Four years ago when internet streaming of the general priesthood meeting was announced, I wrote a short post with the title “The Singing Won’t be the Same.” It looks like it wasn’t. The latest turn for that meeting leaves me feeling defeated. Reduce and simplify the demands on members and leaders, because we just aren’t up to gathering twice a year anymore. It’s too much for us and of too little value.

I think authenticity is the modern day version of the Puritan doctrine of election.

Remember that Puritan Calvinists believed that only the elect could be saved and that election was a pure act of will by God.   This meant you could not achieve election by your own efforts.  But it also meant that you could not really know when you were elected.  The resulting anxiety drove a lot of Puritan behavior.

Now, our modern Puritans want to be authentic.  But how to be authentic?  If you are trying to be authentic, you aren’t authentic.

The resulting anxiety drives a lot of their behavior. (more…)

Isaiah 52:7. Explained by Abinadi in Mosiah ch. 15 to the priests of Noah who were too lazy to understand it. Partially repeated in Nahum 1:15. Cited by Jesus in 3rd Nephi 20:40. And Paul in Romans 10:15. Also Doctrine and Covenants 128:19.

Diagramming sentences teaches you a good deal about language.  It also makes you realize some odd things about it that you had taken for granted before.  Grammar is not the Platonic form of language.  What it is is a good tool.

The West doesn’t think much about virtue.  We do have a rich and neglected treasury of practical experience out there, and a decent amount of engineering knowledge, for those who look for it.  We also have thinkers who address first principles and meta-ethical questions.  What is the nature of the good? and so on.  What we don’t have is anything in between.  It is as if the study of biology knew evolution (along side stockbreeders who knew practical things) but had never invented anything like taxonomy.

A while back I accidentally invented a sophisticated tool for investigating virtue.

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A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance there came down a certain woke priest that way; and when he saw the man he returned to Jerusalem and launched a campaign for travel control, so only licensed travelers with adequate provision to defend themselves against robbers would be allowed out on the road. Those he met were impressed with his compassion and wealthy caravanners donated to his campaign. #CareforTravelers

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Looking back at sunsets on the eastside
We lost track of the time
—“Smile Like You Mean It” from the Killers 2004 Hot Fuss album

The photo above was taken from the east side of the Las Vegas Valley. It was sent yesterday by an LDS missionary of my acquaintance who is serving in my hometown. As Brandon Flowers once told a Times reporter, “Have you been to Los Angeles? Well, our sunsets are better!” The large buildings below the mountain silhouette are hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. (more…)