but sometimes they fall short. They also have tremendous extended family pressures against the Church. It has caused rifts in personal relationships, including with their mothers. Read the rest of this entry »

I have noticed in the recent media buzz about Mormonism that early Mormon beliefs about the Garden of Eden figure prominently in criticisms of the faith and active members of the faith. “The Garden of Eden was in Missouri” is the soundbite version of this complaint. In the interests of helping people understand the actual issues, I would like to share some insights from my work in the cultural history of early Mormonism. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been reported that this weekend Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee will have an article published in the New York Times Magazine in which he asks, about Mormonism, “Don’t they believe that Jesus and the Devil are brothers?” This question is a standard Anti-Mormon trope. However, I do not understand why it is so. For that matter, I do not understand why it is more offensive than actual Protestant belief regarding the origin of evil.
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If this report is correct, Mike Huckabee “believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn’t know much about it.” First off, kudos, sir, for believing that Mormonism is a religion. All this time I thought it was a bridge club.

More ridiculous is his claim that he doesn’t know much about it. For a man who attended the SBC Mormon proselytizing-fest in Salt Lake City in 1998, this ignorance is puzzling. Or better put, completely disingenuous.

I am not suggesting that Huck is an activist anti-Mormon, but questions like this one suggest he’s been raised on a diet of the Godmakers and believes Mormonism to be a cult. If he wants to smear Mormonism, he should drop the innocent charm and find the guts to say what he thinks (or what Ed Decker told him to think). Show America the only thing you have to offer, Mike: you love Jesus, Mitt loves the devil.

If Huck wins the nomination, I’m moving to Europe.

You are Mitt Romney. Or, if you prefer, you are an LDS politician running for the U.S. Presidency other than Mitt Romney. You are at a town meeting, fielding questions from the audience, and you’ve gone on record saying that audience members can ask you any question on any topic they want. Truth be told, you would rather avoid confronting questions that deal with the specific theological tenets of Mormonism, but you are nonetheless asked this question:
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Next time Gospel Doctrine class starts to drag, raise your hand and ask:  “How do we reconcile our claim to have the fulness of the gospel with the ninth article of faith?  If the truth has already been revealed, what is the purpose of continuing revelation?”

I have had this discussion with four different active members, and I’ve heard four different answers.  If we think of the restoration as a process, it is worth asking if the process is close to being complete, or if it is just getting a good start.  

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Sacrament meeting talk given in the Worcester Ward, Cheltenham, England Stake.

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Just like most people who grew up in the church, I memorized the Articles of Faith and can still mumble through a few of them. (Although I’m a bit too old to have sung them, thank goodness.) But as I think about them now, I’m not quite sure to make of them. Read the rest of this entry »

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? Read the rest of this entry »

I love Christmas and I relish the traditional accounts and stories. Occasionally, however, I put on my scholar’s cap and examine these things a little bit more critically, always being careful not to let such historical investigations ruin my appreciation of the holiday. In this latter mode, a question that I find fascinating is “Where was Jesus born?” Read the rest of this entry »

“The Sacrament of Doubt” is a newly-published collection of speeches (plus one web post and one open letter) by Mormon thinker, theologian, dissident, humorist, and member of the September Six, Paul Toscano. John Crawford and I will review the book in the form of a conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

Time for the second annual recommendations for stress-free holiday shopping (see last year’s list for more titles). Let’s face it, nothing says, “I don’t care about you” more than a gift basket. For your Mormon friends and family, books are always an easy way to give without pressure. Feel free to give your recommendations as well. Read the rest of this entry »

The assertion is often made by people who are smart enough to know better that modern Mormons won’t vote for a Democrat.  The reasons that are usually advanced include party stances on abortion and SSM, and sometimes the sexual adventures of Bill Clinton.  If the person making this argument lives in Utah, perhaps the strongest answer is to point out that Jim Matheson, (D., Salt Lake City) is probably his representative in congress. 

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Forget the religious controversy. The most striking thing about The Golden Compass is that it’s a dud. Read the rest of this entry »

It bears repeating sometimes that history is not the past, but the past as reconstructed in the mind of the historian. This mind is not an unbiased repository of pristine “facts”, but an organ shaped by experience and world view. It is imperative, then, that historians remain aware of their own limitations. This much is probably uncontroversial.

Here’s what I want to know: should it be incumbent upon historians to make their political, moral, and spiritual principles known? To bring it down to our own hobby: should a historian working on early Mormon social and political history disclose that she is a democratic socialist (for example)? Is it necessary to know whether a historian of Joseph Smith is a believer? If we are reading a history of Mormon women, do we need to know that the writer wishes for modern LDS women to hold ecclesiastical office?

The name of the church unapologetically announces that these are the last days, but there are questions among us as to exactly what that means.  In Evelyn Waugh’s hilarious novel Scoop, Theodore arises from his bed each morning, goes to his window, and, while gazing out on the new day, recites the words from a hymn:  “Change and decay in all around I see.”  There is a strong strain in Mormonism that tends to this view, too.  We are in a state of decline which will continue until God makes a final end to it all.  The eschaton is the event where the King of Kings will put an end to wickedness by taking down all who practice it and settling their hash once and for all.

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