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Flunking Sainthood

I recently did a Q&A interview with fellow blogger Matt Litton, author of Mockingbird Parables, about my life as a religion writer. The interview was part of the “Five Good Answers” tradition he has on his blog every Friday, where he has talked to Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and others. It was an honor to…

Many years ago a woman in my ward asked me to explain the theology of the Left Behind series to her. She had heard about the books’ phenomenal popularity and wanted to be sure she understood what they were teaching about the end times – that some Christians would be spared the tribulation by being…

In seminary I took a course on the Psalms. As I go through the Psalter now in the Twible, I am rediscovering all the marginal notes I made in my Bible of things I apparently knew back in those days but have since forgotten. It’s always depressing when that happens and you realize that once…

Everybody loves an underdog story, which is why readers thrilled to Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand‘s unexpected megaseller about a prizewinning horse in the Depression. But while she was researching that book, Hillenbrand kept coming across references to another underdog: Olympic runner and WWII POW Louis Zamperini. Now she offers his biography in Unbroken: A World War…

If, like me, you’ve been following the brouhaha over Rob Bell’s alleged universalism in the last week — and if, like me, you wonder why it is such a big deal that a pastor might choose to emphasize a theology of love than a doctrine of hell — then I have a book for you.…

Well, it’s Fat Tuesday, and amidst all the consumption of Paczki and Pancakes and such, I need to decide today what I’m doing for Lent. Which — gulp — starts tomorrow. And I want your help. In the past, I’ve tried the “giving up” strategy. I’ve given up sweets, television, meat, makeup, and spending money…

This weekend I perused the first half of Devery Anderson’s The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History. The book will be released on March 24 and it’s quite a scintillating collection of primary source material about how the temple experience has changed over time. Some of this was familiar to me, like…

It’s been almost three months now since my husband bought me a Kindle for my birthday. I had asked for one because I thought it would be fun to see what all the fuss was about, even if I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of an e-reader. Like many of my buddies in publishing,…

Recently on WJK Radio, I had the pleasure of co-interviewing Martin Thielen, author of the new book What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? The book is taking off as a group study guide for churches. People want to know whether they can be Christians and believe in evolution (Thielen says…

As many of you know, I am a daily Twitter person, tweeting out a chapter of the Bible every day with humorous — okay, sometimes snarky — commentary. For the last year and a half I’ve been deeply interested in Twitter’s power to communicate, if we can only cut past all the noise of people…
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