Best of the Box 1
This feature had short runs at DMI and at BCC in 2005. Wow, time flies. The resurgent BT seems like the right place for a reboot. So here are some of the better posts from last week, drawn one each from the 7 display boxes at Mormon Archipelago.
A quick note about the boxes: they are not a ranking, just a way to display real-time links to posts from 82 blogs in a more orderly way than one big list. There are island-like labels for the boxes (cleverly keyed to the archipelago metaphor, a naming system that worked nicely when there were only two boxes) but these also do not convey any sort of ranking. Really, is there any difference between being listed as an “Isle,” an “Isle of the Sea,” or an “Island and Atoll”? But just to play it safe, I’m going to refer to them as Box 1, Box 2, and so forth. Everyone gets their box with a dozen or so box-mates. No blog is an island.
Box 1 – BYU-Idaho College Democrats-in-Exile at FPR. I’m not sure if the events described in the post are a reflection on the BYU-Idaho administration, on BYU-Idaho as an institution, on politics in Idaho, or simply on the great state of Idaho as a whole. My take: If BYU-Idaho can’t figure out how to accomodate some political activity on campus — like every other university in America, a democratic country built on citizen participation in the political process — it should have the “BYU” label stripped from its name. Either call it the Church College of Idaho or go back to Ricks College.
Box 2 – Building Your Own Green Hill at T&S. This and other posts by a guest blogger talk about the architecture and landscape of small communities, a topic you haven’t read about much in the ‘nacle.
Box 3 – A Short History of Mormon Publishing, an introductory post for a 7-part series to follow by Kent at AMV. Part 1 is out already. A teaser quote: “Issues of doctrine and authority are a huge part of what gets published by whom and how willing Mormon audiences are to accept and purchase published materials.”
Box 5 – An Unexpected Gift at Ethesis, highlighting an autobiographical article by Larry Echohawk relating his experience growing up Pawnee, playing college football at BYU, going through Marine boot camp, and representing Indian interests as an attorney. You should read the long version at the Maxwell Institute that the post links to. Echohawk now heads the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Obama administration. He got my vote for T&S Mormon of the Year.
Box 6 – I give up; you choose. Sod, Seed, and Salvation at MM, thoughts on a tough-to-teach Gospel Doctrine Lesson 7. The Dead Sea Scrolls at the RSC Blog (discussing this longer article). And To LDS Scientists Struggling with Faith: An Open Letter at Mormon Insights.
Box 7 – NDBF Gary is still posting, arguing in favor of a universal flood and the death of every living thing. Earth was completely covered with water, which you don’t have to believe … but it’s what “the LDS Church teaches” (a claim bolstered by a link to anonymous supplementary material posted at LDS.org). I think a better reference for what the LDS Church teaches is under the article “Noah” in the LDS Bible Dictionary (hardly a place to find daring views), which notes that flood traditions are found in many ancient cultures, with the Hebrew version differing by its emphasis on “religious values”: “Noah and his family were saved because they were righteous.” So the LDS Bible Dictionary is telling us the purpose of the flood narrative is to teach religious values … not to teach science or history. A very helpful point.
Comments welcome, including ones with links that start, “How could you possibly have missed …” Shameless self-promotion discouraged.
Wow, a whole ‘nother venue for arguing the best and taking offense for being overlooked, a year ahead of the Niblets!
Comment by Ardis E. Parshall — February 10, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
Thanks Dave. As a Ricks grad with the rest of my degrees from the Univ. of Utah, I would love to see a return to the name Ricks College.
Comment by Chris Henrichsen — February 10, 2010 @ 6:02 pm
Yes, Ardis … people need more practice at this sort of thing.
Comment by Dave — February 10, 2010 @ 6:59 pm
Dave, thanks for the review. This may or may not be important to anyone here, but every copy of the LDS Bible has bound in with it the LDS Bible Dictionary (English) or Guide to the Scriptures (Spanish); and all electronic editions of the LDS Scriptures (CD and web) have them both. In addition, the Bible Dictionary affirms that “the authenticity of the Genesis account of the flood is confirmed by latter-day revelation.”
Comment by R. Gary — February 10, 2010 @ 11:51 pm
R. Gary,
Was your post a response to my post about the same topic at FPR? I have been curious.
Comment by Chris Henrichsen — February 11, 2010 @ 12:02 am
.
Chris Henrichsen,
No, not your post. And according to your Feb 7th comment, you didn’t discuss the flood itself at all in Sunday School. In your case, that was a good call.
But it was a response to a few of the comments on your post and on Mormanity’s post. It was a response to anyone who would go into a Sunday School class and teach that the manual is wrong—anyone who uses a Church calling to teach that the manuals contain “folk doctrine.”
Let me elaborate. The manuals are not scripture. Most of them contain things that will be changed with the next revision. The current O.T. manual even invites input. But send your input to the address given. Don’t use the Mormon Church to teach Mormons that the manual is wrong.
.
Dave,
By the way, that “anonymous supplementary material posted at LDS.org” you mentioned comes from the official “Guide to the Scriptures” which, unlike the Bible Dictionary, comes without a disclaimer.
Comment by R. Gary — February 11, 2010 @ 2:07 am
A sincere thought: The ‘Nacle wouldn’t be the same without R. Gary. Thanks for keeping it interesting.
Comment by L-d Sus — February 11, 2010 @ 5:33 am
The accuracy of the scriptural account of the flood notwithstanding, I can think of few better ideas than to reprint the LDS Edition of the scriptures with neither the Bible Dictionary nor the Topical Guide bound together with the Old and New Testaments. It makes the New Testament alarmingly hard to find, for one thing.
To the degree that a (six hundred page) Topical Guide isn’t a superfluous excess in the age of the Internet, it certainly isn’t something that needs to be lugged back and forth to church services every week.
Comment by Mark D. — February 11, 2010 @ 7:40 am
annoyingly talented, Dave?
Comment by Kathryn Soper — February 11, 2010 @ 9:27 am
Here is a link to Chris H’s FPR post talking about how to teach The Flood to an LDS Sunday School class:
http://www.faithpromotingrumor.com/2010/02/teaching-and-discussing-the-flood/
And here is a link to Mormanity’s post offering links to resources on the LDS view of The Flood:
http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2010/02/dealing-with-noahs-flood-useful.html
Both threads feature very interesting discussions in the comments. Rather than threadjack my own thread, I will simply limit my comments to an observation that there are two separate and distinct discussions to be had on this topic: (1) What one can or should believe about The Flood; and (2) what one can or should teach about The Flood in an LDS Sunday School class.
Comment by Dave — February 11, 2010 @ 10:52 am
Kathryn, my playful term was, of course, a compliment.
Comment by Dave — February 11, 2010 @ 10:53 am
annoyingly playful.
Comment by Kathryn Soper — February 11, 2010 @ 1:03 pm
I apologize, Kathryn — the link has been removed.
Comment by Dave — February 11, 2010 @ 2:41 pm
Dave, that was a joke.
Comment by Kathryn Soper — February 12, 2010 @ 10:20 pm
Kathy & Dave,
Please stop joking. No one gets your jokes, and children are crying.
Comment by Scott — February 13, 2010 @ 2:41 am