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…

Everything Old is New: A Christmas Series from the Past Years ago, I put up a series of posts on the Christmas story from the Gospels. It was fun at the time, and you may find it useful in the present. Here you go, and Merry Christmas from all of us at BCC:

It May Be Christmas, But Easter is Coming In a major oversight on the part of my Bishop, I was asked to share a five minute message during our Christmas service. I would like to share what I prepared for my ward with the BCC family as well. Merry Christmas, and thank you for being part of this…

Ready for your Abrahamic or Marian test? Merry Christmas! Update on garment survey at end of post. Earlier this year, I had what you might call an Abrahamic Test. I felt very, very strongly prompted that I should do a Specific Thing. I was uncomfortable with it. It went against my grain in a…

Claiming Incarnation The word “incarnation” has had a tough ride in LDS circles. At the most basic level, the word incarnation communicates the idea that in Jesus, God became flesh. However, this is where things get a little complicated for the LDS community. In most Christian circles, when they…

Looking Forward to the Hebrew Bible As 2025 comes to a close, the LDS study of the Doctrine and Covenants also wraps up (I hope everyone will read WVS’s series on “The Family: A Proclamation to the Word” in preparation for the discussion tomorrow!). And with the transition from 2025 to 2026, LDS…

The Future of LDS Bible Study (Hopefully) By Matt Bowman The LDS church has authorized the use of non-KJV Bibles. There are two reasons why this shift is significant. First, not to be underestimated, I think this will lead to more LDS study of the Bible. King James English is even somewhat more…

The Grand Inquisitor and the Christ Child After the shepherds had returned to watch their flocks at night, after the wise men had left to their own country, deliberately avoiding another audience with Herod, after the shepherds had returned to watch their flocks at night, the Holy Family received…

How Are The New Garments? The last time we discussed garments, the conversation centered on where they came from, things that feel powerful about their symbolism, and nods to specific ways the culture around them objectifies women's bodies. Now that the new garments have been out for a little…

Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 9 Families Are Forever? A Building Block of Rhetoric for the Proclamation The sealing of parent to child, husband to wife, and the living to the dead suggested (or at least partly enabled) by D&C 132 and Joseph Smith’s preaching, was…

Christmas Albums 2025 Once we pass Thanksgiving, it's officially Christmas music season! And there is absolutely a wealth of Christmas music---if no new Christmas album ever came out, we could probably still be content for decades. But Christmas music does keep coming out. And some of it is…

Religious Refugees A person becomes a refugee when the point of moving is to leave, not to arrive. When the familiar isn’t safe, so they seek safety in the unfamiliar. What about people who leave their faith to find spiritual safety in the religiously unfamiliar?

Count Your Blessings And I want to open up By Common Consent to that seasonally-appropriate attitude. Because even with everything that's going on in the United States and the world, recognizing and being grateful for our blessings is powerful, both societally and for our own souls.

Baptism for the Remission of…Migraines? My youngest child, H, loves the story of “Jesus coming out of the water,” aka, Jesus’ baptism. Almost every time we read scriptures, she'll ask for this story. One night, I started at the beginning of Matthew 3, and got as far as verse 4 before our real…

Timeline of the Saturday Evening Session of LDS General Conference I'd forgotten that the Saturday evening session of LDS General Conference had been canceled before. Given this week's announcement that President Oaks is eliminating the Saturday evening session I made this timeline.

How to Find a Therapist: LDS edition If you've ever wanted a step-by-step guide to finding a therapist that understands how the church fits with your needs -- you've come to the right place! Here are 5 questions that will help you find an LDS therapist that is right for you. (Note: most of these…

On Rejecting Unjust Systems Before I begin, I acknowledge that the ideas in this post do not have full consensus, though a number of prominent theologians have proposed ways to understand Jesus’s mission that are similar to the language in this post.[1] And based on my experience within the modern…

More on the Trump Administration’s Assault on Religious Liberty This afternoon, ICE agents parked outside of a church in Charlotte, NC. They rushed onto church grounds, and grabbed people who were doing yard work at the church, while their children were playing and their spouses were cooking.…

USCCB and Immigration When it comes to religion, immigration is not a left-right issue. Rather, the dignity of immigrants finds roots in Christian and Restoration scripture, in our history and rhetoric. Protecting the dignity and rights of immigrants is an issue that has significant moral…

Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 8 Reinterpreting Polygamy and the Mormon Theology of the Afterlife The July 12, 1843 revelation (D&C 132) made no reference to sealing dead partners or the living to the dead, though a vital subtext was the endurance of sealing beyond…

2025 Christmas Gift Book Guide It is time again for the annual Christmas Gift Book Guide!

I [the Lord] Restore All Things As much as D&C 132 can teach us about experiences of abuse, women of the restoration also point the way forward and show us how the Lord “restore[s] all things.”