In his wonderful book, “Old Testament Theology”, Gerhard Von Rad notes this about the ascension of David and Solomon to the throne after centuries of judges.

I. David’s thhrone did indeed very soon receive direct sacral legitimation, in the prophecy of Nathan (II Sam VII). Not only have recent investigations revealed a very 0ld kernel in this tradition, namely vss. 1-7, 11b, 16, 18-21, 25-29, but form-critical comparison has also established striking similarities to the Egyptian royal record. From the incidental remark “sitting in his palace” Continue reading →

Let me get some of my bias out the way first. Similar to many Mormons, I earned my Eagle Scout award. One summer I worked at a BSA camp and taught my near age contemporaries. This might indicate that I love Scouting, but the truth is that I didn’t and am still ambivalent. My time in Scouts was out of devotion to Mormon tradition where going to camp and working on merit badges came naturally. The Scouting experience also passed the time in a small town where doing something was better than nothing (although books helped fill the gaps). I don’t really like the outdoors, the boys were no better as Scouts than at school, and the merit badges seemed easy and forgettable. Taking the job had more to do with not having any better choices than trying for the usual farm and grocery store positions most likely filled up anyway. I did do some farm related work and the camp was much more fun. I have not been involved with Scouts for over twenty years and don’t wish to re-engage.

My feelings about the decision for the BSA to accept homosexual boys touches on one of my major criticism of LDS Church involvement. It might, as suggested, mirror the Church stance. Considering that I find that stance to be too lenient toward a condition and behavior that I believe is more than a mere temptation, that doesn’t impress me. Be that as it may, the fact that BSA is considered an extension of the Priesthood bothers me greatly. It has for many years. There is no doubt that Joseph Smith would have loved the organization and become involved. I can also speculate he would have gone in long enough to discover its function and then developed a separate church inspired program.

Despite the 100 years of close association with the LDS Church and emphasis on faith, BSA is a secular organization. No single religion has control. Franchises develop by interested parties in local areas that can at times arbitrarily decide membership requirements. This can cause a confusing set of restrictions. For instance, a Mormon family tried to join an evangelical group and was quickly rejected. The reasoning and background story is besides the point. Is the national or the local authorities in charge? At first I felt for the Mormon family, but the truth is they had no business trying to get in that troop. On the other hand, as a secular organization the BSA could have stepped in and forced the issue much like with the homosexual decision. The evangelical troop would then be given two choices; allow the Mormons or drop support.

So far the decisions of the BSA have been nearly aligned with the LDS Church, such as homosexual leaders unaccepted and homosexual boys allowed. Some day and perhaps in the near future that might not be the case. What then? Continue reading →

The Boy Scouts have recently changed their admissions policy. If you haven’t heard about this, and the firestorm of controversy surrounding it, you’ve probably had your head in the sand. And you can consider yourself lucky. Basically, here’s the scoop:

The prior BSA policy explicitly prohibited “openly gay” young men and boys from participating in the Boy Scout program. The new BSA policy states that sexual orientation is not a factor in the admission of young men and boys into the program.

That’s the long and the short of it. I’ve been reading online, and there are a lot of members of the Church who are irate over this policy. They feel that the BSA has abandoned its commitment to moral teachings. Some LDS scouters in various parts of Utah have already made websites where they claim to be starting their own version of Boy Scouts. Here’s why I think this is absolutely ridiculous, and completely unbecoming of Latter-day Saints. Most of the ire is due to one of two reasons: (1) a misunderstanding of Church teachings, or (2) a misunderstanding of the new BSA policy. Continue reading →

Deseret Industries is cutting the number of hours its workers can work because of Obamacare. You can read about it here.

The bottom line is that Obamacare requires companies that employ more than 50 people to provide health care to workers who are employed more than 30 hours a week.

So, instead of providing health care to its workers, DI is cutting the number of hours worked.

This step is completely appropriate and in line with how many companies will deal with Obamacare. Some companies with 60 workers are firing 11 so they can get under the Obamacare mandate, and others are cutting back on the number of full-time workers.

This is exactly what some of us predicted would happen under Obamacare, the single worst piece of legislation passed by Congress in many decades.

Of course the liberal lurkers are mentally decrying the greed of employers, why don’t they care about the workers, etc, etc. Only one problem: DI is a non-profit with the mandate of employing as many people as possible. Nobody at DI is getting rich. DI is taking this step to continue to provide entry-level training and employment to the maximum number of people.

And many of the same principles that apply to DI also apply to for-profit businesses.

Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking a lot about chastity — what it is, and how it is lived. And I think that the way we talk about chastity is informed by fundamentally mistaken notions about the nature of sex itself — and these fundamentally mistaken notions about sex often come from psychology, which is my passion, my hobby, and to some extent my profession. That’s about as bold a claim as I can make, but I intend to support it.

I believe that to truly understand chastity — and marriage itself — we need to (1) become fully aware of the non-revelatory origins of many of our assumptions about the nature of human sexuality, and (2) adopt assumptions about the nature of sexuality that are entirely at odds with the assumptions handed to us by the world, and perhaps even seen as ludicrous when viewed from those worldly assumptions. Continue reading →