Easter

William enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt with our ward at Central Park.

As you can see, he had a pretty good idea of the way things work, although, he also felt that it would be a good idea to collect some sand and sticks in addition to plastic eggs.

He also realized pretty quickly, to his delight, just exactly what is inside those eggs.

He’s going to love Halloween.

On a more spiritual note, my wife shared a beautiful Easter quote from Harold B. Lee in her Sacrament Meeting talk today. But first a little biographical context:

President Harold B. Lee lost his wife, Fern Tanner Lee, and his daughter, Maurine Lee Wilkins to death within a few years of each other. With half of his family of four taken away from him, he suffered profound grief and depression. (L. Brent Goates, Harold B. Lee: Prophet and Seer [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985], 357.) Within this context, Harold B. Lee shared the following thoughts about how the resurrection helped him to overcome his challenges:

I know … what it means to have the shattering devastation of loneliness with the snatching away of a loved one. Over my years, I have been called and tried to comfort those who mourn, but until I had to repeat those very things to myself that I have been saying to others, then only did I come to sense something that was far beyond words, that had to reach down to the touchstone of the soul before one can give real comfort. You have to see part of you buried in the grave. You have to see the loved one die and then you have to ask yourself—Do you believe what you have been teaching others? Are you sure and certain that God lives? Do you believe in the Atonement of the Lord and Master—that He opened the doors to the resurrection in the more glorious life? Sometimes when we stand in the stark nakedness all alone, it’s then that our testimony has to grow deep if we are not going to be shattered and fall by the wayside…

You folks today, if you know that you have anchored your souls in that divine testimony that He lives and that at the latter day He will stand upon this earth and you will meet Him face to face—if you know that, no matter what the risks and the responsibilities and the tragedies may be—if you build your house upon the rock, you won’t falter. Yes, you’ll go through the terrifying experience of sorrow over a lost loved one, but you won’t falter; eventually you’ll come through with even greater faith than you ever had before. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee, (2000) Chapter 23

Happy Easter.

I'm a Mormon

The Church has a new campaign meant to highlight both the diversity and normalcy of individual Mormons. Unfortunately, they couldn't include everybody. Here are a couple of Mormon profiles that didn't make the cut:

Aaron Eckhart

I'm the boyfriend in a notoriously cheesy seminary video,

I am Gotham's White Knight,

and I'm a Mormon.

Brandon Flowers

I am human,
I am dancer,
and I am Mormon.


Who else got left out?

How Mormon Studies is like ruining the movie

"LDS students at the University of Utah need to know that their church encourages secular knowledge and religious knowledge. And they need to know that religious studies represent the opportunity for crucial secular knowledge about a religious topic. Many of them are going to think, 'Why do I need secular knowledge about my religion?' This is a bit like thinking 'God made my body, why would I need medical knowledge about my body?'"  Philip Barlow: Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University speaking on the need for a Mormon Studies program at The University of Utah.*

There been have been a few movies whose releases I’ve really anticipated.  The first Star Wars prequel, the new Star Trek, and even the new Indiana Jones (sigh).  But the movie whose release I anticipated more than any other was the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (that’s right, the one movie to rule them all).  And while it wasn’t perfect, seeing it was a real experience.  The best part was how well the film’s makers recreated Tolkien’s world as it existed in the books and in my mind.  It felt as if the scenes were actually shot in Middle Earth. 

The DVDs came with something like 15 hours of extended features and, being the geek that I am, I eventually got around to watching each and every one of those hours.  That’s like an entire waking day of my life!  Most of these extras were in-depth making-of features that covered almost every scene from the film.  They showed the sites in New Zealand as they looked in real life and how they transformed these locations with sets and CGI.  They showed the masks, and models, and how they produced the digital effects.  There were even interviews with the actors talking about what was going on in their minds and around the set when various scenes were filmed. 

The next time I saw the movie it was different.  I didn’t just see Middle Earth on the screen, but instead I also saw the real locations.  I saw where the lights had been placed.  I saw acting techniques and motion capture animation.  In short the movie was ruined just a little bit.

Watching movies requires the audience to suspend disbelief.  You have to be able to accept the show as it is presented or else the film becomes nothing but lighting, acting styles, location scouting, plot construction, composition etc... 

This is not unique to films, but everything (or virtually everything) that we experience requires us to engage in similar suspension of disbelief in order for that activity to be comprehensible.  When your professor is giving a lecture, you have to ignore teaching styles and techniques if you are going to learn the material being conveyed.  You have to just take for granted everything that has been artificially constructed around you and pretend, at least for a moment, that this artificial system is real.

When you seriously study something it becomes much harder to suspend this thinking.  This is because the most important part of studding a subject is being able to step outside of that subject, as much as possible, so that you can approach it with an objective mind set.  Once you step outside a system that you are studying it becomes more difficult to experience that system as it is meant to be experienced from within itself. My background in philosophy and law makes watching presidential and other TV debates almost paralyzing.  I find it almost impossible not to focus exclusively on rhetorical devices, logical fallacies, inference chains, and narrative techniques.   It’s almost as if I can’t even hear the messages that the candidates are attempting to communicate.  Of course, philosophical and legal training enhance my understanding and appreciation of these debates, but to a certain extent they also get in the way.

This same phenomenon occurs with the secular study of Mormonism.  To properly study Mormonism it is necessary to go beyond the spiritual point of view and approach the religion with secular eyes.  This entails understanding the Gospel not just through spirituality, but also through politics, economics, philosophy, history, law, sociology, psychology etc…  It is like stepping outside of the movie in order to see lighting techniques and acting styles. 

Now, I believe that a purely secular viewpoint is insufficient to explain Mormonism.  Mormonism is necessarily spiritual and therefore cannot be fully explained by appealing solely to secular disciplines and explanations.  Still, it would be just as wrongheaded to claim that there is no need engage in secular approaches to study the faith.  Surely Mormonism is influenced by the same principles that govern secular systems and secular tools can provide a better understanding of the religion.

The problem is that secular study of Mormonism, as important and rewarding as it is, makes it harder see the Gospel without reducing it to purely secular concepts.  A good example is the use of the cross.  Mormons usually explain that they do not widely incorporate the image of the cross because the cross focuses on the Savior’s death rather than his resurrection.  But a secular study offers a different explanation. Mormonism’s aversion to the image of the cross is largely the result of geography and history. When Mormonism began, the image of the cross did not have much widespread use among American non-Catholic Christian churches.  The fact that the Church did not embrace the use of the cross was typical of Protestant churches of New England and the Midwest during that period.  Later when the LDS church was relatively isolated in the West, the cross gradually became more and more prominent in American Protestant congregations. By the time Mormon and Protestant cultures began to more fully interact with each other in the twentieth century, Mormonism had missed the boat on crosses. By then the cross was seen as a way to distinguish the LDS faith from other religions and church members had begun to associate the cross with the apostasy.**

Explanations like these are fascinating but they can also change the way we experience our Faith.  For example, now, every time someone talks about Mormon theological aversion to the cross, I can’t help but focus on this historical/geographical explanation and I tend to ignore the doctrinal side of the discussion.  I worry that I may even, unconsciously at least, dismiss the point of focusing on the Savior’s resurrection.

I love the secular study of my faith.  Not only is it interesting, but my understanding of the Gospel is enhanced.  However, secular study can never have the same life altering effect as spiritual study and I worry that focus on secular study can detract from spiritual understanding.   

I like Barlow’s analogy to medical knowledge.  By possessing medical knowledge we can better understand what we need to do to improve our physical health.  Likewise secular knowledge of the Gospel can help us better know what we must do to improve our spiritual health.  But we can never forget that the focus must always be on doing as opposed knowing. 

Aristotle makes a similar observation.  After explaining that the only way to become good is to do good acts he observes: “Yet most men do not perform such acts, by taking refuge in argument they think that they are engaged in philosophy and that they will become good in this way.  In so doing they act like sick men who listen attentively to what the doctor says, but fail to do any of the things he prescribes.  That kind of philosophical activity will not bring health to the soul any more than this sort of treatment will produce a healthy body.”***

We cannot let ourselves be deceived into thinking that simply by engaging in secular study we will become better Mormons. The only way to become better Mormons is by doing.  It is the spiritual side of the gospel that gives us the courage and motivation to live it.

* Grote, Michael. “Mormon Studies may join University of Utah curriculum.”  Mormon Times 09,Sep. 2009

 ** This historical/geographical explanation of cross use is discussed in Givens, Terryl. People of Paradox.  pages 114-115.

 ***Aristotle.  Nicomachean Ethics Book II 1105b 11-18

Dodger Day III

On Thursday April and I attended Mormon Dodger night for the third year in a row. Of course we sat in the all-you-can-eat section. This year April tied me in the category of total Dodger Dogs consumed, but I left her in the dust with nachos and popcorn.

The Dodgers hold a Mormon Night every year. They do the same for a host of other churches and organizations but Mormon Night is always the biggest. The church gets discount tickets and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Missionary Fund.

Elder Ballard threw out ceremonial the first pitch. Here he is walking back in.

And Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar threw the ceremonial “second pitch.”

This was probably our last event with the UCLA Ward. We'll miss everyone.

So that’s why Mormon missionaries are such babe-magnets!

I guess this Axe commercial is the real deal.  They didn’t get the name tag quite right and I must ask: just where is this elder’s companion?  But they did make the slogan at the end look a lot like the church’s logo, plus I think I made out a Book of Mormon for a split second .  The clip is pretty funny. Plus I just love the song.  It will probably make some people mad, but then again, a lot of us Mormons could stand to get a sense of humor about ourselves.  

Unfortunately, as any missionary or RM can attest, this effect is all too real (no Axe Body Spray needed).  Ironically, many of the missionaries in my mission used Axe religiously (pun definitely not intended).  Probably because it is relatively cheap (missionaries have tight budgets) but strong enough to cover up the hard day’s worth of smell that is inevitable after walking through the heat and humidity of the Philippine Islands.

Seminary Graduation

It's been quite a year.  I can't tell you how proud we are of the kids and how much we will miss teaching them. Being a young Latter-day Saint in the middle of Los Angeles is not easy.  Our students have been the source of intense scrutiny and sometimes even derision from their classmates at their high schools.  This was especially true after the fallout over Proposition 8 where our students were in the unenviable position  of being targets simply for being members of their church, irrespective of their views.  The kids have been a source of  great strength to each other and to us as well.  

This was also a year in which April and I had some significant trials in our lives.  Being able to get up each morning to teach these students the Gospel and to feel of the spirit that they bring to class has helped to buoy us up through these challenging times.   We wish our graduates, and all of our students, a happy summer and a bright future.

Biking, hiking, and philosophizing

Because April is pregnant she wasn’t exactly up to running the LA Marathon this year so yesterday we rode the LA Bike Tour Marathon instead. The race started at 5:00 A.M. on Exposition Blvd at the USC campus. 

There were about ten thousand of us that rode the course which mostly followed the path the marathon runners took after we finished.

It was fun to get to ride through the streets of LA without any cars to contend with.

April waves as we ride through Korea Town

We missed Julie as she ran by USC but April caught up with her at about mile 14 to run with her for a few miles and to snap this photo.

Kristi was down in SoCal for the long weekend so we met up with her on Saturday and hiked the Baldy Mountain trail in the Angeles National Forest.

Tree hugger!

Really, the redwoods were beautiful.

 Afterwards April and Kristi dropped me off in Claremont so that I could catch the last plenary session of The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology  conference that was held at Claremont Graduate University this year (or as April calls it “my little philosophy club”).  It really is “little,” there were probably only about fifty or so of us in the auditorium.  But most of big* names in Mormon philosophy were there.  Professor Bushman’s presentation was very good and I even ran into an old Utah philosophy buddy.

*relative to the very tiny group of people who are into this sort of stuff.

Book Review: “God Has Made Us a Kingdom”: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons, by Vickie Cleverly Speek.

One victim of the current financial crisis was the Seagull Book and Tape on Santa Monica Blvd. This was an unfortunate loss as it was the only LDS themed book store in SoCal.

The only silver lining in L.A. Seagull Book’s demise was the massive fire sale during its final week. I doubt I ever would have bought this history of the Strangites if it hadn’t been so cheep but Speek’s work would have been well worth the list price.

The story of the Srangites is the most fascinating of all of the Mormon break-off sects. (spoiler alert! I know this is nonfiction but the story twists and turns much like an airport page-turner. so if you want to be surprized by the book itself you should stop reading now). James Strang was a relatively new convert to the church when Joseph Smith was killed. Shortly after the prophet’s death Strang showed up in Nauvoo with a “letter of appointment” wherein, Strang clamed, Joseph had named Strang as his heir. He also claimed that an angel appeared to him and ordained him to that role at the exact moment of the prophet’s martyrdom. Thus Strang became a key player in the succession crisis. Because of his claims, Strang was excommunicated by Brigham Young whereupon he promptly started his own church from which he then excommunicated Young.

James Jesse Strang (Daguerreotype)

Strang had the tendency to draw the most controversial Mormon figures into his version of the faith. These included John C. Bennett (quite possibly the most notorious apostate of all Mormon history) and William Smith (Joseph’s volatile and often violent brother). Strang moved his followers to Voree, Wisconsin where like Smith he discovered ancient metal plates that he then translated into The Rajah Manchou of Vorito. This was a sort of Moroni-esque chronicle of the last man left of civilization prophesying Strang’s rise to the head of the church. Strang also started secret society called the Order of the Illuminati (not to be confused with Dan Brown) that consisted of an elaborate system of secret codes and initiation rights.

Reproduction of the Voree Plates

Though one of Strang’s major platforms for his new church had been opposition to polygamy,  shortly after becoming a prophet he decided that he was suddenly ok with it. He married Elvira Field as his second wife. In order to keep this marriage secret, she changed her name to Charles Douglass and she became Strang's nephew. Elvira also cut her hair and disguised herself as a man. “Charlie” became prophet’s missionary companion and acted as his secretary as the two toured the eastern states as a secret honeymoon. Some of Strang’s followers began to suspect the truth behind his nephew and, disturbed by this discovery, left the church.

Elvira Feild as Charles Douglass

Strang moved his followers to Beaver Island on the north end of Lake Michigan were he set up his kingdom. He made himself king in an elaborate coronation ceremony that shocked some of his followers. Many people believe that Strang and his followers were the true identity behind a mysterious band of pirates that plagued the great lakes during this period. They were accused of as much by their gentile neighbors and an all out war unfolded between the two groups on the lake. There were shootouts between boats, high-speed chases across the ice, an attempt by the gentiles to maroon a group of Strangites on remote island, and their narrow escape from this plot. The war culminated with the assassination of Strang by some of his former followers on a pier in Beaver Island’s harbor. The assassins, though their identities were known, were never brought to justice by a corrupt legal system that endorsed their actions.

Map of Mormon Settlements on Beaver island

After the prophet’s death his sheep wee scattered, the largest group joining the Reorganized Church, or “Josephites,” a few joining the Utah Church, or “Brighamites,” and many leaving Mormonism altogether. Strang’s most loyal followers waited for a successor to appear. They are still waiting.

God Has Made Us a Kingdom is great reading. Speek skillfully tells one of the most interesting stories in the history of Mormonism.