Mormon Heretic

This is an unusual post for me on 2 counts.  (1)  I generally hate lessons on tithing, because I don’t think there’s much new to say on the topic.  (2)  I tried to read “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis a few years ago, and just couldn’t get through the book.  I’ve heard many people quote CS Lewis, especially from this book, but I just didn’t like it.  However, I did like the movie “Shadowlands” which was based on some true stories of Mr Lewis.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of Sunstone, the magazine.  I’ve never read it before, and have really wanted to get it for quite some time.  I am very grateful to my friend for giving it to me.  I read the articles he suggested, as well as many others that he didn’t, and came across a really interesting one by Jeff Burton.

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Ok, I will confess that I love learning about the Middle East.  I love learning more about Jews, Muslims, Arabs, etc.  I have so much to learn.

I’m a grad student working on some genetic studies (one of my many jobs).  As part of the genetic study we are doing, we have our study participants tell us their race.  In medical studies, different treatments can affect different races quite dramatically.

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I came across an article in the Church News detailing the history on the Moroni statue.  The print edition and web edition have some interesting pictures of the various incarnations of the statue, and the photos have some different captions.

In the print edition, the Nauvoo Temple has a flying angel.  The angel is part of a weather vane, which was typical of New England architecture.  The current Nauvoo temple has a standing Moroni.  I remember President Hinckley said he wanted to restore the original look of the Nauvoo Temple, but he changed the Moroni statue, because he thought it looked better.  I wish he had kept with the historical weather vane, because if its’ uniqueness in mormon history.

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Wow, this is a really long post, and I didn’t cover everything, but what I did cover is quite considerable. I hope to hear some comments. I decided to update this post on 9/16 with some of Greg Prince’s insights into this topic. These updates are highlighted in orange. UPDATE Mar 10, 2009. Black Pete and William McCary were erroneously referred to as the same people. I made revisions to correct this inaccuracy, and this is shown in purple.  I have also added some new information from Connell O’Donovan, who is one of the premier experts on this subject.

We have had an interesting discussion in a previous blog post on Joshua’s Unholy War. In this discussion, we have discussed the idea as to whether God commanded Joshua (and Moses) to commit genocide in wiping out the Canaanites in various cities, such as Jericho. I am claiming that the command to extinguish the Canaanites in the Book of Joshua was not inspired. As part of the discussion, we have explored two other topics: the priesthood ban, and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. I would like to focus this post on the priesthood ban, and will devote another post to the subject of Abraham.

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I have about 5 part-time jobs.  For one of them, I work as a freelancer for a television network.  As part of my job, my company flies me all over the country to cover sporting events.

During this past presidential campaign, I remember reading several articles first published in the Boston Globe, and reprinted in the Deseret News, regarding Mitt Romney’s upbringing.  I was surprised to learn that Mitt’s father, George, kept alcohol in their house to entertain non-LDS friends.  The article was sure to state that all of the Romneys obeyed the Word of Wisdom, and never partook of the alcohol.  I found this particular stance unusual.

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This is an unbelievable example of Christlike love.  See this Deseret News story.  A young child was horribly injured in a fireworks accident, but instead of putting the person responsible in jail, they are fighting to keep him out of jail.