Guest-blogging & other stuff

So, you may have noticed that I’ve been invited to guest-blog for Times & Seasons, and I’m only the third “Gentile” to do so in the six years or so that their blog has been running. I’m probably more nervous about doing it than they are about letting me do it. I have 4-6 guest posts in mind though, so if you’re looking for new material from me, look there for the next week or two. I’m also angling to finish my long-awaited FPR guest-post by early next week. It’s long.

In other news, my adorable daughter graduated from playgroup yesterday—they even gave her a diploma and everything. Yay for creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity! She turns 3 years old tomorrow.

Comments

Guest-blogging & other stuff — 9 Comments

Rob Perkins on June 27, 2009 at 4:21 PM said:

Be nice, Jack! Baby graduations are super-cute! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Dan on July 3, 2009 at 9:07 AM said:

Jack,

I didn’t want to ask you this over at T&S, because it wasn’t on topic there, but why are you so interested in Mormonism? What’s your interest?
Bridget Jack Meyers on July 6, 2009 at 1:17 AM said:

Hold that thought, Dan. I’ll get back to your question tomorrow.
Bridget Jack Meyers on July 16, 2009 at 7:39 PM said:

Okay Dan, I totally forgot about your question here. Let me try to answer it.

My current interest in Mormonism is probably more personal than anything else. I’m married to a Mormon, my daughter attends the LDS church 50% of the time, and I attend an LDS church once a month, so it’s in my family.

I definitely have an agenda, and it’s two-fold. The first thing on the agenda is that I’d like to see the LDS church reform to something that can fit under the umbrella of orthodox Christianity. Some of that involves encouraging traditional Christian strains of thought within the LDS system and some of that involves trying to expand what qualifies as “orthodox Christianity.” Some Mormons may not like that, but it’s not like I’m hiding it.

The other part of my agenda is to heal the negative history between Mormonism and evangelical Christianity. It’s been on my heart since I was a teenager. I really am trying to foster a better understanding between the two camps, reconciliation on the areas where we can move closer together and polite disagreement in the areas where we can’t. So far I’ve made heavy denunciations of the evangelical counter-cult ministry, but I am working on a softer, more specific critique of their work and what I feel they need to change.

A lot of evangelicals set a goal of converting Mormons out of the LDS church. I’m not opposed to that approach, but it isn’t priority one for me.

Why Mormonism? Dunno. Why does any Christian choose an area to focus on? I met Mormons at a young age and God laid them on my heart, so here I am.
Katie L. on July 16, 2009 at 10:05 PM said:

I just wanted to say, and this seemed like as good a place as any, that you are a little bit of a promiscuous guest blogger lately. You guest blog ho.

Loving your posts, BTW.
Bridget Jack Meyers on July 16, 2009 at 11:35 PM said:

I’m mostly just a regular ho, and every now and then I spaz out with ho-tastic energy and it lands on other people’s blogs in the form of a guest post.
JB on July 17, 2009 at 7:37 AM said:

Jack, sometime I would love to hear your thoughts on the thread I posted a little while back (“Some Reflections on Evangelical-LDS Dialogue”) in the Mormonism section at TheologyWeb.
Katie L. on July 17, 2009 at 8:56 AM said:

I’m mostly just a regular ho, and every now and then I spaz out with ho-tastic energy and it lands on other people’s blogs in the form of a guest post.

LOL.
Dan on July 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM said:

Jack,

Thanks for answering. I wish you luck in your quest. Forgive me if some of my comments over on Times and Seasons may come off harsh; it is part of my effort to show that those who definitively state whether someone is a believer in Christ or not have a negative effect upon some listeners, and it is not appreciated, nor helpful. You’re most definitely right that we have a lot in common, Mormonism and the rest of the Christian world. Is there another religious segment that Mormonism has more in common with than the rest of Christianity? I’m not aware of any. Earlier Mormon leaders (and still some today) tend to write off, or discount the rest of Christianity because of the belief of who is right and who is not, not realizing that such discounting is quite unhelpful, and that Mormonism hasn’t yet reached the same level of scholarship and religious insight into the Biblical scriptures that other Christians have. We have a few scholars who have done a fairly good job at bridging that gap (Talmage, Nibley among others), but we still rely much on the scholarship and understanding of other Christians (if you read Jesus the Christ, by Talmage, you’ll note how often he relies on the judgment and scholarly work of others, like Farrar and Clarke) to understand Jesus better.

I find the purpose of other Christians attempting to dismiss Mormons as non-Christians being that we are a threat, and a competitor. But they’re missing out too, at what the Book of Mormon brings to the table in understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is so much good stuff there that it is a travesty for them to dismiss it outright simply because it doesn’t come from the Bible. Whether one believes it to be divine is not consequential to me. Take what is written there and see how it matches up, see what it brings to the understanding of who Jesus the Christ was, and how we follow his teachings and his life better.

Anyways, some thoughts. Thank you for your effort, and good luck with it.

ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity