I personally think that the best way to watch General Conference is with good friends, good food, and good commentary. Since we are low on good food and I do not have any friends (conference-watching, at least) in the area, I thought that maybe I could go for some good commentary at FPR with some of my ‘nacle friends. I realize that other blogs are going to be doing this on a bigger and better scale. However, I am not... Read more
Bart Ehrman has pointed out that the popular view of Paul and his conversion makes it difficult for historians to evaluate what actually happened to make him “turn around.” In the scriptural record Paul does not present himself as a guilt-ridden legalist whose realization that the law was impossible to keep led him to find forgiveness in Christ and motivated him to bring the good news of release to those burdened with guilt complexes like his own. Ehrman calls this... Read more
We are also pleased that MormonDeadHead as agreed to guest blog with us! MDH likes studying the Bible. We are looking forward to his contribution! Read more
Many of you, like me, are very familiar for the work of Bored In Vernal. She has accepted our offer to guest post a little around here. She solo blogs at Hieing to Kolob. Her work at Mormon Matter can be found here. Welcome! Read more
If you have been around the ‘Nacle for a spell you can’t have missed the oft discussed issue of men, women, and sexual response (one strap messenger bags, walking pornography, and thus and so). Sometimes it seems that this anxiety is peculiar to modern day Mormons, but, as Qoheleth would point out, it is not new under the sun. In the first century BCE Lucretius composed his De Rerum Natura setting forth versified Epicurean doctrine in an attempt to seduce... Read more
I think I may have mentioned earlier that Enoch is now a permablogger with us, but it is worth repeating. Also, after lengthy and amazing guest stints, oudenos and BHodges have consented to join our permanent ranks. I am personally very excited about these new additions to our crew. Welcome, welcome. Read more
More shameless self-promotion to distract from other more heated Bloggernacle happenings! My wife and I don’t have children yet, but we do have a daughter-dog. Her name is Chicken Delicious and we love her to death. She’s a mutt, her litter was rescued from a shelter at the last minute. Of course, we want her to be a part of our family forever, as this baby picture of her suggests: Chicken and I co-edited her papers just in time to... Read more
A new Pew survey out today has been making the news. It shows that Atheists/Agnostics, Jews, and Mormons have the highest religious literacy. On the questions regarding Christianity and the Bible, Mormons scored at the top! Among other Christians, Mormons also demonstrated the most knowledge about world religions and tied for the highest score in the category “Religion and Public Life.” Jews and Athetists/Agnostics outscored Mormons in both categories. I don’t know whether this makes me happy, or want to... Read more
I woke up this morning to find out via Facebook that Elder Marlin K. Jensen had apologized for Church participation in Proposition 8 (the headline was later changed to him apologizing for Prop 8 and later to “personally” apologizing). I was a tad skeptical. After a bit of digging, I am downright cynical. This was an apology to a small group… done in private. Carol Lynn Pearson’s comment on the Mormon Matters thread is informative: The headline “Elder Marlin Jensen... Read more
Last night was the 2010 Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture. Appropriately enough, the subject of the lecture was Leonard J. Arrington. Among the 30,000 journal pages, Arrington took the time to record the frustrations of bachelorhood cooking. “My Stouffer’s cooking instructions say ‘place chicken pouch on non-metallic plate and puncture top three or four times with a fork to vent.’ Well, is it three or is it four? If I puncture it three times, what might happen? What if... Read more
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