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Flunking Sainthood

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the quiet removal of Bruce R. McConkie’s compendium Mormon Doctrine from Deseret booktores. All references to it had already been expunged from the Gospel Principles manual brought back into use for priesthood and Relief Society in 2010. It is no longer officially recognized by the Church. Like many…

Ah, the Psalms of lament. In terms of the “big categories” of Psalms, this one is the granddaddy. It seems I’m not the only one who likes to complain about life occasionally. Or daily. Here’s a sampling of some of these kvetchy masterpieces: Community 12, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89*, 90,…

“An editor has an eschatological hopefulness that in the end a manuscript can become much more than it presently is; that it can find fulfillment and fruition in new and unexpected ways.” –Al Hsu Al Hsu (pronounced “shee”) is an author (The Suburban Christian; Grieving a Suicide), a dad, a Ph.D. student, and an editor…

I’ve been a fan of Lynne Baab‘s writing since I read her book on fasting a few years ago. I draw from it in the fasting chapter of Flunking Sainthood and highly recommend it. Now, I also have the pleasure of working with her as an editor! She’s working on a book for WJK on…

Last weekend I talked too much, ate too much, enjoyed much-needed laughs, reconnected with friends, reflected more than usual about my faith, and got (a little) more sleep than usual. I was with a group of about 50 Mormon women at Midwest Pilgrims. As always, it was a marvelous retreat. I first went to Midwest…

#Twible Ps 69: G, I know you don’t really want my enemies to triumph here. It would make you look like a total wuss deity. Man up, please. There’s a whole lot of shame in the Psalms. I guess it’s not surprising, when you remember what a shame-based culture Israel seems to have been. Generally,…

As we continue with our Thursday Spirituality series for May, we draw from what I thought was one of the most powerful essays in Allan Cole’s anthology A Spiritual Life. I had not heard of Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher before, but her compelling account of being diagnosed with MS at the tender age of 30 had…

Well, I’m going to be a little snarky here and hazard a prediction that the world will not really end on Saturday. Or even that the rapture will occur, taking 3% of the world’s population now before the world really ends on October 22. Those are the cheery teachings of fundamentalist radio host Harold Camping.…

I have a short post up at The Thoughtful Christian this week about my dilemma about whether to see the movie Water for Elephants. I just read the book and was enthralled by it, but am wondering whether the book’s richly evocative descriptions and characters could possibly translate to the big screen. (I’m also not…

As we continue our Thursday Spirituality series for the month of May, we draw another excerpt from Allan Cole’s newly published book A Spiritual Life. This comes from my friend Lauren Winner, who is asked all the time why she converted in her 20s from Orthodox Judaism to Anglican Christianity. People who read her books…
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