Making our history one step at a time
A beautiful example of the fact that if you sit down and talk with someone from a different background, a different faith tradition, a different culture, you will come to love them and find wisdom there.
The Mormon Jesus by John Turner, answering all the questions you've been dying to ask like, was Jesus a polygamist? or did Jesus have abs?
Hot take: If I were ever to apostatize, I'd become an Orthodox monk. But seriously, Orthodoxy has so many surprising affinities to the Latter-Day Saint tradition, you'd be surprised.
Most accounts of secularization are pretty flat: the march of clear and virtuous reason against the suffocating faith of the Middle Ages. Charles Taylor gives much more detailed account than these over-simplifications-- and regardless of your background, Taylor's work is an engaging read.
I am not a moral relativist. But I am what I will call for lack of a better term an experiential relativist. I believe that everyone's experiences, and thus what can be expected of them at any given moment, is different. I try to avoid any hint that I am somehow on a higher plane... Continue Reading →
Durkheim argues that at its root, suicide arises when there is a disequilibrium between the individual and society. Investing in mediating institutions and communities is a vital component towards addressing this heart-rending problem.
God loves you as an individual, with all your facets, talents, quirks and all. The Plan of Salvation isn't a cookie cutter, and God isn't a perfected bureaucrat, trying to fit us into a celestial Gantt chart. It's all about you.
My favorite image from this book is of God willing to be overruled by his children: "My sons have defeated me, my sons have defeated me." When we see injustice in the world, even at the hands of a church, we should seek to confront it and make it better.
Feeling emotion at church can either be some of the most uplifting or make me feel phoney and suspicious of the feeling itself. Is how we feel important?
