During my research I came across the following in the Illinois State Journal (dated May 30, 1857). I was so utterly charmed by this spoof that I had to share it. The original can be accessed here. Below is my transcription. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (And if anybody has … Read more
Let me tell you a story about a girl named Sue from Orem, Utah. Sue was raised by parents who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Sue was eight years old, she was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. At age twelve she became a Beehive; at … Read more
John Hamer, a Community of Christ pastor and cartographer, recently went on John Dehlin’s podcast Mormon Stories and made the following observation: It’s not only that it’s academically impossible to justify arguing that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text, it’s actually an ongoing contribution to the injustice, the racism, imperialism, and genocide that … Read more
In the true spirit of the vapid, infantilizing, click-baity, intellectually-stifling Internet garbage of BuzzFeed, Zelph on the Shelf has a helpful list of “59 Positives to Leaving the LDS Church.” It’s a quality list as far as shallow, attention-seeking, desperate-to-be-cool Internet lists go. But I couldn’t help but notice that several more positives to leaving … Read more
When asked by the New York Times to name a book that people might be surprised to discover on his bookshelf, the illustrious physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson responded, “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. . . . [T]he book tells a dramatic story in fine biblical style. The reader has to … Read more
In our modern, busy world there’s always a need for a guide to this or that. Hence we see guides for coin collecting, guides for fitness, guides for video games, guides for travel, and guides for sports. Since, by some accounts, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is teetering on the brink of … Read more
Flavius Josephus, in the opening lines of his autobiography (probably written in the last decade of the 1st century AD), provides his genealogy in an apparent attempt to legitimize himself before his Roman audience. After describing his ancestry, Josephus concludes: Thus have I set down the genealogy of my family as I have found … Read more
For a few years now I have been kicking around a particular neologism in my correspondences with some of my friends and acquaintances. Although I am apparently not the first to use this term (see here and here), I do believe I am the first to use it in a Mormon “bloggernacle” context. I can … Read more
My roommate made me this picture. Click to enlarge For info on the humor behind this joke, see the following links here, here, and here.
[Written by a friend of mine and posted here with permission.] Sunday, June 15, 2014 Scranton (New Jersey) Tribulation and Coupon Saver, A-1 (REUTERS) Pamela Printzmetal, a member of the Republican Party, has cried foul over reports that the party may expel her. Printzmetal has been a long and vocal advocate for the addition of … Read more
Stephen Colbert – American Hero and Prophet of Shamash. As Ann K. Guinan explains, many forms of divination were especially common in ancient Mesopotamia. The rationale behind ancient divination was the belief that the gods had encoded their will or the fate of the world in signs found in everyday objects or occurrences, and so by … Read more
You may have seen various “Hitler Reacts” videos on YouTube. They’re made from a clip taken from the 2004 German film Der Untergang (one of my favorite films, incidentally). In this scene, Hitler goes bonkers when he’s informed that Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner was not able to amass enough troops to break the Soviet stronghold on Berlin. … Read more
Saul of Tarsus–––apostle, martyr, prophet, doctrinal expounder, defender of the faith, witness of Christ to the Gentiles, and not afraid to use some good old vulgarity now and then. Anyone who’s read Paul knows that he was not afraid to, at times, be not only rather snippy, but also rather blunt. One of my favorite … Read more