NothingWavering.org - LDS Blogs

The Rains Came Down: Patiently Wandering in the Desert

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:00:00 -0700

"Out in the desert they wander, Hungry and helpless and cold; Off to the rescue he hastens, Bringing them back to the fold." LDS Hymns #221, "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd" But as much as He is hastening to rescue, it can feel like an eternity to the foolish, lost sheep. As a student of pre-veterinary medicine, I once had the privilege of knowing a real-life shepherd. Not just a sheepherder,

Mormon Women: Who We Are: Mormon Women and Education

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:36:00 -0700

~by Heather L.

I always wanted to be a mother… and a detective, and a librarian, and a teacher. And I have always loved to learn!

From the time I was little, my mother was a great example to me of an educated woman – she completed her college degree even after getting married, and got her teaching certificate not too long after I started school. She loved to learn, and took every opportunity to do so, whether it was Friday night “Know Your Religion” classes or a “just because I want to learn” Hebrew class at a local college.

Reading was one of my favorite occupations, and I read voraciously growing up. I can remember my uncle getting frustrated because I was so absorbed in a book that I didn’t hear him calling me… again and again and again. I kept a dictionary in my desk at school that I would read during silent reading time if I didn’t have a novel. I really loved to learn!

Every subject in elementary and high school was exciting to some degree or another – science and dissecting a frog, math and puzzles, reading and writing, creating works of art, playing and appreciating music…. I was blessed with many great teachers who brought those subjects alive and made me want to learn more. Their excitement for learning set fire to mine, and motivated me toward furthering my education, both spiritual and temporal.

They taught as we are counseled in the Doctrine and Covenants 88:78-80, and helped prepare me for my mission in life:

78 Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

And college — college was like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet -– so many interesting choices, so much to learn, and so much to try! I found joy in geology, solace in singing, an outlet in art, the Spirit in the scriptures (I attended BYU, a Mormon university, so religion classes were part of the curriculum), and so much more. As a matter of fact, when I took a zoology class as part of my major requirements, I thought that if I could do it all over again, I might have chosen zoology as a major – it was like being that detective that I’d dreamed of becoming as a child!

In looking at this buffet, I felt much like Merlin the magician in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, when he said:

“Look what a lot of things there are to learn…. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics, why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your opponent at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics until it is time to learn to plough.”

I struggled with deciding what to major in – I loved science, and reading, and writing, and history, and math (thanks to a great professor!). How could I choose just one?

So I chose elementary education, to become the teacher I dreamed of being, until I met my husband, and became the mother I had wanted to be all along.

Then, learning became like a torch to be passed to my children’s eager young minds – reading books, going to museums and science centers, doing homework together, mastering technology, passing on my one-handed piano playing skills…. It has been a joy to be able to be at home sharing what I have learned, and watching them surpass me! It is a legacy that we can pass on, and that can last eternally:

Doctrine & Covenants 130:18-19

18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

Are Mormon women encouraged to be educated? Yes, at every turn, and in both the spiritual and the temporal!

On the spiritual side, we are encouraged to learn from the time we are young, attending everything from Primary classes, to Young Women and Personal Progress, to Seminary and Institute, Family Home Evening, and Relief Society classes. Personal and family study of the gospel and the scriptures is also a key part of being a Mormon woman.

On the temporal side, we are encouraged to be literate and educated, to prepare ourselves for careers, motherhood, and life in general. No effort to learn is wasted –- I have used what I have learned throughout my life in so many ways: at home, in the schools, in the community, at church — and feel that continuing to learn is one of the best investments in my life.

President Gordon B. Hinckley counseled Mormon women to “…educate your hands and your minds. You belong to a church which espouses education. To you young women may I suggest that you get all the education you can. Train yourselves to make a contribution to the society in which you will live. There is an essence of the divine in the improvement of the mind.”

Even as a mother of adult children, I am constantly learning – learning to use my latest cell phone to keep in touch with friends and family; learning to use computer programs to write blogs and make presentations; learning how to research my family history via the Internet and FamilySearch; and my favorite, learning more from the scriptures every day! As I continue to “seek… out of the best books words of wisdom” (Doctrine & Covenants 88:118) I am becoming the librarian I dreamed of being, too.

As Mormon women – as all women “seek learning, even by study and also by faith” it is continual education, — eternal education, life-blessing education. As we share what we learn with our families, friends, and communities, as we learn from one another, our intelligence expands, and together we can do amazing things!

MormonTechie.com: new.lds.org Now Available!

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:00:00 -0700

I should have posted this a long time ago. I played with this again tonight and it is really, really neat. Love the new interface for everything and very excited about where this is going, especially the “Tools for your Calling.” There are so many possibilities here, and tracking stuff online can make it so much easier to pass onto others in the future.

Some New features (from Joel Dehlin)

* Great new search (try out the facets!)
* Prophets and Apostles Speak Today
* Church News and Events
* Church Organization
* Temples
* Humanitarian Service
* “Our Heavenly Father’s Plan”
* New e-store
* New Ward Calendar (with Google Calendar integration) and Ward Directory
* My Notebook (this is amazing and will sync with your mobile device in about a month or so). To try it out, login and go to scriptures or general conference. When you mouse-over a paragraph, you can tag and mark stuff and type in your own notes.

You can read the article from Joel at the link below. Go and check it out. I think I read in the forums somewhere that the church is looking at a January 1, 2011 launch date for taking over the main site.

More Information

Scriptorium Blogorium: Respect in Families

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:04:00 -0700

“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” (Family Proclamation, emphasis added)

What exactly do we mean by R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

“esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability: I have great respect for her judgment…
deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy; acknowledgment: respect for a suspect's right to counsel; to show respect for the flag; respect for the elderly…
the condition of being esteemed or honored: to be held in respect.
to hold in esteem or honor: I cannot respect a cheat….
to show regard or consideration for: to respect someone's rights…
to refrain from intruding upon or interfering with: to respect a person's privacy. ”
(“Respect,” Dictionary.com)

There are different types of respect that we give or get in this world and they have to do with what we value, what we feel is worth admiring. Respect can be based on:

personal appearance.
personality/charisma.
skill-set.
experience.
wealth.
fame/notoriety.
family connections/genealogy.
power/influence.
divine nature
obedience to the principles and commandments of the gospel

Now, I want to you look at that list and pick out which of those types of respect you have for the members of your family. Which forms of respect to you have to your spouse? Children? Parents? Extended family?

Next, think about what types of respect in the list above can be called temporal and which can be called eternal.

What types of respect in the list above do you have for the person you admire most in the world?

What types of respect in the list above do you extend to the person living who you like least in the world?

What types of respect do you give yourself?

What types of respect does God extend to us as His children? "And [Jesus] said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15) Before we can correctly incorporate respect in our families, we have to adopt the Lord’s values and respect what He respects. That means thinking carefully about what we respect and why, and doing some repentance if necessary.

I want to say a little something about respect based on divine nature. I think respect for a person’s divine nature will lead us to act according to certain principles that are linked with divine nature. Four things are tied to our divine nature—gender, intelligence, agency, and potential. So if you respect someone’s divine nature, you have to respect their gender, their intelligence, their agency, and their potential.

We respect gender by reaffirming the eternal roles of men and women, giving opportunities for development of the skillsets related to those roles, and allowing individual gender expression to develop at its own pace. (The world may say this is limiting, but from the eternal perspective, it is empowering.) We respect gender by reaffirming the necessary complementary nature of male and female in procreation and raising a family.
We respect intelligence by teaching each person, by exhibiting faith in their ability to learn and apply what they’ve learned, and by searching for ways to draw out their innate talents and gifts.
We respect agency by teaching about choices, allowing choice, and allowing the consequences that come from those choices.
We respect potential by speaking hopefully of a person’s future in terms of the possibility of blessings for keeping the commandments and by giving them a vision of a bright future in which they have conquered their present difficulties.

When I see respect in the scriptures, it is most often respect for obedience and personal righteousness. I’ll point out some examples.

And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish. And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a blessing, yea, even my first blessing. (2 Nephi 1:28)

This is Lehi speaking at the end of his life, exhibiting great respect for his son Nephi. This could only have happened because of Nephi’s personal righteousness.

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people. (2 Nephi 5:26)

Nephi respected the righteousness of his two younger brothers.

Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. (2 Nephi 6:2)

Jacob respected Nephi for his righteousness too.

Next we see some characterization of the 2,000 stripling warriors.

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. (Alma 56:47)

Their respect for father’s liberty and mother’s teaching was based on their parents’ personal righteousness.

Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them. (Alma 57:21)

The stripling warriors respected Helaman the prophet so much that they tried to do exactly what he said. Because of their careful obedience, it is obvious that he respected them just as much. All of this respect was based on personal righteousness.

Next we have Joseph Smith’s account of after the angel Moroni told him about the plates.

49 The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.
50 I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there. (JSH 1:49-50)

To obey the angel by telling his father, Joseph must have respected his father’s personal righteousness. And his father must have had a certain amount of respect for Joseph too, since he believed him.

Not only must our families be built and maintained on the principle of respect (among other things), it must be the right kind of respect.

A Soft Answer: Most Christians say Mormons are Christians (barely)

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:34:00 -0700

Glenn Beck wasn’t entirely correct when he said this weekend that most Christians don’t consider Mormons as Christians too. I would have said the same thing but this Pew Survey from 2007 claims that 52% of surveyed Catholics/Protestants/Unaffiliated Christians consider Mormons to be Christian.

It would be incorrect to state that “most” Christians do not view Mormonism as a Christian religion. A 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that a majority of Catholics (52%) say that Mormons are Christian; 29% say they are not. Among all Protestants, more say Mormonism is a Christian religion than say it is not by a 49%-to-34% margin. This includes 62% of white mainline Protestants who say Mormons are Christians.

But a significant majority in each grouping still thinks we’re “very different.” I prefer “peculiar” but I can live with that.

Mormon Musings: Mormons, Jews, Holocaust Victims and Proxy Temple Ordinances: Has the Last Chapter Been Written?

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:02:00 -0700

Yesterday, the Church and Jewish leaders announced a joint agreement concerning temple work for Holocaust victims. Jewish survivors of the Holocaust have objected to proxy baptisms being done for Holocaust victims.

I have followed this issue in detail and noted discrepancies in news reports and understanding.

Proxy baptism and other temple ordinances are central to our beliefs. Living people do these ordinances for themselves. For those who cannot, the deceased, we do it for them -- by proxy. They have the option of accepting this vicarious work or not. Obviously, there is no way to know whether do or do not.

The joint statement issued yesterday and the two accompanying news articles confirmed my suspicion that the sticky wicket has been name submittal.

Jewish and Mormon leaders have discussed the issue intermittently for the past 15 years. In 1995, the church removed the names of hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust victims from its genealogical database in acknowledgement of the unique sensitivity reflected by the Holocaust.

However, despite repeated efforts, it proved impossible to prevent names of Jewish Holocaust victims and survivors from being submitted for baptisms, since any member of the church could submit such names.

People seemed to think that the central Church operations in Salt Lake City were generating names for proxy services and that they could control it. Knowing that anybody could submit names and there was little the Church could do about it, I knew that there was profound misunderstanding. Central Church operations could remove names from the database after the fact but controlling submittal wasn't possible.

In fact, our enemies could even find some disaffected Member to assist them, have the Member submit the names and them scream that the Mormons were violating agreements, good taste and sensitivity. I have absolutely no evidence that this occurred but it could have.

Consider this analogy, do you have complete ability to control all "bills" that are submitted to you? You certainly control what bills you pay but you cannot control what is submitted to you.

In the article in The Jewish Week, it also confirms the issue was submittal:

“We said they didn’t live up to their policy,” said Michel. He admits he essentially gave up on getting the Church to comply, despite repeated attempts to impress upon its leaders that the practice of including Jewish names for baptism — including his parents and grandmother, who were murdered by the Nazis — was deeply offensive to Jews.

For its part, the Church insisted that it was doing its best to expunge the names of Holocaust victims from its enormous database. It said it had removed hundreds of thousands of such names, while admitting that tens of thousands remained on file.

“We had believed all along that the changes and enhancements to our computer systems would allow us to control this,” explained Mike Otterson, managing director of public affairs for the Church. “We weren’t able to convince Mr. Michel of that, and it looked like we would have to agree to disagree.”

Technology to the rescue. Recent technological advances are allowing the Church to monitor what names are submitted. I think this passage from The Jewish Week article explains the new safeguards clearly:

“It is the personal responsibility of Church members to submit temple work [proxy baptism] for their own families,” noted Mormon spokesman Otterson.

He explained that for the first time Mormons would have to show a direct family lineage to the names they choose to enter for proxy baptism. In addition, computer instructions will inform members of the exemption for Holocaust victims and ask if the entries are in compliance with Church policy.

As I've followed this controversy over the years I've also mused over other administrative difficulties in trying to accommodate Holocaust survivors's requests:
- How do we know the religion of the person that died?
- How do we know the culture of the person that died?
- How do we know the way in which the person died?
- How do we know whether a name change occurred sometime between birth and death?

As Mormons we don't get into any of this. Here is an excerpt of a piece I wrote during the media circus when we discovered temple work for Obama's mother had been performed:

As a Mormon, I've tried to determine how I might feel if the situation were reversed. How would I feel if someone obtained an indulgence for me or otherwise did something religiously important to them on my behalf? Quite Honestly, I think I would be touched by their kindness. They are acting out of love.

Our actions stem from love for billions of people who have died. Our performing this vicarious baptism allows them the choice to accept/reject it in the next life. We do not evaluate their lives, deaths, opportunities, choices etc. We do not presume to know if they had the choice here in this life or what they would choose to do if they did. I am astonished that people can confidently say they KNOW what the person in question would want or would not want.

My husband's father converted on his death bed and asked him to perform the baptismal, and other ordinances, for him and seal (eternal marriage) him to his first (already deceased) and second wives. When informed of this, his second wife refused to believe that her husband had made this change or requested it. She still won't believe it.

I'm hopeful that this new agreement can be honored to the satisfaction of both Mormons and Jews. But, in some ways I am skeptical. Today's statement by B'nai B'rith does not acknowledge that the sticking point was submittal. So, I suspect misunderstanding and mistrust will persist in some form. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Though both parties seem pleased by the outcome, critics remained skeptical.

Mokotoff doubts any computer system can keep Holocaust names from reappearing in the church database.

“The only way this is going to be stopped is by the church reprimanding individuals doing it — first with a warning, then something stronger — maybe excommunication,” he said. “It’s the 55-mph rule of the Mormon Church. It’s on the books, but no one enforces it.”

For my part, I'm astonished that people and entities would try and dictate religious practices to other religions or recommend sanctions for how a church should discipline its members. I would never presume to lecture Jews, or anyone else for that matter, on how they should worship on their Sabbath or discipline members for not doing so, for example. It seems arrogant to me.

For my part, I'm glad an agreement and understanding has been reached with the direct participants involved. It should not be an issue for others.

But, I can't help feeling that Holocaust victims are being victimized again by those seeking to control their destinies, however well-intentioned. Mormons simply give the deceased the "option" to accept or reject the vicarious work. We don't try and force anything on them.

Segullah: Afternoons of Nothing

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:56:00 -0700

I have just done my most radical act of parenting so far in my fifteen-year career of raising six children: I have pulled my children out of all extra-curricular activities.

Even piano lessons.

Last year I spent just about every afternoon driving little people to various lessons, games, practices and rehearsals. There were the accompanying happy experiences: pride and excitement as my daughter performed onstage for the first time; my sons becoming more flexible and strong through Kung Fu; the sense of accomplishment my oldest two kids felt after finishing well in a golf tournament.

But there was the ugliness of all the extra-curriculars too: the fact that I spent very little after-school time helping kids with homework and just being there; the nagging and quarrelling about practicing, the lack of decent dinners (I always meant to do something in the crock pot, but it just never seemed to happen).

This year instead of becoming more accomplished we are going back to the basics: we will be working on eating good meals together and getting to sleep early. That’s our after-school curriculum now.

If you have school-aged children then you know the pressure to do everything; to try everything. What if you have a future world-class gymnast on your hands or a budding concert violinist? How will you know unless you expose them to everything, right? It has finally dawned on me that if I have a world-class anything, I’ll know. A prodigy’s talents do not hinge on a ballet class taken in first grade.

I’ve had to admit to myself that my children aren’t particularly gifted at any of the activities they have been involved in. And they didn’t really love them. I want them to be passionate about the things they do. I want them to soar and become wonderful. But after a long hard look I realized that most of our activities were just taking up our time and money.

The constant busy-ness has been strangling me. I don’t have a go, go, go personality. I like things calm and unhurried.

There would be lots of tears and complaining, I imagined, when I announced our new plan to not do anything. But no. It seems that we were all pretty fed up with the crazy schedule.

We’ve spent the last two weeks since school began hanging out with each other. I’ve had the time to make a nice meal every night. We’ve enjoyed leisurely dinners together full of laughter and conversation and then gotten to bed at a decent time. The simple life has ended up being pretty lovely.

We still continue to do Scouts and church activities. We’ll probably phase things in slowly. But I plan on keeping the extra-curriculars in check. If a child loves something, that’s fine. But the days of signing kids up just to do something fun are over.

Long live simplicity.

Feast upon the Word Blog: A Conference on D&C 42 (Hosted by the Mormon Theology Seminar)

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:41:00 -0700

See the linked-to poster for an upcoming conference on D&C 42 (in a week!). Speakers include Nate Oman, Kristine Haglund, Russell Arben Fox, Jeremiah John, Karen Spencer, and our own Robert C. and Joe Spencer. Mormon Theology Seminar Poster

Rachel's Latter-day Saints Blog: General Relief Society Meeting

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:28:00 -0700

Every year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a General Relief Society Meeting which is broadcast to church buildings throughout the world. This year the 1.5 hour ...

Read Full Post

Keepapitchinin: She Had a Question, 1913 (4)

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:30:00 -0700

Questions, 1913

Heavenly Ascents: April DeConick: Seminar on “Mapping Death:Religious Preparation for the Afterlife Journey”

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:06:00 -0700

Looking back, I probably should have spaced these posts out over a few days to prevent you all from developing “information overload” syndrome. But this last post today is a good one (at least I think so).

It has come to my attention (via her blog Forbidden Gospels) that Rice University Professor of Biblical Studies, April DeConick, will be a part of an extended research seminar that will be studying how different religions/cultures have prepared themselves for the “afterlife journey” that they anticipate having to traverse at death, including religious teachings and practices.

From her blog:

The semester is a week advanced and this year I am facilitating a Mellon Seminar. The topic? Mapping Death: Religious Preparations for the Afterlife Journey. The Seminar consists of myself, five graduate students from various departments (Religious Studies, French Studies, and Anthropology) and a webmaster. We are in the process of developing a webpage for the Seminar, so if you are interested you can track our progress.

Each student has an individual research project to work on, and then we are collaborating in terms of method and theory, sharing our approaches with each other. It is an exciting seminar and I am so pleased to be part of it. My own individual research project involves mapping ancient Gnostic metaphysics and praxis.

Here is a short description of the seminar:

This is a collaborative research seminar consisting of fellows working on cross-culturally mapping death journeys and religious preparations for them in order to investigate the relationship between the anticipated afterlife journey and the group’s metaphysics and praxis. The fellows will be engaged in the creation and cultivation of a rich interdisciplinary approach to the comparative study of traditions, a ‘new’ history-of-traditions approach that is conscious of the historical contexture of traditions, their referentiality, confluence, communal generation and conveyance, responsiveness, changeability, accumulative nature, and variability in transmission. Members will be working on individual research projects related to the seminar’s mission and their dissertations. At the end of the year, they will present their final projects in a roundtable symposium that also will feature invited papers from three external scholars who will visit the seminar at various sessions during the Spring semester. The papers from the symposium will be edited for publication in a volume.

I will be keeping a close eye on this seminar to see what they up with and look forward to the subsequent publication. This is an important topic and the research done will be significant for anyone interested in Temple studies (and Heavenly Ascents!) — preparation for the “afterlife journey” is one of the main purposes of the Temple, both ancient and modern.

I have met April DeConick and some of her graduate students and I highly respect the work that they do there at Rice University. You can expect it to be very professional and methodologically sound.

Heavenly Ascents: On the Origins of the Alphabet

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:43:00 -0700

Another great post from Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica.com:

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE ALPHABET: An interesting debate was started up in the March/April issue of BAR by Orly Goldwasser on whether the alphabet was invented in elite scribal circles or (her position) in a working-class environment. Anson Rainey and now Christopher Rollston have replied, taking the contrary view. Much of the discussion is online:

Orly Goldwasser, How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs (mostly behind a subscription wall).

Anson Rainey, with Goldwasser’s rebuttal, Who Really Invented the Alphabet—Illiterate Miners or Educated Sophisticates? (BAR website).

Christopher Rollston, FEATURED POST by Christopher Rollston: The Probable Inventors of the First Alphabet (ASOR blog).

Note also the recent discussion of The Origins of ABC in a post at John Boardley’s I Love Typography blog.

Heavenly Ascents: 2,000-Year-Old Cupid Found in Jerusalem Excavations

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:35:00 -0700

AN ANCIENT CUPID CAMEO has been excavated in Jerusalem:

Israel archeologists uncover 2,000-year-old cupid in City of David dig

Israel Antiquities Authority says added inlaid semi-precious stone is of the ‘Eros in mourning,’ one of a group of visual motifs linked with mourning practices.

By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news archeology Jerusalem

Israeli archeologists unveiled a 2,000 year old semi-precious cameo bearing the image of Cupid on Monday, which the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said was among several items located in the City of David archeological area in Jerusalem’s Old City in the last 12 months.

The cameo, which will be displayed at the 11th Annual City of David Archaeology Conference scheduled to take place later this week, is 1 cm in length and 0.7 cm in width, and was discovered in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation, a part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.

[...]

Click on the link for a photo and detailed description.

Via Jim Davila’s PaleoJudaica.com

This is an interesting find that demonstrates how the syncretization of religious ideas and symbols in the ancient world was deeper than we sometimes think.

Now I’m not trying to make any profound connection here between modern LDS temples and ancient practices, but it was interesting for me to read about this find in light of a recent discussion I had with some LDS colleagues regarding an apparent image of Cupid inside the LDS Salt Lake Temple. I think this does demonstrate that no matter the original or subsequent interpretation of a specific religious symbol, that symbol can, and very often is, reapplied by others to fit their own belief system.

Mormon Women: Who We Are: LDS Humanitarian Services assisting in Pakistan

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:15:00 -0700

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day is working with other organizations to get relief supplies to people affected by the extensive flooding in Pakistan. The Church teamed with International Relief and Development, International Medical Corps, and Saba Aslam Welfare and Trust, and will be working in the future with Islamic Relief, USA in the next few weeks to continue to get aid to the Pakistani people.

In a recent General Conference address, President Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church, touched on the fact that the Mormon Church’s Humanitarian program has been part of the Church’s welfare system for 25 years. As the LDS Newsroom website states: “The Church provides relief and development projects for humanitarian purposes in countries all over the world. Projects operate without regard to the nationality or religion of the recipients.” The Church covers all overhead, so 100% of donations to Humanitarian Services go directly toward relief efforts.

President Monson also remarked that it is the Church’s goal to be among the first to respond when there are emergency needs around the world. There are also other projects for sustaining health and well-being that Humanitarian Services focuses on, including clean water projects, immunization programs, wheelchair distribution, nutrition assistance, neonatal resuscitation training, and vision treatment.

For more information about LDS Humanitarian Services, or to donate (you don’t have to be LDS to contribute), see the LDS Humanitarian Services home page.

Photo from Wikipedia Commons

MormonTechie.com: Android App Find – Zoodles – Educational Games for Kids

noreply@nothingwavering.org (No Reply) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:14:00 -0700

Remember about a year ago when I posted about this great browser for kids called Glubble? Well, it is still out there and great, but I think I just found something better.

Zoodles website link

Zoodles is a Glubble like product. It lets you create a family profile and add each kid, but it is focused on education. What’s more, it has this amazing reporting back-end that allows partents to look at what the kids are learning based on areas like reading, math, science, etc.

I was looking around for a game tonight on my phone to entertain (and educate) my 5 year old preschooler and just ran across this on my android phone. It is a free download to install.

I was very pleased when she opened it and it had a ton of the Starfall games (another great website for young preschool learners) right on my phone. She had a blast.

Unfortunately it costs about $5/month to track what the kids are doing, but it lets the kids keep playing even if you don’t have an account to see what they are doing.

Of course I went ahead and set up profiles for all the rest of my kids and they had appropriate stuff for them as well.

I’m so losing my phone for the next couple of weeks to the kids… and I’m okay with that.