If you’re like us, you really enjoyed listening to the LDS Perspectives podcasts Laura Hales was cross posting here at Millennial Star. With summer upon us, Laura’s been focused on other things. And she probably expects most of us will have subscribed directly to LDS Perspectives by now.

In case you hadn’t yet subscribed, here are links to the episodes that have come out since mid-June. The thumbnails here are adapted from the LDS Perspectives summaries.

Episode 41: The Word of Wisdom – Jed Woodworth Jun 21, 2017

Historical context helps to shed light on the extent to which the Temperance Movement may have been an influence on Joseph Smith and the Saints at the time the Word of Wisdom was written. Nick Galieti and Jed Woodworth delve into what is often  referred to as the “Lord’s Law of Health.”

Episode 42: The Divine Council – Stephen Smoot Jun 28, 2017

Join Laura Harris Hales as she and Stephen Smoot discuss the divine council’s role in the religions of the ancient Near East and what references to the divine council in the LDS canon could mean for Latter-day Saint theology.

Episode 43: Discussing the Priesthood Ban with Members of the Genesis Group Jul 5, 2017

The Genesis Group was started in 1971 to address needs of the growing number of Black members at a time when the priesthood was witheld from some. The blessings of the priesthood were made available to all in 1978 under Church President Spencer W. Kimball. Yet the need for a specific ministry assisting Black members has persisted.

Nick Galieti talks with the current Genesis Group presidency and their wives about their lived experience with race and the LDS Church.

Episode 44: Mystery Solved: Who Wrote the Lectures on Faith? – Noel Reynolds Jul 12, 2017

In 1835 the Doctrine and Covenants incorporated seven theological lectures from the Kirtland School. The lectures remained in the Doctrine and Covenants until the 1921 edition.

It was common knowledge in the 19th century that the lectures were written by Sidney Rigdon, but by the mid-twentieth century many came to believe the Prophet Joseph Smith had penned them. Noel Reynold discusses new historical evidence that proves Sidney Rigdon was the author of the Lectures on Faith.

Episode 45: Misunderstanding the Bible – Benjamin Spackman Jul 19, 2017

Historical accuracy is actually a modern concept. Biblical writers often fashioned history to teach a higher purpose. If some of the historical details were fudged, then that was regarded as acceptable if done to make a point.

Laura Harris Hales talks with scholar Ben Spackman about the different genres of literature found in the Bible.

Episode 46: The Delicate Art of Critical Judgment with George Handley Jul 26, 2017

Handley suggests criticism, compassion, and charity must work together to create a quality intellectual and spiritual life.

Critical judgment allows us to analyze a situation deliberately and calmly. But it is compassion and charity for those within the church that helps people who struggle make the decision to stay within the LDS faith.

This past few days I’ve been at Sunstone, where I made a presentation about the Illicit Intercourse heresy of 1841 and 1842.

My point to all I talked with, whatever their persuasion, is that this history makes a huge difference in how we interpret our past. It has huge power to help us own our now and plan our future. I’ll be putting the audio together with the slide deck in the next day or so.

In the meantime let me mention a couple of the things I saw at Sunstone.

I learned that Exmormon Reddit is approaching 50,000 members, with about 1 million unique views per month. Apparently I had been a member of that Reddit group before under my own name but my account has now been deleted. I was assured that it probably had to do with the fact that I simply haven’t gone to that site in years now.

I saw Kate Kelly and chatted with her. She’s moved on from the faith and marriage that she was in when she was excommunicated. But the folks seeking female ordination in the LDS church are still active in attempting to make their point. I shared the experience I had of blessing my son before his death, at a time before I had come to realize that such things are not necessarily kosher under current policy. There is a documentary in the works about Kate Kelly’s journey, and the trailer includes footage of the moment when Kate learned she had been excommunicated. While I wished she had handled her disciplinary trial differently, it was a raw and painful moment.

I popped in on one presenter who happens to be from my stake. It was good to hear him talk about how we become one, but I’m afraid I brought a bit of the “no prophet is honored in his own country” to that session.

On Saturday I caught a session about the minutes of the Council of Fifty. It is good to have those records. But I would argue people shouldn’t be held to their most wild and fevered statements immediately after a murder.

The final session I was able to catch focused on female body image. The two main speakers are both involved in professions that focus on the human body. The first lady is not Mormon. She was a Playboy Playmate of the Month in 2011 and currently helps couples learn to more fully receive physical fulfillment from one another. The second, Sasha, is an active member of the church and her profession is dancing in strip clubs. Her tale is one of terrible abuse, homelessness, drug abuse, and rape. In short, a life from which becoming a very good stripper is a step up. And the entire time, as she struggled with the different stages of her life, she continually and faithfully came to church and held on to her faith in Christ.

As I left Sunstone to rejoin family and make sure I could actually catch my flight home, I ran into these two outstanding women, one who knows nothing of Mormonism and another who has held to the pure faith of Mormonism despite a rather atypical journey. I had shared some of my past experience during the Q&A session, so the three of us were pleased to have a picture taken, which for me was the only picture of this conference.

How do we love all the children of God, whom He loves, even when their lives differ so much from our own? Particularly in cases where their work could be seen as being in conflict with our own dearest hopes?

FairMormon, the Interpreter and Book of Mormon Central are among the web sites referred to by lds.org.

Take a look here.

Here is the talk I gave yesterday in Church, but without all the sniffling.

Beloved Pioneers
Meg Stout
July 23, 2017

While the choir was preparing to sing Faith in Every Footstep, we learned how this song came about. K. Newell Dayley had a son going on a mission. So Newell said they should both memorize a scripture each day.

They did this for about two weeks. Then on a Saturday morning, the words to this song started flooding into Brother Dayley’s mind. He completed the words and tune that very morning. [ref]”The Story Behind Faith in Every Footstep,” online 7/22/2017 at http://quantumleap42.blogspot.com/2009/07/story-behind-faith-in-every-footstep.html.[/ref]

Sometimes we don’t even know we are laying the foundation of a great work. Brother Dayley had no idea his scripture memorization would do anything more than help his son be more ready for a mission. Yet how many thousands and millions of people have heard this anthem and been lifted by its message.

What is a pioneer?

The term pioneer comes from Latin, and originally meant a foot soldier, one sent ahead to prepare the field for the army. [ref]pioneer (n.), “foot soldier who prepares the way for the army,” from Middle French pionnier “foot-soldier, pioneer,” from Old French paonier “foot-soldier” (11c.), from peon (see pawn, as in the pawns in a game of chess (n.2)). Figurative sense of “person who goes first or does something first” is from c. 1600. Related: Pioneers, online 7/22/2017 at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pioneer. Fun thought – in a game of chess, the pawns are the first, but are relatively weak. But as they “endure” to reach the other side of the board, they gain strength to move like the most powerful player, which in chess is the queen.[/ref]

The first ones we call pioneers were the Mormons who had been driven from Missouri. They had endured the deaths of Joseph and his brother, Hyrum. When it was clear that the courts would not punish anyone for murder, mobs began attacking again. I have ancestors who died during these so-called Wolf Hunts.[ref]Mary Amanda Bunnell and Ralph Henry Delong. According to the oral histories, the family was given “blueberries” that fall by neighbors and all who ate the pie made from the berries died. Most died within a day of eating the pie. Mary went into premature labor and then she and the infant died, consistent with how a deadly poison would have affected a pregant woman and her unborn child.[/ref]

Despite attack, the Saints completed the temple and decorated it in the dead of winter with green plants, to symbolize paradise. They sealed themselves together as families. [ref]Cook, Lyndon, Nauvoo Marriages Proxy Sealings, Grandin Book Company, 2004, available at https://www.amazon.com/Nauvoo-Marriages-Proxy-Sealings-1843-1846/dp/B000RAHCCM.[/ref] Then they turned west. Continue reading →

Last night my pre-mission daughter shared a new cool thing she’d seen on the internet:

Synchronous Fireflies

There are a few places in the world where these unique fireflies can be found, including the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.

A question researchers had was “why do they light up at the same time?” The hypothesis was that there was some master bug that was somehow commanding the others to blink in unison. One imagined viscious attacks of the master bugs on asynchronous outcasts, producing successive generations where mindless obedience was bred into the system.

Honestly, researchers did posit some kind of centralized control for these insects.

But then they found out what is really happening. It turns out the flashing of a firefly is controlled by an internal clock. Most species of firefly flash to their own rhythm and don’t take cues from their neighbors. But Photinus carolinus fireflies will adjust their internal clock in response to their neighbors. Let’s call it photoluminescent empathy.

This empathy causes a firefly that hasn’t yet lit up to see another’s light and say “let me speed up my next cycle a bit to be like them.” My daughter had found a website where you could turn on this “empathy” and watch the screen as dozens of animated fireflies slowly blinked into synchronicity, based on the math of the natural phenomenon.

The animation was set up so you could click and move your mouse to cause a photonic disturbance in the unity. So we spent some time “messing up” the unified blinking, only to relax and watch as the virtual fireflies slowly returned to their soothing unison pattern.

Those who accept Christ’s baptism and strive to honor that commitment are like these special fireflies. They look to the faithful around them and yearn to be one. It isn’t because of central mind control from Salt Lake City or harsh sanctions against the slackers, but because one sees another doing good and is inspired to try a little harder oneself.

It made me reflect on a couple of events of the past, recent and non-so-recent. As we would click to disrupt the unison flashing, I thought of high-profile disruptions that have spun away segments of those who were previously one with the Saints. Like wounds in the beauty of the unity, however, our click and drag disruptions would heal. And in similar manner I see the disruptions in our own unified body healing.

Alas, my quinquagenarian google-fu isn’t leading me to the fun animation I enjoyed with my daughter last night. If any of you know where to find the synchronous firefly animation, please share.

And in the mean time, I will look to my brothers and sisters and try to be more like the good I see in them.