About J. Max Wilson

J. Max Wilson is one of the founders of the Millennial Star. You read more of his thoughts about Mormonism and other topics on his personal blog: http://www.sixteensmallstones.org.

Shattering the Kingdoms of the Past

In the modern church we often make reference to the imagery of Nebuchadnezzar’s famous dream and refer to the church as the “stone cut out without hands” and its destiny to fill “the whole earth.” In classes we sometimes discuss which historic empires were represented by the different sections of Nebuchadnezzar’s great image. Let’s take a look at the relationship between the stone and the image.

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Divination, Chance, and Knacks Among the Saints

Last year, my younger brother, Ben, spent three months in Ghana filming and documenting the use of drum rhythms in the divination ceremonies of the local witchdoctors as part of an anthropological musicology study. It was interesting to see how drums were employed and to learn about the interesting rhythms of their culture, but it was also rather uncomfortable. Witchcraft and the occult have always been taboo among the Saints. I remember growing up in Provo we would, now and then, hear urban legends of wayward LDS youth experimenting with witchcraft in the abandoned BYU Academy building, which is now the Provo Public Library.

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Obscure Words

My wife and I have a peculiar love for dictionaries and obscure vocabulary. We both read dictionaries just for fun–I know, we are weird–but at least we are weird together. So here is a list of some fun obscure words that you might try to work into a bloggernacle conversation sometime. Feel free to let us know about your favorite, obscure English words in the comments…

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