I am finally getting around to reading Sterling McMurrin’s 1965 book called “The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion“. Clark already sponsored a reading club for this book about 18 months ago so in this post I will pick up on that long-dead discussion and follow Clark’s outline. Both Clark and Dave started by posting on the topics covered in the first eleven pages. (more…)

There I was pampering and nurturing Thanksgiving along when something tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and there staring me right in the face was Christmas. “I’m not ready for you yet,” I exclaimed. (more…)

Johnny was bad, even as a child, everybody could tell…

– Opening line to Only a Lad by Oingo Boingo

I gave the priesthood lesson today in my ward. It was based on President Hinckley’s recent talk on forgiveness. You remember the story he related about the generous woman that was so forgiving to the young man that had foolishly and carelessly heaved a frozen turkey through her windshield and disfigured her face in the process. It is a touching story of repentance and forgiveness – I highly recommend it. (more…)

The discussion at Rebecca’s post on Bullying over at FMH reminded of my darkest days… Middle School. (more…)

I’m mad as hell and there aint nothing I can do about it! Or is there…After contemplating several ways to satisfy my anger I’ve decided the best recourse I have is to share my story far and wide like an old biddy at a quilting bee. (more…)

I took a class with Stephen Robinson at BYU in the early nineties. I got the feeling I annoyed him a bit. I suspect I might annoy him even more now (if he spends much time on the Web) since my post on why his parable of the bicycle is wrong now shows up as the #4 Google result for the search term “Parable of the Bicycle”. After bashing the parable of the bicycle I felt obligated to try to find a better explanation of what the atonement does for us so I concocted and presented my own parable and called it the parable of the mortgage. The problem was that I was not really satisfied with my alternative either. (more…)

The Garden of Eden story is packed with symbolism. Jeff Giliam has even made compelling arguments here at the Thang that the Garden story is entirely symbolic. In this post I will riff on this idea that the Garden story is symbolic rather than literal. Before doing so, I want to point out that I am not hinting that there was no literal Adam on this earth. I think the evidence that there was a literal Adam is quite compelling. Rather, I want to look at possible meanings of the garden story and pre-garden story. (more…)

I’m a modern day outlaw. First I nearly get thrown in jail (ok, the closest I’ve ever come to going to jail) and second I find out I may have a gambling problem, at least in my bishop’s eyes. (more…)

There is a criminal element that runs through my blood. I have a great-great-great-grandfather that was indicted for murder, before he joined the church. (more…)

Well, my fellow bloggers here are a couple Halloween pictures that I promised to post. (more…)