My blog post on Come Follow Me: 3 Nephi 12-16

Excerpt:After establishing the “doctrine of Christ” in 3 Nephi 11 (faith in Christ, repentance, baptism/ordinances, Holy Ghost as the steps to being a united covenant people), Jesus then shared the Beatitudes he taught to the Jews in Matthew 5. However, he adds to the Beatitudes up front, giving a new way to understand the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount..“Blessed are ye if ye shall give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants; and unto them I have given power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost; therefore blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptized, after that ye have seen me and know that I am. “And again, more blessed are they who shall believe in your words because that ye shall testify that ye have seen me, and that ye know that I am. Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins.” (3 Ne 12:1-2)

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2020/09/come-follow-me-3-nephi-12-16.html

Public Square Magazine recently published information about how tone of editorial content is correlated with whether editors comply with the 2018 request by the Church to avoid nicknames for the Church. Where editors give themselves permission to continue using the term “Mormon,” articles are much more likely to be negative in tone.

Despite early skepticism about whether news organizations would bother giving up short terms like ”LDS” and ”Mormon” when discussing the Church, there are indications that about half of the stories on major news websites have made the switch to the full name of the Church.

Where the name of the Church is mentioned in the headline, only ~15% of headlines refer to the Church by its full name.

Ironically, the Public Square article, itself, used “Mormon” in the title:

The article includes a link to a detailed description of methodology as well as detailed data used in the study. Of note, the study didn’t look at whether negative tone was appropriate, just what the tone was and how it correlated with used of the nickname.

I myself saw the power of stepping away from the nickname “Mormon” when I went through my book, Reluctant Polygamist, and replaced all instances of the term “Mormon” that could appropriately be replaced. The resulting copy was much improved, though I haven’t yet pushed out this edition of that book.

Having done this for my own writing, I find myself being irritated when other scholars use the term “Mormon” where it is not necessary. Obviously some of these scholarly works were written before President Nelson requested people shift away from use of the term “Mormon” when discussing the Church. Yet having now seen how much less polarizing our new normal can be, it is fascinating to see the burden we used to place upon ourselves (And sometimes persist on placing on ourselves).

Thanks to The Elizabeth McCune Institute for funding this study and to Christopher D. Cunningham for publishing this on Public Square. Thanks also to Jacob Hess for bringing this to the attention of the rest of us who write for M*.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania decided the state’s lockdowns violate the 1st and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. For many of us who have been concerned about the lockdowns since March, we can celebrate the decision while also being disappointed that it took so long for a judge to overturn the tyrannical actions in one state.

From the article I linked:

In the 66-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania William Stickman struck down Wolf’s limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings of up 25 and 250 people, respectively. The limitations, Stickman wrote, violate “the right of assembly enshrined in the First Amendment.”

Stickman ruled that the governor’s stay-home order and mandatory closure of businesses, which were deemed non-essential to curb the spread of the novel Wuhan coronavirus, infringed on citizen freedoms and discriminated based upon arbitrary “life sustaining” and “non-life sustaining” standards breaching 14th Amendment protections.

In the ruling, Stickman said he “believes that defendants undertook their actions in a well-intentioned effort to protect Pennsylvanians from the virus. However, good intentions toward a laudable end are not alone enough to uphold governmental action against a constitutional challenge. Indeed, the greatest threats to our system of constitutional liberties may arise when the ends are laudable, and the intent is good — especially in a time of emergency.”

Stickman emphasized that once liberties erode under a public emergency, they become difficult to repossess.

“Even a vigilant public may let down its guard over its constitutional liberties only to find that liberties, once relinquished, are hard to recoup,” Stickman wrote.

Continue reading →

My blog post on CFM: 3 Nephi 8-11

Excerpt:

Most Mormons believe that the great Nephite destruction occurred, three days of darkness passed, and then Jesus showed up for lunch the next day.

However, the Book of Mormon’s text actually clues us in on the actual time frame involved here.

“And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land” (3 Nephi 8:5).

“And it came to pass that in the ending of the thirty and fourth year, behold, I will show unto you that the people of Nephi who were spared, and also those who had been called Lamanites, who had been spared, did have great favors shown unto them, and great blessings poured out upon their heads, insomuch that soon after the ascension of Christ into heaven he did truly manifest himself unto them—” (3 Nephi 10:18).

The destructions occurred almost a year before Jesus appeared to the people.  Such a time delay would allow Jesus to perform his works in Jerusalem among his apostles after his resurrection, begin the work for the dead in the Spirit World, and organize the work among those who resurrected with him..

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2020/09/come-follow-me-3-nephi-8-11.html

Part II. Nehor Rises Again

Jacob Z. Hess

Note: I believe healthy deliberation includes space for strong critique, passionate contestation, and efforts to persuade. I do all of that here without questioning the sincerity, intelligence, or intentions of those with opposing views. Although I believe most people are doing the best they can to love, to help, and to understand, I also believe the patterns outlined in these essays are little considered or understood in the broader discourse.

That’s why I write. These are perilous times for America. In my view, anyone willing to preserve space for thoughtful people to disagree on these and other matters (no matter your actual position) is part of the solution – and helping lay the foundation for our collective future. Anyone contributing to a recession of this same space (no matter your position) is part of the problem – and helping lay the foundation for even greater misunderstanding, hatred and violence than we have yet seen in our country.

Latter-day Saints revere the Book of Mormon for its role in re-establishing truth that was lost, or made dim, by a Biblical interpretation process that confused or omitted certain “plain and precious” parts of God’s message to the world. 

One of the lesser-appreciated truths clarified in the Book of Mormon is the role of anger in subverting the long-term trajectory of both individuals and entire communities, through a variety of means.  For instance, virtually all scriptural references to a people being “stirred up to anger”^[1] happen in the Book of Mormon. 

In part I, I summarized the way in which Mormons Building Bridges (and other allied organizations) became a persuasive force that convinced many Latter-day Saints to adopt the larger narrative of the gay rights movement, along with its accompanying anger (and built-in explanations for that anger).        

In that first part, I only began to touch on problems with that larger narrative frame – mostly focusing, instead, on how these new ways of seeing identity and sexuality became a significant wedge for so many people in their faith – effectively distancing so many precious brothers and sisters from their spiritual home, and leaving them wounded in their attachment to anything related to the same.  As one woman told me recently, “I’ve got to stay away from the Church…it’s just too toxic for me!” 

In what follows, I round out the picture, introducing an alternative way to make sense of this movement that has unfolded and overflowed into members’ lives – one that contrasts sharply with the framework outlined in Part I (true-identity discovery in a larger movement about liberation and civil rights that welcomes any allies willing to stand by their bravery).