Ok, it won’t really be shown in conference — but it sure could be. Click here to see the skit called “Don’t Buy Stuff”. (Hat tip BCC). Nothing like a little comedy (starring Steve Martin no less) to make a point about provident living. Reminds me of a comedian I once saw pitching his revolutionary “stop eating so much” diet.
This past weekend I spent some time with my Wife’s Grandfather and he offered me the opportunity to rummage through his old books and take anything I am interested in. I don’t pass up such opportunities, and came away with a good bunch of books, including a 1930’s Adult Sunday School Manual, A 1955 Youth Sunday School Manual (Which I will post on soon, as it is amazing), a 1968 Church Handbook of Instructions, and a 1966 For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet.
Today I thought it would be fun to share the pamphlet with you. (more…)
I was intending to throw this up at Blogger of Jared, but they appear to be down. So, while Conner and Eric give that blog a healing blessing of some sort, I thought I’d ask for input here. Besides, now that Geoff has turned the corner, and this is no longer the speculative theology blog, but just another general mormonalia blog, perhaps this is as good a home as any.
So, I ask you, will you serve a Senior mission? Why or Why not?
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So my new band has not gigged yet. Here is the problem: Our guitar player flaked out on us around Halloween and we have had no luck finding a replacement. Rick, the founder of the band and our trombone player, made a funny crack on the band email list this afternoon:
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One of our readers, CEF, asked me to read and review a book by Philip Yancey called “What’s So Amazing About Grace?“. In fact, CEF even sent me a copy of the book. I have been promising to review it for months now so I figured I had better get to it. I am admittedly only five chapters in at this point but I figured that if I started reviewing the book I’d have more motivation to finish it. (I have a dozen or more books that I have started but not finished — I’m not sure what that reveals about me…) Anyway, in this post I will give some general impressions about the book so far and address some issues about the word grace that have been on my mind in recent months.
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A recent post at FPR regarding the best books has gotten me thinking about a few questions.
A. If you had the opportunity to give only one book to someone, in an effort to share your beliefs with them, and with the probability being that you would never see them again, what book would it be and why?* Is the Book of Mormon really the best book for that job?
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[This guest post was submitted by Matt W., a regular contributor to discussions here at the Thang.]
Sometimes I like to pretend I am pretty smart about my faith and religion. At other times, I accept that I am just an eight year old in the Church. This is one of those times.
In a recent thread, Blake made a statement which has bothered me. He noted that one article on Agency “hasn’t been accepted by common consent…” as a basic way of debunking what was said therein. This bothered me not because I didn’t agree with Blake on that point, but because I have a hard time following the reasoning that Mormon Doctrine only equals those things sustained by common consent in General Conference. (more…)
A while back I posted on the oft repeated promise in the Book of Mormon “Inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land”. I have always taken this to be a self-evident truth in Mormonism but it turns out that lots of people in the church just don’t believe it. Well, they may sorta believe it but apparently many want to water it down and make it only applicable to societies and not to individuals. Or perhaps they misread the word “prosper” and think the only thing it could possibly be referring to is worldly riches (ignoring other ways we can prosper in the land like by having good physical and mental health, true friends, loving relationships, etc.) I think the promise is very literal and applies to individuals today. In this post I’ll explain the two ways I think the promise plays out. (more…)
One of the popular sports among many Mormons is taking potshots at “the rich”. Hugh Nibley seems to have really gotten the ball rolling on this sport (perhaps unintentionally?) with some of his excellent essays found in the book Approaching Zion. Using many of Nibley’s arguments, some Mormons seem to immensely enjoy lobbing theological grenades at the ever-nebulous and faceless group, the rich. We have been discussing this very topic in the comments over at my recent post about the camel and the eye of the needle teachings in the New Testament.
The problem is that nobody seems to be willing to define the term rich. What makes one officially rich? Is it net worth? Is it annual income?
Are you among those who actually believe that being poor (please define poor too, btw) is morally and spiritually superior to being rich?
I have mentioned elsewhere that I have a Nibley hangover lately and it is things like this that have given it to me. It was fun to ride a high horse and look down on “the rich” for a while after reading his stuff but falling off that high horse seems to have given me a Nibley headache or something…
[Associated radio.blog song: ABC – How To Be A Millionaire]
If passive aggressive behavior could be pitted against other passive aggressive behavior in some sort of competition, I think there would be a lot of Relief Society sisters going to the Olympics. And they would bring home medals. (more…)
Mormons seem to love the idea of waking up early. It’s in our history. Heck, it’s even in our scriptures:
Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated. (D&C 88:124)
