Mormon Culture
Please Vote for the Niblets
Mormon Matters has put together “the best of the bloggernacle” awards, which have been dubbed “the Niblets”. I guess it is a sort of fans’ choice awards. So, be sure to go there and vote! If you don’t vote for me (I have 2 nominations there), be sure to vote for the Faithful Dissident, Irrestible […]
The Shakers of D&C 49
After Christmas, we decided to finally upgrade our television, and got a new 55 inch HD LCD. It’s pretty nice. As part of the package, we are able to download Netflix directly to the television. The first Netflix movie I watched on my new television was Ken Burns’ America: The Shakers (1985). I picked it […]
LDS Film Festival 2010
The LDS Film Festival begins Jan 20. I admit to being an aspiring film maker. I have great designs to one day do a documentary on some church related topic. I’ve been to the festival for the past 3 years, and I hope to be able to go this weekend. The schedule can be found […]
Home Teaching the Mentally Ill-What should you do?
For those unfamiliar with a home teacher, the idea is to have everyone visited in the ward, whether they come to church or not. The home teacher often offers a short spiritual thought. I believe home teaching is based on D&C 20:47, “And visit the house of each member, and exhort them to apray bvocally […]
The Brigham Young Papers: (There is a soft side to him)
There has been much press about volumes 1 and 2 of The Joseph Smith Papers Project. My wife even spoiled me with a copy of volume 2 this past Christmas. It contains the actual hand-written revelations of Joseph, along with a typed copy to help the reader understand some of the hard to read handwriting. […]
Why Mormons Hated Republicans in the Late 1800’s
I just finished the book by Sarah Baringer Gordon, The Mormon Question. It was a very different book from the previous book I read, More Wives than One, by Kathryn Daynes. Gordon has degrees in both Law and Religion. She looked at Constitutional theory and the arguments before the Supreme Court and Congress as the […]
Did Joseph Start a Religion, or Simply a Denomination?
The book for my book club is by Sarah Baringer Gordon, The Mormon Question. It’s been a really hard book to find at the library (nearly impossible), so I got a late start on it. It takes a very different approach to the polygamy question. Ms Gordon has a law degree, and so she talks […]
Cool Mormon and Hannukah Videos
BiV over at Mormon Matters posted a link to the Mormon Song from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Apparently, Senator Orrin Hatch wrote a Hannukah Song, which I found really catchy, and Conan tried to follow suit, even including his on Tapper-nacle Choir to help him out. This is my first video ever, so […]
Dancing in the Temple, and Other Changes Over the Years
I’ve been reading some of the interesting changes in temple ceremonies (specifically the Endowment ceremony) in the book, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger. (I talked about this in my previous post as well.) The temple is a place where we are constantly reminded that if we […]
A Mormon View of ‘The Lost Symbol’-Dan Brown
For my birthday, my wife gave me Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol. I don’t typically read novels–I prefer sports, history, religion, or biographies–but I read The DaVinci Code and loved it. Angels & Demons was pretty good. I had heard rumors that Dan Brown’s book was going to deal with Masonry and Mormonism, […]
Mormon Heretic 