Movie/Book Reviews
Conjoined Twins: Lori and George Schappell
Lori and George Schappell are the oldest living craniopagus (joined at the head)Â twins. Â The twin girls were born in 1961, and it was believed that they not only shared blood vessels in the brain, but also had a fused brain. Â They share the frontal lobe of the brain, and scientists wondered if they might share […]
Mapping Elections and Mormonism
“Maps are powerful tools”, said John Hamer at the 2011 John Whitmer Historical Association meetings. His remarks have be published in the latest issue of the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (Fall/Winter 2012). He goes on to say Beyond their capacity to dazzle, maps allow historians to organize information in a completely different way than […]
Q&A with Terryl and Fiona Givens
What a week! I had the pleasure of attending sessions with both Ron Paul and Terryl Givens. Now I have to choose whether to write about Ron Paul, or Terryl Givens. Tough choice. Given that political discussions often devolve into ideological (and often irrational) arguments, I’m just not in the mood for Ron Paul this […]
Abraham: Breaking the Cycle of Child Abuse
The Biblical story of Abraham is an interesting story for me on several levels. In the past, I’ve talked about different academic perspectives of him, my personal discomfort with how he mistreated his wife Hagar, and I have also compared the Book of Abraham to Islamic texts. Tresa Edmunds has her own blog, and is […]
Apostle: Special Witness of Christ
I have just finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by Michael Quinn. Many of us know that a Mormon Apostle is a special witness of Christ. Does that involve a personal vision or visitation of Christ? In the earliest days of the church, it did. Quinn says on page 1,
BYU Education Week Recap 2012
Well, I’m conferenced out now. I attended BYU Education Week for the first time (though my wife has been going for years), and wanted to give a few impressions following my Sunstone and FAIR Conference posts. I was frankly astonished at how enormous BYU Education Week is. It dwarfs these other two conferences in size. […]
Rehabbing Elder McConkie
I took a break from the Kimball biography to discuss the recent Sunstone and FAIR conferences, but now it is time to get back to Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball, and I wanted to discuss Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s role in the events leading up to the 1978 revelation. Elder McConkie has been much maligned […]
FAIR 2012 Review
In past years, it seems that the Sunstone Symposium and FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) have overlapped, so it was difficult to attend both. Â However, this year they were not the same week. Â I was able to attend my first FAIR conference, though my time was limited to just 2 speakers. Â Since this […]
Sunstone 2012
Sunstone began on Wednesday, but unfortunately, I could only attend Friday. I thought I would give some initial impressions of the sessions so far.
The Non-verbal 1978 Revelation
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been reading the Lengthen Your Stride: Working Draft. Chapter 22 provides more information than is available in Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball. Many have wondered why there has been no written revelation of the 1978 revelation allowed men of all races to hold the priesthood, and […]
Mormon Heretic 