Movie/Book Reviews
Mormon Pageant Season
This year my family has tried to attend several pageants (Manti Pageant, Hill Cumorah Pageant) but schedules haven’t worked out. Last night, we attended the Clarkston Pageant. Never heard of it? Neither had my wife. Clarkston is definitely off the beaten path. It is about 30 minutes northwest of Logan, Utah, just 10 miles or so […]
Greg Kearney on Masonic Origins on LDS Endowment
In one of John Dehlin’s first podcasts (September 14, 2005), he interviewed Greg Kearney, a member of FAIR (Foundation of Apologetic Information and Research, a pro-Mormon think tank), and a several generation Mormon and master mason. Greg attended BYU, and is the member of a Farmington, Maine ward that has been around longer than any […]
Greg Prince on “Polarizing Packer”
Doug Fabrizio interviewed Greg Prince on KUER this past week on the passing of Boyd K. Packer. (You can listen to it here.) Prince is a businessman, a historian of LDS church history, and a board member of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and The Journal of Mormon History. He’s author of the books […]
Atheist finds Garden of Eden
Where is the Garden of Eden? I watched a really interesting documentary, part of the Myth Hunters series found on Netflix, Youtube, and CafeMom. They noted that the garden story is so vague that it could be anywhere. The film notes that a Boston University president felt is was in North Pole, Mormons felt it […]
Parenting Taboos – Part 2
I wrote a TED Talk transcript of Parenting Taboos previously. Parents Rufus Griscom and Alisa Volkman (I guess she didn’t take his last name–maybe that’s another taboo) gave an interesting TED Talk (episode 3 available on Netflix.) In part 1, they gave 2 parenting taboos. Taboo #1: You can’t say you didn’t fall in love […]
Atheist in a Foxhole: The Tillman Story
I watched an interesting documentary last week, The Tillman Story. Pat Tillman played NFL football for the Arizona Cardinals, and unexpectedly quit the NFL and enlisted in the army rangers following the September 11 attacks. I knew he had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004, and there was a coverup, but didn’t really […]
MHA 2015 in Review
The Annual Mormon History Association meetings came to Provo last night. Last year it was in San Antonio, and next year it will be at Snowbird Resort in Utah. Sometimes I like it better when it’s out of town, because I can attend all the sessions. When I’m home, there’s just too much going on, […]
Football, CTE, and Agency
Athletes, especially football players, have been involved in some high-profile violent incidents. Dec 16, 2009. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry had a domestic dispute with his fiance Loleini Tonga. She tried to get away by getting into a pickup truck. He climbed in the back, and while she was driving, either fell or jumped out […]
Masonic Ceremony
I recently watched an interesting documentary, Secrets of the Freemasons. Many of the early U.S. revolutionaries were freemasons; many masons helped plan the Boston Tea Party, although the Tea Party had non-masonic members as well. (Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, John Hancock, in addition to George Washington were masons.) Masons were influential in the founding of […]
Mormon Heretic 