I found Jon Haidt’s reference in The Happiness Hypothesis to the literature related to ethics of community versus ethics of individuality to be useful. In particular, it was his suggestion that perhaps we would not want to completely eliminate either one or the other that got me thinking about this concept. There is lots of…
“I Am Hutterite†by Mary-Ann Kirkby I saw this book sitting on a stand in and airport bookstore as I was walking past this afternoon, picked it up on impulse and finished it a few hours later. I highly recommend it. This is not a great work of literature. It is, however, a nicely crafted…
At this time of year, it is still dark when I arrive home from work each evening. A few nights ago, I pulled up to the garage in the usual manner, hit the door opener, waited the required moments, and then drove slowly inside. Our garage is usually a mess, and is particularly disastrous right…
I watched Lyndon’s you tube presentation to the Red Mountain Community Church near Phoenix, and thoroughly enjoyed it. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECjddl…. He is an eloquent spokesman for the post-Mormon movement. His personal style is folksy, and pleasant. He is the kind of guy that most people would probably love to spend an evening chatting with. I certainly…
This does not happen much anymore, but I still occasionally get a letter from an LDS leader asking in a polite way what happened to my testimony and why I don’t do what he thinks might bring it back. In this case, the questions and comments were as follows: – My questioner understands that I…
Life is good. One of the things that makes it good – or better – is taking time to record whatever we find satisfying. These are not necessarily highlights. They are, more simply, whatever resonates with us. So that is what I’m going to do this evening. I will reinforce the nice feelings I had…
I have been intensely busy at work for the last little while, and accordingly not either posted or read much here for several weeks. However, I had the opportunity to read a few threads this morning, and wrote my first extended post in weeks on the “a lost Elder” thread. As I was finishing it,…
I spent about 18 hours driving this weekend, and it had the opportunity to listen to a lot of music as well as a couple of books on tape. Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has long been one of my favorites, and I listened to it probably a dozen times during the course of my drive. The…
Part II – The Gospel is Perfect? I did a google search as well as a search of the www.lds.org data base of two phrases: “The Church is Perfect†and “The Gospel is Perfectâ€. I noticed an interesting pattern. By and large, faithful Mormons do not say “the Church is perfectâ€, and the lds.org data…
We may define therapy as a search for value. Abraham Maslow Abstract See http://www.virtualcs.com/blackboard/l… and http://www.spiritualcompetency.com/jh… for a summary of information related to recovery from the kind of spiritual crisis many of us pass through as we leave Mormonism. This is based on the DSM – IV, the manual psychiatrists use to diagnose mental dysfunction. The type…