Jesus: A Pilgrimage, book review
Every day, just after breakfast, for the past few weeks, I’ve enjoyed a morning devotional with this lovely book, Jesus: A Pilgrimage. It’s by a Jesuit priest named James Martin, who also works as a...
View ArticleWhat now?
It’s been a rough couple of days. I am absolutely heartsick. Kate Kelly, founder of Ordain Women, and John Dehlin, of the Mormon Stories podcast series, were both sent letters recently informing them...
View ArticleExcommunication, Republican-style
Excommunication has been much in the news lately, and especially in Mormon circles. It’s always a little surprising for me when issues relating to Mormonism receive national attention. The John and...
View ArticleMy favorite calling ever
The Mormon practice of lay ministries has come under scrutiny lately, because of what we’ve been referring to around here as, ahem, the recent unpleasantness. Still, callings are a fairly unique part...
View ArticlePain
I’m feeling it, every day, in my small corner of the internet. We’re hurting. We’re troubled. We’ve lost something we fear we may never get back. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “the eye cannot...
View ArticleTwo big political questions for Mormons
Today, we Utahns enjoyed the edifying spectacle of seeing our last two Attorneys-General hauled off in handcuffs for political corruption. Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow, who between them were...
View ArticleGay mormons: two opportunities for conversation
When I was a kid, every Thanksgiving and Christmas and Fourth of July, we’d have a big family dinner, and, in addition to my folks and my brothers, we’d invite another man, Mr. Carl Fuerstner. He was...
View ArticlePreaching false doctrine
The preaching of false doctrine in Mormonism has been much in the news lately, what with the disciplining of Kate Kelly and (possibly) John Dehlin. But that raises an issue, does it not? What exactly...
View ArticleThe end of the Mormon Moment
Once again, cannibalized from my Sunstone talk. The so-called Mormon Moment, and the way it ended. The Mormon Moment was, at least initially, about seeming. Our world really did become a stage, it...
View ArticleFilm Review: Lucy
My wife and I watched Lucy last night, and I don’t know how many brain cells that cost me. But it was a lot. The irony of this movie is that the smarter the main character, Lucy, gets, the dumber the...
View ArticleSunday Thoughts
Yesterday, I went to Church with my boot on, having broken my foot. The choir was singing, and my wife is the choir director. High councilmen spoke, and as is often the case, my mind wandered. So a...
View ArticleWhen the Game Stands Tall: Movie Review
When the Game Stands Tall is a pretty nifty example of the inspiring teacher/sports movie subgenre. Inspiring teacher movies are all about how wonderful teachers change the lives of young people–Dead...
View ArticleDizziness
For eleven days, now, I have been pretty well constantly dizzy. It’s especially bad when I stand up, or walk around. And I’ve been to a few doctors about it, and they pretty well agree about what’s...
View ArticleWhen institutions fail
The National Football League is a cultural institution of tremendous impact and power, an immensely profitable financial entity, and a television colossus. It’s also in big trouble. Video showing...
View ArticleReReading Job: Book review
Michael Austin’s Re-Reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem is a terrific book; smart, thoughtful, funny. I honestly didn’t think a literary scholar’s close reading of the (boring)...
View ArticleGranting cert . . .or not
I took a week’s vacation from blogging, only to return to stunning news. The US Supreme Court denied to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari in Kitchen v. Herbert. In other words, the Court’s...
View Article16 Stones: Movie Review
Set in the volatile world of Missouri in 1838, 16 Stones follows three LDS twenty-somethings on their quest to find the sixteen stones touched by the finger of Jehovah, as described in Ether, chapter...
View ArticleCan a Mormon be a liberal?
Can an active, practicing Mormon also be a political liberal? Yes. In today’s Deseret News, Professor Ralph Hancock, from BYU, asked and answered this question. Though he’s a conservative, Professor...
View ArticlePopular music and Mormonism, or, a mistake religion teachers make
I see on the intertubes that BYU’s religion department is revising its curriculum. For once, this is a subject I know something about. I used to teach religion classes at BYU. I was what they call an...
View ArticleA theology of fear
Sunday was our stake conference. For those of you who are not Mormons, we worship every Sunday in a ‘ward,’ a group of 400-600 people. Wards are part of larger units, called ‘stakes’, a group of 8-10...
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