Our Authors, Elsewhere
The week from 17 March saw the inauguration of both the new Pope, Pope Francis, and the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. To mark that historic occasion the BBC broadcast a debate entitled Christianity at the Crossroads. The panellists were: Matthew Parris (MP) – former Conservative MP; Dr Anna Rowlands (AR) – Catholic theologian; [...]
If you’re a man…and Mormon…you’re probably a creeper. Read on to find out if you fit the profile and get tips for increasing your creepiness!
The Ten Commandments was one of the first Biblical epics to command a mass audience, and so my parents took me into downtown Detroit as a boy to be sure I saw it in its full widescreen glory in one of the few theaters capable of so screening it. The movie was well worth the [...]
The LDS church with some 14.7 million members is a fraction of the size of the Roman Catholic church with over 1.2 billion. As with my last post however, I feel drawn to the similarities in the hierarchical organisations, and the institutions that assist with the day to day running of both organisations. The Catholic [...]
I recently had a visitor in my Sunday School class, a young Beehive who currently lives in Bali, Indonesia. I know from personal experience that there is no LDS branch in Bali. This girl said that her family just attends another Christian church that is in their neighborhood. This reminded me of when I was growing [...]
Salt Lake City sees General Conference every six months. In the CofChrist, “World” Conference occurs every three years, and 2013 is the lucky year. A Community of Christ World Conference is far more of a legislative exercise than its Utah LDS analogue. It features worship, of course, and normally will have approval to changes and [...]
Have you ever received a call to buy insurance from someone who could only have gotten your information from the ward directory? Been asked on a date by someone you don’t really know personally but have seen at church? Members are asked to use the ward directory only on ward business. How have you used [...]
Daniel faced a serious problem. Darius the king had been tricked by his princes into outlawing prayer. But Daniel felt beholden to pray to his God. The society in which he lived restricted his personal freedoms more than his religious society did. In fact, his religious community went underground due to the persecutions and restrictions of the [...]
Mystery guest number 1 was never a practicing Catholic. Mystery guest number 2 never believed in Temple rites. Now, there’s a good conspiracy theory. Sometimes a conspiracy theory turns out to be true. There is even a class of crime for which people go to jail that starts out “conspiracy to commit…”. But the conspiracy theories [...]
Yin and Yang are powerful concepts stemming from Chinese philosophy, and religiously from Taoism. I was recently reading a book that leveraged the concepts of Yin and Yang to explain why liberals and conservatives (in America) are both needed. The point is brought out that opposites are interconnected, interdependent, and their harmonization is critical to [...]
In my last post on natural law, I focused on how changing minor “precepts” might make tremendous impacts on our theological understandings. I used cosmological models from general relativity to illustrate the point. Today, I want to look at things a little less, well, cosmically, and review how changing scientific “precepts” over the last few [...]
Mormonism comes with its own science. So does any brand of mainstream Christianity, but many such Christians are unaware of how their creeds embed the assumptions of the “scientists” and mathematicians of antiquity. They can consequently perform a mental jujitsu of preserving the religious idea as metaphor for modern times while ignoring the fact that [...]
Let’s face it. Although morality profoundly impacts American’s political views — making political and election issues an inevitable topic of attention for a Mormon blog — the idea of a Mormon being elected President of the United States has animated discussion on this site much more than would a contest between Barack Obama and a [...]
Rise and shout – this poll is for parents who are thinking about their kids’ college education. Did you / would you send your kids to the Y? Y or Y Not? Discuss.
Not the program you might think. Rather, the kind of program some people had in mind for Salman Rushdie when he pointed out the contradictions of “The Satanic Verses”. Or, perhaps that should be pogrom, since there are death penalties involved. Certainly, Mark Steyn is one who has had his proverbial skin in the game, [...]
Unable to sleep a few nights ago, I sought mind-deadening through cable TV. I chanced upon a movie I thought would do the job — a murder mystery set in a mountain abbey in 14th Century Italy. I didn’t get what I expected. Instead, the movie, The Name of the Rose, starring Sean Connery and [...]
What is faith? Is it something believed or something in action, and do we choose it?
There has been much ado about the number of years of tax returns Mitt Romney should share as candidate for POTUS. Critics on both sides of the political spectrum as well as the majority of Americans have called for him to release them, and yet he has refused, resulting in speculation that whatever is in [...]
Follow us @WheatnTweet!
