By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

In a writing class when I was a freshman in college, the instructor asked us to write our own obituaries as an exercise in autobiography.  It caused me to reflect upon what I would want people to remember about me if I were to suddenly turn up dead, and it also tuned me in to this obscure but interesting part of the daily newspaper.  We can discern different things from a few paragraphs, including what constitutes a life well-lived and how a community thinks of death.

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Has anyone else in the BCC community besides me seen Worship Hour on KBYU TV?  It airs in the morning and again in the afternoon on Sundays.  Where I live it is only available on satellite TV, so I hadn’t seen it up until a few weeks ago.

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Last week there were several interesting posts in the bloggernacle about Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, and the Fall.  Mormons have not only the Genesis account, but the Pearl of Great Price and the temple, and it is interesting to see how we harmonize the various versions.  I don’t have a background in ancient scripture and I go to the temple more to find peace of mind that doctrinal insight, so I have nothing to add to the discussion.  But I am interested to see that we LDS people want to believe strongly that the Fall wasn’t really a fall but a jump, or whatever you call it when you fall upwards.  I think this has led us to believe simultaneously in two different versions of the Fall.

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We have met the enemy and he is us.  In a religion which teaches us to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers, in which we at least theoretically bear one another’s burdens, and in which we share some communal responsibility for one another’s well-being, I wonder how much responsibility we bear for one another’s transgressions?  This question brings us to the matter at hand.

There is low-hanging fruit, and then there is Senator Chris Buttars.  Read the rest of this entry »

Now and then you see something which makes you think that the writers for The Onion have outdone themselves.  But some things are beyond parody, so we are forced to conclude, yet again, that life is strange.  Brothers and sisters, read it and weep:

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Hey gang, now and then we get the chance to actually help one another in the online world.  A participant in the BCC community has recently been called to serve as Young Men’s president in his ward and he is feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.  He requested assistance and advice, and this is our opportunity to pitch in.

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I was pleased and inspired when I read the posts some of my co-bloggers wrote on Thanksgiving.  I’ve decided to contribute my own version.

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One of the really appealing things about the Mormon worldview is the way that it handles wrongdoing so adeptly.  Our ideas about agency, transgression, redemption, and eternal progress combine to help us see things we do wrong as learning opportunities.  We don’t think about cardinal sins or venial sins; we think about improving, and form Mutual Improvement Associations.  We see bad choices and failure as necessary parts of mortality.  Our restoration scriptures make it clear that the Fall was not an impediment to our salvation, but an important part of it.  We must taste the bitter so that we may learn to prize the good.  We are presented with a challenge and when we master it, all previous failures are forgotten.  Christ’s grace is sufficient, and a loss becomes irrecoverable only when we make a fully conscious, fully informed, deliberate turning away from that grace.  We believe we will be judged according to the true desires of our hearts, so it’s hard for Mormons to blunder their way into hell.

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I recently read through the Book of Mormon again.  I was interested in how the experience this time was different from other times, and also how it was the same.  Perhaps you have also noticed some of these points in your own reading.

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I once had a co-worker who was an alcoholic, although he claimed to be just a social drinker.  It was only after two disastrous life events that he decided to face the truth, admit that he had a problem, and get help.  As I worked in the office next to his for over a year, I often reflected on the the lesson I learned in Primary about the four R’s of repentance.  The first step we need to take in order to reform ourselves and become better is to recognize that we have a problem.  The second step is to feel sincere remorse for our actions.

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Even though conference was two weekends ago, I find that I am still thinking about it.  There is something about this semi-annual gathering that is very meaningful to me.

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by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

I received the following message this week in my email inbox:
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We could all probably come up with lots of good reasons to cancel a stake training meeting. Here is my list:

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This letter appears in the diary of a man who served in the Mormon Batallion and pioneered in Utah and Nevada. 

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What is the deal with the pronouncing guide in the back of the Book of Mormon?

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