For those of you CulturalHallItes listenting to General Conference (crickets chirping?)….it would be interested to hear if any of you detected some NOMish or “Middle Way”-teachings during conference this weekend.
Please comment if you hear any.
Archive for March, 2007
According to Wikipedia, Godwin’s Law (or Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies) was formulated in 1990 by Mike Godwin. Godwin’s Law states:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
I was surprised to read that this Law has a solid Mormon foundation. One of the places Mr. Godwin cited the law, waaaaaaaaaay back in 1990, was in a Usenet thread on on the newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers. The thread was discussing the article “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality,” by Orson Scott Card, published in the February 1990 issue of Sunstone.
Several corrolaries and variants on the Law evolved. My favorite is Sircar’s Corollary:
If [a] discussion touches on homosexuality or Heinlein, Nazis or Hitler are mentioned within three days.
That was certainly the case in the Card thread; the very first reply to the original post called Mr. Card a Nazi!
I would like to propose the Bloggernacle Variant of Godwin’s law:
As an online Bloggernacle discussion grows longer, the probably of a poster being referred to the Elder Bednar talk of Fall 2006 approaches one.
I knew as soon as I heard about Bednar’s talk that people would use it as an excuse, particularly on the internet, to be obnoxious. When these obnoxious folk are called on their offensive behavior, they drag out the pointed stick of the Bednar talk, and poke people with it.
In some discussion groups, when Nazis or Hitler are mentioned, the discussion is over. Further, the person who first mentions Nazis or Hitler loses the argument. I would like to suggest such an application of the Bloggernacle/Borderlands Variant of Godwin’s Law here on The Cultural Hall. If you mention the Bednar talk in response to someone claiming you’ve said something offensive, you are, in fact, being obnoxious and should shut up.
I would cheer such an application throughout the Bloggernacle. All I can do is hope.
Edited to add: I didn’t write this in response to anything that’s happened here. This does seem to happen on FMH a lot, and that’s what brought it on. I suggest it as a “house rule” here at TCH only because I can, not because it’s happened here.
There is a beautiful old stone church in Brooklyn Heights . It has a sign that has the following wonderful message on the gate:
“Welcome to Grace Church
Where we welcome
All who worship
All who doubt
All who long to move from fear to faith
For the opposite of faith is not doubt
The opposite of faith is certainty
In an uncertain world, your doubts are welcome in this community of faith”
Also, last night I was reading Obama’s book Audacity of Hope where he says:
“faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts or that you relinquish your hold on the world…it was beacause of these newfound understandings–that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved–that I was finally able to walk down the aisle and be baptized…It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear.”
Just some things to think about.
This is from yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune:
Cheney to address BYU grads
The heartland of Utah’s conservatism likely will welcome the vice president
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - With the Bush administration under fire from seemingly all sides, where can a vice president find a loving crowd?
In the conservative heart of the most conservative state.
Vice President Dick Cheney will speak at Brigham Young University’s commencement in late April, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.
The vice president is looking forward to returning to Utah to participate in the commencement at Brigham Young University, said Cheney spokesman Jamie Hennigan.
The vice president is tentatively scheduled to speak on April 26 at the Provo university’s graduation ceremony. Cheney last visited the state in 2003 to raise money for his and President Bush’s 2004 election bid.
BYU has about 30,000 students and is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I think he’ll find the audience to be very accommodating and very receptive and very hospitable,” says Kelly Patterson, director of BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, when told of the vice president’s scheduled visit. “It’s an honor when a vice president or the president comes to speak at a university. There are only a limited number of these engagements they can do.”
Cheney’s popularity has hovered in the lower 30s of late with a Gallup Poll on March 14 showing Americans’ job approval rating of Cheney at 34 percent, just a point under Bush’s.
But his approval in Utah, the reddest state in the nation, and especially in Utah County, one of the most conservative areas in the state, is undoubtedly higher.
A Tribune poll in January still showed Bush with a 56 percent job approval rating among Utahns.
BYU plans a universitywide commencement ceremony at the Marriott Center on April 26 and the next day will hold individual college events to award degrees.
Cheney, who is from Wyoming, has ties to Mormons, including a longtime staffer, David Gribben, who converted to the LDS Church and was Cheney’s chief of staff during his time in Congress, as Defense secretary and at his former company, Halliburton. Lynne Cheney, his wife, also has said she has ancestors who were Mormon and migrated from Wales to Utah.
Bush has made two stops in Utah during the past two years, at conventions for the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. He came once during his first term to open the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
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Church mostly sucked yesterday. This even though I gave a talk on three faithful LDS women and Why I Like Relief Society that I got lots of compliments on, and we’re doing a great song for Easter in choir all about Jesus from the Methodist Hymnal (our bishop is singing a short solo).
Sunday School was once again a trial. Relief Society went off on a tangent about the Only True and Living President of the United States and I just had to leave. The Middle Way is doubly difficult if you’re a Democrat.
(Note: hyperbole alert.)
Critics will say of course it sucks, it’s church. Didn’t I say over on NOM once, “Church mostly sucks and most people leave”? Ah, my own criticisms, come back to haunt me.
The Uber-faithful will say that it’s my own fault for lacking charity and for being a Democrat.
When you’re trying to find the middle way, everybody thinks you’re wrong.
I think the solution is for y’all to tell me how wonderful I am and how it’s OK for church to suck and that doesn’t mean it’s stupid to keep going. Also, remind me that I’m not evil and that George Bush is an idiot. That’ll help a lot.
Heather Havrilesky, who writes the I Like to Watch TV column for Salon.com, started one of her recent articles with these observations about “soul”:
“Everything in the world either has soul, or it doesn’t. Lemon squares, for example, have no soul. Pumpkin pie has soul. A Ford Taurus has no soul, but a Ford Bronco does. Baseball bats have a lot of soul. Volleyballs don’t have soul… Dishwashers are soulless. Doing the dishes by hand, on the other hand, is soulful, especially if you fill the sink with hot soapy water and put on rubber gloves. Bright blue plastic kiddie pools have soul. Above-ground pools have no soul. Jumpy castles have soul. Ball pits have no soul…”
You get the idea. Apparently it was a mistake to expose myself to this “soul or no soul” concept so late on a Friday afternoon, because sure enough, the next Sunday as I sat through an especially dull High Councilman’s talk, my semi-conscious brain started randomly generating long lists of Mormon-related “soul vs. no soul” comparisons (which was better than having the Brady Bunch theme song pop into my head, which is what usually happens).
Things like: The tabernacle on temple square has soul. The new conference center has no soul. Sunbeam classes are packed with soul. Elder’s quorum classes are generally soulless. The old Provo 1st Ward chapel where my wife and I first attended church as newlyweds, with its high, vaulted cathedral ceilings, real pipe organ, and secret third-story attic classroom that could only be accessed via a rickety metal spiral staircase had soul. The cookie cutter chapel we attend today has no soul. Funeral potatoes served at ward dinners have soul. Reheated trays of Stouffer’s lasagna served at ward dinners have no soul. Small-talky conversations in the church foyer with the other people who are ditching Sunday school have soul. Small-talky conversations in your living room with the home teachers have no soul.
Those are a few items from my list. I’m sure your list is much different. So to borrow from the immortal words of Ms. Linda Richman, “I’m a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I will give you a topic: What’s on your Mormon ’soul vs. no soul’ list? Discuss…”
While over at FPR discussing the vagaries of the Flood, I made a comment which LXXLuthor very gently pointed out was a threadjack. It occurred to me that my comment had some NOMish possibilities, so I brought it over here to discuss.
Symbolic or literal? The earth is full of students and scholars who debate the historicity of the Biblical stories. Often to the detriment of the underlying principle beneath, such scriptorians cast their nets for any scientific tidbit or authoritative statement that will back up their assumptions. Two Biblical accounts which are especially susceptible to such wresting are the Creation story in Genesis and the record of Noah and the Flood.
In construing the Flood narration, some believers advocate an extreme literalist approach. Noah was a real person, they say, who built an actual boat, the exact dimensions of which we know. There was a worldwide Flood which covered the entire earth, including the highest moutaintops. Others religionists prefer a different approach. Scientific evidence is incompatible with a worldwide Flood, they point out. Perhaps there was a regional deluge, on a smaller scale, but covering the world as Noah knew it. This approach also presupposes a real figure–Noah, or perhaps Gilgamesh or Utnapishtim or Ziusudra. Legends of this event were incorporated into the Bible by its writers. Julie M. Smith has posted a Sunday School lesson which succinctly explains these two proposals along with good reasons and poor reasons for subscribing to a literal Flood or a localized Flood. (190 fun comments by advocates of both sides follow!) A third method of interpreting the Flood is as an allegory. The story of a great Deluge and an ancient prophet is an allegory–a story written as a poetic means of illustrating an abstract or spiritual meaning. We should not be expected to believe this event actually happened.
I have noted that proponents of each of these views can make their case with equal vehemence, but a more interesting direction for New Order Mormons may be to consider each theory in its own right and what principles we can learn from each. This method might even be a productive way to approach the scriptures in arenas where there are conversation between conservative, liberal and non-believing participants.
For example, if the flood story is an allegory, appropriated from Mesopotamian myth, why was it used by Biblical authors? What poetic elements are used? How do they advance the objectives of the author(s)?
Perhaps the flood was a localized event based on the flooding of the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley, What lessons did the small group of people who survived learn from the event? How did they see themselves in the larger picture of world history? What ties did they have to the story to cause them to adopt it as their chronicle of national origin? How does their story apply to us as a “chosen people?”
Lastly, consider Noah’s story as a literal worldwide catastrophe. Why would God find it necessary to cleanse the entire earth and start over? What were his purposes in doing so? What made him promise not to do it again?
Perhaps others may think of more thought-provoking questions, I’m just throwing out a few simple ones to illustrate the possibilities in using this approach. I’m not sure that Sunday School teachers would be comfortable teaching the scriptures in this manner. But perhaps if class members were open to thinking this way, we could claim more of a role in “the most dreaded Sunday meeting.”
Wow! We got 2nd place in the Best New Blog category of the niblets awards!!!
Thanks to all of you who voted. And most importantly, thanks to all the permabloggers here for your most excellents posts.
Let’s go for best big blog next year!!! 
The post yesterday about Levi Peterson really got me thinking about how each of us struggles to balance our responsibilities to our religious community, to our families, and to ourselves—to integrity. Square Peg’s great post was still fresh in my mind last night when I was reading from the best-selling book “48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.
Law 38, Think as you like but behave like others“If you make a show of going against the time, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down on them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.”
This “Law” is obviously an over simplification, but it does correlate to finding a sustainable “middle way” in Mormonism, and there is some real truth to it from my experience (but it doesn’t sound very inspiring or full of intergity), so this morning I re-listened to John Dehlin’s interview with Dr. Armand Mauss about Mormonism’s struggle with assimilation (Sunstone podcast #02).
Now this was very inspiring! The whole interview is wonderful (thanks John), but my favorite part is near the end when Dr. Mauss shares how he personally navigates the issues and struggles we all face and he does it with great integrity. John Dehlin draws a beautiful parallel to Dr. Mauss by saying “…that all of us individually seek to find the same balance of tension between assimilation and individuality as a religion does within its societal context.” Give it a listen or re-listen.
After reading Matt Thurston’s outstanding Sunstone Blog review of Levi Peterson’s recent memoir, A Rascal by Nature, A Christian by Yearning, I’m afraid I’ve gone off on a bit of a Levi Peterson reading binge. I’ve always loved Peterson’s writing—in my opinion The Backslider is about as good as it gets in Mormon fiction—but A Rascal by Nature, A Christian by Yearning reached out and grabbed me in ways that I frankly wasn’t expecting. Continue reading ‘Levi Lovin’’
Since calling for a Bloggernacle Fast for Peace, I’ve seen several different LDS responses to the political realities of international conflict. I believe that we all desire peace in our world, countries, neighborhoods, and families. We have diverse opinions as to how this may be achieved, or if it is even possible. But I believe that within each individual lie the seeds of peaceful resolution to conflict. I call upon you to join me tomorrow, Sunday, March 4th, in a vigil for world peace. I ask you to pray, fast, meditate, or send out positive thoughts regarding peace. As you do so, I hope you will be able to find more peace in your heart and your own little corner of the world.
In meditating this week upon my upcoming fast for peace, I read several articles that you may find of interest as you ponder upon peace. This Dialogue article makes a case for Mormon pacifism. Here is a more moderate piece about the complexities of Mormon thought on War and Peace. And this article is a discussion of Christian pacifism. I’d love to hear your comments about how this vigil for peace unfolded in your life.
On my commute this morning I listened to the latest “Speaking of Faith” podcast (If you haven’t listened to this series, it is wonderful).
In this episode Krista Tippet talks with Dr. Keshavarz a scholar of Persian & Comparative Literature and expert on the 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet Rumi. There were some great quotes that seemed very appropriate for The Cultural Hall. Though I am sharing a few of these a bit out of context, the ideas are very powerful… Continue reading ‘Rumi-nation…’
Hey! The Cultural Hall was nominated in the Niblet Awards for best new blog. Kinda fun. Thanks to all our permabloggers and commenters for their participation.
If you are so inclined, check it out!
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