Derl Sanderson

I would trust Steven Harper with my brother-in-law's restored 1965 Mustang. First rate, faithful scholar and excellent writer (not my brother-in-law ... Harper!). This book is a good one!

If anecdotes now pass for data, I suppose I can say that in my life in the Church, I have never once heard this complaint or been a recipient of this kind of questioning myself from any bishop ... ever. Your experience in wards and circle of friends may be considerably larger than mine. In the spirit of full disclosure I have lived in eight wards and paid tithing (and attended settlement) under 20 bishops.

You started by arguing that Joseph said there should be no changes made to the endowment. When I showed you from the historical record that Joseph himself made changes to the endowment and personally instructed Brigham to do the same, your argument morphed into the idea that it was OK for Joseph to add truth as God revealed it. Absolutely. But that's still change. It seems to me you are making a distinction without a difference. The often referred to "three pillars of eternity" are still there. The aspect of it being a ritual of ascension remains. All the covenants are still there. The s

I do think it's worth asking what Joseph had in mind when he made the statement you have bolded. He said this in a discourse delivered in Nauvoo in 1844. He had already introduced the latest version of the endowment to associates in Nauvoo two years earlier in 1842, and certainly would have understood that that version of the endowment differed substantially from the one he introduced in Kirtland nearly a decade earlier. He also seemed aware that further changes would be made as Brigham Young reportedly said that Joseph told him: "Brother Brigham this is not arranged right but we have done the

Kwaku also seems to have an association of some sort with Book of Mormon Central.

100% with Nuclearfuels on this ... easily the most hideous song in the hymnbook. Depressing lyrics. Downer minor key that cannot be redeemed by the Picardy third on the last chord. Yuck! Only antidote to bad choral music is good instrumental music (though you probably won't hear this in any church setting, it'll for sure get "Bells" out of your head).

Thanks ... rather stunning you'd presume I didn't know any of that. Does your comment signal that we are now to also take your many non-contextualized comments equally seriously? 😉

When members of the 10th Mountain Division moved into Italian towns after clearing them from German occupational troops during WWII, orders were given to soldiers and townspeople that anyone caught looting would be shot. There was no looting. Source: My father who served there.

Let me say a big AMEN to Kevin's referencing the essay "Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon: A Textual Exegesis" by Ethan Sproat. It is as good as anything I've read. You can find it here. And seeing as Kevin is apparently hesitant to blow his own horn, let me do it and also recommend to you his own excellent essay in Interpreter where he cites Sproat's work.

Indeed, it wasn't my place and most assuredly not yours. As indicated in what I said, it was the choice of these three women, no one else. Did you not understand that from what I wrote??

My current Covid mask looks just like the guy's in the video, so I'm good.

It seems clear to me that "more agency" could also include the option of placing a baby for adoption. This isn't theoretical musing for me. Somewhere in this world there are three women who will always be held in almost worshipful respect by me, my wife, and our three children. We don't know who these women are, but I pray God will someday let me meet them so that I might meagerly attempt to tell them what their inexpressible faith and courage means to the five of us regarding their choosing to place their babies with my wife and I to raise. I can hardly conceive such a sacrifice, but I n

Yes ... but after the first 25 minutes of "naaaa, naaaa, naaaa, nah-nah-nah-nah; nah-nah-nah-nah, Hey Jude" I start to lose interest.

Sigh ... looks like we're talking past each other. And you also lost me that Hey Jude and Honey Pie "can't be the same band." They are from the same band! And just as a point of interest, which of those two do you consider more elegant? 🙂

But I'm not comparing his writing capabilities with his talents in speaking. That seems a red herring to me. I'm comparing two examples from the same medium: writing. And again, the less elegant and more highly edited of the two was written at least two years after the first, which poses a difficult (or at least interesting) question as to how that might be if Joseph was both the author of the BOM (published in 1830) as well as the 1832 account of the First Vision.