Square Two has a response to Taylor Petrey’s attempt to imagine a Mormonism without the central Mormon doctrines of eternal marriage, descent, and ancestry. (more…)

Why is it Korihor who preached against original sin? (more…)

Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Janis Joplin,  Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Margaux Hemingway*, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Oh, ye fair ones!

(*I was going to list just singers, but I had a crush on Margaux. She was just a few years older than I, and I loved how she didn’t pluck her eyebrows.)

My name’s Bookslinger, and I’m an alcoholic.  (“Hi Bookslinger!”)   It’s been 10 years since I’ve had a drink…

A bit of a short thought for today.    (more…)

Two posts at the M*, one on God not being domesticated, and the other on the inadequacy of atonement theories. Well worth your time, and fitting with Jr. Ganymede themes.

Perhaps people don’t want to break with an unhappy past so much as to relive it; to return to some point on the road to ruin and make the one change, the single alteration that would make it all turn out differently.

-Richard Fernandez
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Yesterday at church the speaker reminded us that the fall is our inheritance from Adam, on good scriptural authority. (more…)

There are many theories about the Atonement. All are at best analogies. What Christ did matters much more than our explanations about it do. Especially on Good Friday, we should probably spend more time at the foot of the cross instead of critiquing concepts and philosophies.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: atonement, Jesus Christ, Mormon, Mormonism

Christ chose to let himself be in Satan’s power and in the power of the Romans. Its important that he chose, because it made him a willing victim. Its also important that he did not directly choose the garden agony or the cross. These were the choices of his tormentors. If he had chosen them himself, he would have been willing but not a victim. (more…)

Worth reading today.

] Paul and the prophets like to compare Adam and Christ. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Christ is the New Adam. (more…)

Lately I’ve been thinking about the Hebrew notion that water represented formlessness, chaos, and by extension sin, the devil, and mortality. The notion has some currency in modern scripture. (more…)

Today the western Christian world remembers the Garden and the Cross. Your thoughts and your topical links in the comments would be much appreciated. Check back here, we’ll be updating the post throughout the day.

On the sweetness of Mormon life. (more…)

President Uchtdorf reminded us that last Sunday was Palm Sunday. (more…)