Pope Francis is visiting the United States, and he is proving to be one of the most controversial popes of recent times. This is not a bad thing. But the Pope’s grades are are mish-mash: he gets some As and Bs but also a lot of Fs and Incompletes. Let’s take a look.

Dining with the homeless rather than with Washington politicians. A-PLUS. Did Jesus spend his time with the Sanhedrin and Pilate, or did he spend his time with the poor, sick and needy? You know the answer. The Pope leads by example here, and this decision alone makes his trip a success.

Condemning abortion. B. The Pope could have done more to specifically condemn government funding of abortion, but he is sticking to traditional Catholic teaching on abortion, and I think this is mostly a good thing. Of course, the Mormon position is somewhat different on abortion, but the Pope’s reminder that abortion is something to be avoided is a good moral lesson for us all.

Emphasizing the traditional family. A. The Pope gets excellent marks for pointing out that the family is under attack by the secular world. The Catholic church continues to oppose same-sex marriage even though such a view is not popular in Europe and the United States. News flash to liberals: same-sex marriage is still not very popular in many areas of Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the Catholic church is growing the fastest.

Emphasizing the importance of religious liberty. A. The Pope told President Obama that Catholics are concerned about maintaining religious liberty in the United States. Good for him. We should all be more concerned about this.

Compassion for immigrants. B. The Pope gets solid grades for his Christ-like love of immigrants, but the refugee crisis in Europe is not a simple problem that can be solved by Europeans blindly taking in millions of mostly Muslim people, the majority of whom are motivated by economics. Yes, the United States is a land of immigrants, but the United States also takes in millions of immigrants every year, and as much as I believe in the benefits of immigration it must be done in an orderly fashion with clear knowledge that many immigrants do indeed end up getting benefits from the government. The Pope seems not to care about this reality.
Continue reading →

Book Review – “Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist”, by Steven L. Peck

Maxwell Institute’s newest volume from the Living Faith series is scheduled to be released the end of October 2015.  The author, Steven L. Peck, is an associate professor of biology at BYU and is trained as an entomologist.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this book, as it seems the Living Faith series appears to be somewhat eclectic, such as Adam S. Miller’s excellent book, “Letters to a Young Mormon.”  And “Evolving Faith” is an eclectic book, as Peck ranges widely in several essays from science to personal musings on death and nature. Continue reading →

This is a guest post from Jamie Huston, who blogs at Gently Hew Stone. Jamie describes himself as “yet another world music / Criterion Collection / Hudson River School / camping / genre fiction-loving libertarian Mormon English teacher. And father of 7.”

____________________________________________

I love a good study Bible. Earlier this year I found a nearly new NIV Archaeological Study Bible on sale at a library for a dollar—a 98% savings off the cover price!—and I’m getting a lot of mileage out of it.

I’ve been thinking about study Bibles a lot after reading Bill Hamblin’s much-needed rant about the demise of Book of Mormon studies at BYU, such as it ever was. At one point, he summarizes what’s missing in the curriculum:
Most simply, BYU could offer in depth courses on each of the major books of the Book of Mormon, combining some of the smaller books into one. Note that Religious Education offers a class on Isaiah, but no class on the book of Alma or Helaman or Nephi?

Why?

Beyond in depth classes on major books of the Book of Mormon, BYU should offer classes on Book of Mormon geography, history, archaeology, linguistics, literature, theology, culture, language (ancient Near East and Maya), textual criticism, religion, law, warfare, apocalyptic, reception history, the Bible in the Book of Mormon, etc.

He’s clearly right, of course, but I want to suggest another avenue besides BYU classes for improving Book of Mormon studies among Latter-day Saints.
It’s time we have a decent study edition of the Book of Mormon. Continue reading →

When a Latter-day Saint who has a testimony goes on the Internet it is hard to navigate the good, the not as good, the bad, and the plain evil. Another is the abundance of choices for reading. Aggregators, that gather a collection of blogs, are helpful. Yet, they can’t contain all the blogs that exist. Sometimes a few fly under the radar. Even those contained in lists can be overlooked.

Almost all of the following blogs cannot as of this writing be found on any of the big aggregators such as Mormon Archipelago or Nothing Wavering, unless noted. The meaning of “not getting noticed” is the larger Mormon blogosphere seems to not be talking about or commenting on the blogs, although they can have their own following. My listing of them is because of my opinion they have some great content that M* readers would enjoy. All of them are active as of this month, although they could go inactivate at any time. For the moment they seem stable and deserve to have support.

This Week at Church
One of the more unique blogs out there because he chronicles what he learns during worship service. It doesn’t go very deep into gospel topics, but the notes are still of good quality for pondering.

Little LDS Ideas
A very creative blog for helping out Church lessons. The about page states, “My blog is a place where I go to share all of my little ideas. They’re nothing special, but I love sharing them and I hope you enjoy them.”

A Study of the Book of Mormon
This blog has been around since 1999, and yet very few comments. The insights are worthy of giving it a good read. He says, “I bring to my study this time the experience of a father of five children, a degree in film studies, several years of freelance new media work, and the experience of being a faithfully committed marriage partner.”

The Journal of a Black Mormon Girl
Deeply personal, yet a wonderful read for its poignancy and Faith. She says, ” I want the world to know that I am not ashamed of that which guides me to be a better person and that which leads me to Christ.”

LDS Doctrine
The name may not be different from others that can be found online, but it has great discussions. How this one has been missed from others has to be a matter of wanting to be low key.

We Talk of christ, We Rejoice in Christ
Her profile says, “My purpose in writing is that every time you visit my blog you will read something that strengthens your family, builds your faith, and brings you closer to Christ!” It appears to have more than one contributor, but the writing from them is worthwhile.

Women in the Scriptures
Apparently this is a blog for a published author who writes about women found in the Scriptures. She does have a following of her own, but I never heard of her or the blog until recently. Well worth the visit.

Benjamin the Scribe
*listed on Mormon Archipelago.
Learning the gospel doctrine lessons has never been so in-depth and enlightning. A few commentators are familiar to the bloggernacle, but still not high traffic.

Enigmatic Mirror
Not as prolific or noticed as Dan Peterson’s Sic et Non, but William Hamblin is just as much a legend in Mormon apologetics.

GraceforGrace
*listed on Mormon Archipelago.
One of my favorite blogs out there that has few participants. The only one I have ever seen respectful non-Mormons reply and adding to my appreciation of the blog. He has opinions without sounding opinionated, and clearly his faith is strong.