Inspired mostly by your comments on my Emma post, but also because I am curious to see if this will be the runaway win that I think it will be I offer you: HISTORICAL MORMON SMACKDOWN! This week’s contestants: Emma Hale Smith and Eliza Snow Smith. Which of Joseph’s two most prominent wives do you think is the most important historical figure in Mormonism?Emma, first wife of Joseph, subject of D&C 25, mentioned a few other times in the D&C,... Read more

In the past I have heard people complaining about “Theological Twinkies,” several of which I am sure you are familiar with. The idea being that these stories are beneath us in some way because they don’t come directly from the scriptures or because they are overused. For some reason, people who use these things to help themselves feel the spirit or understand the gospel are to be condescended to because they don’t understand just how useless these stories are. While... Read more

Career center creates competitive collegians Ham-handed headlines heighten humor, as alliteration always ables absurdity Read more

I don’t have a Benson quote for this post (although I did read Beware of Pride this morning and felt a bit like I do when I read Alma 5 (chastened)). Instead I have a concern regarding the usefulness of past prophets? Why do we feel like we can set aside the counsel of past prophets? Admittedly, we don’t ususally look at things this way, but we tend to get so caught up in the interests/inspired counsel of the current... Read more

Is there anything we do in an average Block meeting that isn’t to some degree the spreading of the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture? (Certainly that is what we are engaged in here on the ‘nacle). I think that the sacrament doesn’t fit this category and in many cases prayer doesn’t either. Is there anything else? Should something be done about this? If so, what could be done about this? Also, is this why people say that the sacrament... Read more

Fourth Grade Teacher Apologizes For Joseph Smith Comment And you thought Elder Packer was protective of Mormon history. Read more

Is millenarianism dying the slow death in LDS culture? Jeff’s comment here stung me a bit, because I thought that I was just as millenarian as the next end-of-time freak. I admit to taking both a literal and an abstract approach to the Second Coming in part because, rhetoric aside, I am not terribly convinced that the end is all that near. But then, I read quotes like the following (from Pres. Benson, natch): I testify that as the forces... Read more

There has been some discussion of late, prompted by Douglas Davies’s paper at the Joseph Smith Conference, regarding the status of the church as a world religion. On my mission, one of the common detractions potential investigators would make was that revolved around the idea that Mormonism is an “American” religion. In other words, Russians ought to believe in Russian religion and Americans ought to believe in American religions, so why proselyte in foreign countries? While I don’t agree with... Read more

Jeffrey Holland Rings Bell Again in Restored Chapel I wonder if anyone ever told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything, the little punk! Read more

Experts debate hip-hop’s influence on American culture, youth, for better or for worse I just like the story’s first line: “ Rap music is very influential and can have positive or negative effects, according to some experts.“ I fell like that sums up the situation very well, don’t you? Read more