Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Elder Ballard on Building a Better Boat

In October 2014, Elder Ballard delivered his "Stay in the Boat" talk at General Conference, highlighting "faith crisis" as an emerging problem for members of the Church and likening it to white-water rapids. In October 2015, he followed up with "God Is at the Helm," extending his metaphor and providing sage advice for how to stay in the Old Ship Zion. Most recently, he delivered a talk to CES religious educators on February 26, 2016, now posted at LDS.org under the rather bland title "The Opportunities and Responsibilities of CES Teachers in the 21st Century." I think he should have stuck with his winning theme and called it: "Building a Better Boat."

A Little Good PR

We may complain about bad PR, but positive stories do happen, such as "More Than Mission Work," at the Wichita Eagle. The story starts by looking over the shoulders of two sister missionaries doing door-to-door contacting, then moves to the inevitable "Are they Christian?" section, which takes a refreshingly different approach to the question by simply citing survey data.

Anglo Missionaries Exit Bolivia

As reported by the LDS Newsroom:

Some 102 North American missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in Bolivia have been transferred to missions outside the country.

The transfer was taken in consultation with US government representatives in Bolivia and with the cooperation of Bolivian immigration authorities as a precautionary measure during the present unsettled conditions there.

The missionaries are expected to return to Bolivia when the political situation settles down.

LDS Chapel in London Firebombed?

A first-person report from an LDS blogger who was on the scene. In addition, he used the direct accusation technique made famous in A Few Good Men ("Did you order the code red!!??") to unmask the perp. Thankfully, the fire was contained quickly and no one was injured. From the comments, it sounds like this isn't the first time there's been some excitement there on Sunday morning. I'll link media stories if and when they come online.

Still waiting in SLC

The Salt Lake Tribune ran a second piece on Affirmation, "Gay support group still waits on LDS Church," by columnist Rebecca Walsh. The column again laments the logistical problems that delayed a meeting between a group from Affirmation and officials from LDS Family Services (the LDS comment on the issue is here). Walsh notes the irony (which she calls a contradiction) of the Salt Lake City-headquartered LDS Church "mustering the faithful to amend California's constitution to ban gay marriage" when, at the same time, the following rather surprising statistics hold:

The state ranks 10th in the nation for the number of elected gay legislators. Salt Lake City is fifth-highest in the nation for the rate of gay parents raising children. State law prohibits gay marriage, but couples can register domestic partnerships at the city.

Affirmation Making News, Not Progress

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on Affirmation, the support group for anyone who is LDS but not hetero, and their presentation at the recent Sunstone Symposium in "Gay Mormons seek 'affirmation' from LDS leaders." Apparently what Affirmation is seeking is "a clear, unambiguous statement in the church's annual General Conference that homosexuality is not a sin or a disease and that mothers don't cause it."

Town and Gown at SVU

There's a nice editorial in a Virginia paper about how SVU is getting along nicely with Buena Vista, the small town in which SVU is located. (Hat tip, Mormon Times.) It's not Big News, but it's nice to see a story about a bunch of Mormons who are getting along with their neighbors. Good for SVU and its students and faculty.

Elder Uchtdorf in the News

From the DesNews, a link to this German newspaper story on Elder Uchtdorf's recent call into the LDS First Presidency. I'm sure you'll enjoy the short article, plus learn something about the challenging times he faced as a youth: "Brought up in a Lutheran setting, Uchtdorf was converted to the Mormons by a family friend. During his youth, he experienced the usual teasing and isolation although his beliefs helped him during his compulsory military service." This is really a fine moment for European Saints, who get no respect in their home countries but now have one of their own in the FP to be proud of.

And, of course, it won't hurt to have a pilot in the First Presidency ... since we might have a pilot in the White House come January 2009.

Name That Celebrity

In the funeral coverage at LDS.org, there's a big photo of visiting guests and dignitaries. How many do your recognize? Row 1, seat 3 is Harry Reid. Row 2, seat 1 is Mitt Romney. Row 1, seat 1 is [former] Utah Governor Mike Leavitt. Those are the easy ones. Anyone else recognize other guests or dignitaries?

A Little Less Politics On Campus

BYU NewsNet has a detailed article summarizing the newly revised BYU policy concerning political activities on campus and political involvement by BYU faculty, staff, and students. [Hat tip: ASA.] There are also stories on the revised policy at the Deseret News and the SL Trib. If anyone has a link to the full text of the revised policy, please post it in the comments.

Claremont Appointment Announced

I received an email and attached press release from a member of the Media Relations Committee of the Council for Mormon Studies at Claremont announcing the official appointment of Richard L. Bushman as the "Howard W. Hunter Visiting Scholar in Mormon Studies." Here is the opening paragraph of the press release:

Claremont Graduate University has appointed distinguished Latter-day Saints scholar Richard Lyman Bushman as the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies in its School of Religion. The announcement was made on Friday, October 19, following final approval of the action by the CGU Board of Trustees. The appointment will begin in fall 2008.

August Rituals

If it's late September and you really should be back at school, you're not a BYU student, where that happens a month earlier, in late August. And the semester kicks off with an opening devotional assembly featuring an address by a General Authority. This year Elder Scott spoke on the theme "learning truth is best accomplished by using multiple senses" (quoting the Deseret News article reporting the talk). Examples of senses he gave: sight, hearing, and inner feelings that come through inspiration. Uh, I have a question.

Steeplechase Man

DN ran an article on the latest BYU runner to have a shot at the Olympics, a returned missionary named Josh McAdams. After two years in Thailand he was out of shape and out of contention. Now: "He is unbeaten by an American this year and ranks 12th in the world in the steeplechase." And he's running in 2008 (for a spot in the Olympics, not for a shot at the White House). I just love it when missionary-athletes make it back to competitive form and excel in their sports. They deserve it. They don't all make it, but they all deserve it.

Facebook Snooper

Facebook may be a social networking utility for most Millennials, but for BYU students, it is a calculated risk. Or so it would seem from this BYU NewsNet story: "Photo on Facebook Used as Evidence." It's not the guy climbing on the dormintory ledge that got my attention. It was the six coeds who were turned in to the Honor Code office for posting pictures of themselves "hanging out in their dorm rooms." Nothing bad or immoral in the photos, we're told, but they were allegedly "dressed immodestly." The female students were put on suspension, according to the article. Interestingly, the guy on the ledge got a $50 fine (obviously for doing something bad -- you don't get fined for doing something good) but is not reported to have received a suspension.

Clearplay, Son of Cleanflicks

Poking around BYU NewsNet, I found this story about Clearplay, a company with a new approach to editing movies for "family values" viewers. It gets around the recent court decision that put Cleanflicks out of business because Clearplay simply does real-time filtering. It doesn't create and distribute an altered copy of the original copyrighted content, it essentially just mutes or suppresses objectionable material during playback. I'm sure Hollywood is relieved that the PG-8 quartile of the cultural distribution won't have to face the agonizing choice of either putting up with profanity-laced dialogue or doing without all those wonderful movies. Wouldn't it be a tragedy if people went back to reading books? And just when widescreen units are becoming truly affordable. Oh, the painful choices we in the 21st century must deal with on a daily basis. Clearplay to the rescue. But this is only the beginning.

The Great Protest of 2007

That might be what they call the "Cheney demonstration" a few years from now (see Bloggernacle coverage here, with links to MSM coverage, and here, with photos). With signs like "Cheney, are you honest in your dealings with your fellow men?" and, from a supporter, "I support those supporting those who support Cheney," it's clear this is a fairly tame, even humorous, affair. I get the feeling this is just fun and games for the students, sort of like student elections. Given the national press coverage, I have to say I am thrilled they are protesting a conservative figure. If they were protesting a visit by Harry Reid or Barack Obama to campus, I know how the media, both local and national, would spin it.

Banned at BYU ... Not

I know you'd be interested in an BYU NewsNet editorial entitled "Academic Freedom." In a little friendly cross-town sniping, it teases the the U's student association about its decision to delay its planned "Banned at BYU" forum, which was intended to tease BYU about its perceived academic freedom issue. It will now be presented in October under a new title, "Academic Freedom at Religious Institutions."

The Honor Thing

From BYU NewsNet: BYU's president gave the initial devotional this week on (surprise!) the Honor Code, which seems to have taken on a life of its own at the BYU. Some of his statements verge on the surreal. For example: "President Samuelson said some details, like following parking regulations or dress and grooming standards, are ignored or put aside because they don't seem serious when compared to things like plagiarism and cheating." Actually, at most universities, plagiarism and cheating ARE more serious matters than parking tickets and grooming. I can't tell whether his point is that students don't appreciate how serious these items really are or whether he's admitting they are trivial but that students need to take them seriously anyway because the Honor Code says they should.

Amusing Crimes

For some light relief, go read the Police Beat report for August 2, reported at BYU NewsNet. Maybe I'm a little jaded by seeing stories on serial killers and the like every night, but it seems somehow reassuring to know there are places in the world where the following items (taken verbatim) are the best they can come up with for the weekly crime report:

Goodbye, Mr. Nielsen

[Update: Two related BYU NewsNet posts: A story ("Mr. Nielsen publicly contradicted and opposed an official statement made by the First Presidency, and that is in violation of university policy") and an editorial ("This case, however, has very little to do with academic freedom."). The Trib also came out with a later story profiling Nielsen.]

BYU just has a knack for making great news copy. The latest: Jeffrey Nielsen, an adjunct professor in the Philosophy Department, published LDS Authority and Gay Marriage as an op-ed piece in the SL Trib last week. In his op-ed piece he labelled both opposition to gay marriage and pushing for a constitutional amendment against gay marriage as "immoral." He also included the statement: "As a member, I sustain the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as LDS general authorities."

Predictably, four days later he received a letter from his department chair informing him he would not be teaching at BYU next year, according to a news story in the SL Trib (and this story in the Deseret News). The Trib story quotes the letter Nielsen received as saying: "Since you have chosen to contradict and oppose the church in an area of great concern to church leaders, and to do so in a public forum, we will not rehire you after the current term is over." [Note: as an adjunct, he was on a year-to-year contract and did not have the BYU version of tenure. So he was not really fired, just not rehired for next year.]

BYU Probes Ancient Texts

So I'm reading an online news article describing attempts by scholars to read the badly damaged text of Europe's oldest book — an article that had nothing to do with the Church or BYU — when up pops the following sentence:

Last month, experts from Brigham Young University in Utah used multi-spectral digital analysis to create enhanced pictures of the text, which will be studied by Oxford University papyrologist Dirk Obbink and Pierris, and published by the end of 2007.

The new technique will recover 10-20% of the text previously unavailable to scholars studying the fragments, enough to make a big contribution to their understanding. Way to go, BYU. This team must have some connection to the ancient texts side of FARMS.

BYU Pardons Dead Students

BYU has informed five students who participated in last month's on-campus die-in that they will be put on various forms of probation but not kicked out of school, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. A nice review of this rather controversial April 11 event at BYU is found in this earlier story in the Deseret News. I think it's a nice ending for all concerned: the BYU students got to make their statement yet stay in school (as long as they keep out of trouble henceforth and forever); BYU looks suitably tough on "moral truth decay" (can you name that line?) but not especially mean to its students; and Soulforce gets to point the mocking finger of liberal scorn at BYU (their lengthy motto: "Freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious & political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."). So everyone is happy now.

This Divided Campus

When there's nothing else to blog about, BYU always comes through. The latest: a student showed a film for a class project without administration permission! The film: This Divided State. You'd think that documentaries would be broadly acceptable at BYU under some sort of education exception ... but no. The story reports, "As for the film, profanity in some scenes made it inappropriate for BYU unless it was edited." It doesn't sound like there are any disciplinary consequences in the works for this episode — it wasn't like they showed a documentary in a religion class, which would probably qualify as blasphemy. It's the fact that "administrators wouldn't allow an unedited version to air on campus" that is the puzzle to me. It was a documentary. About politics. At some point this sort of thinking must start to (already has?) compromise the ability of faculty members to offer a standard university education.

Lingering Discontent

The BYU student newspaper published a story on the lingering discontent among some students at BYU. The issue is last week's firing of a BYU employee over a letter he wrote to the Daily Universe alleging ineffective supervision of BYU student elections. [For more background, see this article at DN and this earlier post at BT.] The letter got published, the employee got canned, and now students are wearing T-shirts protesting the firing. I wonder, will the T-shirt movement generate more interest than the student elections? The quote from the present BYUSA President is a classic: "Somebody got fired. Let's move on." He's certainly not going to rock the boat. I think he has a future in politics.

Call for Student Papers

The BYU Religion Department issued a call for student papers last week as part of its annual Religious Education Student Symposium. BYU undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit 10- to 12-page papers on "any religious topics ranging from scriptural topics and church history to world religions and teachings of living prophets." Winners get their paper published and may also receive cash prizes of up to $1,000. I would be interested in seeing a list of titles of papers submitted in prior years, but no links were given in the story.

The story quoted the apparent spokesperson for the program as saying past submissions have been "very bright and faithful." One of the goals of the program, she said, is "learning to write soundly with a cloak of faith." Cloak of faith — interesting metaphor. And what happens to the student who submits a paper that is not sufficiently cloaked with faith? Maybe the development of good cloaking skills is one of the goals of the program. The story notes that the program was started with the encouragement of a visiting General Authority, in order to develop gospel scholarship among the students. Before this program, notes a BYU prof, there had been no forum where "students could write meaningful papers in church history and doctrine where they could give their own ... perspective and viewpoints on matters of the church." The deadline for paper submissions is November 28.