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.

The Gnashing of Teeth

People often try to find a word to describe a generation or an era. We speak of the “Greatest Generation” or an “Era of Enlightenment.” While there are many words that might be applied correctly to our modern era, I think that one of the most apt would be “The Sarcastic Generation.”

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“…he employeth no servant there”

Bob Caswell has posted some remarks about his desire to better understand the temple through discussion with others. As I contemplated the ensuing conversation, I had a few thoughts that I intended to post as a comment, but when I went to submit them I felt like I should post them here instead. I hope that Bob doesn’t mind.

I post my thoughts cautiously, not because I fear the wrath of Constable Evans, but because the temple ceremony is very sacred and I do not want this conversation to disintegrate into anything inappropriate.

Have you ever noticed that copies of the scriptures are available in the temple foyer and in the chapel where you wait for your session to start, and copies of the scriptures are present and alluded to during the endowment ceremony but that there are no scriptures available in the celestial room. This is not likely an oversight…

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“Treasure up in your minds continually the words of life”

Clark’s recent post on Death and the Atonement got me thinking about the fascinating preface to Lewis Carroll’s book Sylvie and Bruno. Clark’s subsequent post to his own blog related marginaly to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and how the characters in the book memorized whole books to preserve them from destruction reminded me of a different part of Carroll’s preface.

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Trickledown Influence

There is one professor who has had greater influence on my life and education than any other living, yet I have never taken a class from him. I have never even read any of his writing. We met once in a social context but we exchanged at the most a few sentences of friendly banter.

I was unable to read until I was nearly nine years old.

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