Mormon Heretic

The book for my book club is by Sarah Baringer Gordon,  The Mormon Question.  It’s bee n a really hard book to find at the library (nearly impossible), so I got a late start on it.   It takes a very different approach to the polygamy question.  Ms Gordon has a law degree, and so she talks about the legal arguments concerning the separation of church and state.  I’ve learned a lot about the evolution of legal thought and the Constitution.  There hasn’t been a strict separation, especially during the 1800′s.  The Mormons helped define that line.

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I have really been enjoying the book More Wives than One by Kathryn Daynes, an associate professor of history at BYU.   In my previous post on the book, I mentioned that marriage wasn’t as regulated as it is today.  There were no marriage licenses, blood tests, or even ceremonies required.  If a couple said they were married, then courts ruled that they were.  That was all that was needed.  It seems that many of the marriage regulations we are familiar with today were influenced by the federal government’s efforts to stamp out Mormon polygamy.  Daynes gives a history of marriage starting on page 58.

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I don’t know why, but I love to learn about archaeology, especially religious archaeology.  A few years ago, Simcha Jacobovici came out with a documentary and book called The Jesus Tomb.  In it, he makes a claim that the bones of Jesus may have been located in a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem.  Of course, the Da Vinci Code, while fiction, makes a claim that Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene were actually buried in France.  A few months ago, I watched a documentary called Bloodline, which actually goes further, and makes the case that yes, indeed, the bones of Christ and Mary are found in France.  (You can learn more at the official website.)  I just came across a third source, which claims that Christ’s bones are actually located in India.  See this website.

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I came across an article about the Apostle Paul.  After Emporer Nero burned Rome, he blamed the fire on the Christians.  Various apostles were rounded up, and tradition has it that the Apostle Paul was beheaded around 60 AD.  A basilica was built to house parts of his body in about 390 AD.  (Oddly, his complete body is not there, but spread throughout various churches.  Apparently, the Orthodox/Catholic churches felt that bones from dead saints hold some spiritual power, and have often arranged to have bones sent to various churches so that many can share a claim to have various saints bones.)

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With St Patrick’s day being here, I wanted to tell the story of St Patrick. Mormons love good missionary stories, and I think the story of St Patrick is a wonderful missionary story. The information below comes from a DVD titled, Christianity-The First Two Thousand Years.  (It was originally aired on A&E.) If you want to learn more, there is an interesting article in the Deseret News about St Patrick.

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Recently, there has been some news where Jews object to the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead, especially for Holocaust victims.  Catholics have also objected to the Mormons use of old church records for the purpose of baptism for the dead.   I came across an Irish Columnist who basically says, “Why do they care?”

I want to point out some interesting things from his article–questions which Mormons should also start asking.  You can see the full article here.

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Sometimes I can be a little controversial, as in my previous post.  If you will notice my About page, you will see a painting of Galileo, my favorite heretic.  It seems the vatican is trying to show that faith and science aren’t always opposing.  Check it out here.

So is it possible to be a faithful scientist?  What happens when it seems threatening to your church?

My little boy is in kindergarten. Along with the normal Christmas decorations he has been working on, he came home with a menorah, the candle Jews use to celebrate Hanukkah. (Now that I’m finally out of school myself, I plan to post more frequently–it was a tough semester.)

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I attended my first session of Sunstone today.  I have to say it was really nice to be around people who wanted to talk about some things where I really respected the opinions of the speakers.  It was energizing.  I was able to meet some of my favorite mormons, such as John Dehlin, and D Michael Quinn (a former mormon.)  It was refreshing to be in an environment where intellectualism is embraced, not shunned.

My favorite session was on “ARE WE STILL GODS IN EMBRYO? THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF HUMAN DEIFICATION” by HUGO OLAIZ (probably because I just blogged about it.)  One of the most interesting points to me that Hugo made was Lorenzo Snow’s couplet  “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.”

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I’ve learned some interesting concepts from class #23: Eastern Orthodoxy.  The podcast is one from the Ancient and Medieval Church History class from Covenant Theological Seminary.  First, let’s have a little background.  (Incidentally, the seminary is a Presbyterian seminary.)

The Eastern Orthodox Church officially split with the Catholic Church in 1054.  The Pope excommunicated the Patriarch in Constantinople, so the Patriarch did the same to the Pope.  There had been some different emphasis on theology for quite some time.  For example, while the Catholic Church claimed that the Pope held all the leadership, the Orthodox Church held a much less central authority.  The Orthodox belief of revelation is that God speaks through these councils, not one central person.

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As I mentioned before, I have been learning about Ancient and Medieval Church history from the Covenant Theological Seminary.  What has been so interesting to me is that Turkey is a real center for Christianity.

Paul spoke to the Ephesians in Ephesus (and his letter is in our bible now.)  He also travelled to many other cities such as Perge, Derbe, Lystra, Antioch. John died in Ephesus.  Peter built the first Christian church there in Antioch.  Philip lived in Heirapolis, and was killed with him family there.

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This is part 3 of Heresy and Orthodoxy. I’ve been listening to class 5 from the Covenant Theological Seminary on Ancient and Medieval Church History. They have talked about Gnosticism and Marcionism. I’d like to talk about a little known movement in early church history called Montanism and compare this to Mormonism.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been listening to the Covenant Theological Seminary class called “Ancient and Medieval Church History.”  Class 5 deals with Heresy and Orthodoxy, and they discuss 3 of the largest early heresies:  Gnosticism, Marcionsim, and Montanism.  I’d like to discuss Marcionism a bit.

Marcion lived 110 – 160 AD in Sinope, Turkey.  He is probably the first person who tried to establish a Christian canon.  His New Testament was much smaller than ours today.  It included an edited version of the Gospel of Luke, and 10 of Paul’s letters.  He was the son of a bishop, and originally embraced by the orthdox church, but due to his embracing of Gnostic doctrines, he was excommunicated.  However, his movement became so large that it rivaled the orthodox church in size for about a century.

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