A Gesture of Love from "The Friend"?

This month’s cover of The Friend (a children’s magazine published by the LDS church) shows two children eating a watermelon. It’s a terrific drawing, but, at least at first glance, not that different from what you might expect to see on the cover of a children’s magazine. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed two things that make me smile.

Wisdom from "Spotlight"

In the movie Spotlight, (which is about the Boston Globe’s investigation of the sex abuse scandal within the Catholic church), there’s an interesting conversation between reporter Michael Rezendes and Richard Sipe, a former Catholic priest who helped the Globe with their investigation:

Near-Death Experiences

One of the foundational teachings of most religions, including my own, is that some part of us — usually called the “spirit” or “soul” — continues to live after physical death. Near-death experiences (NDEs) strengthen my faith that this is true.

I recognize that NDEs do not prove there is an afterlife. It is certainly possible that NDEs are caused by nothing more than physical changes in a stressed or dying brain. I have read about a number of proposed materialist explanations for NDEs, such as the release of endorphins or other opioids, lowered levels of oxygen, increased levels of carbon dioxide, imperfect anesthesia, etc. Personally, however, I don’t find these explanations particularly compelling.

The following are some of the most notable NDEs that I’ve read about (and for which the proposed materialist explanations seem inadequate):

Isaiah and the Meaning of “Translation”

Here are a  few additional thoughts related to my previous post about Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon does not depend on scholars being incorrect about the authorship of Isaiah. If it turns out that Isaiah 48-54 wasn’t actually on the gold plates and Joseph felt inspired to add that material to the text of the Book of Mormon, I’m fine with that.

This kind of an approach  may not sit well with some Mormons, because we tend to assume that Joseph had very little influence on the textual form that the Book of Mormon took. But is this assumption necessary?

Isaiah in the Book of Mormon

I am grateful for two recent blog posts (here and here) by LDS biblical scholar David Bokovoy about the issue of authorship of the book of Isaiah. In these blog posts, Dr. Bokovoy describes the evidence supporting the scholarly consensus that chapters 40–66 of the book of Isaiah were written after the Jewish exile into Babylon. This is of interest to Latter-day Saints because the Book of Mormon quotes Isaiah 48–54. If the scholarly consensus is correct, the quoted material would not have been available to Lehi’s family when they left Jerusalem.

Many Footprints in the Sand

I had the privilege of baptizing my daughter Katelyn on Saturday. As I prepared for this event, I read Samuel Brown’s excellent book, First Principles and Ordinances, where I came across an insightful perspective on the famous poem “Footprints in the Sand”:

God the Mother

A few years ago, the LDS church released a video titled “Earthly Father, Heavenly Father.” The video, which was released in honor of Father’s Day, compares a father’s feelings for his children to our Heavenly Father’s feelings about all of humankind. It’s a good video with a nice message.

I wish the church would release something similar in honor of Mother’s Day, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Although Mormonism envisions the existence of a Heavenly Mother — a recently released essay on the church’s website confirms this — little theology has been developed about Her, and there is virtually no role for Her in any of the church’s current teachings or practices.

On the one hand, I’m grateful that my religion includes a representation of the feminine in its conception of the divine. However, Mormonism’s current teachings about Heavenly Mother raise a number of difficult questions for me.

Blessed? Or Lucky?

In his new book, economist Robert Frank describes a frightening experience he had a few years ago. While playing tennis with a colleague, Frank collapsed due to what doctors typically refer to as “sudden cardiac death.” But Frank didn’t die, primarily because an extra ambulance just happened to be a few hundred yards away. In reflecting on this incident, Frank says:

If an extra ambulance hadn’t happened to be nearby, I would not have survived. Some friends have suggested that I was the beneficiary of divine intervention, and I have no quarrel with those who see things that way. But that’s never been a comfortable view for me. I believe I’m alive today because of pure dumb luck.

Divine Intervention

I struggle with how to think about divine intervention. While I certainly want to believe that God intervenes in the world and in my own life, there are many terrible things that God doesn’t intervene to stop (including many things not caused by humans, thereby making human free will an unsatisfying explanation).

In his new book, Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist (published by the Maxwell Institute), BYU biology professor Steven Peck shares some thought provoking ideas related to divine intervention.

By way of background, Peck acknowledges the reality of evolution, and he also believes there are “deep and unavoidable theological implications for incorporating into our theology the belief that natural selection structured the way life evolved on our planet.” Some of these implications are related to the brutality of natural selection: “It is hard to imagine that evolution by natural selection is a reasonable choice for creation if other methods were available,” he says. Peck suggests that perhaps “God … is subject to certain natural laws,” and natural selection may have been “a natural law necessary for the creation of a diverse and fully functioning universe.”

Peck then expands upon this idea in connection with God’s intervention in the world:

Women and the Book of Mormon

I recently read an essay by Carol Lynn Pearson in which she discusses some of her feelings about the way in which women are portrayed in the Book of Mormon:

“A few years ago, I read the [Book of Mormon] specifically to focus on what it says about women, circling in red every female reference. And as I did, it became more and more clear why I had always felt like an unwelcome visitor as I entered Nephite society, a stranger in a strange land indeed.”

I was initially surprised when I read this, because I have never thought of the Book of Mormon as portraying women negatively. But Pearson makes some excellent points.

Rethinking Adam and Eve

For anyone who believes that working toward a reconciliation of evolution and Christianity is a worthwhile goal (as I do), I highly recommend Peter Enns’s The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins (TEoA).

Enns is a biblical scholar and a committed Christian. He “believe[s] in the universal and humanly unalterable grip of both death and sin, and the work of the Savior, by the deep love and mercy of the Father, in delivering humanity from them.” At the same time, Enns is convinced “that evolution must be taken seriously.” With both of those considerations in mind, TEoA presents an alternative way to think about the story of Adam and Eve.

Choosing the Left

Review of The Liberal Soul: Applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Politics (TLS), by Richard Davis

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Many Mormons consider the word “liberal” to be a pejorative description. For example, when I decided to attend law school at the University of California, Berkeley, several of my family and friends made comments like, “But that’s the most liberal school in the country!” In other words, why on earth would a Mormon choose to go to such a liberal school?

However, BYU political science professor Richard Davis sees the term “liberal” quite differently. Rather than having negative connotations, Davis defines “liberal” the way that it is used in the scriptures, namely describing “personal characteristics of generosity, magnanimity, and charity.” Davis thinks that all Latter-day Saints should become “liberal souls” (a term taken from Proverbs 11:25), meaning someone who “follow[s] Jesus Christ in his love and acceptance of others, specifically in his care for the poor and the needy, his concern for the most vulnerable in society, and his compassion toward all.”

A More Embracing Mormonism

Review of Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt, by Patrick Q. Mason

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I am surprised — and delighted — that Deseret Book and the Maxwell Institute co-published this book by Mormon scholar Patrick Mason. It acknowledges that there are “troubling episodes” in the LDS church’s past and “apparent contradictions and conundrums in the church’s history, doctrine, and positions on current issues.” It discusses several of these issues at length, including withholding priesthood and temple blessings from blacks, Joseph Smith’s treasure digging, and the Mountain Meadows massacre. And it doesn’t shy away from honest critique.

But Mason is no rabble-rouser; he’s “all in” with respect to Mormonism, describing himself as a “believer and a belonger.” He “find[s] redemption and sanctification in the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and he “can’t imagine being more convinced that God has ordained The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to accomplish its divine mission.”

A Few Things I Hope We Can All Agree About

Recent events have caused me to prayerfully reflect on the challenges faced by gay Mormons. There is, of course, much that I do not know and do not understand. However, there are a few things that I believe strongly, and that I hope we can all agree about:

Carrying Water on Both Shoulders

Lowell Bennion once said:

A thoughtful Latter-day Saint who grows up in his faith and takes it seriously may encounter difficulties as he immerses himself in secular education … When faith and reason meet in [a person’s] life…, something must give; some type of working relationship must be established. … [I]t seems to me that there are three logical models people develop to reconcile their religious faith and their secular studies. …

Confronting Evolution

I read with great interest about the recent discovery of a new hominin species, which will be called Homo naledi. It is my understanding that this isn’t merely a discovery of more fossils of a species we already knew; rather, it is the discovery of a new piece of the ancestral family tree. There is apparently a Nova/National Geographic program about the discovery, which is available to view online here.

I have to admit that scientific discoveries like this — which are extremely difficult to explain unless you accept evolutionary theory — always make me feel a little uneasy, because I don’t believe that Mormons (or Christians generally) are anywhere close to coming to terms with the theological challenges that evolution presents.

God and the Israelites' Conquest of Canaan

The shocking and barbaric violence that is attributed to God in scripture, particularly the Old Testament, has bothered me for a long time. I recently read what I consider to be an enlightened, helpful perspective on this issue.

Seeing, Hearing and Including Women at Church

Leaders of the LDS Church have repeatedly taught that women and men are equal, but not identical. For example, Elder Oaks recently said, “In the eyes of God, … women and men are equal, with different responsibilities.” Similarly, Elder Ballard recently said that “men and women have different but equally valued roles.”

Many LDS Church members accept the premise that God’s definition of “equality” means something other than “sameness.” However, does that mean that everything in the LDS Church today is exactly the way it should be with respect to the treatment of women? In other words, even if “equality” means something different to God than it means in modern secular culture, are current Church practices fully consistent with God’s definition of “equality”?

I can’t say that I have a firm conviction that they are. This is one of the reasons why I think Neylan McBaine’s recent book, Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact, is so important.

My First Taste of Biblical Scholarship (And Now I’m Hooked)

Up to this point in my life, I have not paid much attention to the work of biblical scholars. Perhaps I have been influenced by those within the LDS community who are highly suspicious of their work. Recently, however, I read Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy, by LDS scholar David Bokovoy. This outstanding book has piqued my interest in biblical scholarship and helped me see how biblical scholarship can contribute much to my understanding of the scriptures.

Faith, Uncertainty and Testimony

(This is a talk that I gave a couple of years ago in Sacrament Meeting.)

          I’ve been asked to speak today about increasing faith in Jesus Christ. I’m going to begin my remarks by reading a testimony that might hypothetically be shared in a church setting, such as a fast and testimony meeting.

Brothers and sisters, I cannot honestly say that I know God lives. I see much in the world that I cannot easily reconcile with the existence of a loving God. However, I do hope that such a God exists, and most of the time I believe that he does.

Seeing the Good in the World

(This is a talk that I gave in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday.)

          I have been asked to speak today about “protecting the family” and “being in the world, but not of the world.” As I considered how best to address this topic, I thought of Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen. The story is set in Brooklyn, New York toward the end of World War II, and it centers around two Jewish boys: a Hasidic Jew named Danny Saunders and a Modern Orthodox Jew named Reuven Malter.

Life Is A School, Not Merely A Test (And What That Means About Repentance)

(This is a talk that I gave in sacrament meeting yesterday.)

I am going to begin my remarks by sharing two scriptures. The first scripture comes from the Book of Abraham, which describes a pre-mortal council in heaven in which the Lord says, “[W]e will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:24–25). According to this scripture, the purpose of this mortal life is to test us to see whether we will do everything that God commands us to do. 

The second scripture comes from the Doctrine and Covenants: “[I]t is not meet that [God] should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant.” Instead of expecting God to “command in all things,” we are counseled to “be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [our] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness” (D&C 58:26–27).

This presents an interesting paradox. The passage in the Book of Abraham suggests that the purpose of life is to see if we will do everything that God tells us to do. But according to the passage in the Doctrine and Covenants, God wants us to do things without his having to tell us what to do.