The Church has long been governed by a fundamental, basic instinct, to restrict access to sources and to control information and thought that doesn’t match its preferred self-perception as the only true and living church on the face of the earth. That instinct served the institution pretty well for much of its history when information about the faith was not so easy to come by. But we now live in the internet age. And all of that stuff the Church wanted so badly to keep under wraps is but a mouse click away. And all of a sudden that deep-seated instinct to hide the ball is not serving the institution so well anymore. To its credit, the Church has endeavored to adjust to the new reality, with the Joseph Smith Papers Project being perhaps the leading evidence and example of a new approach. But the Church still has work to do to enter fully today’s information age. [Read more…]
Prayer for Monday in Holy Week
O God of our long wilderness road: as we approach the end of our Lenten journey, let the light of your Spirit come shining from the west down to the east, in anticipation of the day when, through Christ our Lord, we shall be released. Amen.
For music, Jack Johnson singing Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released”:
Paris Temple
The Paris, France temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been completed. Public tours will be held between April 22 and May 13, 2017. The temple was announced in 2011, however rumors regarding President Gordon B. Hinckley’s work on a prospective temple circulated for more than a decade. Local parties confirmed that land purchase for the temple was a very slow process, inhibited by French regulation and public concerns.
Construction photo, Aug. 2015.
Prayer for Palm Sunday
Our triumphant God, in whose glory we rejoice this day: pour out your Spirit upon us, that we at last might come in the name of the Lord and be blessed. Amen.
For music, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Benedictus”:
BCC Secrets
Earlier this week on BCC twitter a bunch of people DM’d us with their secrets – some benign, some not so benign. I don’t really love our oversharing culture, and I don’t know if this will repeat itself again on our twitter account. But the various responses might give us a picture into how we’re all wanderers, all searching, all hurting sometimes. Reading these have given me more compassion and more desire to be kind: in the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can’t see. [Read more…]
We Should REALLY Argue More at Church
I hope I will be forgiven for co-opting Sam Brunson’s excellent post and title (found here), but I wanted to investigate the WHY a little bit more. Ardis points out that debate used to be a staple at church (at least for the men of the YMMIA) during the early part of the 20th century. We also know that in the earliest days of the church, the School of the Prophets was known for hearty discussion and debate (as well as tobacco spitting and smoking). Based on my own memories, growing up in the church in the 70s and 80s, church classes used to involve more debate than they have in my advancing years. That could be the nature of the ward I grew up in, but I suspect that it’s a byproduct of the calcification of correlation that has continued since its introduction. The church–like every organization–becomes more bureaucratic with growth, not less. I’ll explain what I mean. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Saturday in Lent
O God of freedom: in our mental slavery, we cry for your Spirit to help us sing redemption songs, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For Music, Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”:
We Should Argue More at Church
Seriously.
I don’t mean this as some kind of Swiftian modest proposal. I’m completely serious about it. Maybe it’s my background as an attorney, but I believe that disagreement—that the airing of conflicting viewpoints—helps us discover truth. And Truth. I mean, we don’t know everything yet; that’s literally an article of our faith.
And it’s not just a matter of finding truth (or Truth). We don’t have to fully think through our beliefs when we just assert them, especially if everybody nods in assent. Assertion is easy, and allows us to be lazy in constructing our beliefs. When we have to defend our assertions, we see the weaknesses, the places we need to study more, the places we need to look for further revelation. Putting our ideas into the stream of discourse helps us improve and increase our understanding. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Friday in Lent
O God of the mysterious clouds, who appears most in darkness and speaks most in silence: we who have looked at love from both sides now and find that we do not really know love at all cry out like the bride for her lost lover, pleading for your Spirit to sate our hungry hearts; grant that we might learn to practice the fierce but gentle love of your Son, that in loving one another we may at last love you, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”:
Caldey Island, Wales
On Easter Monday, the Mormon Society of St. James will be embarking on its fifth annual major pilgrimage, this time to Rome. Pilgrimage has become something of a “hobby” for me and while one of the highlights of my year is the long yomp with the MSSJ crew, I also enjoy mini-pilgrimages whenever I have the chance.
Last summer I spend a day roaming around Caldey Island off the coast of western Wales. Caldey is home to a community of Trappist monks. Herewith a few snaps taken with my cheap phone: [Read more…]
Why I Wrote This Book
This book is unusual. In more ways than one. Well, maybe in more ways than ten. It’s a book about theology written by a Biologist. More strange perhaps is that I actually believe that science matters to theology, and visa-versa. Not a watered down science, mind you, but a full-bodied science that embraces all that that word means. No punches are pulled here. Well, that’s the wrong metaphor because it sounds like Science and Theology are entering a cage match in a winner-take-all blood fest. I need something that captures the idea that Theology and Science need each other. That they are better together than apart. That both become something richer and more compelling when they are holding hands on the beach and looking at a sunset than when they are duking it out in the ring. So what metaphor captures that? I know Frodo and Sam in Mordor. There we go. Frodo and Sam carrying the ring of falsehood into hostile territory to toss the thing into the Fires of Doom.
[Read more…]
Announcing BCC Press
We started BCC in 2004. That’s a very long time for any internet project, and I’ve been really lucky to be associated with some of the best Mormon writers and thinkers around. BCC is a joyful, faithful, troublemaking crowd and every day I read and learn things here that I couldn’t find anywhere else. I have become a better Mormon because of the minds and souls of the rest of you here. We’re proud of this community, but there’s always been the feeling that we could be doing more. So we’re expanding our efforts to build the community and engage with our faith in a new way. We’ve started a non-profit publishing company: BCC Press. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Thursday in Lent
O God, whose breath brooded over the waters: we come seeking the mysterious flow of your Spirit, hoping for a wind to clear away the clouds of our sorrow and reveal the clear light of your Son, and yet here we remain, lost but believing, in prayer telling all we can. Amen.
For music, Nick Drake’s “Riverman”:
Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
In response to Ashmae’s thoughtful reflections on the dearth of women’s voices at the last General Conference, a reader shared the following comment on a popular social media website:
You are all focused on the wrong thing. Why does it matter who said it as long as it is truth? The message is far more important than the messenger.
Someone else made a similar comment here on the website, so it must be a thing:
I don’t think it matters who speaks to be quite honest. It’s what is spoken about that is important and it applies to everyone.
I admit that my first response was to heave a sigh of exasperation. After all, as members of a culture steeped in the rhetorical traditions of our fathers, we all know that the credibility of the messenger matters at least as much as logical arguments and emotional appeals as a mode of persuasion. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Wednesday in Lent
O God of all we are: halfway from coal, halfway to diamond, we come before you rejoicing in the abundant grace of this moment, knowing our faults, but not needing any more than all you have given us; send us, then, your Spirit to make our delight in simple beauty full, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, the piano demo of R. E. M.’s “Beat a Drum”:
Families vs. Dynasties
Dynasties are all about appearances. And shoulder pads.
A disturbing trend surfaced in the last year or so in which parents wrote letters to their young adult children explaining that if they did not stay active in the church, they would be cut from the inheritance. These letters were shared in various Mormon internet groups. At roughly the same time, LDS Philanthropies published a video featuring a father who said that if his sons continued to follow church teachings, they would keep their inheritance, but otherwise, he would simply donate his money to LDS Philanthropies. The video was subsequently removed due to backlash. It’s an interesting parenting trend, some might say alarming.
First of all, my own view on inheritances is that nobody should count on it. If you are living so close to the edge that the inheritance will make or break you, maybe you should be focusing on more sustainable sources of income. Furthermore, it is the right of any individual to donate their earthly goods as they see fit. And yet, it is unsavory to imagine parents using their inheritance as a bribe to control their children. It also seems like a recipe for hypocrisy, if one’s children are encouraged to pretend to be living one way for the benefit of the parents, but in reality feel differently. Do some parents really only love their children if those children do as the parents wish? That doesn’t feel like love. That’s something more like a dynasty than a family. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Tuesday in Lent
O God, whose voice in our hearts goes beyond words: grant us your Spirit, that we may be ever more enveloped by the mystery of the Word made flesh in your Son, until our rejoicing breaks forth into our own songs without words, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, the marvelous Jacqueline Du Pré playing Mendelssohn’s “Song without Words in D major, Op. 109”:
One Thing Missing: Beautiful Conference, but Where Were the Women?
Conference this past weekend was peaceful and calming in the way I remember it being as a kid. The lilts and accents of certain voices felt familiar and a lot like home. Elder Holland’s talk was a sermon to anchor my mormonism in, as so many others have also noted. Many of the talks reminded me of what it is to step away from all other things and find a place where the spirit dictates my thoughts and actions. It made me want to be better. It was a good conference.
Still, I couldn’t help but notice that only one talk out of twenty-seven in the course of eight hours this weekend was given by a woman. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fifth Monday in Lent
O God of our abandonment, whose night seems to know no dawn: grant that we, in the darkness of your Spirit, might hear the beating of your heart and find peace as we remain in the twilight of its shadow, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, this stunning live version of Florence and the Machine’s “Cosmic Love”:
Why is April “the Cruellest Month”? The Downside of Hope
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain
–T.S. Eliot, “The Wasteland”
Here are two things that everybody should know about April. First, it is National Poetry Month, which means that anything I write for public consumption is going to be about poetry. Second, April is famously, according to actual poet T.S. Eliot, the “cruellest month.” [Read more…]
Ownership of the Kirtland Temple
In a Facebook Group recently the topic of the ownership of the Kirtland Temple came up. I thought I would take a shot at a (very) brief sketch of the first part of the subject.[1]
Prayer for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
O God of our weary hands, which rest today from their labors: may your Spirit fill us with strength to take others’ hands in our own, that, feeling the tactile witness of their work, we might at last understand one another in love, through the grace of Him whose hands were pierced for us, Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, “Rest These Hands,” by British-born composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980):
What Many Members of Color Seek From Conference
Phylicia Jimenez is a convert of almost nine years. In her words: “I’m a novice writer, a grad student, a mama to a busy 21 month old, a wife and an activist. I love food, friends and diversity! I have my own blog SamePewDifferentView.com that I just started and hope to write more on. My focus is improving race relations wherever I am, in whatever I am doing. I especially love doing so in the church as to help us overcome our own racist history as an organization since there are still so many effects of it today!”
In April 2015 I had the opportunity to visit an African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME church) for a baptism. The AME church has a significant and longstanding history for and in the African American community. It was founded in 1816 after discrimination and racism in St. George’s Methodist Church. Those of African descent left St. George’s and founded their own church carrying the Methodist doctrine with them. They created a place of healing and worship for Blacks during a time when many were not allowed to worship at all. The AME Church also empowered the Black community by teaching school in their churches and raising money to keep schoolhouses open and filled with resources.
The motto of the AME church is “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family.”
Prayer for the Fourth Saturday in Lent
O God, you who haunt all our disappointments: grant the slightest taste of your Spirit to let us know that our pleas are heard, that even though we may not get what we want, we may yet discern your faithfulness and love, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” by The Smiths:
Mormons and the Billy Graham Rule
Today’s guest post is from Carolyn Homer. Carolyn Homer is an attorney and religion constitutional law enthusiast in Washington, D.C.
I’ve been surprised by the East Coast’s collective “sexist!” horror this week over the published tidbit that Mike Pence “never eats alone with a woman other than his wife.” Famously known as the Billy Graham Rule, the point is to avoid temptation and any appearance of sexual impropriety. For Mike Pence specifically, it probably goes beyond that — as a public figure running on Christian values, he probably doesn’t want to create even the possibility of a he-said/she-said sex scandal. Even if Pence trusts himself, the rule protects against blackmail. [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fourth Friday in Lent
O Lord of song, whom we praise with our broken music: accept the songs of our childlike joy and hear your Spirit in our breaths as we, in gratitude for your glorious gifts, reach out to fill your cup as you have filled ours, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”:
A Tale of Two Cities: The State of Utah Welfare
Fruits of the Mormon way of life. Draper Temple (Photo credited to “LDS church” by this source)
Something remarkable happened in Draper last night–yes, that Draper, the well-heeled Salt Lake City suburb where you can buy a $10 million faux chateau overlooking the Draper temple:
After a pummeling from nearly 1,000 residents, Draper Mayor Troy Walker pulled two of his city’s proposed homeless-shelter locations off the table. (Source)
I know what you’re thinking: “Local politics? Remarkable? Please, BCC, you’re better than this.” (“Ha!” replies the chorus from the peanut gallery.) But follow me like a hungry toddler—there’s more: [Read more…]
Prayer for the Fourth Thursday in Lent
O God of all our griefs, you whose name we cry out to the darkness, in whom we strain to believe: send a flicker of your Spirit to show us the face of your Son in all of the broken people around us, that when we learn to see his face in our own we might at last become one people as you are One God. Amen.
For music, “Jesus Alone” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:
What’s a Gay Like Me Supposed to Do? Some Unanswered Questions.
MCS is your typical single Mormon in his late 20’s. He faithfully attends his YSA ward, and is one of the Same Ten People who rotate through all the hard callings. You’d never guess he was gay, but he is, surprise! He graduated from BYU with a degree in history a few years ago and, seeing as history factories across America shut their doors during the 2009 financial crisis, will start a professional program this fall.
The Church has done an inadequate job of meeting the needs of gay, young single adults. I don’t mean to speak for others who are older than me, or who have entered mixed-orientation marriages, or who have left the Church for a same-sex relationship, or who have re-committed to celibacy after a time out of the Church. I’m speaking as a 28-year old, gay, single Mormon, committed to the Gospel but uncertain of my future in the Church. I am grateful for recent efforts to reach out to people like me.
However, I have some questions, and the answers have been non-existent.
Post for the Fourth Wednesday in Lent
Our God of the sanctuary, before whose doors our prayers blow like a great desert storm, all sand and wind: as we walk in Jesus’ wilderness way, may your Spirit tune our impatient hearts and voices to the seasons of your day, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For music, Mazzy Star’s “Seasons of Your Day”:
Recent Comments