A couple of months ago I got a call out of the blue from an LDS guy I’d never met before. He told me his name was Rick and that he was trying to put together an all LDS rock/ska band here in the Phoenix area. (I still haven’t figured out exactly how he tracked me down but I think it had to do with this blog…) Anyway, one thing moving to AZ took away from me was my membership in a band. I’d played in at least one rock band basically without a break from 1991 until moving here; but moving away from San Diego in 2004 ended that streak. I did travel back to San Diego for one farewell gig in 2005 but that was it and I have been beginning to miss it all. So when Rick called I was very interested on all sorts of levels: a) He was into ska and every band I’ve played in over those years has done some ska; b) He was taking care of the details to get us going (the hard part ); c) I liked the idea of playing with grown-ups now that I’m a grown up and all. I was actually the youngster in my last cover band and it worked really well; d) I was intrigued by the fact that Rick played trombone and he had a trumpet player lined up too — I play sax and sing but have never played in a band with a full horn section like this; e) I was intrigued by the fact that all seven potential players in this new band were LDS — I hadn’t tried that since my Sam I Am days at BYU. (more…)

I have five brothers and one little sister. On top of that, my mom had a massive stroke when most of us were little kids (9 or younger) so my dad had to step in and do a lot of the things that moms normally are responsible for. Franky, with all of the dudes in my family and all the man-ness around the homestead my upbringing was only a few steps away from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. (more…)

I’m teaching lesson 28 covering stories about Elijah in 1 Kings 17-19 this Sunday and since we have a shortened block (2.5 hours) here in Arizona I’m going to focus mostly on the things we learn about personal revelation in chapter 19. You are familiar with the famous verses:

Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19: 11-12)

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In my life I’ve discovered that keeping the commandments leads directly to me prospering in the land. I like prospering – it is waaaay better than not prospering. Sure, I have been less prosperous at certain points in time than at others but overall I’ve discernibly prospered as I’ve kept my covenants. (I could give tons of examples but it would come off as bragging or something so I’ll refrain.) The Book of Mormon repeatedly promises that we all will prosper in the land if we keep the commandments of God. Do you consistently experience discernible prosperity as you keep the commandments too? Is my experience the norm or unusual?

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My post on Blake Ostler’s views on LDS soteriology quickly ballooned to more than 100 comments and revealed that there are a lot of differing soteriologies among us. In this post I will describe the various things I think scriptures mean when they use the term “salvation”. (more…)

Chapter 6 in Blake Ostler’s new book is titled “Soteriology in LDS Thought”. For those of you not familiar with the term Soteriology, it is basically the study of salvation. As the article in Wikipedia puts it: “A particular stance on what constitutes salvation is thus known as a soteriology.” This chapter is a little unusual because it seems to be directed to non-Mormons in many ways and is largely focused on fending off accusations that Mormonism “preaches salvation by works and that it focuses on works to the exclusion of grace.” (189) Ostler goes about disputing this accusation by defining salvation in LDS thought and asserting that in LDS thought a low form salvation is possible without any work another than confessing Jesus as the Christ, and that only higher levels of “salvation” including exaltation are contingent on our works. (more…)

Well things have slowed down here at the Thang a bit this month. For the first 28 days of June we only managed to come up with 5 posts between the two of us. It might be a slow down due to the blog muse avoiding the heat of the Arizona summer or that we are simply experiencing a little blog burnout. Whatever the case — the Thang has hit a slow patch.

It’s not like I don’t have plans… Here are some of the posts I hope to get around to: (more…)

The Devil’s GPA whacked David. We are discussing this episode today in Sunday School in lesson 24 covering 2 Samuel 11-12. For those of you not familiar with the Devil’s GPA, it is my codename for the three major categories of temptations we find in scripture (and in life). I’ve posted on it a couple of times before. Here is a synopsis: (more…)

An interesting side discussion popped up in a recent post on the topic of spirit birth. In that thread I mentioned: “I think the evidence against some kind of literal spirit birth (especially a viviparous birth like our mortal birth) is much stronger than any evidence for it.” Since the answer to this question has major implications about the nature of the Father, Jesus Christ, and even us I think it is worth looking at. In this post I will discuss the evidence I am aware of against the idea of literal/viviparous spirit birth, the evidence in favor, and since today is Father’s Day I will also mention some of the implications of this question concerning the “fatherhood” of the members of the Godhead. (more…)

No, I haven’t forgotten that I started a series of posts on Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We’re on to Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. I mentioned in the introductory post of this series that I think this is the hardest of the 7 Habits to pull off correctly. I actually think the difficulties associated with this habit are what cause many people to throw in the towel on the whole 7 Habits model. Further, I think that Covey does not (perhaps can not) provide enough assistance and guidance on this habit in the book. (more…)

Joseph Smith introduced the idea of “intelligences” in both modern scripture and in non-canonized sermons. In this post I want to explore what exactly it is that “intelligences” are. I don’t expect to come up with definitive answers because I don’t think enough has been revealed to find such, but I do hope that a fruitful discussion will ensue that helps us all sort out the various ideas that relate to the concept of intelligences. (more…)