More on Moroni's promise

To really understand Moroni's plea, however, is to understand what Moroni's primary concerns were for his readers. If you look at his previous last sermon in Mormon 9, it becomes obvious that Moroni was heavily concerned with the people who would read the Book of Mormon would be people who did not believe in miracles. Here he gives a very similar sermon to that which he gives in Moroni 10:

7 And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues;
8 Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.
9 For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
10 And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.
11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.
12 Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.
13 And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death.
14 And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.
15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.
16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?
17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought?
18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.
19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.
20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

With this in mind, his words in 10:3 should be pretty clear: "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts." The context that Moroni wanted "these things" to be read in is in the context of the miraculous workings of the unchanging God--the very topic of his sermon that he gives when he has "spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you" and the very topic that he says that "God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true."

Marla Iyoko Ericson

Marla was born 20 minutes after we got to the hospital today. Had we left our apartment any later she could have been born in our new Mazda.

7lbs 15 oz, 19.5".

She and Angela are doing great.

We were expecting a boy though, so now we're gonna have to find some girl clothes.

The Book of Mormon Musical has ripped off our beloved EFY soundtracks

The soundtrack for the Book of Mormon Musical is available to listen on NPR here. After a quick listen it becomes obvious to any fan of the music from the Mormon Especially For Youth (EFY), that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have ripped off the latter.

Just compare the following. Can you figure out which is from EFY and which is from the new musical?

We Believe:

I Believe:

Can someone please explain the Deseret News comment moderation to me?

Both times that I have tried to comment on the Deseret News' website my comments were rejected by the moderators.

Just now I left the following comment for this article about Peter Vidmar's resignation from being an Olympic team leader:

"Imagine, instead, that someone was actively campaigning to prevent Mormons from building temples anywhere, with the claim that he "is not Anti-Mormon, but simply believes that Mormons building temples is a threat to society." Would you want him as a team leader for a team you were on? What if he was actively using his free-speech to promote racism? Of course he has his free speech--however, speech and actions comes with social consequences. You have all the free speech you want if you wanted to call me names or be rude to me. However, you can't be surprised if I no longer want to be your friend."

A few minutes later I got the following generic response:

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Christianity’s Perversion: Zizek and Latin American Liberation Theology

Here is my last term paper at Claremont. It needs more polishing, but I'm proud of it. The second subtitle is: Or Why Osama Bin Laden's Death Bothers Me.

It is also what I wish my Easter Sermon would have been.

PDF version here.

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Christianity’s Perversion:

Zizek and Latin American Liberation Theology

The next to final scene in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart features several minutes of the protagonist, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), being beaten, choked, racked, castrated, disemboweled, and finally beheaded in front of a cheering fourteenth-century English crowd. Taken by itself, the scene would be akin to a snuff film or contemporary horror “torture-porn” (like Eli Roth’s Hostel). Instead, however, it evokes a powerful reaction from the viewer because of the context in which Wallace’s torture and death is given in the movie. For nearly three hours before this violent presentation we are shown the exploits of Wallace as he rallies the peasants of Scotland together to fight against England’s King Edward in an attempt to gain their freedom. Fearing Wallace as a threat to his power, Edward sees that he is eventually captured and sentenced to death. With this long background, the climactic scene is not just difficult to watch because of its violence, but because of that which led up to these final moments. His death points to his life and is presented as a testimony to his cause.

In The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, Slavoj Zizek concludes that the “perverse core” of Christianity is the message that Christianity is the “religion of atheism” wherein when “Christ dies, what dies with him is the . . . hope that there is a father.”[1] Though they would hardly consider themselves advocates of a religion of atheism, liberation theologians from Latin America[2] have made similar departures from the traditional understandings of the cross,[3] sharing with Zizek the view that “in theological terms, . . . it is not we, humans, who can rely on the help of God—on the contrary, we must help God.”[4] In this paper I hope to compare and contrast the departures of Zizek and Latin American liberation theologies as they both contrast themselves from the more traditional theology of the cross—a contrast that is particularly evident in a comparison of Braveheart with Mel Gibson’s other blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ.

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FoxNews.com confrims braking news: Usama Bin Landen Dead

I took the following screen capture from FoxNews.com's website tonight:

Besides the utter cuteness of FoxNews spelling like my 4 year old nephew, I wonder why FN chooses to use "Usama" instead of "Osama." I have not been able to find any other news sources that use this spelling, including the London Times and Al Jazeera. My only guess is that they use this because this is how bin Landen Laden's name is spelled on the FBI Most Wanted list--the only other place I could find that uses this.

It is nice to see that it has been confrimed confirmed though.

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An engineer and a phenomenologist walk into an elevator...

On facebook I posed the following question that has baffled me every time I have waited in an elevator:

"Do 'Door Close' buttons in elevators really work, or are they just there to give us the illusion of control?"

I received two very different answers.

 From Alexander Miles, the inventor of the automatic elevator door:

"They interrupt a wait time and begin the closing procedure which is not immediate."

From Edmund Husserl, the father of phenomenology:

"They interrupt a wait time and begin the closing procedure which is not immediate."