By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Elder Marlin Jensen will be released as Church Historian in an upcoming General Conference. The timing of his release has nothing to do with comments Elder Jensen made recently (cited acontextually here, among other places). To suggest otherwise is to perpetuate a false and damaging gossip.

Mormons covenant not to speak ill of the Lord’s anointed, but apparently this does not prevent us from gossiping about them if the agenda suits us. It makes me sad when this happens, whether it’s about Elder Jensen, Pres. Packer or any of the brethren. So, to all the stupid people: shut your stupid faces.

Sam is a BCC permablogger and author of In Heaven As It Is On Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, a book that is by all reports excellent. He agreed to answer a few questions about the book, his writing and everything else.

1. How does your work as a physician affect your writing of history?

Intimately. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you like BCC? Do you like the sidebar, the news we bring you, our book reviews and our discussion of what’s happening in Mormonism? The U.S. Senate, in dizzying heights of internet ignorance, is in the process of considering legislation that very well could shutter our sidebar and censor our speech, closing the Bloggernacle. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and could have severe legal consequences for us if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any possible links to copyright infringement.

Suffice it to say, this would devastate much of the internet. PIPA’s stupid sister, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), is no better. It’s time for you to visit AmericanCensorship.org and contact your Senator, who very probably doesn’t even use email. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has more information on this as well.

You have already probably heard a lot about this issue from Google, Craigslist, Wikipedia and a host of other sites that have gone dark today. We’re keeping our content up out of dedication to you, our community, but this is really important. Please take a minute and speak up today.

Looking for our discussion of the Pew Forum’s latest survey? It would seem that BCC has inadvertently broken the Temporal Prime Directive. Check back tomorrow morning and all shall be as it was. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you saw this video, and only this, what would you say of the role of women in the Church?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Bloggernacle Trolls,

Happy New Year. As this is a Jubilee year [1] I will grant amnesty to each and every person who has previously been banned from BCC. You will be given the chance once more to regale us with your scintillating comments. And I mean once more: if you come out swinging like a troll again, you’ll end up back in the dumpster. Email us at the info/contact address to get out of Spirit Commenting Prison.

P.S. Not you, Mormon Wookiee. Your cross-bloggernacle spam comment spree has made you victim #1 of 2012. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

[1] No idea if this is a Jubilee year or not, I just like the x-men character.

Great news, everyone!

We at BCC proudly welcome Emily Jensen — journalist and web author extraordinaire, and all-around great person — as a full-time contributor. This is how EmJen introduces herself:

With a bit of angst (since she loves BCC, but also pretty much loves every other Mormon blog out there) Emily W. Jensen joins BCC (as part of a new position at Dialogue, more info forthcoming). So she freely admits she’ll be serving two masters as she’ll continue wandering the Bloggernacle and beyond looking for incredible posts for the Deseret News while sneaking in through the attic window of By Common Consent to write posts that strike her fancy.

If you met her in person, you’d see that her energy matches her enthusiasm and that her mouth loves to run away with her, with or without her mind. Besides her work at the Deseret News, she loves moderating the Round Table of beautiful and strong Bloggernacle women in discussing important issues surrounding Mormon women. Oh, and did we mention that she also loves mommy-ing her five mostly-delightful children and crowing about the achievements of her hot historian husband?

Most notably for this intro, in her almost 4-year tenure covering the Bloggernacle she hasn’t met any Mormon blogger she hasn’t liked.

In short, we’re stoked. Emily is good people.

Take that, JI.

My very first memory of Christmas has little to do with Christ: it is that of unwrapping a large present, a wind-up robot that walked, shot sparks out its ears and which had a rolling image of a space landscape in its chest. In short, it was an awesome toy. I can remember the living room, the rug, the iron grates over the air vents in the floor, the tree, but no Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

About a month ago, we announced a little contest around Jana Reiss’ excellent book, Flunking Sainthood. We’re pleased to announce the winners:

#1: MaryBeth Harper
#2: Brittany Aurelia Morin-Mezzadri
#3: LessonNumberOne

All of the entries were interesting and enlightening — thanks for participating! Winners, please contact Jana Reiss via Facebook to coordinate receiving your copy of Flunking Sainthood.

From Patrick Mason: At the January 2012 meeting of the American Society for Church History, I’ll be on a panel called “Teaching Mormonism in a Digital Age.” In my comments I’ll be considering the impact of the “bloggernacle” on Mormon studies, specifically in regard to the current generation of graduate students. I have designed the following questionnaire to get a better handle on why people read Mormon blogs and what they get out of them. The questionnaire is for any graduate student, full or part time, LDS or non-LDS, in any academic field. The informed consent form on the first page will explain more, or you can contact me at patrick.mason@cgu.edu with any questions. Thanks for participating.

Link to survey

The Neal A Maxwell Institute has announced its forthcoming Summer Seminar. As ever the topic is provocative and inspiring. Details below:

The Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Culture

“THE GOLD PLATES AS CULTURAL ARTIFACT – II”
Brigham Young University
June 18 – July 27, 2012

Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently quoted in a Trib article by Peggy Fletcher Stack, a journalist I truly admire. The article is well worth your valuable time, as it explores some interesting issues of who is truly “Mormon”. I thought it might be worth posting the full text of my email to Peggy, which includes the questions I was asked. Each one of the questions is worthy of long discussion, and my replies are nothing fancy, but it’s good conversation fodder for a Friday before Conference. Read the rest of this entry »

I love the notion of “social capital” at Church — building up a reputation as someone trustworthy, reliable, the sort of “good neighbor” reputation that then permits you to act as you please [1]. People with large amounts of social capital in their wards can say controversial things or act crazily (blue shirts! Pantsuits!) without fear of being marginalized. Attempt those tasks without a good buildup of social capital, and heaven help you. Once people know that you’re fundamentally a good person and worth of trust, you can get away with all sorts of antics [2].

However, much of the building of social capital has to do with initial positioning in the ward. As a new arrival, the heat is on — you’d better not make any false steps in building your reputation, or you’ll never gain the respect and admiration of your elder’s quorum. Let’s consider a few common pitfalls. Read the rest of this entry »

167 years ago today, Joseph Smith, Jr. was gunned down at Carthage Jail. For some, today is a day to mark the anniversary of Joseph’s death with writings and ponderings on the meaning of his life and teachings. Doubtless your Facebook walls are filled with historical anecdotes, pithy quotes or iffy youtube videos. I would think that the current popularity of The Book of Mormon musical is contributing in some small measure to amplified output by members via various social networks. I’ve been giving some thought to the reaction of the Saints in Nauvoo to the death of the Prophet, as well as subsequent declarations and reactions to his death, as well as thinking about what our religion teaches us with respect to such events. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m impressed by the “Jesus is _____” campaign. It’s catchy, it has viral appeal, and what’s more it arrives at the desired result — driving a large discussion about Christ — without imposing a predetermined path to discussion or a forced conclusion. It’s sponsored by some large Protestant churches (the largest being here in Seattle), but despite the relatively narrow view of Christ offered by the sponsored religions the campaign invites large and open discussion and debate about who Jesus is and what he means to us. As the site explains, “So maybe the reality of who Jesus is remains too big for the blank.” Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that after the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day, he was the one who carved the roast beast. What’s the roast beast of choice on Christmas Day?