By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Saturday May 23: Darius is particularly interested in the session on ritual healing, in which Jonathan Stapley will talk about men and women giving healing blessings. Though he needs to rest first, he instructs me to phone him when it’s time for the session to start. Why the interest? Darius’s mother, Elsie, was threatening miscarriage when she was pregnant with him. She had already lost several pregnancies and was desperate to keep her baby. She called in the sisters of her Pentecostal religion, who then anointed her belly with consecrated oil and prayed over her, dedicating the fruit of her womb to God. Darius knew from an early age that he had been so dedicated. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday May 22: The first session we attend is titled “‘Who is Man to Change that Segregation?’: Race in Twentieth-Century Mormon Culture, Practice, and Doctrine.” The title comes from a talk given at BYU by Apostle Mark E. Peterson. In the talk Peterson states: “I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn’t just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn’t that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, ‘First we pity, then endure, then embrace’” Read the rest of this entry »

Wed. May 20: It’s been a bad week for Darius. Two phlebotomies (the only way to control his particular type of cancer, Polycythemia Vera). He is weak. I know he won’t show it during MHA–although I’ll notice his energy levels and he’ll be honest with me. When anyone asks how he’s doing, he’ll say either, “TERRIFIC!” or “Blessed and highly favored!” Read the rest of this entry »

My husband and I will celebrate twenty-four years of marriage on May 17th, which is tomorrow.
Bruce, as most of my friends and co-bloggers know, was my professor before he was my husband. I got free tuition when I married him. He was thirty-four and insecure. I was twenty-nine and damaged. Read the rest of this entry »

My first seminary teacher (the one who inadvertently persuaded me I shouldn’t be taking seminary) loved urban legends. He told about patriarchs placing their hands on a young person’s head and saying, “I’m sorry. Nothing’s coming. I have no blessing for you.” Of course, the next day, the kid dies in a car crash. So after that class, it was a little scary to get a patriarchal blessing. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting on Mother’s Day. I figured I’d avoid that particular invitation for life. It’s on my list of nightmares. This is how the person conducting the meeting introduces me in my nightmare: “Well, brothers and sisters, we usually have our ideal mothers tell us about the joys of keeping their husbands’ shirts neatly pressed, or the wonders of scrapbooking, all about their missionary children, and every splendid thing an outstanding mother can share. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve talked about this before: How do we reach our youth? My bishop, who is also my husband, has just called me to teach the 16-17 year olds. I’ve done it before, and found that to do it well, I needed to put about 10 hours of preparation into the class every week.

I approach it with a bit more trepidation now, because I know all of the kids I’ll be teaching. About half of them are on the brink of leaving the Church. Some have announced that they plan to leave when they’re eighteen. My own son, who will be one of my students, declares every Sunday that he hates Church. Read the rest of this entry »

During my recent trip to San Jose, a friend and I visited the larger-than-life statues of John Carlos and Tommie Smith, the athletes who gave the Black power salute during the National Anthem at the Mexico City Olympics. I personally come to the statues with respect for what Smith and Carlos did. So after my visit, I read a few articles about the huge depictions. I was struck by the observations of Dave Zirin: “Trepidation should be our first impulse when we hear that radical heroes are to be immortalized in fixed poses of bloodless nostalgia. There is something very wrong with seeing the toothy, grinning face of Paul Robeson staring back at us from a stamped envelope. Or the wry expression the US Postal service affixed on Malcolm X – harmless, wry, inviting, and by extension slanderous. These fears erupted in earnest when I heard that San Jose State University would be unveiling a statue of two of its alums, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The 20 foot high structure would be a commemoration of their famed Black Gloved salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. I dreaded the thought that this would be the athletic equivalent to Lenin’s Tomb: when you can’t erase a radical history, you simply embalm it.” Read the rest of this entry »

I just returned from my father-in-law’s funeral. I’ve blogged a lot about death recently, so I wanted to do something more upbeat. Here goes:
Read the rest of this entry »

So, last Friday, I sat by one of my very out, gay, former Mormon friends and a bunch of other people–active and not active Mormons–and sang the entire score of _Saturday’s Warrior_. My friend was the best. I think I came in third. He knew EVERY WORD. It was a riot. Even though he has started a different spiritual journey from the one he first began, he is at peace with his Mormon tradition–which includes not only the First Vision but “The Circle of Our Love.” The best part, of course, was that all of us at the sing-along are academic types in our day-to-day. I think we hid it extremely well as we tried to hit the notes of “Jimmy, Oh Jimmy, don’t listen to them–how can they say they’re your friends?” Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, my husband became our ward’s bishop. We have known for two weeks, but didn’t tell our children until the night before. Bruce and I read about a bishop’s duties, and he summarized them thus:
1) Care for the poor
2) Help people repent
3) Work with the youth
There are other responsibilities, of course, but these comprise his summary. Read the rest of this entry »

The greatest gift I could give my husband right now would be to love his father. In the nearly 1/4 century of our marriage, I have never really bonded with my in-laws. Particularly not with Grandpa. I resented the way he treated my children–though I grant they could often try anyone’s patience. Grandpa was sharp, particularly with my oldest son. There were times I wanted to make a statement, remove my son from the harshness, and say that we wouldn’t be coming back. I never did, at least not verbally. But I quietly withdrew. And I understood why my son reached a point where he simply refused to visit Grandpa.
Today, Grandpa is dying. My son went to visit him in the hospital, and wrote this poem. It’s wonderful to receive good instruction from my own child. Here is what he wrote: Read the rest of this entry »

In 1978, I lived in Mexico City at the Benemerito School, which is owned and operated by the Church. .) It included dorms and classrooms, facilities for academic, artistic, and vocational training. It was a beautiful campus (some students earned their tuition by caring for the grounds), filled with LDS Mexican faculty, most returned missionaries, who were eager to educate younger Latter-day Saints–many of whom I met later at BYU. By then, they were returned missionaries themselves, ready to continue their education. Benemerito was an oasis. Read the rest of this entry »

Years ago, my best friend gave birth to a Down Syndrome baby. Her husband immediately left for two weeks, unable to deal with the challenges this child presented. I visited my friend and we talked quite casually about the immediate difficulties of a Down’s baby. On the Sunday afterwards, I went to church and chatted with my bishop’s wife. She had given birth to a Down’s baby some forty years previously. I asked her for advice, and she and I sluffed Sunday School so we could talk. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, it’s true. We have released Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. We aren’t in full distribution yet, but anyone can get a copy through me.

I think it’s a good and helpful documentary, but as one who believes in the principle of faith, I don’t think it’s essential. For any who have been troubled by race issues in the Church, we hope the documentary will be a balm. And it presents good information. But we certainly don’t present it as THE solution to questions which ultimately are between the seeker and God. Read the rest of this entry »

I have my students read “Letter from Birmingham Jail” every semester. Once, a student compared it to Joseph Smith’s letter from Liberty Jail–rather compellingly. I see in Dr. King’s statement, quoted below, a transcendent invitation to anyone who takes Christ’s name upon them–or anyone who believes in causes greater than themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

So my son will not pass Sports Medicine this term.  Alas.  We worked so hard.  And I do mean WE.  I taught myself the material so I could tutor him.  But the class is made for a different sort of student than my son is.  The big news is that I’m saying, “So what?” Read the rest of this entry »

On New Year’s Eve, Bruce and I visited my parents.  Dad recalled his missionary days in Finland.  On his first New Year’s Eve there, he anticipated that the Finnish Saints would do the same things American Saints do–kiss and make lots of noise and blow little horns and throw graffiti.  Instead,  they rose as one body and solemnly sang, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  I wonder if they still do that.  (And I know there are bloggers who can tell me.)

At my parents’ home, we sang one of my favorite hymns, which doesn’t usually get a lot of attention: “God Of  Our Fathers Known of Old” by Rudyard Kipling.  Here are the first three verses. Read the rest of this entry »

My six year old granddaughter just learned about Pompeii, where lots and lots of people DIED.  She is nervous, now, about volcanoes in Utah.  Who wouldn’t be?  And she’s moving to Indiana, where there are sometimes tornadoes.

So, this is the curriculum I’ve devised for advanced first graders who really need to know how scary life can be: Read the rest of this entry »

My son will take a test on the Civil War today. On Sunday, he and I watched Gettysburg as partial preparation for this test.

I love Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as portrayed by Jeff Daniels in that film. He reminds me of my husband. Read the rest of this entry »

So a friend and I showed the documentary _Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons_ at the American Academy of Religion in Chicago this past weekend, and then showed it again at the University of Chicago on Sunday, for a predominantly Mormon audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Since missionaries have strict limitations in space and luggage weight, we are only accepting the following donations for the missionaries who are in the MTC on Christmas Day. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a Beehive (the first class in Young Women’s back in the 1960’s), my teacher was an adorable newlywed named Cindy Clark. She simply sparkled. She and her husband, Steve, eventually had a gaggle of equally sparkly and creative children (one of whom took a class from me and brilliantly, delightfully broke every rule I gave).

Read the rest of this entry »

Mormons from all over the U.S. come to BYU the last part of August to get some education. Speakers are approved, and classes offered in everything from ancient scripture to advanced scrapbook techniques. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, in the MTC Relief Society, we sang “The Spirit of God.” I was struck by the lyrics, “The knowledge and power of God are expanding.” In the past, I’ve interpreted those words to refer to the rather controversial idea of God’s own progress—even if the progress refers to his children’s immortality and eternal life, his “work and glory.” But surrounded by missionaries, I heard it differently today. “The knowledge of God is expanding” and “the power of God [priesthood?] is expanding.” In other words, many are coming to a knowledge of God, and many are receiving His priesthood.

I’m curious about how LDS bloggers interpret these words. Your interpretations?