I’ve seen that the Church sometimes gets a bad reputation for how it navigated Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. One thing that tends to get overlooked, however, was the amount of pressure the Church felt from the Nazi regime. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog, Stephen O. Smoot discussed some new research based on a 500-page dossier from the Nazi Party’s intelligence agency, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), preserved in the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) in Be...| Times & Seasons
Many of us Latter-day Saints have an immigrant ancestor story. That, combined with the fact that when we entered the valley we were technically in Mexican territory, has helped foment the idea that we are a faith of immigrants. But how true is it? Was early Utah more naturally immigrant heavy than other places in America at the time? Thankfully one of the most earliest and most consistent questions in the early US census was birthplace, so we can directly compare how immigrant heavy Utah was ...| Times & Seasons
The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and Evolution represents one of the most ambitious and carefully framed efforts to date to navigate the intersections of evolutionary science and the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Edited by Jamie L. Jensen, Steven L. Peck, Ugo A. Perego, and T. Benjamin Spackman, BYU’s Evolution Book combines perspectives from scientists, religious educators, and historians to model how faithful Latter-day Saints might approach the complexi...| Times & Seasons
There’s a new exegetical school of thought that women do in fact have the priesthood. Most prominently Dr. Morgan Gardner in the BYU Religion Department wrote a book developing the idea, and there is some First Presidency commentary (specifically, President Oaks and President Nelson I believe) supporting the notion. First, as an aside, I adjuncted a religion class at BYU way back when I was a loud, opinionated, boisterous postgrad, where I was in several meetings with Dr. Morgan Gardner. ...| Times & Seasons
What do we mean when we talk about ‘Fulness’? The Come Follow Me lesson for this week, covering D&C 93, suggests that it’s related to exaltation—but I’m not sure that we know exactly what exaltation is either. ‘Fulness’ suggests some kind of completeness or satiation—we will have everything we need, and maybe everything we should want. But again this is kind of vague. I suspect that the problem with understanding these terms lies in their eternal nature. Our understanding of t...| Times & Seasons
Eduardo Balderas is an often-overlooked figure who made tremendous contributions to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk, biographer Ignacio Garcia shared some insights into who Balderas was. Who Was Eduardo Balderas? Ignacio Garcia shared some information about who Eduardo Balderas was: Eduardo Balderas came to the United States from Mexico with his family as a refugee fleeing the Mexican Revolution in 1910...| Times & Seasons
Religiously speaking I have a weird CV. I may be one of the few people who has taught a class at all three of the major religious plus universities: BYU, Catholic University of America, and Baylor University (although you could include Yeshiva University in this list, and while I’ve done research with a Yeshiva U professor I haven’t taught a class there). I’ve been at conferences when people have badmouthed Baptists only to see my Baylor affiliation, putting me in the strange position o...| Times & Seasons
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism, edited by R. Gordon Shepherd, A. Gary Shepherd, and Ryan T. Cragun, is a landmark anthology that shifts the center of gravity in Latter-day Saint scholarship from a nineteenth-century, Utah-centric narrative to a nuanced, data-rich exploration of Mormonism as a global religious tradition. With 31 chapters contributed by 42 scholars, the volume offers a comprehensive portrait of a faith that now claims nearly 17 million members in close to 190 countri...| Times & Seasons
I mentioned in some comments in previous posts about having a different view of church leadership that I called a “caretaker model,” or seeing the leaders more as caretakers of Joseph Smith’s program and revelations. There’s a lot to this, so I thought I’d give a little overview of bullet points, and perhaps I’ll blog more about some of these if the conversation heads in any of these directions. 1) I do see Joseph Smith as inspired and as having put together quite a religion that ...| Times & Seasons
Most of the time when we hear the phrase “A Principle with Promise,” we think of D&C Section 89 and the promise that we can “run and not be weary.” However, some kind of promise is associated with every gospel principle—there is at least one consequence that accompanies every principle, and the accompanying consequences follow obeying the principle. Does anyone doubt that maintaining good health can allow us to ‘run and not be weary?’| Times & Seasons
The Utah War was a dramatic episode in the history of the antebellum western United States. One of the most remarkable records to discuss the experience of traveling west with the Utah Expedition is the memoirs of William Clark. These were recently published anew, edited and annotated by William P. MacKinnon and Kenneth L. Alford. These authors recently discussed the Utah War in an interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog, From the Desk. What follows here is a copost to the full interv...| Times & Seasons
The recently-published book Seven Visions: Images of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants by Adam S. Miller and Rosalynde F. Welch is a fantastic opportunity to listen in on a conversation between two brilliant theological minds as they explore seven different sections of the Doctrine and Covenants with a Christological focus. The book is structured as a series of letters back and forth between the two authors, discussing the seven sections in question (19, 45, 76, 88, 110, 130, and 138). It...| Times & Seasons
The idea behind “Where Much is Given, Much is Required” goes beyond just the idea of responsibility or accountability. There is also in the phrase a sense of equity and care for others that isn’t necessarily part of responsibility. The idea is clearly the opposite of the images we see of excessive displays of wealth, like toilets made of gold or yachts the size of football fields. If this is about accountability, then we need to recognize that we have a responsibility to others, regardl...| Times & Seasons
For what seemed like forever the moat protecting the jobs of illustrators from AI was the fact that it was hard to nail down consistent characters. You could maybe, with clever prompting, get one frame to kind of look like the other, but it didn’t really work, which is why a lot of early AI-storyboard uses were for stories that didn’t require a lot of scenic or character consistency (like my Midjourney edition of the creation story). | Times & Seasons
As evidenced by the flood of AI movies hitting Twitter over the past couple of weeks, Google’s Veo 3 recently made another leap with AI video generation, adding sound and better consistency. It still has its issues (as can be seen below), but in the hands of a skilled prompter with some credits to burn it can create some fun meme-level, eight-second clips. We’re starting to see some moves towards serious artists creating longer films with AI beyond the famous Coca-Cola commercial. For exa...| Times & Seasons
I’m in the midst of pushing to finish a draft of my biography of Zerah Pulsipher and thought it would be fun to share a few items here and there that I found interesting or funny while I’m working on it. Today’s post is about the laborious journey across Iowa in the spring of 1846, concluding with a humorous story about Brigham Young claiming things were first-rate before trying to pull out a handkerchief and realizing that the pocket was full of water.| Times & Seasons
This talk, delivered to the Döbling Ward in Vienna, Austria, explores environmental stewardship and the biodiversity crisis from a Latter-day Saint perspective. The author, a sustainability student, argues that the health of planet Earth, specifically its biodiversity, is vital to the long-term sustainability of the faith community, connecting it to spiritual well-being as evidenced by scripture, temple architecture, and personal spiritual experiences.| Times & Seasons
The vulgarity and low character of Donald Trump are famously at odds with the values and teachings promoted by the Church, but another area of conflict has been less apparent despite its impact. For the Church, the Trump presidency is an apocalyptic catastrophe in the technical sense: at least a postponement and potentially a mortal blow to the eschaton we thought we were approaching.| Times & Seasons
We could argue that section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants has had more impact on Church members than any other section in the D&C. Prior to the vision described in the revelation, Church members, and Christianity in general, had one of two conceptions of the next life; either a dualistic heaven and hell, or the universalistic idea that everyone would be saved in heaven. “The Vision”, as it was called, changed the Latter-day Saint understanding of the next life, and in the process, of h...| Times & Seasons
When I teach my occasional sociology class every once in a while race and sports get brought up. It’s one of those things that people tiptoe around and have their own opinions about but don’t really take the time to investigate or discuss. | Times & Seasons
I‘ve been going back and forth about how much to share about my background in what caused my mental illness and some of what it has been like. I wanted to skip this part because I’d rather talk in generalities, but stories matter, so here is a little bit of mine.| Times & Seasons
I really appreciate the ways in which Rosalynde Welch approaches scriptures and interpretation of scriptures. I’ve mentioned this in my review of Seven Visions of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants, but Rosalynde also shared some of her insights in a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history site, From the Desk. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.| Times & Seasons
In the next few weeks we pass through a series of commemorations and holidays that deal with freedom. We’ve already had Flag Day. Juneteenth followed five days later. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s martyrdom. In the U.S. Independence Day is just 8 days later. In France Bastille Day is on July 14th, and in Utah Pioneer Day is on July 24th. In just about six weeks the contested idea of freedom is presented to us six times, asking different questions each time.| Times & Seasons
What does it mean to have a “willing mind”? My first thought is that it is somehow about our attitude, how we confront or approach problems. But despite the prevalence of ‘positive mental attitude’ sayings and motivational posters, most people act as if their emotional state is something beyond their control. We act like we believe that outside circumstances determine whether we are happy or sad. But, while we act that way, the scriptures suggest we do something different, because “...| Times & Seasons
Organizations require structure. And the larger that an organization gets, the more structure it needs. That might seem pretty obvious in today’s world, but I suspect it was less obvious in the 1830s among the Saints who had joined the church, many because of the way other churches operated.| Times & Seasons
I want to share a few thoughts on Christianity and community building. I know this is a big topic discussed for thousands of years, but I want to give my two cents anyway despite not being a trained theologian. In my amateur opinion, I do think that Jesus said that community building was important and it’s how I interpret what he was saying about the kingdom of God. I see this interpretation as similar to how I interpret Joseph Smith’s thought. I thought Elder Uchtdorf’s talk had a lot ...| Times & Seasons
First off, apologies for all the AI posts, but the big AI players do this thing where they drop their latest products right next to each other to try to steal the news cycles from each other, so AI alternates between droughts and floods. | Times & Seasons
As we read the Book of Mormon, we will better appreciate its authenticity if we see its stories in the context of the Nephites and Lamanites continuously bumping up against Native American tribes who were already in the Americas. The Promised Land was not an empty land, as many throughout Church history sometimes imagined. In fact, our testimony of the truths taught within its pages are all the more powerful when we look at this ancient record with eyes wide open to the cultural world it actu...| Times & Seasons
