Washington Post Opinion Piece

Just thought this was interesting...and sad: "A Mormon church in need of reform"

Church's Statement on Prof. Bott's Comments

Here is a statement released by the Church today regarding the Washington Post article.

Colbert Video from Today

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/409086/february-23-2012/posthumous-mormon-baptism

Church Statement on the Holocaust Baptisms

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1016&sid=19319871&title=lds-church-issues-statement-after-report-of-proxy-baptism-for-anne-frank&s_cid=featured-2

After our brief discussion of hypocrisy in religion today I stumbled upon this little gem and thought I'd share.

Also, thank you Professor Fluhman for the pizza!

Sister Aimee's vacation spot=my home town!!!

While talking to my dad about the paper, he brought up that the famous "Aimee's Castle," a well known mansion in my town, was the getaway mansion of our very own Sister Aimee McPherson! My hometown, Lake Elsinore, CA, in the in between war years was a popular tourist spot, a big resort area for celebrities. (you wouldn't think so now...haha) Last year it was offered up for sale and the asking price was $1, 495,000. It was really cool to find out that this lil gem I've grown up seeing on the hill is connected to history in this way! So crazy. It's very interesting to see the luxuries she lived with.

Here is an article about the mansion:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/lake-elsinore/article_465b37ca-d1d4-5bc8-8b37-53f3d9e9e71e.html

The Castle's website:

http://www.sisteraimeescastle.com/

A video tour of the Castle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wQxp2eeYuc

Pizza Tomorrow

I'll bring two 2 liters of beverage for tomorrow. Who else is bringing things?

Religionless Religion

Dear fellow religious zealots and supernaturalists,

What do you think of this article? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221603720817864.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

I think the way he presupposes that religion is, at its best, communal therapy, is incredibly condescending. I guess he thinks that argument has already been made successfully. Also, I think his vision of a communal restaurent obliterating interpersonal class, race, and gender conflict is naive. He seems to be suggesting that the communal love in a religious group is produced simply by virtue of community. For me personally, the theology and real spiritual power behind what we do in our church community is what took the conflict out of my heart. No community could have ever made be nice to people, let alone selflessly love people, without the theology and the Spirit. Maybe that works for some people though. I'm open to any defenses of this article but I think it's a weak attempt to reclaim what secularization has destroyed without reclaiming belief. What do you all think?

Pizza Party Assignments

Yo peeps,

So Pro. F said that he would bring the pizza, and we have to bring everything else.  I'll bring some paper plates for us to use, but we also need cups, drinks, and napkins.  Anyone who can bring those, please let us all know so we can coordinate with one another.

- Jori

Nicki Minaj

So here's the video of her performance that the fire-breathing Calvinist was talking about.  Needless to say, it's very...tactless.
http://www.gossipcop.com/nicki-minaj-grammys-video-roman-holiday-exorcism-levitation-grammy-awards/

The Over-Zealous Valentine's Note

We're on Yahoo!

http://beta.local.yahoo.com/news-byu-student-scolded-outfit-secret-note-valentine-day

Update from Alix!

Okay I promised an update...basically I'm in love! So far he hasn't seemed awkward at all and is adjusting to normal life just fine. It almost seems like he never left so we've been able to just slip into how things were before he left. We spent pretty much the entire day together today just hanging out with our families and running errands. I'm happy and everything is great!

Have fun talking to the fire-breathing Calvinist tomorrow (or today I guess)! Take good notes for me. :)

Great News!

Humans:

I have some great news. Friday, we'll have a guest speaker in class by way of Skype. (I'll of course have to learn how to use Skype between now and then.) In response to Anna's request from a couple of weeks ago, I lined up a fire-breathing Southern Baptist to answer questions about Calvinism. His name is Travis Kerns and he's a professor of apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for heaven's sake! 

So, your job between now and then is to begin formulating questions that we might ask him. What do you want to know? What about Calvinism or Evangelicalism doesn't make sense to you? 

Submit questions as "comments" to this post. We'll pick a few to have him address.


This will be utterly cool.

Prof. Fluhman

"Why I'm a Mormon Democrat"

I am not posting this to spawn an argument over which party holds a monopoly on Mormon values or to start a political debate altogether. Rather, Mormon Republicanism has not always been the majority and only relatively recently has it been a defining characteristic of our church. Today in class we discussed how religion has been used to justify both the entrenching of ideals and progressivism; I think this is a good example of exactly that.

Personally, my favorite quotes are from my wife's uncle, Elder Jensen. So, you know, it is kind of personal.

http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Why-Im-a-Mormon-Democrat.html

A Mormon YouTube family

Just some videos from a Mormon family who post videos literally every day. They've been doing it for over 3 years now. They don't often talk about their religious beliefs specifically but if you watch often enough you figure it out pretty quickly. If you're ever looking for pure and obvious evidence that the Church is true and that it does make people happy, I suggest watching the Shaytards. I don't think you can ever doubt the existence of love after having seen them interact. Beyond the churchy stuff, you can't NOT smile while watching them. (In other inspirational news, the dad, Shay, lost over 100  pounds this last year. If you want a kick in the pants about working out and being happy, look no farther than Shay.)

Some Conference Dates

BYU Student Symposium: February 17th, 2012

http://rsc.byu.edu/symposia/student-symposium


Joseph F. Smith Church History Conference


http://rsc.byu.edu/symposia/churchhistory

UVU Mormon Studies Conference

http://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/mormonstudies/conferences/index.html

Hasidic Jewish Sect in New York

This is a really interesting article about a girl who escaped her cultish religious community. I for one did not know this kind of stuff was happening!

"Unorthodox:" A Woman's Journey from Repression to Freedom

Jesus or Modernism?

Cool Article on U.S. and its reputation as Christian Nation

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-04/opinion/davis.jefferson.other.words_1_church-and-state-religious-freedom-virginia-statute?_s=PM:OPINION

This helped shape the thesis of my paper. He brings up a lot of great points regarding stances of the Founding Fathers

The Power of the Bible

Scary! But wow, what a brave woman. Would you think of that??

Woman Uses Bible Verses to Ward Off Attacker

Class Awards ...

Possible awards to be handed out at the end of the year ...

Best Blog Post
Best In-Class Comment
Nerdiest Class Member
Best In-Class Rant
Most Likely to be a Professor When He/She Grows Up
Least Likely to be a Professor When He/She Grows Up

Others?

Brandon Flowers and the First Vision

Here's a link to the blog post by a former student of mine, Chris Jones, about rock and Mormonism. Enjoy!

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

This is fascinating for so many reasons:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-6266/

maddest looking picture

Dearest Joey,

Dr. Fluhman handed out the Fluhy awards based on our class photos today and you won maddest looking photo. We all gave you a standing ovation. Congratulations.

Sincerely,
Everyone