Entries from April 2008 ↓
April 28th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, History
I attended a fireside Sunday night with Wilfred Griggs, Assoc Professor from BYU. His specialty is Egyptology. While I had never heard of him before, the flyer listed the following information: (1) Director of the Seila Pyramid Excavation, (2) Produced a National Geographic Channel Egypt Special, (3) author of numerous books on Egypt, (4) Currently working on pre and post-Christian burial grounds.
The Nat’l Geo reference really caught my attention. I don’t have cable, but I love that channel when I get a chance to watch. The fireside was excellent!!! (Note, I have been to 2 others about church history in the last month, that were quite disappointing.) He spoke for an hour, and then we had a closing prayer, and he allowed us to ask questions for another hour. The title of the fireside was “Joseph Smith and the Egyptian Connection.”
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April 26th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Christian, History, Israel, Mormon, Theology
I recently came across a blog of Zelph, who is struggling with some tough issues in Mormonism. I also posted a comment in The Milk Ceiling about the Exodus. I thought I would address some of these issues.
Too often, I think we have a concrete view of religion. Either something is true, or it is not. When we learn things that don’t conform to the ways we believe they should, we lose testimony. This is true of all religions.
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April 25th, 2008 — Mission, Mormon
I started a new job about a month ago at a treatment center. It is basically a very small private high school, that takes students with all sorts of problems, including depression, ADHD, alcoholism, drug abuse, anorexia, bulima, cutting (ie physically cutting oneself for emotional reasons), and many other behavioral disorders. I’m a math teacher there. The students are monitored 24 hours a day, and live at the treatment center.
The job pays very well, and has a few perks. I get free lunch, and I get paid to eat lunch. That is because I am required to supervise lunch. The teenagers have every moment of their lives evaluated. They have point sheets. On these point sheets, all staff basically grade their behavior–even during lunch. Their lives are HIGHLY regimented. For example, new students are told that they can only use the following 5 items to keep clean: shampoo, body wash, deodorant, soap, and one more thing I forgot. When they have been on good behavior, they can upgrade to using conditioner, makeup, perfume, hairspray, and they can shower in the morning.
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April 20th, 2008 — Christian, Intellectualism, Mormon
I just read this blog post at Project Deseret. You can read more at the link, but I would like to excerpt a few paragraphs out of that blog.
Most likely someone has countered your requests for an intellectually robust gospel (de-baggage the word, please) with the classic image of a penniless, illiterate widow in the slums of Manila. The conclusion is obvious: the gospel is for her. And how could we ask this poor, penniless woman for a sharp-toothed mind? How could we ask her to cut through conceptual meat when she doesn’t have meat to eat? She is barely surviving! She needs the milk of the gospel, and she needs it fast…. Continue reading →
April 19th, 2008 — 10 tribes, Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Malay, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Scripture, Theology
Ok, I probably won’t get too many comments on this, but it is an interesting topic for me. For some quick background, I previously posted on this topic. I recently purchased a copy of “Quest for the Lost Tribes” by Simcha Jacobovichi. In this documentary, he tries to make a case where he identifies most of the lost tribes, and their possible locations throughout the world. He comes up with some startling conclusions.
What is interesting to me about these lost tribes is the connection to the Book of Mormon. The BOM claims that the Nephites were descendants to the Tribe of Manasseh. So I was interested to see what insights the movie might have on this tribe in particular.
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April 15th, 2008 — Christian, History, Mormon
One would think that these generic titles were easily understood. But it turns out that many people define these terms differently.
Originally , as stated in the Bible, Christians were referred to as anyone who followed the teachings of Christ. As we all know, Christians were fed to the lions, burned at the stake, and received all sorts of persecution during the first century A.D. What is not so well known, is how diverse the early Christian beliefs were at the time.
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April 6th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, New York, Scripture
I am on an email list for the Nephi Project, and I get some interesting information. This is a group that does most research in Saudi Arabia, and has uncovered some interesting discoveries supporting the Book of Mormon. They also release information that others might find interesting for new world sites.
In the latest email they sent, is a link where they discovered a stone box, similar to the one that Joseph Smith described when he discovered the Golden Plates. The link is a Word doc, and shows some pictures.
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April 2nd, 2008 — Culture, History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Priesthood, Priesthood Ban, Women
I saw a sneak preview of the upcoming movie, “Emma Smith: My Story” at the LDS Film Festival in January. It is due to be released in about a week–April 11 here in Utah. I highly recommend it. It was commissioned by the Joseph Smith Historical Society, and has many of the same actors and actresses who appeared in “Legacy“, which used to show at the Joseph Smith Building. The producers even received permission to use some of the unused footage from Legacy. For those of you in Utah, I really encourage you to attend during the opening weekend. This makes a big impact on how long the film will run. It is a highly professional production, and it is a truly inspiring story. Continue reading →
