Dave's Mormon Inquiry

BYU Student Papers

The 8th annual BYU Religious Education Student Symposium was held on Friday, according to a BYU NewsNet story. The winning paper was by an English major, entitled "The True Joseph? Bushman, Brodie and the Multiplicity of Historical Joseph Smiths." Titles of other winning papers included "Janus Parallelism in Isaiah 52:14" and "First Impressions of the Land Zion: The City of New Orleans Through the Eyes of Mormon Immigrants."

A copy of the full program was posted. Some other titles that sound interesting: "A Masonic Martyrdom"; "Thomas Sharp: The Man Behind the Smith Murder Conspiracy"; "Apostasy in Action"; and "Holy War: Just War Theory and the Crusades."

Strange Games

Lee Benson in an article at DN finally said it: "It's no secret that attendance has been lacking at many of the venues at the Torino Olympics." Yeah, I kind of noticed. Isn't putting people in the stands and stadiums part of their Olympic planning? It just seems like the athletes deserve a full crowd when they perform. I hope Vancouver is taking notes.

Good Exmos, When They Die, Go To Colorado

Or maybe Arizona. It's not really an issue I've mused over much, but I recently received an email question from a reader that deserves a response. Here's the question, lifted straight from the reader's email:

What happens to an excommunicated Mormon when she dies? Can you answer this and, if possible, cite a source?

I'll spend a few paragraphs sketching out a response, but I invite other bloggers and visitors to post their own views in the comments so my reader gets a broad sample of LDS thinking on what happens to former Mormons in the hereafter.

More on the DNA Story

Get Religion gets it right with comments on the recent LA Times story. Quotes from the GR piece: "This DNA kerfuffle has been going on for years, long enough that I was wondering why the Times was covering it yesterday." That was my reaction, too. "I really do think this is a fascinating story, but the notion that this is jolting the bedrock of the Mormon faith might be overstating it." I suppose one needs strong headlines to sell papers.

The King's English

[Part 2] I picked up one of Bill Bryson's old books, Mother Tongue, which gives a comprehensible and entertaining account of "English and how it got that way." This is of interest to Mormons, of course, because antiquarian formulations of the King's English live on in contemporary Mormon culture by way of the King James Version, the Book of Mormon, and Mormon prayer-speak. For deep background, go read the Wikipedia article English Language and related entries. I'll give a general summary up to the KJV in this post (pulling most of my material from chapter 4 of Bryson's book), then consider KJV grammar, BoM grammar, and prayer grammar in later posts.

LA Times Story

The pretentious LA Times story (headline: "Bedrock of a Faith is Jolted") is making quite a splash. When LDS.org posts an official response, you know it got someone's attention. The response itself — two short paragraphs — probably merits its own post, but here I'll just talk about the LA Times article. Other B'nacle posts here and here also discuss the article, with a comprehensive list of relevant links on the BoM-DNA topic conveniently collected at Messenger & Advocate. I'll sort of run down a random list of my reactions to the article.

Evolution Sunday

Coming soon to a mainline denomination near you: Evolution Sunday. So says a Get Religion post, which also sports links to the organizers of the nationwide event scheduled for this Sunday, February 12, 2006. In "An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science," supposedly signed by 10,000 Christian clergy, the group sponsoring the event announces: "While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook." It gets better.

Free Books

I just noticed that Signature added a new book to its library of free online books. It is Quest for Refuge, by Marvin Hill, giving an account of early LDS history under the theme "the Mormon flight from American pluralism" (which is the subtitle to the book). I read it about a year ago; my comments on the book are here.

Here is part of the first paragraph from the Introduction:

When the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., recalled the beginnings of his movement in a history published in 1842, he noted that a revival he attended in the area around Palmyra, New York, had initially created "unusual excitement" among the people but then divided them, with "priest contending against priest, and convert against convert." Whatever good will had flourished among his neighbors was soon "lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions." In another version of his experiences, Smith concluded that "if God had a church, it would not be split up into factions." Thus the prophet spoke of the deep Mormon aversion to religious institutional diversity, which I term here religious pluralism.

Rolled That Stone

I finally finished it, the mother of all Joseph Smith biographies. There has been more than enough posted on RSR the last several months, so I'll just make a few summary comments rather than attempt a longer review. Rough Stone Rolling will certainly be the authoritative biography of Joseph for many years to come. They ought to make it the Priesthood/RS manual next year. It is a book that anyone who takes Joseph Smith seriously should read. In the following paragraphs, I will note just a few things I really enjoyed about the book.

Whatever Happened to Free Agency?

Elder Christofferson delivered Tuesday's Devotional at BYU. Here's the key point: "There is no mention of free agency in the scriptures," Elder Christofferson said. "Agency is not free. We have to emphasize our moral accountability." Would someone explain how free agency, once a fixture in LDS theology, got such a bad name?

The Dark Side

For this week's online essay, go read The Lure of the Web at Meridian Magazine. It's good to know what connotations the word "blog" has for some people in the Church. I think the odds just went up that the word "blog" will enter the Conference lexicon this April.