This Year’s City of the Bible
Salt Lake City has been named the 2013 Bible City of the year by the National Bible Association, a more ecumenical organization than other Evangelical groups with the same goal of raising Bible reading awareness. As reported on the Church News website:
The National Bible Association, which named Salt Lake City its National Bible City for 2013, will host a Concert of Praise for God’s Word in the Tabernacle on Temple Square on Saturday, November 23, at 7:00 p.m.
The program will include Bible readings by Hollywood actress Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) and her husband, producer Mark Burnett (The Voice). The program will also feature musical performances by the Singing Sensations, a gospel choir from Baltimore, Maryland; Jewish Cantor Emmanuel Perlman; the Salt Lake University Institute Singers; and the BYU Singers.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will attend and give remarks. . .
An article about the designation and activities in the Salt Lake Tribune further stated:
To those who question lumping Mormonism into that tradition, the group’s president, Richard Glickstein, simply asks: “Do Mormons read the Bible? Then they are part of the tribe.”
“Mormons do read the Bible,” explains Philip Barlow, chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, noting that the Good Book makes up half the church’s four-year scripture-study curriculum.
In fact, the King James Version is part of LDS canon. Of course, members believe in additional scripture as well, including the faith’s signature work, the Book of Mormon.
There will also be a Public Bible Reading at the Utah State Capital rotunda Monday November 25th at 12:00 p.m. The state Governor Herbert and Randy Rigby, President of the Utah Jazz, will be among others of prominence that will attend the reading.
According to the association website, “National Bible Association’s signature event, National Bible Week, has been celebrated the week of Thanksgiving every year since 1941. Our goal is to encourage everyone to read the Bible and raise awareness of the Bible’s importance and relevance to our nation as a whole, as well as in the lives of individuals.”
At least one Mormon, Ahmad S. Corbitt, is part of the trustees for the association. He did not take part in the actual decision of where would be named “City of the Bible” for this year. No notices have been given if the events will be broadcast by multi-media, although attendance is expected to be high. Although Salt Lake City has, like everywhere in the United States, no one religion that everyone follows; Mormonism is considered the dominant faith. What an honor to be part of a tradition that wants to include rather than exclude people who believe The Good Book inspired Joseph Smith Jr. to go into a grove of trees to fully experience God’s Word.
Forgetting history again
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana
History is a patient teacher. If we do not learn its lesson the first time, it will gladly provide additional opportunities in the future to learn the same lesson.
History teaches us brutal truths, if we but pay attention to more than just dates, places, names and holidays. Economic history shows that LBJ’s war on poverty has failed, as we have more people on food stamps and welfare than at any time since he began his war. Economic bubbles are bound to burst and destroy many peoples’ lives and livelihood. Medicare has become a giant program that will soon go bankrupt, along with Medicaid and Social Security. The National Dept of Education has failed to improve student education, as it has focused more on feel good programs and supporting unions than on saving children.
Yet, we do not learn. Continue reading
Get drunk, have casual sex because Obamacare has you covered
If there is any doubt that progressivism is progressing to someplace very ugly indeed, I present to you the pro-Obamacare ads put together by a Colorado group. I know, I know, these ads are so bad they seem like they must have been created by a right-wing hit squad, but no, they are actually the production of Colorado progressives led by ProgressNow Colorado and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.
The Denver Post actually talked to a representative from ProgressNow who said the ads are awesome and stuff.
Without further ado, I present to you modern-day progressivism in all its glory:
Yes, you too can now get “free” birth control by paying $2000 a year more in insurance premiums! Who said millennials cannot add?
And how about that portrayal of women? Yes, all women just want to hook up with random guys and get them “under the covers” because the guy is hot!
Unrealistic Expectations of Mormon Miltons and Shakespeares
Every now and then those contemplating the literary aspirations of Mormonism will quote Orson F. Whitney, “we will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own,” and then ask when or how that can become possible. That musing has now gone national thanks to an article in the New York Times with interviews of current and former Mormon writers about why this hasn’t happened yet. The result is condescension toward both Mormon literature and popular genre fiction. The answer, even by some of the Mormon writers, seems to show the usual academic bias in favor of the nebulous literary fiction.
Although artists should stretch the talent given to them, Mormon Miltons and Shakespeares are not going to exist. That dream needs to be retired. This is not because Mormons are incapable of great literature, but because the expectations are ridiculous. The New York Times article said it best while ignoring the implications, “In the United States, Jews, blacks and South Asians, while they have produced no Milton or Shakespeare — who has, lately? — have all had literary renaissances.” The nearest to the two contemporary “Bards” in prestige is Homer who lived about a thousand years before them. By that reckoning, time is on the Mormon side. Continue reading