The Fourth of July is a special holiday for the Mormon Church, at least traditionally for American Mormons, which until recently have been the majority of the church. The reasons why this is the case are, I’m sure, familiar to all of you. Read more »

The debate has been going on for some time–what is evolution’s impact on various religious doctrines? However, as neuroscience and evolutionary biology gain new insights into the brain and the development of human emotions, the very idea of a soul will come under attack in new and vigorous ways. Read more »

In reading DKL’s comment to Margaret’s post I was made to wonder about the Mormon conception of physical changes brought about by spiritual conversions or one’s general spiritual state. First, DKL used the term “radiance” in describing the missionaries. I don’t know if he meant that they were literally radiant and that this change or condition had been brought about by a spiritual change on their part or if it just an expression used to describe some good people. But, that description got me to think about how many Mormons do believe that there is a physical change that occurs when one accepts the gospel. I have heard it a thousands times, particularly when attending a baptism or seeing someone after he or she first goes through the temple, etc. Is there anything to this? Read more »

I have been absent for quite some time from the Bloggernacle. There have been a host of family issues. The most recent one is that my father-in-law passed away on Sunday morning. He had been sick for some time. He was diagnosed with cancer about ten years ago and he fought it. He always seemed to be upbeat and positive about life. There were many reasons why he should have been. He had a truly great family. His first marriage, the one that my wife is a product of, ended in divorce some 30 years ago. He remarried some 25 years ago and had three more children from this marriage, currently aged 23, 20, and 15. (My wife also has a full sister who is five years younger than she is from the first marriage as well.) They are all terrific children. His wife is also an amazing person. I will admit that we did not see each other as often as I would have liked and, I presume, as often as my father-in-law would have liked. I am sure there are many reasons for this, but the primary two reasons being that he lived about an hour away and he was busy raising small children at the same time my wife and I were. He had a new family. The reason I bring this up is due to a comment that a recent ward member made to me concerning my father-in-law when I told this ward member of Billy’s illness. He asked, “Is he Mormon?” I replied, “No.” His response seemed Read more »

Does it really matter what I think about anything, so long as I do what is right? This is a question that I am sure is worn out with time. One of the scriptures that is often cited in reference to motivation is the following: “For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, they they are good also” (Moroni 7:5). This passage seems to indicate something that resembles the existentialist admonition that a person is as a person does. In other words, if the person does good things, then the person is good. There is seemingly little reason to judge or worry about what goes on in his or head because the results, the outcome of the action is what we hoped for. However, once we continue the passage, we see that it might be the case that motives or mental state does matter: “For behold, God haith said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing” (Moroni 7:6). Read more »

I know that I should get over how it is that the press protrays Mormons. The obvious response to this is that Mormons will be portrayed in both positive and negative lights. There are plenty of non-Mormons who are friendly with Mormons and have had positive experiences and are happy to say nice things about Mormons in public. Read more »

I read novels that I occasionally feel like I should review. Most of them have little, if nothing, to do with Mormonism. Of course, it is not a condition that this blog only have things that deal in particular with Mormonism. Still, I love to read books. I like to share my thoughts about books. I am currently working my way through Pynchon’s new one, Against the Day. I think that I am reading that mostly so that I can say that I have read all his works, whether I needed to or not. Last Saturday I read two short little diddies, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores (translated by Edith Grossman, who recently did a delighful translation of Don Quixote) and Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers. They have some very interesting and compelling themes, of which I will write probably write later. However, as I sat to write my little reviews it occurred to me that if these works were made into movies with a faithful depiction of what the author had intended that these works would easily be R rated movies. Is there an injunction against Mormons reading such works as there is in Mormons not watching R rated movies?

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As many of us have reported to you, and as you already knew, Romney’s Mormon beliefs will the focus of any campaign that he runs. Damon Linker, author of The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege, writes in the current New Republic, that Romney will “almost certainly need to deliver a major speech about his Mormon faith–a speech in the mold of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 address to the Baptist ministers of Houston, Texas, in which the candidate attempted to reassure voters that they had no reason to fear his Catholicism. Yet Romney’s task will be much more complicated.” (By the way, see Russell Fox’s interesting review of Linker book.)

The crux of Romney’s problem, according Linker, is that Romney will have to convince voters that his religion is not a problem while at the same time convince evangelicals, who “in blurring the distinction between politics and religion,” that his Mormonism is acceptable as a religious belief. Read more »

One thing that I can count on is that if anything about Mormons is in the news, then I will have to answer questions about it to my many non-Mormon friends.

According to a Reuters report, “In life, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was among the most famous Jews of the 20th century. In death, he wound up on a list of people eligible to be posthumously baptised as Mormons so they could enter heaven. Bowing to protests from Jewish groups, The Church of Latter Day Saints said on Tuesday that it had removed Wiesenthal’s name from its International Genealogical Index, a database of names of people who be could be baptised after death.”

One of the themes that seems to have been kicked around Mormonmentality a bit is the question of how Mormons are perceived by the outside world. It is something that interests me a great for a variety of reasons. First, I have never really had too many close friends that have been Mormon, other than the ones I met on my mission and the ones that I met at BYU. However, none of them live near me now so, obviously, I don’t hang out with them. Except for going to church or engaging in a church activity, I do nothing with Mormons on a social level. I mostly hang out with people who are academics and their perceptions of the church are, generally speaking, rather uninformed. However, I don’t hold that against them. I don’t know much about Sikhs, for example, and yet there are more than twice as many Sikhs in the world than there are Mormons. We can’t know everything about everyone. I spend a considerable amount of time answering questions about Mormonism, most of which deal with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and their involvement in polygamy. They are surprised to find out aspects about Mormonism such as Joseph Smith claims to have received the gold plates from an angel, or that Mormons believe that individuals can become gods in their own right at some point, etc. They are also very surprised to hear that we perform religious ceremonies for dead people.

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I couldn’t help myself with the title. (One of my favorite titles for a book is Dwarf Rapes Nun, Flees in UFO.) I know, I seem obsessed. Two posts in the same day about the same guy. Well, it could be the case that I suffer from a severe lack of original thought. (This is something that I am willing to entertain.) However, I think that we can gleen very interesting insights into how the rest of the world, or at least those that many Mormons consider to be the natural allies of Mormons, views Mormons and Mormonism. I consider this to be something that the General Authorities are also concerned with. Consider, if you will, President Hinckley’s book Stand for Something. In this book Hinckley tries to make the case that Mormons are Christians. As I recall he does not even cite the Book of Mormon in this work, but uses only passages from the Bible. (I could be incorrect in my recollection. It has been 5 or 6 years since I have read the book.) He also published a book in 1947 called  What of the Mormons? in which he tries to answer questions about the nature of Mormonism and Mormons. Obviously this is something that has been on his mind for some time.

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A recent LA Times poll found that 14% of registered voters would not for Mitt Romney for the single fact that he is a Mormon. There have been other polls, using broader groups than only registered voters, that suggest that as much as 20% of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for the mere fact that a person is a Mormon. Several questions: why is this? Is this tantamount to Anti-Semitism? (In fact, Americans seem to be more favorable towards Jews than they are towards Mormons.) Is this something that will face over time? Is there anything that we can do about it?

Sorry about the delay in getting this posted. I have been swamped by work and other personal issues. Nonetheless, that does not make this any less important. I am sure that all of you have waited eagerly for this post. I argued earlier that Bush’s mix of his personal beliefs and how it leads to policy is bad for the United States. The reason that this is the case is clear–he does not necessarily choose the most competent people for any particular task, but chooses people based on ideological/ religious devotion. He might have actually let people who are end of time theorists play a prominent role in policy making, especially when it comes to the Middle East, though I will admit that this claim needs a great deal more investigation and it is still an assertion of sorts. But I think the case of Gen. Boykin, who will be discussed below, is a start. (By the way, one of the areas of emphasis that I was happy to see the church decrease if not stopping altogether was all the discussion about the end of times. I knew as a small child that I was not going to be going to Jackson County to build any buildings. I think Pres. Hinkley has a much more admirable approach on all of this–live as moral a life as possible and God will worry about the rest.)

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By now George W. Bush’s answer to the question of who is favorite philosopher is — Jesus Christ was the answer — is well known. Most religious people for some reason thought it was not only an acceptable answer, but a good answer. (The question might have been silly — I do not expect most politicians to be as acquainted with philosophers as they should be with policy.) There is a growing body of material that attempts to describe how religion has not only come to shape President Bush’s administration but the government as a whole. From Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy to Gary Wills’ just published “A Country Ruled by Faith,” the list grows longer and more worrisome, in my estimation, as to the influence of religion on politics.

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Can a spiritual experience in any way count as an empirical experience? My answer is clearly that it cannot. I am intrigued by those who say things such as, “I know that the Book of Mormon is true, just as I know that I am standing before you today.” Or, “The knowledge that I have that Jesus lives is no less strong and true to me than the table that stands before me.” I have always thought that people used such statements as metaphors for feelings and thoughts that they have that are deeply felt and difficult to convey, but not that they actually held that a person, even if it is the Son of God, who lived over two thousand years ago, of whom there is little direct evidence of in the way of personal witnesses of his life that have come down to us in any really reliable historical document, could be known in the same way that one can know that a table is in front of that person. It seems clear to me that actually experiencing something, by which I mean through our senses, is different and more reliable than spiritual experiences which seem to rely heavily on emotions.

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I hope that I am not divulging too much when I say that my wife is going through a very serious medical problem. Her kidneys are failing and without a transplant, in the worse case scenario, she will die, and, in the best case scenario, she will have serious quality of life issues. Even with the transplant, there are also serious quality of life issues. She is a fantastic person. She has a good heart. She is a great mother. She has done many good things for many people. Given her disposition, she has not felt sorry for herself, she feels blessed, she believes that she has received more than her fair share of good things in this world. If can summarize her position it is that this is just one more thing to get through. Read more »

A question that people seem to think should be gnawing at my inner soul is something that really is not gnawing at my inner soul. Should I make my 13-year-old son participate in Boy Scouts? For some reason there seems to be a fairly standard belief in our church all young men should not only participate in the young men’s program but also in Boy Scouts. To be honest, I was never sure why a kid who lives in an urban area—I live in Los Angeles—would want to pretend he lives in Michigan. Now, we live about 4 miles from the beach, so we can get lots of nature that way, but I don’t recall there being a surfing merit badge or kicking back and enjoying the sun award.

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We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. During the course of the conversation, my 8-year-old daughter commented on how much homework she had and one of the missionaries replied that she actually missed being able to study. What she meant, she explained, is that she missed being able to read things other than the standard missionary library. I was surprised to find out how small the missionary library has become—not even Talmage’s Articles of Faith, apparently, makes the cut any more. The selection included a few books, the scriptures, and church magazines. Now my missionary days took place back in what seems like the Paleolithic era—well, maybe the upper Paleolithic era—but we had a bit more of a selection, though not much. This got me thinking about what we take to be the “canon” of essential church literature. But before I get to this discussion, let me digress, just a bit. (I can hear the groans already.)

I find myself, in many ways, wondering how I got here—both intellectually and literally, here at this blog.

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