Clark is a well know voice on the Bloggernacle. His solo blog is Mormon Metaphysics and his comments on other blogs are some of the best in the Mormon blogging world. Clark has agreed to do some guest posts here at Faith-Promoting Rumor. Please give him a warm welcome. Read more
Between the recent conference on Methodists and Mormons and the events of my own week, I have been left pondering the question: should Mormons be categorized as Protestants? This week at Casper College our annual humanities festival focused on sin. On Thursday night, there was a panel on the issue of sin from the perspective of different religions. Their was a Catholic Priest, a Jewish Rabbi, and a Mormon Bishop. No, they did not walk into a bar. The Mormon... Read more
Authors note: In light of this recent story, I am re-posting this. Originally published here at FPR on Feb. 4, 2012. Yuriy and Van lived in a much nicer neighborhood than we were used to. Most of the investigators we taught in the Little Saigon region of Orange County, California were poor immigrants who lived in either very humble homes or in apartments of varying conditions. Yuriy and Van lived in an upper middle class neighborhood with few recent immigrants.... Read more
To oversimplify things a bit, Mormon notions of salvation are more consistent with Paul, while Evangelical notions of salvation are more consistent with deutero-Pauline ideas. In essence, Mormons, like Paul, believe that salvation is a future event; while Evangelicals, like deutero-Pauline authors, believe that salvation is a present event. The deutero-Pauline letter Ephesians claims, “by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5, NRSV). The deutero-Pauline text Colossians agrees, and goes even further, explaining that you have died and have been... Read more
So, you know, this blog has that stuff about Mormon culture and all up on the masthead, but I don’t usually write much about it. This probably has to do with a certain snobbishness on my part. I left Utah at seventeen and haven’t really looked back, so I usually think Mormon culture isn’t. Then again, I’m not much of a culture person myself, or at least not the culture of the 21st century. Nevertheless, something has impinged on my... Read more
In 1 Cor 8, Paul give some advice to the “strong” who know something that the “weak” do not know. He argues that even though the strong are in the right, and that what they know is fully true, they should keep such knowledge to themselves. The reason is that, “by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died might be destroyed” (1 Cor 8:11). Paul suggests that one’s primary duty is to good of the community as a... Read more
A day after Mogget speculated that the Catholic Church would win out in the battle over birth control requirements, the While House is set to announce a compromise. I wonder if they read FPR and realized that fighting on this issue was futile? In actuality, the White House has been looking for an out on this for the last week. While the intitial proposal was polling well, it was creating unnecessary tension on an issue that is more symbolic than... Read more
Among the many threads of irony that pass through the passion narratives is this story of a second interrogation of Jesus by Herod (Luke 23:7-12): And when [Pilate] learned that [Jesus] was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see... Read more
The amazing Tracy M is in need of your help. Feminist Mormon Housewives has started up a scholarship fund that will directly go to Tracy to assist her as she finishes her undergrad degree and transitions into graduate school. Thanks to fMh for taking the lead in this effort. Like many of you, I first got to know Tracy through her blogging at BCC and MMW. I first met Tracy at Sunstone 2010 and then I was blessed to present... Read more
John Locke’s political philosophy has had a lasting impact about American Political ideology (Hartz 1955, Dienstag 1996a, Dienstag 1996b). While the Lockean influence on the principles and argumentation of the Declaration of Independence, the deepest impact on the American political mind seem to be his emphasis on property rights. The irony is that of all the Lockean concepts which Thomas Jefferson includes in the Declaration, the right to private property is left out and replaced by the more vague right... Read more
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