I have a confession: the music in the waiting chapel of the Salt Lake Temple drives me nuts. There I am, sitting reverently in my white dress, waiting for the session to start, and instead of a quiet atmosphere in which to ponder the reasons I came to the temple that day or even say a silent prayer, I am subjected to the kind of piped-in electric organ music that one might expect to hear in a funeral parlor. As... Read more
For $100, you can learn your ancestors’ migratory history on the earth. National Geographic’s Genographic Project is seeking to learn more about human migration by analyzing the DNA of people around the world, including National Geographic readers who are interested in submitting their own cheek swab and in return getting a map of either their patrilineal or matrilineal migration pattern out of Africa. The idea that all humans derive from a group of people in Africa who began their diaspora... Read more
Patheos has informal partnerships with several of the established brands in Mormonism as well as the Church itself. (Mayhap you noticed two of our guest writers from SLC last week?) As such, we’re beginning a new long-term series. Each week we’ll feature a select article from one of these partners for publication and discussion on the Mormonism Portal. These articles will appear in the “rotator” at the top of the portal page, and open with an editorial summary, personal meaning,... Read more
This is continued from my post on changing racial perceptions of the Chinese in LDS rhetoric at the turn of the 20th century. Both sections here are adapted from research I conducted as a fellow during the Joseph Smith Seminar in 2007. In 1890 there were only four documented “persons of Japanese ancestry” in the entire territory of Utah.[1] Contrasted with the Chinese, Utahns had no contact whatsoever with a significant Japanese population. Subsequently, the Japanese were easily romanticized, especially... Read more
It’s not clear to me whether John Lennon realized he was proposing his own sort of Heaven when he wrote the classic ballad “Imagine,” but that’s what he was doing. He invites us to “imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try” and describes a world of peace and love, a sort of heaven on earth. The longing for peace in a heavenly place has led poets and prophets throughout the centuries to write, paint, sing and talk about... Read more
Browsing through library databases and catalogues today, it is difficult to find even a handful of hits on Mormonism and Asian race. Even Armand Mauss’ recent sweeping study, All Abraham’s Children, notably omits any specific inquiry on the subject, though he meticulously dissects an LDS understanding of Blacks, Native Americans, and Jews.[1] Yes, some inferences may be made by delving into historical studies on missionary work in the Far East, but a comprehensive look into what it meant to be... Read more
It’s been five years since I posted this, and it came up in a Church discussion the other day, so it’s time for a repeat. I enjoy Orson Scott Card’s books. My in-laws feel that he portrays evil too much in them. OSC has his own defenses of this (cf. A Storyteller in Zion), but I thought of it when I came across these comments by Brigham Young. Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon,... Read more
It’s been busy around here, putting together the Future of Mormonism series. Other things too. But we’re back, trying to make up lost time. Here’s the podcast on lessons 29-30, which cover Elisha and then Hezekiah and Josiah. [audio: http://media.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Media/MormonPodcastLesson2930.mp3] Transcript Download link for MP3 (right-click and “save as” Notes: (more…) Read more
I know there are some other LDS Logos users, and perhaps others who are interested but wondering about the whys and whats. Edit: Logos4 for Mac will officially leave beta in October. Logos is having a giveaway to publicize it. Why use an electronic library? Carry around 200,000 or 200,000,000 pages of text in your iPhone or laptop or cramped Brooklyn apartment. Search them. All of them. In less than .25 seconds. For any reference to Amos 3:7, or Abraham,... Read more
Well-known Mormon author and Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen was quoted at length in David Brooks’s New York Times column, called “The Summoned Self.” Brooks contrasts two ways of thinking about one’s life: the “Well-Planned Life” and the “Summoned Life.” Brooks suggests that Christensen typifies the former, based on Christensen’s recent Commencement Address. Brooks writes: Christensen is a serious Christian. At university, he was the starting center on his basketball team and refused to play in the championship game of... Read more
One Eternal Round
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