Wistful thoughts, the Shakers, and a great movie: bycommonconsent.com/2026/05/19/s...

Vaccination is a modern miracle, one that the LDS Church has wholeheartedly embraced. Vaccination is a bread-and-butter humanitarian goal of the Church. So why are (some) members trying to avoid vaccination? We don't know, but there are things the Church could do to counteract the move.

Afterlife Jobs: Start Planning Now As we Mormons all know, there is no rest after death. There is no cool glass of lemonade sitting at the end of the mortal marathon. Rather, upon the shedding of this tabernacle of clay, we will continue in the ongoing work in close collaboration with the living.…

Reflections on Religion and/in Politics Question: How does one avoid using religion or religious language as merely a tool to justify policies privilege one group over another? *** In the United States, many used Christianity to justify the enslavement of others and as the basis for laws that…

The Proclamation in the Courts As part of a project I'm working on, I've been looking at the Church's use of The Family: A Proclamation to the World in litigation. For the most part, that means where the Church's attorneys have referenced the Proclamation in amicus briefs. The Proclamation has…

NBNE. Joseph Smith’s Favorite Axiom I'm still harping on Joseph Smith's remarks at the Nauvoo Lyceum, January 5, 1841. (See my previous post published on US Tax Day 2026). One of Joseph Smith's occasional references in sermons was the NBNE. The acronym means, No Beginning, No End. More precisely,…

Observation of the Sectarian God. (by Joseph Smith) From, MS 155, Box 4, fd 4, Church History Library, a manuscript's opening salvo. This excerpt was taken from a William Clayton text, from a Joseph Smith teaching apparently delivered at a community school (Lyceum), January 5, 1841. Clayton's…

Tax Day 2026: Riders of the Purple Sage On August 30, 1921, Utah Senator and Apostle Reed Smoot sent a telegram to Heber J. Grant. William Brady and Paul Rogers, high-ranking employees of the Fox Film Company, had just promised him that they would stop showing the movie Riders of the Purple Sage…

In Which I Make the Trump Jesus Post About Us When the first Mormon art propagandist, CCA Christensen, began painting Mormon history in a flat, literalistic, maudlin style, he could not have predicted that another Mormon would one day deeply influence artificial intelligence with a similar flat,…

When It All Fell Apart I was married on December 13, 2013. After some debate, we chose the Mesa, Arizona, temple rather than the recently dedicated Gilbert temple. The Mesa temple was a staple of my youth. I had grown up seeing its Christmas lights, doing Baptisms for the Dead in its font, and had…

In Which We Pontificate Upon Schedules On March 30, 2026, the First Presidency announced a new meeting schedule for the two hour block. Unsurprisingly, we have thoughts:

Watching Jesus’ Spiritual Monitors Beep I’m writing this at 11pm a few weeks before Easter, an hour or so into spending the night with my son in the emergency department. He’s fine, at this point they’re just observing him as a precautionary measure. He is sound asleep. I am watching over him and…

On Palm Sunday, Jesus Rode a Kids’ Bike According to Mark's gospel, on what we call Palm Sunday: "[T]hey brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then…

LDS Church and the Cross: New Statues on Temple Square A couple of years ago I posted a brief reflection about the LDS Church’s complicated relationship with the cross. The short story is this: despite the fact that early saints wore the crucifix as jewelry, that early churches were adorned with…

Women and Sunday School Yesterday I learned from Peggy Fletcher Stack that the Church had made a massive policy change: ward Sunday School presidencies are no longer the exclusive domain of men. Effective immediately, women can serve as Sunday School presidents and counselors. It should surprise…

Do You Attend the Temple? LDS leaders have been unequivocal when it comes to the importance of the temple. Reiterating past leaders’ statements, and consistent with subsequent leaders’ views, Gordon B. Hinkley asserted that “no member of the Church has received the ultimate which this Church has…

“We Need … Your Voices” If a woman's voice falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did the woman speak at all? Recent changes have gradually reduced the visibility and speaking time of women in worldwide Relief Society broadcasts. Find out what has changed.

An I Ching Reading for Our Times Standing as a wanderer above a sea of Orange fog, I do what all seekers do when faced with a new and rubbish world order: I consult the oracle. https://bycommonconsent.com/2026/03/11/an-i-ching-reading-for-our-times/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

“High Church” and “Low Church” in LDS Worship In a recent post of mine, the comments took a quick (and interesting) diversion into whether people preferred “high church” or “low church.” For those not familiar with those terms: “High church” is used to describe worship that emphasizes ritual,…

Mental Health Monday: The Godhead of Trauma Once again, posting while it’s still Monday in Hawaii. Also, note that the new garments poll is still active, and I will aim to publish the results next week. I look forward to reading your thoughts! You know how in the Pixar movie Inside Out, Riley has…

A Reflection On Boundaries and Community Every community has boundaries. Boundaries are, in many ways, what helps define a recognizable community. The community does this, but not that. It wears this, but not that. It believes this, but not that. Every community—from sports teams, to gamers, to…

All in favor of informal funerals, say.... .. Aye. TW: funerals, death I'll be honest: I've never been to an informal funeral that didn't beat the socks off of a funeral run by any religious leader of any religious persuasion. Not Catholic. Not Baptist. Not LDS. Not non-denominational. Not Metho...

In Memory of Ardis Parshall This morning I opened Facebook and, to my surprise and enormous sadness, learned that Ardis Parshall had passed away. For those who are unfamiliar with her, Ardis was, among other things, the founder and principal blogger at Keepapitchinin, a delightful blog full of…

The Good Sacramentan

Why I Skipped Stake Conference This Sunday was Stake Conference. I decided not to go and, instead, participate in the worship services of my local Episcopal church. This is why: They have sharp, thoughtful, and deeply spiritual female leadership—at Stake Conference it would be an entirely male-led…

To the Uncredited 16 And it came to pass that when I, Nephi, had spoken these words unto my brethren, they were angry with me. And it came to pass that they did lay their hands upon me, for behold, they were exceedingly wroth, and they did bind me with cords, for they sought to take away my life,…

The Irreparable Harm Caused by Refusing to Engage In my first post here on BCC, I shared a little about the ten years I worked to try and get someone with authority to change the church's policy that resulted in stake Seminary teachers shouldering nearly the entire cost of Seminary. I didn't share…

Changes to SNAP and the Church Last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act made a handful of substantial changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), making it harder for poor individuals and families to qualify for food assistance. The CBO estimates that these changes, which went…

Ash Wednesday at Broadview Happy Fat Tuesday! I hope today you're able to enjoy your pancakes, king cake, pączki, or whatever sugar- and fat-laden treat your region uses to celebrate the approaching Lenten season. Lent---the 40-day period leading up to Easter, where Christians traditionally…

Everything Old Is New Again

Am I My Brother’s Keeper? In their analysis of Genesis 4:9, Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler observe that the LORD’s question “Where is your brother Abel?” is one that asks about “more than location.”[1]  Presumably, the LORD already knew that Cain had killed his brother. Rather—and there is a…

Mormons in the Epstein Files Yes, there are Mormons in the Epstein files. Are LDS influencers exploiting the moment?

Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 11 Derivatives I have left out much of the story here, and it would take much more space to tell the rest (and this part ended up being far longer than I originally imagined--something my editors always complain about), so I think I…

Supporting immigrants: Notes from the field I went to a "Migration With Dignity" forum with a friend yesterday. It was all about ways Christians at this church could support the dignity of immigrants in our city, supported by their organizational leadership. It got me thinking. What might that…

BYU, Career Fairs, and CPB Yesterday, BYU's Office of Career Services hosted a career fair. One of the potential employers? Customs and Border Patrol. The inclusion of CPB led to a massive protest and demonstration and outrage among community members and alumni of the school. Before I definitely…

Mental Health Monday: Love vs Codependence and Abuse

The LDS Church and the Constitution First, I’m not a lawyer. Second, this is not a political post. With that out of the way…. Part of the American Mythology is the notion that God has, many times, intervened to establish and preserve the territory of the United States, the representative republic…

Are You Okay? It’s a cruel irony, what ICE has done in the land of Minnesota Nice. People are not okay. People are mad. People are dead. I'd always heard it the other way, but apparently the only thing that can stop a good guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun. To stay engaged in current events…

The Church of Personal Piety? Over the last weeks and months, I've been thinking about the Church's self-image. How does it view itself? What does it think its mission is? What does it believe its obligations are? This is, naturally, in the context of the Church's silence in the face of a…

Thoughts About Mormon Notions About Death, and Also My Mom By the time my youngest brother, Baden, and I arrived at the Spokane Valley Hospital in Washington state on Thursday, November 13, 2025, our mother, Kathleen Jolley Fox, was no longer truly communicating with others. Baden and I, residents…

Theseus' Old Ship of Zion

Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 10 Russell M. Nelson In the inaugural January 18, 2018 press conference of a newly installed First Presidency consisting of Presidents Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, and Henry B. Eyring, D&C 132 made an important appearance. In an…

Thank You, Bobby! It might come as a surprise to some (or maybe not) that BCC has within its ranks of bloggers a fair number of Deadheads.  We, like many of you, are deeply saddened by the passing Bobby Weir.  I count myself among the fortunate who got to see Bobby a bunch of times. And whether he…

Before the Beginning The Bible begins with the words “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” But what was there before this “beginning”? --CFM for Jan 5-11, 2026 Well, Come Follow Me, I'm glad you asked! Joseph Smith provided an answer to that through the Books of Moses and…

In Which I Continue To Beef With Nephi And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords… And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver,…

The Day Tonga Became a Threat A guest post from friend of the blog David Cook. Somewhere deep inside the machinery of the Trump travel ban, someone apparently decided that Tonga posed a serious threat to the United States. As of January 1, 2026, there are stark restrictions on student and…

Mental Health Monday: How to Hold Conflicting Feelings Happy New Year! I hope everyone had restful and restorative time with family, friends and food. And I hope everyone has leftovers in the fridge, now that we're back to the grind. I've been toying around with the idea of writing a monthly (?)…

Elementary School Cafeteria Mormonism

Ring Out Wild Bells! Of all the songs the songs in the LDS hymnbook, the hymn “Ring Out, Wild Bells” may be the most niche: if you don’t sing it on the Sunday immediately before or after New Year's Day then it’s likely you won’t sing it all year. Partly for this reason—but also because if it’s…

A Church Stocking Stuffer Wishlist Merry Christmas! At our home, Santa puts his big gifts under the tree. But the candy, the chocolate, and some smaller wrapped gifts end up in (or next to) the stockings that hang from our banister (because we don't have a chimney---I had to give Santa a key so…