I’ve heard an analogy that compares people’s personal religious beliefs to a beautiful rose. Some people’s intellectual curiosity drives them to dismantle the rose in order to see how it’s put together. Petal by petal they gently pull it apart to learn how the individual parts work or to examine its raw biology under a microscope.
Call me a skeptic when it comes to scriptural accounts of divinely authorized killing. Is it merely due to the fact that my modern, bleeding-heart sensibilities that have concluded that life is invaluable?
Did you know that Brigham Young was a feminist? Ok, he probably wasn’t really, at least not by today’s standards. But I ran across a very interesting statement he made.
It’s not rare to encounter people who struggle with the Mormon concept of an open scriptural canon. What is it about the Book of Mormon that conflicts with common Christian beliefs about the authority of the Bible, and where do these beliefs come from?
For those who witness Mormon prayers, it’s easy to catch many language patterns and conventions. Even more specifically, you can find oddly worded phrases or curious word usages that are commonplace.
The following is the second half of my partial transcript of the Greg Prince interview. Here, the question posed to him is if he can make the case to those who have deliberately left church activity and persuade them to return to participation. Greg Prince gives an interesting answer that would be useful for anyone seeking to do the same in their own congregation.
The following is a partial transcript of a Mormon Stories podcast interview with Greg Prince, whom I find absolutely fascinating. At this point in the conference, the interviewer, in front of an audience very well educated in all the most problematic areas of the history of the LDS Church, poses what is unarguably a very difficult question: Can he explain how he maintains his faith despite being extremely familiar with all the issues that often cause others to struggle in their own faith? Greg Prince gives about as good an answer as I’ve ever heard to such a question.
There is a simple proverb from the Zen school of Buddhism that compares the relationship between spiritual instructors and the ultimate truth to a finger pointing at the moon:
“Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?”
Henry Eyring, father of current apostle Henry B. Eyring, was a world-renowned chemist who became the Church’s unofficial spokesman on scientific matters. The following segment is a good example of the excellent tact and patience that Brother Eyring exhibited when disagreeing with Church leaders.
President McKay was a tireless advocate of free agency and intellectual liberty and insisted that the Church be a space where the exercise of those principles was tolerated.