Doctrinal Development and Continuing Revelation
One of my Catholic professors once wryly observed that ten seemed to be the magic number for official Catholic pronouncements: after a new teaching had been repeated ten times, documents would begin...
View ArticlePersonal Revelation
When it comes to personal revelation, I’m a believer; I really do think that there have been moments in my life when I’ve been on the receiving end of divine communication. I like that the doctrine...
View ArticleWhat Sort of Trump Card is Personal Revelation?
Thanks to our friends over at New Cool Thang, I’ve been provided with the stimulus to formulate more clearly, for myself, my position on the epistemological role personal revelation should play. Like...
View ArticleHeavenly Mother: Is This Line Secure? (or, the Heavenly Mother Catch-22)
The LDS church is often portrayed (and not without reason) as a highly authoritarian institution. When the prophet speaks, you’re expected to listen. But every Latter-day Saint knows that this comes...
View ArticleDeciphering the Divine Signal
I’ve debated for quite a while about whether to post this, but I think it’s a topic worth discussing. I would, however, ask that in commenting, you especially note number five of my recent pointers...
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On Stewardship and Revelation
In a 1997 talk, Elder Gerald Lund spoke of 5 ways you can distinguish between real and counterfeit revelation. For number 5, he stated the following: 5 A person is not given revelation to direct...
View ArticlePlease, Emperor, Prayerfully Consider a Wardrobe Change
In the story of the Emperor’s new clothes, the Emperor is fooled by some charlatans into paying a lot of money for some invisible clothes. As he parades through the town in his underwear, the cowed...
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Pride (In the Name of Love)
One man caught on a barbed wire fence One man he resist One man washed on an empty beach One man betrayed with a kiss In the name of love! What more in the name of love? In the name of love! What more?...
View ArticleHow to Disavow the Priesthood Ban
For many years the Priesthood ban has been a matter of embarrassment and consternation to many Mormons. It makes us seem close-minded and exclusionary as a church, and seems to contradict many of our...
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The Movement to Hang Pictures of Female Leaders in Church Buildings
Unless you live under a rock, you are no doubt aware of the high-profile movement that has been urging Church leaders to pray to ask God for new revelation regarding the hanging of pictures of female...
View ArticleMaybe the sea change has already happened.
It makes the most sense for Mormon theology if gay people don’t really exist. Since in Mormon belief, heterosexual marriage and child-rearing is projected into eternity, and a central element of what...
View ArticleObedience
I decided a couple of days ago that I should write something for the blog, since it’s been a month since anyone posted, and more than 6 months since I posted. I wasn’t really feeling inspired about...
View ArticleSpiritual Disconnection
Prayer and personal revelation have always been the foundation of my religious life. I’ve counted on them. When the church has done crazy things and I’ve wondered why I was still a believer, I’ve come...
View ArticlePractical Infallibility
We in the LDS church are fond of pointing out that we don’t believe in prophetic infallibility. At least in theory, we see prophets as human beings who sometimes make mistakes, and don’t expect them to...
View ArticleToward a Less Micromanaging God
I grew up with two related beliefs about making decisions. The first was that in most cases, there was a right decision, a choice that you were supposed to make. “There’s the right and the wrong to...
View ArticleWhat Happens When Leaders are Duped by Predators, and Other Hard Questions...
The Mormon circles in which I am active have been rocked in recent weeks by the stories about Joseph L. Bishop, the former MTC president who has been accused by two women of sexual abuse during his...
View ArticleOn Not Being God’s Victim (or, Nephi is Still Responsible for Killing Laban)
An unsettling tendency among religious people, especially those with a strong belief in an interventionist God, is to throw God under the bus when dealing with decisions they or others have made that...
View ArticleWhen Good Spiritual Practice Goes Bad: Prayer, Rumination, and Revelations of...
CW: brief mention of self-injury I still have vivid memories of a particular day in December over a decade ago. I was in my second year of doctoral work at the time, and I spent an evening talking with...
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