Merry Christmas

This has been my favorite Christmas song this year. Enjoy.

God saves reprint of Jesus while allowing children to die in fires.

There is a lot of excitement on blogs concerning the MIRACULOUS saving of this reprint of Harry Anderson's second coming of the Aryan Jesus in the Provo Tabernacle fire. For example, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Now I'm all for trying to find meaning and lessons in life in almost anything. It's fine to look at this and use it to teach something (such as this blog does). However, to claim that this was God's work is just offensive to me. Doing so implies that God is more concerned with saving a simple stock reprint than he is of saving children, adults, and peoples' homes. I would rather go to hell than spend eternity with such a deity.

If you really believe that God saved this painting of Jesus, peruse this short google search and tell that to the parents of these dead children.

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! (in case I don't blog again before then).

Recent Reads

This should close up my list for 2010.

The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

After God (Religion and Postmodernism Series)

Religious Pluralism and Civil Society (The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series)

Pluralism

The Return of the Great Brain

Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930

The Fragile Absolute: Or, Why Is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? (Second Edition) (The Essential Zizek)

Modern Mormonism: Myths & Realities

Introducing Angeloyd

Testimony of a Modern Day Prophet

If I heard something like this in general conference, it would be easier for me to say that we have prophets in the Church today who are just like those in the scriptures.

For more on the need for modern-day prophets, see this post.

Nester, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

I found a copy of this shorter and lesser-known Christmas special by Rankin and Bass, and thought I would put the full thing on Youtube. It's only about 10 minutes (much shorter than their other movies, such as Rudolph, Frosty, and their several specials about Santa Claus.) Enjoy.

A Christmas Story

Sit back an listen. It's only a couple minutes.

“Would God That All the Lord’s People Were Prophets”: Liberation Theology and Scholars as Prophets for the Oppressed

The is a precis that I just submitted for next year's SMPT conference. It would be nice if it was accepted, as I would like some motivation to turn it into a larger paper. Hopefully it's not bad form to post a submited precis here.
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“Would God That All the Lord’s People Were Prophets”:

Liberation Theology and Scholars as Prophets for the Oppressed

(precis)

The call for papers for this conference poses the question: “Does philosophy and disciplined theological reflection have a place in a [prophetic] church?” In my paper I will turn this question around and argue that the very place for philosophy, theology, and other scholarly pursuits is in an active prophetic role—to be prophets to (not for) the Church and the world on behalf of the oppressed. This is a distinct prophetic role, in the tradition of liberation theology, that differs from that held by those sustained in the Church as prophets, seers, and revelators. While the latter is authoritative for the Church by virtue of priesthood hierarchical authority, the former has no ecclesiastical authority and is only normative insofar as one accepts the argumentation presented. Furthermore, this distinct prophetic role is always supplemental to and never superseding the authority of priesthood leaders—even when the former may be critical of the latter.

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