Mormon
MHA 2011: First Impressions
I’m at the Mormon History Association meetings here in St. George, Utah and thought I would give some first impressions of the conference so far. Yesterday I had the opportunity to be part of the pre-conference tour, and learned a very interesting thing: Sin City was first settled by Mormons! The first non-Indian settlers in […]
4 Sports Stories You Should Know About
It’s been an interesting week. Â I was saddened to hear that Hall of Fame baseball player, Harmon Killebrew died Tuesday at the age of 74 of cancer. Â Killebrew played for the Minnesota Twins in the 1960s and 1970s. Â When he retired, he had hit more home runs in the American League than anyone except Babe […]
Mormon Enigmas: Linda Newell and Valeen Avery
John Larson of Mormon Expression did a book review of Mormon Enigma by Linda Newell and Valeen Avery. Â I’m not going to quote the whole podcast, but John gives a very interesting introduction to the book. Â In light of my recent post Latter-day Dissent, I thought I would continue the theme of how the church […]
Book Review: Latter-Day Dissent
A few months ago, I received an advance copy of a new book by Philip Lindholm called Latter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority. The book is supposed to be released on Friday by Greg Kofford Books. Lindholm interviews 5 of the “September Six”, as well as 3 others. The September […]
Good Friday, Easter, and Mormons
As Easter approaches every year, it seems that many people type “do mormons celebrate easter†into Google. If you do that right now, you will see that my post from 2008 is the #1 result on Google: Why Don’t Mormons Celebrate Easter? Frankly it’s shocking to me that my post is ranked so high on […]
Current Race Relations Within the LDS Church
Armand Mauss is an LDS sociologist from Washington State University. Â He wrote a chapter in the book Black and Mormon, where he discusses race relations within the church. Â He has both positive and negative things to say about race relations. Â I’ll start with the positive. Â Mauss notes that the LDS church has been involved in […]
Will Mexico Stop Issuing Missionary Visas over Immigration Disputes?
The debate about what to do about immigration problems is a big issue in Utah and other states. St. George’s newspaper, the Spectrum has reported that Stephen Sandstrom, a Republican from Orem is sponsoring a bill that would allow local law enforcement to check people’s residency or citizenship status if officers have “reasonable suspicion” they […]
Using Scriptures to Debunk the Priesthood Ban
Alma Allred wrote a chapter in the book titled Black and Mormon. On page 37, he states: I don’t believe that LDS scripture allows for a restriction against blacks’ holding the priesthood. Nor do I think that LDS theology can reasonably maintain that today’s blacks are descendants of Cain or that ancient intermarriage with Canaanites perpetuated […]
Rick Reilly, Dan Patrick Discuss Jimmer
Wow, 2 sports posts in a row! Â I don’t think that’s ever happened on my blog before. Â First of all, I have a disclosure to make. Â I’m a big Utah fan. Â I’m excited we’re going to the Pac-12. Â However, since Rick Majerus left, it has been tough to watch the Utes play basketball. Â When they […]
Bishop Ainge Takes in His Troubled Nephew
It’s not often that I get to talk about sports on my blog. I came across this interesting article about Erik and Danny Ainge. Erik is a backup quarterback for the New York Jets, and former starting quarterback for the University of Tennessee. I was surprised to learn that his uncle Danny is currently serving […]
Mormon Heretic 