Christian

Were Jesus and Mary Married?

The Da Vinci Code created a bit of a stir in making the claim that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married.  How do LDS handle the issue?  Dale Bills, a spokesman for the Church, said in a statement released Tuesday, 16 May 2006: The belief that Christ was married has never been official church doctrine. […]

Scandalous Behavior of Jesus around Women

Jesus was a social revolutionary.  He gave women a much larger role in his movement than was traditional in ancient Judaism.  In a previous post, I talked about the story in Luke chapter 7 about a woman wiping Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair.  Such behavior would have been considered lewd by first century Jews. […]

Atonement Theories

National Geographic has put together a 3-DVD set about the life of Jesus in a series called Science of the Bible.  Each DVD contains a different aspect of his life.  In a documentary called The Arrest, they document the ancient Jewish practices at the temple and events leading to his arrest.  The producers of the […]

Friendly Atheist Finds Value in Book of Mormon

Clay Painter of Mormon Expression interviewed Bob Price about his opinions of the Book of Mormon.  Not everyone believes the Book of Mormon is a truly divine document, but I found it interesting to hear that Bob finds value in the Book of Mormon, despite his being an atheist.  Regarding Mormon Expression, sometimes I find […]

Boomerang Back to Religion

I transcribed a bit more of the Jana Riess interview from Mormon Stories.  There have been many posts (such as this one by Mike S) lamenting the fact that the activity rates seem to be slowing for the LDS Church.  I thought it was interesting that John Dehlin acknowledged that atheists are having a hard […]

Jana Riess: Truth Doesn't have to be Empirical

Jana Riess has recently published a book called Flunking Sainthood in which she decides to spend 1 month participating in various spiritual rituals. For example, she spent one month fasting from sun up to sun down as a pious Muslim would do during Ramadan (though she picked the month of February because it had the […]

Was Jesus Born in December?

In his 1915 classic entitled Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage maintained that Jesus Christ was born on April 6 in the year 1 BC.1 Talmage was apparently the first LDS writer to propose this particular date.  Nearly a century has passed since his book appeared, and in that time it has become practically […]

Eating Crow over Jimmer and Tim Tebow

Back in April, Rick Reilly of ESPN.com discussed Jimmer Fredette.  Reilly said “If his last college game is what he’s bringing to the NBA, then I’d say, in five years, he’s got a really good chance to be your Provo area Isuzu dealer.”  In another article, he said, “I’ll donate $5,000 if he starts a […]

Mormons Defending the Cross

There are 13 memorials similar to this one dedicated to Utah Highway Patrol Troopers killed in the line of duty.  The Atheist Association Inc of New Jersey, sued to have the crosses removed because they claimed the crosses violated the separation of church and state.  A federal court ruled for the Atheists.  Last week, the […]

Heretics, Jesus, and Jarrod's Problem

Life has been unusually busy of late.  Sorry I haven’t posted very often–I’ll try to get back on track.  A lot of my posts take some time to research, but Jarrod gave me a softball.  Rather than leave his comments on my “About page, I thought I could churn out a quick post (requiring no […]