I would like to contrast two opposing views of vegetarianism. One takes Gen 9:3, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you,” and 1 tim 4:3 about evil people that will come “commanding to abstain from meats,” and says, as a friend once did, “That’s why vegetarians don’t make good mormons.” (more…)

Reading my daughter’s My First Book of Mormon, my wife was struck by a strategic lack of beards. Certain heroes were conspicuously placed as beardless among their bearded counterparts. Nephi, for instance is beardless among his prothers and Alma is the only beardless one among the priests of Noah. In each case, the change seems intended to let us know who the characeter is. (more…)

As I sat coloring with my son the other day, I remembered a story on NPR about President Eisenhower’s love for Paint by Numbers. He had his Cabinet each do one for the Presidential gallery and other famous people contributed as well. If I remember right, Ezra Taft Benson was reluctant in his effort (rumor was that his aids did it). I couldn’t find the story online to verify this, but I did find this interesting article. (more…)

I’ve always been fascinated how Mormons use the term “Spirit of Elijah”. What is it exactly that we are talking about? I took a look in the The Words of Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses and Collected Discourses and found only four instances of “Spirit of Elijah” and three of them were not how we used them today: (more…)

Mormonism is resolute in its doctrine that children do not require baptism to be saved. The scriptural basis for this belief is offered in the book of Moroni. Concurrent to our stand on infant baptism is our practice of infant sacrament. Despite the many justifications that we have for the practice, none of them deal with the Moroni’s main contention. (more…)

In 1995 the Church reached an agreement with prominent genealogists and activists in the Jewish community to remove the genealogical records of many Jews from the ordinance indices of the church. The Church announced as policy that members should not do ordinance work for Jews other than their direct descendants. The problem is that Holocaust victims and prominent Jews (e.g., Einstein) keep popping up in the records. Among the many issues that this raises, there are two that I find interesting: 1) does removing the names from the records negate the ordinances and 2) is this a matter of doctrine or public relations? (more…)

I have updated my site to WordPress 1.5 (and tweaked the layout a bit). Hopefully, things look a little nicer and are easier to use (note the new comment box). This is the first unveiling of a series of new things in the works – look for others at by the end of the week. I would appreciate any feedback in making Splendid Sun better.

I was doing some research and stumbled upon the Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles to the World. Not the one often discussed in the last years, but the one proclaimed in 1845. I was astonished first by the existence of such a precedent. Then I was astonished by its content. (more…)

My wife is the youngest of nine children. I am the youngest of five. We, as a people, used to rival the Catholics in our prolificacy. The great patriarchs of the early church, while they had actually few children per marriage, had oodles. We are all familiar with the exhortations to not postpone having a family for lucre. The question I am interested in is where the focus on volume comes from. Is it better to have a huge family? (more…)

I served in a pretty conservative Mission (no calls on Mother’s Day). The mission president did have an iconoclastic streak, however. I never wore a tag and sported grey and light brown suits. Most importantly though, on Christmas, we were allowed to watch Star Wars (albeit in French: “Luc, je suis ton pere…”). This was a great way to celebrate the Lord’s birth, except for the moment when my world view was changed forever. Luke was on Degoba and receiving instruction from the diminutive Jedi master and suddenly I noticed that I was feeling something remarkably close to what I had traditionally associated with the Spirit. Conclusion: Yoda is true. (more…)

I’ve spent the last 5 days essentially off-line. While I did not have the shakes or vomit, it was nonetheless quite difficult – mostly because I the ‘nacle has grown to be such a large part of what I consider self. Upon my return I was surprised, however, with ‘nacle’s zeitgeist. Perhaps it is the Dark Muse. (more…)

I am at Purdue negotiating with the Research Foundation to acquire the patent I developed at grad school. I’m faced with an interesting dilemma (spurred on by recent posts in the MA). Should I pray that they give it to us? (more…)

My dad was called to be a missionary in a face to face meeting with an apostle. He was interviewed on his mission by an Apostle. He was set apart as a seventy (when it was the equivalent of Ward Mission Leader of whatever) by an apostle and he was set apart as a bishop by an apostle. Times have changed. (more…)

There has been some conversation on the Muslim world and their eventual (?) proselytization. I’m wondering if it is all that necessary (their conversion, that is). (more…)

I’m heading to Purdue tomorrow (Tuesday) to negotiate for the rights to the patent I developed while at grad school. I should be posting and commenting at night, but if it is slow during the day, that is why. I’ll be back on Saturday.

I have been thinking about the nature of agency lately. This has been mediated by several posts around the ‘nacle. I guess it is time to formalize these thoughts to see what happens.
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Behold. The piece de resistance (I haven’t figured out how to add accents). Dave’s Mormon Inquiry is, in my estimation, as good as it gets. Welcome.

One of the popular doctrines of the kingdom is the Eternal Family (queue the VHS tape of Together Forever). This is a doctrine that resonates with most everyone. The idea of spending eternity sealed to a loving spouse is beautiful and romantic. As a youth, I pictured it as the ideal. It was not until latter that I started to think about the kids. (more…)

I will take as a given here the counsel of the brethren not to watch “R” rated movies, though of course I may get comments on it despite that. My concern is not for whether we should watch unedited “R” movies, but why we feel compelled to fight for our right to The Matrix and a clear consicence. (more…)

I made this comment at T&S a while ago, long after the thread was dead. So, I thought I would reiterate it here. In his discourse dated Before 8 August 1839 (WOJS), Joseph first publicly (so says the footnote) taught the uncreated nature of spirit saying: (more…)

I recently picked up a book I read a while back: The Transformation of American Religion – How We Actually Live Our Faith. By Alan Wolfe (Boston College and The New Republic). I thought I would toss out a few notes on the book. (more…)

You may have noticed that Nine Moons is officially part of the Mormon Archipelago. Welcome Rusty! I have also left my employer and am busy writing a business plan for my new venture – hence the lack of quality posts here of late. I’ll be back in force tomorrow. (more…)