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Flunking Sainthood

I had been a Latter-day Saint for many years before I first heard about the LDS temple ritual of baptism for healing.  I was fascinated. Kudos to guest blogger Jonathan Stapley and his fellow researcher Kris Wright, who have recovered many accounts of this practice, which was part of Mormonism until the 1920s, and are…

In doing research for the Twible I recently came across this chart of the kings and queens of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Is it just me, or is this chart bending over backwards to give these rulers the benefit of the doubt? Joash is listed as “good mostly” (which I assume means “mostly good”), but…

Stephen Prothero was everywhere last month as one of the principal talking heads on PBS’s interesting and balanced series God in America.  Hearing his comments and reading his newest book as part of a blogger roundtable for the Patheos book club, I was reminded again that he is one of the most astute observers of…

This week on By Common Consent, Samuel Brown has a gorgeous post about the reconciliation he was able to have with his father when his dad lay dying. Having recently experienced something similar with my own dad, this touched me greatly and I hope you will take a moment to read it. –JKR Tod und…

When I joined the LDS Church, one of my treasured guides was Tania Rands (now Lyon), who loved me through my many questions. She remains one of my dearest friends. Her guest post today is adapted from a talk she gave this fall in sacrament meeting in Pittsburgh, which she insists is a far more…

I admit it. I am weary of the historical books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. There are only so many ways a king can turn evil, after all. Still, the play-by-play of Chronicles has made me see firsthand the importance of the temple in ancient Israel’s faith, which is the necessary set-up for understanding the…

In October Flunking Sainthood ran the first part of our two-part interview with Christian writer Philip Yancey, whose new book What Good is God? was published yesterday. This week we follow up with some discussion of his writing career in general, including how hard it is for him to bang out a first draft. (As…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fledgling author in possession of raw talent must be in want of an editor. That’s what we now know about Jane Austen, one of the world’s (and my) favorite novelists. Although her brother famously claimed that her books poured out finished from her pen, a careful scholarly…

Friends, I’m in Atlanta for the AAR and so I wasn’t able to attend Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity. (My husband attended and sent me jealousy-inducing text messages from D.C.) In today’s post, guest blogger Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans, who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Huffington Post, reflects on what the rally was able…

Friends, Due to a death in the family, Flunking Sainthood is on hiatus for the next two weeks. I’ll return on Monday, November 1. Thank you to all who have sent their kind words of condolence. Jana
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