I’m not one to toot my own horn, but since I’m usually trying to convince everyone what a dork I am I thought it might be a breath of fresh air for all of us if I tell you about one of my more awesome characteristics. (more…)

I love Halloween. Is that weird? I think it’s almost as fun as Christmastime. I love to dress up in fabulous costumes. I spend all year thinking about what I’ll be. Funny thing is, I don’t usually decide until right before Halloween. I know why I like the costume part of Halloween. You get to be anything you want for just one night and no one looks at you like you are some kind of fruitcake. Here are some of the things I’ve thought about being this year: Marie Antoinette, a pirate, a punk rocker, a highland lass, and Scarlet O’Hara. (more…)

We often read Nephi’s injunction to “feast on the words of Christ” as instructions to dig into the scriptures. I heartily endorse digging into the scriptures, but as I read that portion of Nephi’s sermon, I don’t think that is what Nephi meant. Nephi is telling us exactly what we are supposed to do after we “enter in by the way” – and I think that is to enter into a revelatory dialogue with God. (more…)

In my last post on the Oneness of the members of the Godhead I brought up the idea that a fundamental difference between our minds and the mind of the Godhead is that we can only think of one thing at a time and they can think of multiple things at once. Here is a link to the Nibley article I referred to earlier called “Zeal Without Knowledge.” In this paper Nibley leads with the idea that human minds literally can only think of one thing at a time. We really do have one track minds — we are just good a flickering back and forth between things so quickly that it is as if we are thinking of multiple things at once. God does not have this limitation. The connection to the last post is that I think that without this limitation, the notion of me vs. other becomes a different thing entirely. Clearly, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. (more…)

Have you heard the saying, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and take what ever comes”? I remember first hearing it in college and thinking that it was a clever little bit of wisdom. Do I follow that little piece of advice? No, I sure don’t. I have a tendency to hope for the best and then get disappointed when it doesn’t happen. (more…)

Our speculative discussion in the last post has me thinking about the implications of total unity vs. individuality. This is a doctrinal question that touches most every important part of our spiritual and religious lives. It is at the heart of the tension between our unity as a community striving to become a Zion people and our individuality, our unity as couples or families vs. individuality, and the unity of the Godhead vs. their individuality. If we are to become one with God then what becomes of our individuality? (more…)

There have been some interesting discussions recently that have made me ponder the question of degrees of divinity. J. Stapley wondered at another thread whether the pre-earth Christ was “fully divine” and thus worthy of our worship. He also expressed doubt that we should currently worship the Holy Ghost along with the Father and Son. (more…)

As most of you know I’m fairly new to the bloggernacle. I’ve only been active in this little community since the beginning of summer, some of you have been around much longer than this. I’m curious to find out from my fellow bloggers of all experience (novice to veteran) what one would consider good manners when one is navigating around the bloggernacle. (more…)

Ronan made a funny comment over at BCC the other day that I thought was worthy of posting on. After my favorite doctrinal sparring partner Jeffrey Giliam made a comment and I agreed with it Ronan said:

Has anyone seen Geoff J and Jeffrey G. (GJ>JG>GJ) in the same room together? … Doctroholics come only one per generation. I’m checking your IP’s. New Cool Busted!

The sad part is that I’m starting to think he is on to something… Where are the other doctroholics? Jeffrey and I post heavily on Mormon doctrine and theology, but not many others do. Why is that? (more…)

I just finished installing radio.blog in my sidebar and oddly enough it appears to work. I figured this would be a nice addition here at the Thang since we are sort of a blog about Mormon theology, Mormon life, and of course, Rock ‘n’ Roll. Not that I anticipate a lot of posts specifically on rock ‘n’ roll but the subject comes up often enough that I figured this might be a good idea for our blog. (more…)

I have some very lovely children, the cream of the crop I’d say. They do have a few odds going against them. The most serious is that their mother doesn’t know what the heck she’s doing. It’s true. I officially decided yesterday that I’m clueless when it comes to raising children. I don’t know when directions on child rearing were handed out but I wasn’t there. I was probably late, or I skipped school that day, or I may have been daydreaming. (more…)