The NRA just gave up on me after one survey question

April 17, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 7:51 pm   Category: Life

I just got called by the NRA about two minutes ago. The nice lady on the phone asked me to listen to a brief recorded message and stay on the line for a quick survey afterwords. Within a few seconds I was listening to a recorded message by the NRA’s ever-so-even-handed current leader (Wayne Hoofenhafen or something) about some kind of horrifying gun-related bill being proposed in congress that apparently should cause us all to run around screaming as if our hair were on fire.

After the recorded message a somewhat aggressive sounding dude came on line to survey me.

Survey guy: “Do you trust the gun-hating congress to protect your constitutional rights?” (I kid you not. That was the question.)
Me: (After a mildly stunned pause…) “Yes”
Survey guy: “Ok I thank you for your time”
Me: “Have a good evening”

I like short telemarketing calls, don’t you?

Hey don’t get me wrong — I’m all for the Second Amendment. However I am decidedly against sucky survey questions.

The good news

April 11, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 8:01 pm   Category: Life

Easter means different things to different people. For some people Easter seems to be inextricably connected to their preferred theory about the atonement. But for me the good news is much more basic and universal than any specific atonement theory. The dead who I love and miss are alive elsewhere. They persist. That is more than enough good news for me.

Happy Easter everyone.

Reader question: Renewing baptismal covenant? Really?

April 7, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 2:20 pm   Category: Reader Questions

One of our readers emailed me recently with an interesting question. Here it is:

I have a question that has been percolating in my mind for several years. It seems to me that we have witnessed the birth of a new doctrine in General Conference over the last couple of decades. The doctrine states that by taking the sacrament we are renewing the covenants we make at baptism. From this, there has come the logical extension, articulated quite forcefully by Elder Jay Jensen in the Priesthood session of October 2008, that taking the sacrament properly results in a re-remission of our sins.

In my studies of the scriptures, the teachings of Joseph Smith, or any earlier prophets, I can’t find anything about this doctrine. The article on the Sacrament in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism refers to it, but only cites Mosiah 18, Jesus the Christ, and Articles of Faith. In my opinion, these citations are underwhelming as support for the doctrine. A simple search of Conference addresses seems to show the doctrine originating with Bruce R. McConkie and/or Marion G. Romney in the early 1950’s. Earlier references to “renewing our covenants” through the sacrament seem to be talking about the sacramental covenants of taking upon us his name, always remembering him and keeping his commandments.

I would be interested in an online discussion of this topic. Or, perhaps you are aware of a place where it has already been discussed. If so, please let me know.

What say ye?

Mormonism and undocumented immigrants

April 5, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 8:51 pm   Category: Mormon Culture/Practices

There was an interesting article over at USA Today this week about how The Church currently deals with undocumented immigrants in our congregations and in our missionary efforts.

Discuss.

Mormon Humanism

March 29, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 11:03 pm   Category: Personal Revelation

Sterling McMurrin said in his classic little Mormon theology book that the the Mormon view of reality has a “humanistic quality unusual in theistic philosophy”. Humanism and Theism do indeed seem to be unusual companions — especially in recent centuries. But in the early days of the the humanism movement it was not so unusual to combine the two.
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The Madness of March is Upon Us — BYU Dances Again

March 16, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 12:01 am   Category: Sports

Another year, another #8 seed for the Cougars of BYU. The BYU Men’s Basketball got their official at-large invitation to the Big Dance (aka the NCAA basketball tournament) today. Oddly, BYU as a #8 seed has the same #9 seed first round opponent as last year, Texas A&M. BYU lost last year.

The good news is that I am convinced that this BYU team is stronger than the team was last year. Four of five starters are back and the team has been solid this year.

Anyone remember the last time BYU won a game in the Big Dance? I do. My old college buddy Keith reminded me today that we watched the game together in 1993 in the Wilkinson Center (in the dearly-departed Memorial Lounge I believe). That was too long ago. Will this be the year BYU breaks the first round curse that has plagued it since 1993? I sure hope so…

Happy Happy Utah

March 11, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 10:27 am   Category: Happiness,Mormon Culture/Practices

Anyone else see this article today? Apparently the current happiest states in the union are Utah, Hawaii, and Wyoming.

Here is a quote:

Looking for happiness — it’s family-friendly communities for some, tropical paradise or the rugged West for others. A survey of Americans’ well-being, conducted by Gallup in partnership with Healthways and America’s Health Insurance Plans, gives high marks to Utah, which boasts lots of outdoor recreation for its youthful population.

Speaking of outdoor recreation, the islands of Hawaii took second place and Wyoming was third in the poll that rated such variables as mental, physical and economic health.

But fun outdoors obviously wasn’t the only criteria — “wild, wonderful” West Virginia was ranked last among the states.

And the bluegrass state of Kentucky was 49th, with Mississippi 48th on the list.

The anti-Mormon crowd, or at least the anti-Utah crowd might be in mourning today because of this study… Seems like some folks just can’t do enough crowing about that old “Utah has the highest anti-depressant usage in the country” report that has gotten so much play in recent years. (Of course maybe the anti-depressant companies can use both reports to show how good their products work…)

Anyhow, the upshot is Utah has the happiest Americans around right now according to this report.

On My Creeping Universalism

January 28, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 8:20 pm   Category: Bloggernacle,Eternal Progression,Life,Theology,Universalism

Questions like this one don’t create any anxiety for me these days. I blame it on my creeping universalism.

By creeping universalism I mean this: I just can’t bring myself to believe in permanent divine punishment anymore. I know some people believe in it and I don’t begrudge them their beliefs — I just think they are wrong. Don’t misunderstand — I believe in divine justice. That is largely why I don’t believe in permanent punishment. If our souls are eternal I just don’t think there is anything we could do in 70 years here that would warrant infinite punishment. So I think people pay in some fashion for every sin they refuse to repent of; I just think that process won’t take forever. So when someone asks if I will end up in the highest kingdom of heaven (whatever that means) I feel confident in saying “yup”. I just think y’all will end up in the same condition too. (Heck, I now vaguely suspect we may have always been in that condition before our sojourn here on this planet as well…) That is what I mean by my creeping universalism. (more…)

On Facebook

January 24, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 10:36 pm   Category: Life

So I finally signed up on Facebook this month. I did it reluctantly, but after Kristen signed up and immediately started getting interesting updates from various family members and old friends I was persuaded that it might be worth checking out.

It was worth checking out.
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Who says regular Mormon guys can’t compete with Edward?

January 11, 2009    By: Geoff J @ 4:46 pm   Category: Life,Mormon Culture/Practices

There has been lots of talk about Twilight on the Mormon blogs over the last few years.  The author of the series, Stephenie Meyer, is a practicing Mormon and it is not too hard to sniff out the Mormon influences in the story in my opinion.

One of the complaints occasionally lodged is that no real guy could possibly compete with the fantasy that is Edward, the romantic hero of the story. On some levels this is obviously true: As a vampire Edward has super strength and super speed, plus he is independently wealthy as a teen, plus he is magically handsome, plus he can read minds. But I’m not sure those are really the most important things that make Edward desirable. It seems to me that Edward has other things about him that regular guys (single or married) can compete with: (1) Tremendous self discipline, (2) a powerful moral compass, (3) a desire to understand the girl, (4) a drive to protect and defend his loved ones, and (5) skills at being a tease. Plus regular guys can take advantage of important attributes Edward lacks: (a) A sense of humor, (b) a tan, (c) the ability to intermingle comfortably with human beings, and (d) the ability to live in a sunny place.
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A thought experiment about immortals

December 18, 2008    By: Geoff J @ 12:44 am   Category: Theology

Let’s imagine that there were a race of immortals. I mean real immortals that literally cannot die — not pseudo immortals we read about in fiction that are hard to kill but can die if you know the trick (decapitate, stake through the heart, burn, whatever). And by cannot die I mean they outlive every planet and every star. They are truly immortal with no beginning and no end. Now let’s further imagine that these immortals are vastly intelligent and they all have matching mental and physical potential and capacities, which capacities are far beyond our mortal human capacities. Further let’s imagine they live within the also-beginningless universe and that there are Universal laws by which they are bound.

Do you think it is safe to assume that this race of immortals would figure out how to be maximally happy over the infinite time they exist? I mean if they are that intelligent then it would be the reasonable thing for them to do after all. (more…)

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