Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Joseph's Three Biggest Accomplishments

This is Part 2 of my review of Richard Bushman's public comments to a small gathering in Southern California last month. In Part 1, I summarized Bushman's explanation of his approach and method, which placed Joseph as one prophetic figure in what he called the "grand tradition" (and he's thinking of a modern tradition, not an ancient one). In Part 2, I'll summarize what Bushman described (with a broad brush) as Joseph's three biggest accomplishments. Despite a flurry of B'nacle posts on various Bushman topics, I have found his short lecture that I'm summarizing in these two posts to be the best introduction to Rough Stone Rolling that I've come across. I hope some readers find it useful.

Under One Big Roof

I finally got the full tour of the Conference Center ("CC") recently (as well as just observing the Joseph Smith birthday anniversary commemoration on TV). Nice place — it's nice to know my tithing bucks go for something more than just buying up more real estate in Florida. Actually, I really like the building. It's big, very big, designed to bring as many Mormons under one roof as possible during General Conference and similar events. If they could make a building that would seat all five million active Mormons at one time, I think they'd do it. The CC highlights an essential point about the Church that is often missed: It's about community. The goal is to make us all one big happy family (at least figuratively and possibly literally).

Adventures of a Church Historian

I just completed Adventures of a Church Historian, Leonard Arrington's professional memoir that focuses on his tenure as LDS Church Historian from 1972 to 1982. He speaks frankly about both the challenges and the accomplishments of the History Division of the LDS Historical Department during the period when he was directly involved with it. The book is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in LDS history, both to get an informed account of the "official" LDS position vis-a-vis the writing of history by trained LDS historians and to get a sense of how much Arrington and his co-workers managed to accomplish.

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Smithmas

I owe that felicitous term to the ever-clever Ronan in a recent post at BCC (although he probably filched it from some other post). Brother Tomatoes then threw some gasoline on the fire with a typically erudite post at the no-longer-Typepad LDSLF. My take: I think it's great. It is the 200th anniversary of Joseph's birthday, so of course he is getting more attention than usual, but maybe he deserves it. I'll make a few quick points, then let you weigh in with a little Smithmas cheer of your own in the comments.

Losing Their Edge

You might enjoy reading Why Evangelicalism Is Falling Apart, at Mere Comments. Here's the first paragraph:

Evangelicalism’s original basis of corporate identity was coherent only as long as it was fundamentalism--a conservative Protestant alliance based on a common confession of the "fundamentals of the faith," against Protestant liberalism. When it became Evangelicalism, an essentially apologetic movement with an orientation toward what is now called inclusiveness and a deadly fear of giving offense to the intellectual establishment from which its intelligentsia sought its accreditation, it immediately lost its original coherence.

Comment Angst

By amazing coincidence, three B'nacle group blogs all posted on "the comment problem" on the same day (Dec. 2) last week. FMH, in characteristically blunt style in a post titled Mormon Troll Morality, lamented "a particularly enthusiastic influx of troll vomit" over the past few weeks. Yum. T&S offered erudite reflections on post-Bannergate meanness that seems to be on the rise in B'nacle comments. Just remember that "David" is DKL and "Dave" is me. Finally, some guy at BT posted a short piece apparently trying to pump up the BT Comment Policy from its present three words to an extravagent nine words. So now let's talk about it.

Another New JS Movie

From an unlikely source, another new Joseph Smith movie is soon to be released. Initially I wasn't expecting much, but the writeup did catch my interest. Promising: the photos and landscape shots might offer a view on Joseph's life that other films — more interested in the plot and events of Joseph's life than landscapes and sites — might not adequately capture. Questionable: one early viewer is quoted as saying, "Many of those stories, well, I’ve just never heard them before." If the narrative is a collage of faith-promoting "stories about Joseph," it might not match the impact of the visual presentation. Has anyone seen the new movie or the long-running multi-media fireside referred to in the article?

Rethinking Abortion

I don't normally weigh in on politics and social issues, but I really must post a link to Abortion, Up Close and Personal at Get Religion (despite the title, nothing graphic in the post). The post summarizes a recent MSM abortion story that goes beyond the normal stereotyped statements and poses a few difficult questions about the practice of abortion in the US. Interesting development, in light of Wednesday's oral arguments before the US Supreme Court on two abortion cases, as well as the inevitable media discussion of abortion rights that will accompany nominee Judge Samuel Alito's upcoming confirmation hearings. This is a topic that will be in the news for the next few months.

So here's a question: What is the LDS position on abortion? Has it changed over the last few decades?