By TT
In kosher law, wine is only kosher when it has been produced and handled by Jews. In this way this kosher law is distinctive from the LDS “Word of Wisdom” in that it is not about the substance of the drink, but how it is handled. There is one exception to this rule, however. If the wine produced by Gentiles is boiled, it becomes kosher. On its face, there is no logical principle why boiling the wine would render it ritually clean, but that is not the point. Rather, the point is that the law is such, and one determines whether or not one has observed the law by an examination of the practices involved.
Latter-day Saints have a similar prohibition against wine, but it is not with respect to how it is prepared or handled, but with its alcohol content. In this way, there is a similar exception to halachic law that once the alcohol has been purged the wine is safe to consume. Most Latter-day Saints that I know will eat a meal that has been cooked with wine, provided that the meal was cooked at a sufficient temperature to boil out the alcohol. However, I don’t know any Latter-day Saint that would cook an entire bottle of wine, and then cool it for drinking. There seems to be something wrong with the drinking of cooked wine, but not with the eating of it.
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By Mogget
Like many Christians I like to read and re-read Romans 5-8. Paul uses very vivid imagery to portray both sin and grace as powers that can exercise dominion over human life. Death and the law are likewise rendered in apocalyptic terms. These chapters come to something of a climax in Rom 8:3
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Now I’ll stop here and ask you to reflect on what sort of things strike you as important about this passage. Since there are no wrong answers you are free to answer in whatever fashion you like but do take a moment and think about it.
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By David Clark
I like to think of FPR and FMH as the polar opposites of the bloggernacle. Read more »
By The Yellow Dart
Did Adam or God Create Eve?
Perhaps no text has influenced current gender roles and concepts of sexuality in Western culture more than the biblical Yahwist (J) account of creation found in Genesis 2-3. [1] Read more »
By jupiterschild
A friend suggested that when confronting the problems of the Pentateuchal narrative, it’s best to begin with an innocuous passage–that is, one that has low theological stakes. Part of the problem with the average person’s acceptance of the theory is that usually one starts with creation, or flood, or even, as I did earlier, covenant in Exod 34. So let’s take one such case, one that is both theologically bland and relatively straightforward in terms of narrative.
At the end of Genesis 37, Joseph tells his brothers of his portentious dreams, is given a coat, and, in a move envied by older brothers everywhere, they conspire to kill him. I quote here the KJV of Gen 37 and the first verse of Gen 39:
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By TT
I have suggested before in more oblique ways that the humanist account of the stable subject is at odds with Mormon doctrine of divinization, and in this way Mormonism has more in common with the psychoanalytic account of the formation of the subject and the Foucaultian/Althusserian account of subjectivation. I’d like to explore in brief more of this argument.
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By TT
I just finished Sheldon Greaves, “The Education of a Bible Scholar” in Dialogue 42:2, Greaves’s spiritual autobiography recounting both his loss of place in the LDS church in the mid-nineties and his appreciation for modern critical biblical studies. It was a fascinating, if familiar, account of the disillusionment of a LDS scholar with the kinds of questions that could be asked of sacred texts, with a view of the frustration with the tendencies of many in BYU religion to discourage, avoid, and ignore critical biblical studies.
I have written on this period of Mormon studies as devistating and entire generation of scholars in my post “The Terrible 90′s.” However, I implicitly contrasted that time with our own. I’d like to further explore this comparison.
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By TT
Keep up with new posts on Twitter. Our username is FaithProRumor.
By Chris H.
While trying to put together some posts, a colleague sent me an interesting article in The New York Times about Mormon young men selling for Pinnacle Security. Having lived and worked quite a bit in Mormon college towns, I have mixed feelings about these operations. Here in Rexburg, Idaho, recruitment offices for security and pest control sales companies are in prominent places throughout the town. One of my neighbors has done quite well selling for such companies.
However, Brigham Young University-Idaho President Kim Clark has been openly critical of these sales schemes. Clark’s concern seems to be about the get rich quick approach that many of these companies use in their recruiting efforts. In addition, while there may be potential for summer earnings, they are not a foundation for careers. Yet, they continue to grow in the area.
I could never do this type of work. I wasn’t a big fan of it while a missionary. But, for the gospel, I will do lots of things. Door-to-door is something that, like donating plasma, I cannot do anymore, even for money.
I also have concerns about the well-being of the young men involved. One of my best friends as an undergraduate had a horrible experience. The following quote from the article is almost haunting:
Sometimes, though, it rains, and when it does, Pinnacle’s sink-or-swim mentality for sales reps, especially new, unproven ones like Brandon Rogers, is tough love at its toughest.
Newbies, for fear they may retreat to their cars, are dropped off and left on foot without shelter or access to a bathroom unless they can gain admittance into a house to make their sales pitch. Mr. Rogers, who is 21, had three energy bars and no umbrella to last him through a long, wet day.
He had made one sale by dark, when they picked him up.
Being critical of these endeavors is easy from my ideological perspective. What are your thoughts?
By David Clark
In my previous post I mentioned that there are four major schools of thought when it comes to how much of the Old Testament is historical. By schools of thought I am describing approximate ranges of thought, not fixed positions.
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By David Clark
I’ve been trying to think of a way of introducing a series of posts I plan on writing. However, all of the introductions I have started writing have come off sounding incredibly stupid. So, I’ll just start out by saying that I have been thinking about archaeology, history, and the scriptures and I plan on writing a few posts about it.
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By TT
Chris H. has agreed to guest blog with us. Chris was previously a permablogger at FPR before starting his own blog at Approaching Justice. We look forward to his contributions.
By TT
It has come to my attention that some of our dear readers are somewhat mystified by what we at FPR are doing. While we are by no means a unified group, approaching texts and problems from a variety of approaches, I think that there are a few things that one must know to properly understand what we are doing. I invite my fellow bloggers to add any items they feel needs to be said.
In my view, all you have to know, besides Ugaritic, Akkadian, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Japanese, Chinese (ancient and modern), Greek, Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and some middle-Persian, is the historical critical method (and its critiques), exegetical theory, text criticism, hermeneutics, intertexual theory, gender studies, practice theory, ritual theory, historicism, and the history of each of these disciplines. Oh, I almost forgot, and Mormon Studies. It really is not that hard, and meant to be accessible to all! I hope that clears it up. Read more »
By The Yellow Dart
The Gospel of Mark, written c. 65-70 C.E., is the earliest of the four gospels (even being edited and reused as a source text for the Gospels of Luke and Matthew), and offers a unique perspective among the gospels on the meaning of discipleship and following Jesus. [1] Mark places heavy emphasis on the suffering(s) and death of Jesus, and understands true Christian discipleship in terms of literally following Jesus’ example through experiencing and enduring suffering and persecution for the gospel (Mark 8.34; 10.28). Read more »
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By TT
Galatians 3:28 is certainly the most important biblical text in feminist and anti-feminist interpretation in the last century. This text promises that “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” The last pair in this list, male and female, has proven the most controversial. While most comemntators accept relatively straightforwardly that social divisions between ethnicities and economic/legal categories have no place, the division between the sexes has proven more difficult to reconcile. I offer a brief sketch of recent positions that have been taken on this text.
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