Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1972), 63-64:

Jacob urges each of us: "Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you." The principle of imparting of our substance after we know what others specifically need is a concept that ought to be operative in our lives. Nor is our "substance" limited to material goods. As President Harold B. Lee has counseled, others often need fellowshipping more than food, and rapport with another human more than raiment.

The size and compartmentalization of our social environment often result in our touching others without feeling them. It is an environment in which indifference is institutionalized, and we often know others only as functions. It is, therefore, easy for us to fulfill one of Moroni's prophecies when he asked why we let those with obvious needs "pass by you, and notice them not." It is a special challenge for a Mormon in megalopolis to notice his brothers and be familiar with their needs. We so often depersonalize our assistance to others that we might be called "checkbook Christians." We pay our taxes and offerings and unintentionally move away from the personal acts of brotherhood which Jacob and Mormon prescribed.

Dragons Again

J. R. R. Tolkien describes the dragon, Chrysophylax:

For though the oaths he had taken should have burdened his conscience with sorrow and a great fear of disaster, he had, alas! no conscience at all. (J. R. R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles of Ham.)

As the people of Ham discovered, it does little good to negotiate with someone who has no conscience.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Strange, in a time otherwise obsessed with entitlements, how little concern there is over our becoming entitled to the blessings of heaven. Instead, a declining belief by some in ultimate immortality has only intensified proximate immorality, “leading away many … telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof” (Alma 30:18). A Japanese thinker, looking at our pleasure-centered Western society, said, almost confrontingly:

‎“If there is nothing beyond death, then what is wrong with giving oneself wholly to pleasure in the short time one has left to live? The loss of faith in the ‘other world’ has saddled modern Western society with a fatal moral problem” (Takeshi Umehara, “The Civilization of the Forest: Ancient Japan Shows Post-modernism the Way,” in At Century’s End, ed. Nathan P. Gardels [1995], 190).

Therefore, being good citizens includes being good, such as in knowing the clear difference between lusting after a neighbor and loving one’s neighbor! Matthew Arnold wisely observed that while “Nature cares nothing [for] chastity, … human nature … cares about it a great deal” (Philistinism in England and America, vol. 10 of The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold, ed. R. H. Super [1974], 160). To which I add: divine nature cares infinitely more!

Corrupting Composition

Jeffery Zorn has a long and depressing narrative about how university level English Composition programs across America were corrupted by academics so that they do the opposite of what they were supposed to be doing.

George Leef has a shorter piece on the upshot of this: many students are not articulate enough for anyone to want to hire them when they graduate.

I have some rather depressing stories about these topics which I do not have the heart to tell right now.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1975), 68-69:

Those caught up in faith as a fad often display contempt for those who do not believe in the "doctrine" of the day. John Lukacs, in The Passing of the Modern Age, observed that, in some respects, the opening of windows to the world can result in "letting in neon light rather than sunlight, gasoline fumes rather than fresh air, the din of publicity rather than the harmonies of nature."

No Room for an Inn Again This Year

[I published this last year, but it seems appropriate to publish it again.]

An entire folk tradition has sprung up based on the translation of Luke 2:7 which explains that Jesus was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn” (KJV). The King James translators did not invent the phrase. Tyndale rendered the passage as “because there was no roume for them within, in the hostrey.” Both translations match the Vulgate, which says “non erat locus in diversorio” and a diversorium is an inn. Thus nativity plays will often include an innkeeper and his wife and other parts derived from this particular phrase in the scripture. Sometimes in flights of artistic fantasy Joseph wanders from inn to inn seeking lodging only to find them all full. Bethlehem was a small town when Jesus was born. How many inns did they have? In the scriptural accounts, it is in the singular; Bethlehem could not have had more than one. One suspects it did not have that many.

But there is something wrong here. Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem because of the need to register for the census which was made for taxation purposes (Luke 2:1). If it was simply a matter of registering for the poll tax, the tax that Rome levied on its subjects simply for drawing breath, then they could register wherever they were. They could certainly register in Nazareth without having to travel to Bethlehem. The reason that they would have to register in Bethlehem is if they owned property there.[1] But if they owned property in Bethlehem, why were they staying in an inn?

The Greek word translated as “inn” is καταλύματι, the dative form of καταλύμα. What is a καταλύμα? It “designates the residence of the king or the general when he is staying outside” his normal residence.[2] It can also refer to an assigned lodging for a soldier or functionary.[3] It can also refer to an inn.[4] Thus a καταλύμα is “a lodging where one goes, where one stays for a time. The temporary character is constant.”[5]

Thus the word designates wherever Joseph and Mary were staying temporarily. Since Joseph either wholly or partly owned property, he would have either been staying with the relatives who occupied the property (in the case of part ownership) or with the tenants who were renting (in the case of whole ownership). As houses tended to be on the small side, the couple perhaps might have felt that there was more privacy with the animals. By the time the wise men visited, they were back in the house (Matthew 2:11).

A careful reading of the nativity story indicates that there is no room for an inn.

---

[1] Sherman L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian (New York: Greenwood Press, 1937), 98-104.

[2] Geneviève Husson, OIKIA: le vocabulaire de la maison privée en Égypte d’après les papyrus grecs (Paris: La Sorbonne, 1983), 133.

[3] Husson, OIKIA, 134.

[4] Husson, OIKIA, 134-35.

[5] Husson, OIKIA, 135.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1975), 8:

We are going to have to do a better job in helping the young to see that there is a connection between the Gospel and the problems of the real world, and that the Gospel does contain the solutions to human problems. The over-used word relevance is still at issue since young people must come to see that the Gospel is something we do, not simply something we talk about. The relevance of the Gospel, in terms of how it can solve the real human problems, needs to be borne home more consistently, more artfully, and more spiritually than has been done in the past.

Who Deserves the Blame?

Occasionally the news media will report something outrageous of some diva (whether male or female), thinking that the world revolves around her whims. This behavior is old indeed, and particularly unbecoming when involving someone with power. Jared Miller provides one such ancient story that accompanied an instruction by means of explanation:

Furthermore, you who are water carriers, you must be very careful concerning the water, and you must always filter the water with a sieve. One time I, the king, in the city of Sanhuitta, found a hair in the washbasin, and (my), the king's ire was raised, and I became enraged at the water carriers (and said): "This is disgusting!" Arnili (responded) so: "Zuliya was the overseer!" And the king (continued) thus: "Zuliya shall go through the river(ordeal)! If he is (shown to be) innocent, then let him purify his soul. But if he is (shown to be) guilty, then he will die." So Zuliya went through the river(ordeal), and he was (shown to be) guilty. And they "dealt with" him in the city of Suresta. (Jared L. Miller, Royal Hittite Instructions and Related Administrative Texts [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013], 17)

Miller also notes that there is another version of this story in which Arnili is put to death as well.

One thinks of the variety of jokes about a hair (or fly) in one's soup:

Man: Waiter! What is this fly doing in my soup?

Waiter: It looks like the backstroke to me.

In the case of the Hittite king, however, it was more serious, deadly serious. Depending on which version you read, one or two individuals lost their lives over something as trivial as a hair. The problem with tyrants is that one never can be sure ahead of time, what will set one off, or what their reaction will be.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1975), 14:

The insensitivity of the people at the time of Noah could give us some interesting insights and parallels to our own time, if we had all the sociological and political data. The insensitivity was gross and widespread, and it probably lasted until the great rain began. Similarly, when the Church expresses concerns through its contemporary prophets, it is trying to guard against our being encrusted with the kind of insensitivity that leads to widespread tragedy. Otherwise, we may be like Louis XVI who, standing on the scaffold, reportedly said, "I have seen all of this coming for ten years. How was it possible that I never wanted to believe it?"

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A More Excellent Way (1967), 30:

Focusing on the mechanics of leadership, which are certainly necessary, could ignore the underlying skills and traits that rest on fundamental concepts without which no system of techniques, procedures, mechanics, and follow-up can possibly work. It does very little good, for instance, to develop elaborate organizational and flow charts if the people who inhabit the real world symbolized by these charts do not trust each other or really communicate with each other. It does little good to strive to achieve goals if we allow ourselves, as leaders, to be too much at the mercy of our moods so that we are experienced by followers as ambivalent administrators whom others find unpredictable or capricious concerning the goals we espouse.

Has It Come to This?

James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal, was discussing a cartoon kerfuffle at a university and had occasion to make the following comment:

So there are decent people among the administrators of America's institutions of higher learning, even if their existence at Auburn is, at this juncture, a speculative proposition. (If you're at Auburn and fit the bill, we'd love to hear from you. . . .)

But too many administrators, and not a few faculty members, are petty tyrants.

This elicited the following comment from professor Glenn Reynolds:

But as Taranto goes on to demonstrate, not all college administrators are idiots. Which, these days, seems like news. . . .

I have known a number of former university administrators who were decent, wise, kind, intelligent, thoughtful, generous, and well-informed people. I think it sad that so many college administrators behave like tyrants and idiots that some who are not make the news.

A Follow-Up on Grade Inflation

As a follow-up to my report on grade inflation at Harvard, I see that the reliable Mark Bauerlein has a proposal for flagging grade inflation. It would not necessarily curb it but would provide a reliable way to spot it. He proposes that transcripts provide not only the grade students received in the course but also the average grade received in the course. Prospective employers and admissions committees can see that a student who receives a B+ when the average grade is a C is preferable to one who receives an A- when the average grade is an A.

Of course, it is perfectly possible that in a small upper division course where all three students are bright and hard-working that all of them might deserve their A grades. This proposal would not help them as they would look almost the same as the overflowing introductory course for college athletes (what they called a "gut" course at Yale) where students receive an A for enrolling. Still, it might be helpful and can be done with only additional computer coding by the registrar's office. It is a practical approach to a perennial problem.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From The Christmas Scene, p. 4:

God's gifts, unlike seasonal gifts, are eternal and unperishable, constituting a continuing Christmas which is never over! These infinite gifts are made possible by the "infinite atonement."

Psalm 2

The Septuagint version of Psalm 2 offering a slightly different understanding than the Hebrew text. It breaks into several sections.

The first part sets up the scenario as a dialogue:

1  ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά
2  παρέστησαν οἱ βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες συνήχθησαν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ κατὰ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ κατὰ τοῦ χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ
διάψαλμα

1 Why do the nations behave wantonly, and the people strive for that which is empty?
2 On account of this the kings of the earth and the leaders gather together against the Lord and against his Christ.
Break.

Then comes the speech attributed to the kings and leaders:

3  διαρρήξωμεν τοὺς δεσμοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ ἀπορρίψωμεν ἀφ' ἡμῶν τὸν ζυγὸν αὐτῶν

3 We will rip open their bonds and cast away their yoke from us.

The bonds of the Lord and his Christ are not something that these leaders want to submit themselves to.

4  ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἐκγελάσεται αὐτούς καὶ ὁ κύριος ἐκμυκτηριεῖ αὐτούς
5  τότε λαλήσει πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐν ὀργῇ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ θυμῷ αὐτοῦ ταράξει αὐτούς

4 He who sits in the heavens will laugh at them and the Lord will mock them.
5 Then will he say to them in his wrath and trouble them in his anger.

The speech of the Lord is set up as rejecting the leader's argument in anger.

6  ἐγὼ δὲ κατεστάθην βασιλεὺς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ σιων ὄρος τὸ ἅγιον αὐτοῦ
7  διαγγέλλων τὸ πρόσταγμα κυρίου κύριος εἶπεν πρός με υἱός μου εἶ σύ ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε
8  αἴτησαι παρ' ἐμοῦ καὶ δώσω σοι ἔθνη τὴν κληρονομίαν σου καὶ τὴν κατάσχεσίν σου τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς
9  ποιμανεῖς αὐτοὺς ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ ὡς σκεῦος κεραμέως συντρίψεις αὐτούς

6 I set up the king under him on Zion, his holy mountain,
7 promulgating the decree of the Lord. The Lord said to me: Thou art my son; today I have begotten thee.
8 Ask me and I will give thee the nations for thy inheritance and the ends of the earth as thy possession.
9 Herd them with an iron rod; as a potter's vessel smash them.

Then comes the conclusion.

10  καὶ νῦν βασιλεῖς σύνετε παιδεύθητε πάντες οἱ κρίνοντες τὴν γῆν
11  δουλεύσατε τῷ κυρίῳ ἐν φόβῳ καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε αὐτῷ ἐν τρόμῳ
12  δράξασθε παιδείας μήποτε ὀργισθῇ κύριος καὶ ἀπολεῖσθε ἐξ ὁδοῦ δικαίας ὅταν ἐκκαυθῇ ἐν τάχει ὁ θυμὸς αὐτοῦ μακάριοι πάντες οἱ πεποιθότες ἐπ' αὐτῷ

10 and now, O kings, understand; learn all who judge the earth.
11 Serve the Lord in fear and rejoice in him with trembling.
12 Serve the Son lest the Lord be angry and you will be destroyed from the way of righteousness when his anger is quickly kindled; blessed are all who trust in him.
(Psalms 2:1–12)

In the Septuagint, this psalm explicitly identifies the Christ with the Son of God. (The Christians did not invent that idea.)

One of the things that intrigues me about this psalm is the imagery and promises are very similar to the promises that the gods make to the Egyptian kings. In the Egyptian temples, the Egyptian gods often promise the Egyptian king that he will rule over everything that the sun encircles. Other nations are promised as the king's inheritance. The king is designated as the son of the god. The gods are to be feared and reverenced or they will be angry and burn their foes. Smashing pottery vessels as a means of cursing enemies is actually a ritual for the ancient Egyptians.

So this particular psalm has a clear ancient Near Eastern background, but since it was quoted half a dozen times in the New Testament, it was seen as a particularly Christian psalm.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Meek and Lowly (1987), 112:

It is sobering to contemplate the adversary's "order of battle" and that upon it he focuses his fire power in order to keep us from learning of Jesus. (Matthew 11:29.) Any gain in any sector, on the part of the Lord's army, is cause for gladness. These points, however, which feel the adversary's most sustained and massed assaults, are instructive for us to contemplate. Issues pertaining to families, temples, prophets, and scriptures are those real pressure points. For instance, the adversary is not shelling the Church's athletic program nor is he inciting complaints over the Christmas lights on Temple Square. However, hell still rages against what is taught in temples.

Two Ways

Psalm 1 contrasts the two ways, the way of the sinners (ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν) or the way of the impious (ὁδὸς ἀσεβῶν) with the way of the righteous (ὁδὸν δικαίων). There are thus two ways. One can choose which to follow.

The Septuagint version of the first Psalm, however, through its choice of words sets up an interesting dilemma. In the fifth verse, it says, οὐκ ἀναστήσονται ἀσεβεῖς ἐν κρίσει (Psalms 1:5). There are two ways of interpreting this verse. The first is, "The wicked shall rise up in judgment." The second is, "The impious shall not be resurrected in the judgment." Fortunately John 5:29 (ἐκπορεύσονται, οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως. They shall go forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.) rules out the second interpretation. Though the vocabulary is the same the interpretation is not the same.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From We Will Prove Them Herewith (1982), 30:

To see things as they really are before that solemn but joyous day when our perspective will be pure is such a blessing. Meanwhile, can we not understand why events that are understandably unwelcome in some ways are, nevertheless, welcome in other ways? A man whose wife lies near death has a precious chance, perhaps for the first time, to put his business—which may have assumed too much size—in proper perspective. It is not a matter of abandoning or devaluing entirely his worthy business but, rather, of putting things in that proportion which comes with being settled—when the objects on the landscape of life assume their true proportion.

If, for instance, next Christmas were to be the last for Grandmother, would we not, without suffocating sentimentality, let some of the Martha-like tasks go undone in order that, Mary-like, Grandmother could be subtly put at the center of things for the last time here?

The Martha-like things chosen are not always the bad part—merely lesser choices. The Savior did not say that the cares of the world were not cares. But this world will pass away, and its cares with it. The things really worth caring about will still be around to be cared about forever. The other things are like last week's firewood, useful to warm a needed meal, which, in turn, helped to sustain the body. But to what end? Only His gospel gives us ultimate reasons. Without such perspective, we would be like astronomers who have never seen the stars.

Masters in this Hall

One of the minor characters so well-drawn in Tolkien's Hobbit is the Master of the Town of Esgaroth. We first meet him in the tenth chapter when Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves enter a big feast which the Master is holding. His first reaction is one of surprise:

The Master of the town sprang from his great chair.

When the elves accuse the dwarves of being vagabonds and escaped prisoners, the Master's reaction provides a glimpse of a cynical character:

"Is this true?" asked the Master. As a matter of fact he thought it far more likely than the return of the King under the Mountain, if any such person had ever existed.

When presented with two competing claims,

the Master hesitated and looked from one to the other. The Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no enmity with him, nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to trade and tolls, to cargoes and gold, to which habit he owed his position.

But the popular clamor takes over while the Master dithers and events are taken out of his hands.

When the dwarves leave,

the Master was not sorry at all to let them go. They were expensive to keep, and their arrival had turned things into a long holiday in which business was at a standstill.

In the fourteenth chapter, when the Master appears again, he is shown as a coward. When the dragon attacks, one of the fighting men

ran to and fro cheering on the archers and urging the Master to order them to fight to the last arrow.

The Master, however, has other concerns.

The Master himself was turning to his great gilded boat, hoping to row away in the confusion and save himself.

After the defeat of the dragon, the townsmen want to have the dragon-slayer be their king. The Master objects:

In the Lake-town we have always elected masters from among the old and wise, and have not endured the rule of mere fighting men.

His argument backfires, though he holds on to power temporarily.

Tolkien does not spend much time on this particular character. He does not even give him a name. But in a few words, concentrating mainly on actions, he is able to evoke a character type that anyone can recognize.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A More Excellent Way (1967), 17-18:

The Book of Mormon also reminds us that man is by nature "carnal, sensual, and devilish." (Mosiah 16:3.) Man even seems at times to seek to escape from the burdens of responsibility and freedom. Eric Hoffer sees the masses as being vulnerable to manipulation in connection with mass movements because where people lack hope but are not willing to work for gradual progress they seem willing to sublimate themselves to a leader or a cause which purports to offer sudden, spectacular change.

Grade Inflation at Harvard

A certain item hit the news here, here, here, here, here, and here. It concerns a request by the distinguished Harvard University professor Harvey Mansfield. He asked at a monthly meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.

“A little bird has told me that the most frequently given grade at Harvard College right now is an A-,” Mansfield said during the meeting’s question period. “If this is true or nearly true, it represents a failure on the part of this faculty and its leadership to maintain our academic standards.”

[Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M.] Harris then stood and looked towards FAS Dean Michael D. Smith in hesitation.

“I can answer the question, if you want me to.” Harris said. “The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-. The most frequently awarded grade in Harvard College is actually a straight A.”

Harris said after the meeting that the data on grading standards is from fall 2012 and several previous semesters.

In an email to The Crimson after the meeting, Mansfield wrote that he was “not surprised but rather further depressed” by Harris’s answer.

“Nor was I surprised at the embarrassed silence in the whole room and especially at the polished table (as I call it),” Mansfield added, referencing the table at the front of the room where top administrators sit. “The present grading practice is indefensible.”

Mansfield is not the only faculty member concerned.

Classics Department chair Mark J. Schiefsky, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, said he was surprised by how high the median grade was.

“I don’t know what should be done about it, but it seems to me troubling,” Schiefsky said. “One has a range of grades to give and one would presumably expect a wider distribution.”

Schiefsky said Harris’s comment raised a number of questions about the distribution of grades and that he would appreciate more discussion about the topic.

Harvard is not the only ivy-league school to have a problem.

In a review last spring, [an ad hoc Yale] committee found that 62 percent of grades awarded at Yale College from 2010 to 2012 were in the A-range.

The problem is not limited to the ivy leagues, but general throughout higher education. Mansfield has an interesting interim solution.

Mansfield said the issue of grade inflation, while not new and not isolated to Harvard, has become routine and has an adverse effect on standards and on the most talented students, whose merit goes unrecognized.

Mansfield described how, in recent years, he himself has taken to giving students two grades: one that shows up on their transcript and one he believes they actually deserve.

“I didn’t want my students to be punished by being the only ones to suffer for getting an accurate grade,” he said, adding that administrators must take the lead in curbing the trend.

In grading, as in so much else in this life, we do not always get what we deserve.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this great talk:

The theme of my address comes from a prophecy in President George Q. Cannon's speech given in the Tabernacle in May of 1866. President Cannon spoke of the generations that had passed before the restoration of the gospel during which the adversary was indifferent and unconcerned with regard to the fractious religious movements among mankind which were not based upon the fulness of truth. However, President Cannon observed that the movement of the Holy Priesthood of God and the Church were restored, "then all hell is moved." He catalogued the forms of resistance that can be expected when "all hell is moved."

President Cannon, who knew that the adversary regards this telestial turf as his own, said that Satan will vigorously resist all rezoning efforts because this is his world. President Cannon further observed that the Saints—meaning you and I—must not make the mistake of assuming the existence of any truce between the forces of Satan and God. To believe so, said President Cannon, is "a very great delusion, and a very common one."

President Cannon then warned that the forms of resistance to righteousness will strike us "with wonder and astonishment." This, he said, would occur because "the war" which was waged in heaven has been transferred to the earth," and that this conflict, he said, "will [come to] occupy the thoughts and minds of all the inhabitants of the earth" (Journal of Discourses 11:227–29). Brothers and sisters, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be at the epicenter of all that.

Credit Where it is Due

Jared Miller's new book on Hittite instructions begins with a text classified as belonging to the Old Hittite Empire. This is a harangue of officials who have been doing less than stellar work. This bit gives a feel for the problem.

When my father calls together the assembly he will investigate among you for corruption, not (among) your pack bearers (saying): "You constantly oppress your own pack bearers, and you repeatedly cause the king aggravation." (Jared L. Miller, Royal Hittite Instructions and Related Administrative Texts [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013], 75.)

The text deals with various types of corruption, including irregularities in both treatment of personnel, and use of funds. While human corruption is spread throughout history, one of the interesting things about this text is that it focuses on the leader, not the underlings. The writer (whose identity is lost in a break in the table) recognizes the likely source of the problem.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From We Will Prove Them Herewith (1982), 92-93:

A narcissistic society in which each person is too busy looking out for "number one" can build no brotherhood; it will finally be shattered against its own selfishness. Had God's Firstborn looked out for Himself first, there would have been no Gethsemane or Calvary—and no immortality!

Secular standards so often constitute a naive Maginot-line morality that is quickly outflanked by the reality of what occurs when men and women try to live without God in the world. Over four decades ago, the lights began to go out all over Europe. Extinguished were the lamps of God's commandments, including the sixth commandment. In the resulting darkness, the genocide of millions of Jews occurred.

The greater the darkness, the more enormous the errors. In that darkness, some said they did not know about concentration camps; the darkness made it easier for others who did know to ignore what was underway. The time may well come when the enormity of widespread and unnecessary abortions of today (one legal abortion for every three live births in the United States in 1978) will be looked upon with at least some of the shame with which we now view Dachau and Buchenwald.

A.D. 538

In A.D. 538, Liang Wudi (梁武帝), the founder of the Liang Dynasty, ruled China. Liang had been an official during the Qi Dynasty, but took the throne after the emperor Hedi was killed by his own guards. The guards preserved Hedi's head in wax and sent it to Wudi as a gift. (Imagine opening something like that this Christmas!)

Liang Wudi was at first an able administrator, both diligent and frugal. Unfortunately, however, he tolerated corruption in his family members. By 538, Wudi had entrusted much of the government to Zhu Yi and He Jingrong. But He Jingrong was politically incompetent, and Zhu Yi was corrupt and inclined to be very jealous. Zhu Yi would eventually be dismissed because of corruption, but it was several years later.

Liang Wudi simply reigned too long and grew tired of ruling. The conflicts of the later years devastated the kingdom. The capital, Nanjing, was besieged and only a tenth of the defending army survived. Eventually (in 550) he was overthrown by his son, Jian Wendi who disapproved of his father's Buddhism. The Liang dynasty limped along for another eight years before being consigned to the dustbin of history.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Men and Women of Christ (1991), 52:

At times we may feel overwhelmed by our callings and circumstances. Then we genuinely need vital perspective and reassurance about what matters most--which is keeping our covenants.

An Amusing Typo

Typographical errors are extremely easy to make and nearly everyone makes them. Sometimes, however, the results can be amusing.

At the top of the copyright page of Maarten J. Raven's book, Egyptian Magic: The Quest for Thoth's Book of Secrets, Raven (or his publisher) thanks various publishing establishments for permission to quote from various translations. One author mentioned is a certain J. K. Ritner. I wonder if someone confused R. K. Ritner with J. K. Rowling? Both can write well, and both write about magic, but I doubt that anyone who knows either would ever confuse them.

More on Repentance and Forgiveness

Hannah Bird has some interesting thoughts here about repentance and forgiveness. She argues that unless a person takes responsibility for their actions and repents, they cannot be truly forgiven even if others say that they forgive them. Without repentance they cut themselves off from real forgiveness.
It might be worth rereading Greg Smith's observations on false forgiveness, and on the abuse of forgiveness.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Time to Choose (1972), 24-25:

The disciple must signal anchorless souls drifting on the "gulf of misery and woe," even though the signal may not be seen. It was in this spirit that our ancestors flashed us the experiential distillation of their discipleship, ". . . writing upon plates diligently." They were probably as busy as we, but were "willing to communicate."

Engraving on the plates was difficult. One can imagine the countless ways in which this arduous, meticulous, regular task of writing for an unborn audience could have been easily set aside to give attention to other pressing tasks. Since only a small degree of knowledge could be transmitted, it is sobering to note what they chose to place upon the plates: genealogy, exhortations about chastity, prophecies about Christ, and testimonies about the reality of resurrection and judgment—all simple, unvarnished Gospel truths! Although they were city builders, there were few details about cities or urban-planning, probably because these people who lived in perishable places had their eyes on a continuing city, ". . . a city . . . whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10.)

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Deposition of a Disciple (1976), 23:

Every true disciple really wants to give persuasive testimony. Sometimes prophets have been forbidden to write certain things. (Ether 13:13; 3 Nephi 27:23.) Alma wished that he could leave an angelic affidavit, with power and force. Other times we cannot speak but "the smallest part" that we feel. But we are weak. I will, however, concede cleverness to the world and keep my gaze fixed on correctness of concept. Cotton-candy concepts are soothing to the taste, but there is no nourishment in them.

The "commandments of men" dissolve as soon as they are touched by a little heat and pressure. So many secular solutions are really soothing slogans; there is no real substance to them.

The Best Manuscript Fallacy

Recent perusing of a pretentious periodical reminded me of A. E. Housman's line about those who "employ language less as a vehicle than as a substitute for thought." The full quote, however is about textual criticism:

Those who live and move and have their being in the world of words and not of things, and employ language less as a vehicle than as a substitute for thought, are readily duped by the assertion that this stolid adherence to a favourite MS [manuscript], instead of being, as it is, a private and personal necessity imposed on certain editors by their congenital defects, is a principle; and that its name is "scientific criticism' or "critical method.' (A. E. Housman, M. Manilii Astronomicon, [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1937], 1:xxxii.)

Housman is one of the most readable authorities on textual criticism and actually knew how to write. It is a shame that the pretentious periodical had no memorable prose to match Housman's.

Someone Sounding Like Elder Maxwell

Every so often, one runs across a sentiment that strikes a chord that someone else said elsewhere. A week or so ago, I ran across an informative article (well worth the read) that echoed something Elder Maxwell once said. Here is the article's version:

In well run organizations, information runs from the top down and from the bottom up.

Here is Elder Maxwell's version (from All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience (1980), 77-78:

We ought to listen as carefully to those we supervise as to those who supervise us. You and I are usually pretty good at paying attention upward, but we are not nearly as good at
heeding that which comes from other directions.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Deposition of a Disciple (1976), 23:

Incidentally, those who say dogmatically that morality can't be legislated turn about and say dogmatically that total welfare can be legislated! In the long run, the welfare state operates against human welfare, particularly our precious agency, but the pathology may take a few decades to become visible. I'm reminded of the vaunted guns of Singapore, which "guaranteed" the security of that port city. The trouble was, the guns fired seaward only, and Singapore was taken by land. Such myopia is not the exclusive property of military planners, but among all planners without principles.

Lectio Brevior as Mental Shortcut

J. R. Royse's useful book on textual criticism contains a useful insight about the reason for the popularity of the rule of thumb known as lectio brevior (the shorter reading is preferred). Basically, this rule of thumb says that given two manuscripts that disagree, the text with the shorter reading is to be preferred. Rouse argues from empirical evidence (and I concur though I reached the same conclusion through a different route) that scribes tend to drop things out rather than add them in. So using lectio brevior is more likely to give an incorrect reading than taking the longer reading. In the quote below, he argues that using this rule of thumb is an excuse for textual critics to avoid using their brains:

The frequency with which scholars such ash Hort and Metzger appeal to the preference for the shorter reading is doubtless in part due to the ease and objectivity of its application. Whether a particular reading fits the style of the author, is grammatically smoother, follows Semitic idiom, or is theologically more acceptable, is usually very much a matter of debate, and reaching any decision on such issues would involve the weighing of a great deal of evidence But deciding whether one reading is shorter than another is, at least usually, a perfectly straightforward task. It is therefore convenient to reduce textual questions to questions of length, and then to decide accordingly. (James R. Royse, Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2008], 711.)

Today's Maxwell Quote

From That My Family Should Partake (1974), 54-55:

Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Council of the Twelve, in reflecting on his parents, shares these interesting insights:

Everything in my parents' home was gospel-centered, gospel-oriented, gospel-governed. Day in and day out we talked about the principles of the gospel—not in a speculative way, not dwelling upon the mysteries, not considering hidden and unrevealed matters that have little bearing upon gaining salvation. Rather, we pondered in our hearts the basic and fundamental things that men must believe and to which they must conform to gain eternal life. We rejoiced continually in the words of eternal life, hoping thereby to become inheritors in due course of that greatest of all the gifts of God.

What is Mormon Studies? VII

Those who belong to academic organizations know that unevenness is a constant problem. Some papers are better, or more important than others. Some papers are solid and some are sloppy. Some papers make one wonder how they ever got on the program in the first place.

By featuring particular examples of questionable papers, some may feel that they have been cherry-picked for putrescence. As well as viewing the trees, one also needs to get an idea of the forest.

Here are all eighteen papers on Mormon Studies on the program for the 2011 annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion, divided into general category, with the percentage that every category made of the entire program:

Comparative Religion (22%)
“‘I am a Mormon’ and ‘I am a Scientologist’: Recent Marketing Efforts in Mormonism and Scientology”
“The Personal and the Impersonal Divine in Mormonism and Bohemeanism” 
“The Enoch Figure: Pre- and Post-Joseph Smith”
“Not the End of the Story: Theological Reflections on the Mormon Afterlife” 

Race (6%)
“Jane Manning James: Reenacting and Reclaiming the ‘Black’ and ‘Mormon’ Past”

Gender (28%)
“The Mommy Wars, Mormonism, and the ‘Choices’ of American Motherhood” 
“Western Pioneer Mythos in the Negotiation of Mormon Feminism and Faith”
“Scripting, Performing, Testifying: Giving Faithful ‘Seximony’ through the Mormon Vagina Monologues”
“‘Further Light and Knowledge’: Ways of Knowing in Mormonism and the New Spirituality”
“Female Priestly Subjectivity and Dynasty in Early Mormonism”
 Sex (28%)
“Captive Bodies, Queer Religions: Scripting North American Religious Difference”
“Giving Them a Way Out: What American Muslim Women Can Do About Polygyny”
“‘I am a Daughter of My Heavenly Father’: Transsexual Mormons and Performed Gender Essentialism”
“‘That They Might Have Joy’: Towards a Posthetero­normative, Gay Mormon Hermeneutic”
“Joseph Smith, Polygamy, and the Problem of the Levirate Widow”

Arts (6%)
“‘For Death was That — and This — is Thee’: Stephanie Meyers, Theosis, and the Twenty-first Century Vampire Romance”

Pilgrimage (6%)
“‘When You’re Here, We’re Here’: Encounters between the Living and the Dead at Latter-day Saint Pilgrimage Sites”

Ritual (6%)
“The Cultural Logic of LDS Death-ritualization: Puzzles and Possibilities”  

As can be seen, sex and gender issues account for more than half of the program. (Rounding issues account for why the total percentage is 102%.) My survey over the past week or so has highlighted over a quarter of the presentations. This was a fairly typical year. These are fairly typical topics (although politics, which is another common topic, was not represented this year).

Mormon Studies has potential: potential for good and potential for evil. Proponents tend to downplay both the existence of the bad, and its size, extent, and pervasiveness. By portraying Mormon Studies only as good is disingenuous. I think Mormon Studies has potential to do good, but currently I find much of the work wanting in terms of academic quality, accuracy and faithfulness. The current trends are not encouraging.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From That My Family Should Partake (1974), 110:

In giving thanks for their daily bread, families can constitute cultural counterpoint to the swelling chorus of secularism that asks not for daily bread, but for a guaranteed lifetime of leisure and plenty. The one life-style features gratitude, the other a demanding growl.

Things to be Thankful For

Some things to be thankful for this year:

We can be thankful for families who puncture our pretensions and promote our welfare.

We can be thankful for ancient records that enlarge our memory.

We can be thankful that there was a Lehi colony and that they left a record.

We can be thankful that there is a God and that he is a God of miracles.

We can be thankful that God is a God of covenants, and he keeps his.

We can be thankful that God still talks to men, even if we do not always listen.

We can be thankful for a plan of happiness.

We can be thankful to know that this life is a test and that we are proved therewith.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From That My Family Should Partake (1974), 83:

The presence of the Spirit in our lives also permits us to remember, and to be grateful for, past benefactors and past favors. The world's way, of course, is one in which new grievances quickly drain our reservoirs of gratitude.

What Is Mormon Studies? VI

Some might think, given the other papers profiled over the past few days, that Mormon Studies is obsessed with sex. This is not necessarily so. Here is one example:

The Cultural Logic of LDS Death-ritualization: Puzzles and Possibilities

This paper was presented at the 2011 AAR meetings. The reader might wonder what is involved in death-ritualization, so the published abstract might provide some clues:

Why didn't Mormons develop funerary rites as components of the esoteric temple ritual that emerged in the 1840s? Such rites would have been a natural development, given the temple's associations with the dead and preparation for the afterlife; and in fact, some elements of LDS practice point in this direction, most notably the custom of clothing the dead in temple robes that are otherwise never worn or displayed outside temples. Historical precedents in LDS ritual allow us to imagine temple-based funerary rites that might have been but weren't, in turn providing foils for a Geertzian reading of the cultural logic of how Mormons do and don't ritualize death. Building on a thesis by Douglas Davies, this paper argues that LDS death-ritualization is separated from the process and occasion of death itself, a fact which suggests a lack of ritual interest in dead bodies or the lived experience of dying.

So now scholars get "to imagine temple-based funerary rites that might have been but weren't." If only things were completely different than they are, they might be very different than they are. While we are at it we might imagine that these hypothetical notions constitute research. We might even imagine that they are scholarship. Does this mean that Mormon Studies is engaged in the production of fiction?

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Let the winds and the storms beat and pound upon such faithful Saints; they will overcome the world—not vice versa. Let others falter; these will not! Let others pout and doubt; these will not! Let some noisily mock the temple; these will quietly flock to the temple, to do the work of Him whose house it is!

What is Mormon Studies? V

If one wants to see what Mormon Studies is like, consider the following paper from the 2011 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion held in San Francisco:

Scripting, Performing, Testifying: Giving Faithful "Seximony" through The Mormon Vagina Monologues

You might think that the title was deliberately provocative but the content was mild. So here is the abstract:

Abstract: In 2001, a group of Mormon women scripted what came to be known at the Mormon Vagina Monologues and presented their monologues at the annual Sunstone magazine conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Using this public forum to express extremely private experiences, the women not only critiqued the Mormon Church patriarchy, but also used essential elements of the Mormon faith — those of testimony, scripture, and personal revelation — to envision a Church more accepting of sexual differences. Using methodological approaches from Mormon studies, feminist studies of religion, and performance studies, this paper argues that the Mormon Vagina Monologues exploited an inherent ambivalence in the LDS relationship between priesthood authority and personal authority. A number of monologues are examined, including pieces dealing with sacred undergarments, female masturbation, eternal marriage and the celestial kingdom, and the personal and theological struggles of male-to-female transsexual Latter-day Saints.

Perhaps the presentation was by some nut out of the mainstream. No, Jill Peterfeso was affiliated with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College, a job this presentation no doubt helped her secure. But surely, this presentation was given in one of the AAR's wierd sections. No, this was presented in the Mormon Studies Consultation. This is mainstream Mormon Studies.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1972), 59:

When we become too encrusted with error, our spiritual antennae wilt and we slip beyond mortal reach. This can happen to entire civilizations. In his lamentation to his son Moroni, Mormon notes the deterioration of the Nephite society. The symptoms include a wickedness so profound that Mormon's people were described by him as being "past feeling." The Apostle Paul lamented the destructive lasciviousness of Church members in Ephesus because they had developed such insensitivity in their satiation that they were "past feeling." A sex-saturated society cannot really feel the needs of its suffering members because, instead of developing the love that looks outward, it turns man selfishly inward. Imperviousness to the promptings of the still small voice of God will also mean that we have ears but cannot hear, not only the promptings of God, but also the pleas of men.

What is Mormon Studies? IV

For those who might be tempted to think that Mormon Studies does not consider spirituality, consider the following from the 2011 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion:

"Further Light and Knowledge": Ways of Knowing in Mormonism and the New Spirituality

The title of this paper sounds very interesting. What is it about? Well the published abstract says:

This paper analyzes esoteric ways of knowing in Mormonism to illuminate how particular LDS women have synthesized, supplemented or replaced Mormonism with esoteric elements of twenty-first century New Spirituality. The New Spirituality is the current generalized spiritual milieu in the U.S.: dynamic, competitive, flexible, and hybrid—an inclusive category that can cover the wide range of non-institutional options available to Americans for spiritual self-expression as well as innovative theological trends in institutional religions. It can represent what Americans once considered to be New Age practices and ideas, such as astrology, reincarnation, channeling, and divination (the belief in and use of which are diffuse in American culture). It can also refer to what has become a revitalization of established religious traditions in America toward a progressive, more humanistic spirituality.

So the paper is looking at how some Latter-day Saint women "have synthesized, supplemented or replaced Mormonism" with things "such as astrology, reincarnation, channeling, and divination" to reach a "more humanistic spirituality."

The presentation was by Doe Daughtrey, an instructor at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College. One might think, by reading the abstract, that the presentation was made in one of the esotericism sections, but instead it was presented in the Mormon Studies Consultation.

Well, this is certainly not mainstream Mormonism, but it is mainstream Mormon Studies.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Sermons Not Spoken (1985), chapter 2:

The very repetitiveness of the cares of the world can thus make their claim on us predominant. Such cares can also create a self-serving rhythm to life, be it humdrum hedonism, humdrum humanism, or humdrum nihilism.

Once we are desensitized and dulled by the cares of the world, the routine of schedules and merely surviving becomes so consuming, so self-reinforcing, and so self-serving. Though we might be stirred to resist an outright political dictatorship, the dominating cares of the world keep us compliantly in our places. Thus, scarcely sensing what might have been, we are contented with what is.

What is Mormon Studies? III

Sometimes Mormon Studies papers are not necessarily recognizable from their titles. Little in the following title hints that it is a paper about Mormon Studies:

Captive Bodies, Queer Religions: Scripting North American Religious Difference

The abstract, however, reveals that it is indeed supposed to be about Mormons:

Queering of the study of North American Religions requires taking seriously the embodied construction of religious difference. In this paper, I argue that attempts to render certain religions “bad” or unAmerican are often processes of queering specific modes of embodied religiosity. I first suggest that queering the study of North American religions requires more than simply recovering the voices of American LGBT people of faith – that we must rather mobilize critical theories of sexualities to think about religious difference in North America. Next, I consider three examples of the North American captivity narrative genre—Mormon, Neopagan, and Muslim—as articulations of American Protestant anxieties about the perceived challenges marginal religions pose to heteronormativity. Following Sedgwick, I conclude by insisting that the study of North American religions is not only incomplete, but damaged, if it fails to critically engage cultural assumptions about sex.

The paper was presented by Megan Goodwin, then a graduate student in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, but now Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University.

Was this perhaps presented at some session on queer religions? No, it was presented in the North American Religions Sections. Perhaps this was done a long time ago. Well, actually, it was only two years ago, in 2011.

So the study of Mormonism "is not only incomplete, but damaged, if it fails to critically engage cultural assumptions about sex." So, according to Dr. Goodwin, this is what Mormon Studies is about.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward (1977), 14-15:

We cannot count on a society increasingly slipping into homosexuality to be on its guard against homosexuality. The more normal abnormalities become, the less reason people have for being wary of them. Various movements involving sex and drugs, and even some involving music, once basically an effort to flee and to escape, have now taken the offensive.

We need to have compassion and love for those who are trying to escape the world. We need to try to understand them and the root causes for their behavior. What we do not need to do, however, is to follow them. They are to be pitied and understood, not praised nor followed.

What is Mormon Studies? II

Some topics in Mormon Studies might raise an eyebrow. This is sometimes done by perverting standard phrases used in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"I Am a Daughter of My Heavenly Father": Transsexual Mormons and Performed Gender Essentialism

The typical reader probably wonders what in the world "performed gender essentialism" might be. (The computer's spell checker does not even recognize essentialism as an English word.) To figure this out we look at the published abstract:

Using monologues featured in the Mormon Vagina Monologues (MVM) and scripted by male-to-female transsexual Latter-day Saints, this paper offers a case study of sexual identity construction within a rigid religious system. To be Mormon and transgendered is to occupy a particularly precarious position—socially, culturally, and soteriologically. Located within conversations around Mormon studies, Judith Butler’s “gender performativity,” performance studies’ concept of the “utopian performative,” and the MVM, this paper investigates the impact that patriarchal theology has on Mormon transsexual agency: instead of rejecting the patriarchal Church that has excommunicated them, the monologists retain the Mormon’s Father God and emphasis on strict gender essentialism. In transitioning, Mormon transsexuals disobey the Church but obey God, thereby becoming “who the Lord Jesus wants me to be.” As this paper shows, the MVM’s transsexual contributors reclaim sexual subjectivity by performing testimonies—not of the Church’s truthfulness, but of gender identity and theological commitment.

This is the work of Jill Peterfeso, now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College, and was presented in the Religion and Sexuality Consultation at the 2011 annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion. It is about as standard a paper on Mormon Studies as there is.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Why do some crush and break the tender hearts of spouses and children through insensitivity and even infidelity? Unable to sustain lasting relationships, shouting, in effect, “I am my own, I am in charge!” they retreat like cowards from their real responsibilities. (See Jacob 2:35.) In such pathetic men or women, so strong is the competition between self-pity and self-indulgence that these urges both come in second! Furthermore, just as gender was of no saving significance in the self-destructive dash of the Gadarene swine to the sea, neither is it today.

What is Mormon Studies? I

I published something on Mormon Studies recently. Many people did not like it. They thought I was too quick to condemn something before it had a chance to produce any fruit. Those commentators obviously have not seen some of what passes for Mormon Studies at academic gatherings. So what sorts of things can one expect of Mormon Studies judging by papers on the topic at the most prestigious organization devoted to Religious Studies in North America? Here is a typical example:

"That They Might Have Joy": Toward a Postheteronormative, Gay Mormon Heremeneutic

The gobbledygook in the subtitle probably has the reader wondering what this polysyllabic effusion means. For that we look at the published abstract:

This paper looks at the question of how a viable gay Mormon hermeneutic would read, and what it would take for it to gain force in Mormon culture, based on a brief examination of the development of anti-gay sentiments in the history of the Church, provided in the context of official statements set forth in regards to the Equal Rights Amendment and the road toward acceptance of African-American men in priesthood positions. I conclude by arguing that although a change of approach to this issue is unlikely in the near future, a healthy dose of their own "civil disobedience" may be necessary for LGBTQ Mormons, their families and sympathizers, who are willing to stick with the Church, and seek for change from within it.

Coming as it did in the Gay Men and Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion, it is not surprising that the abstract reads more like a political manifesto than a work of scholarship. The author, Devan Hite, a master's student in pastoral psychotherapy at the Chicago Theological Seminary, seems to view churches as mere social clubs subject to political manipulation.

This was presented in 2011, but it is nothing new for the AAR. Six years earlier at the Gay Men's Issues in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion (which seems to be the same group) there was a paper entitled, "Why Are There So Many Gay Mormon Websites?"


You can't make this stuff up.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

This is no small point. We live in a world, for example, in which some individuals do some good but do so while breaking the seventh commandment—chastity before marriage and fidelity after. If we really want to do much good, we must also be good. Instructively, in the Book of Mormon we read about a political leader, Morianton, who dealt justly with his people but not with himself. Why not? "Because of his many whoredoms," the scriptures say (Ether 10:11). This is a fascinating insight regarding the ecology of the soul.

A Closer Look at Mormon Studies

For many years the American Academy of Religion met with the Society of Biblical Literature for their annual meetings. To the ordinary member this seemed to work very well. Then, some years ago, for some reason, the American Academy of Religion decided that it really did not want to meet with the Society of Biblical Literature anymore. Perhaps some of their members could not tolerate the Bible; who knows? It does not seem to matter now since the meetings are held jointly again. But for a number of years they were held separately.

Many academics are limited in the amount of travel that they can do. One trip to a conference a year paid for by the university seems to be standard. So professors had to choose one or the other conference to attend since they could not attend both.

When the split occurred one of my colleagues could not believe that I would chose to go to the SBL meetings rather than the AAR meetings since, according to him, AAR was the one true organization and the Society of Biblical Literature was an inferior organization. I have served for years on the program committee for one of the sections of the SBL and currently serve as the chair of the section. I disagree. None of that seemed to matter to him.

While I have attended some amazingly vapid presentations at SBL, the content, as a whole, seems to me to be more academically serious and rigorous than presentations at AAR, but perhaps I am too much an elitist snob. Over the coming days, while the AAR/SBL annual meetings are held, I will be highlighting some of the wonders of the American Academy of Religion particularly Mormon Studies. Since Mormon Studies now tends to view itself as a subset of Religious Studies, of which the AAR is the premier organization, one need look no further than the AAR to see how Mormon Studies is carried out by those in Religious Studies.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this article:

Thus, life is carefully designed to produce for us, if we are willing, a harvest of relevant and portable experience. But there is such a short growing season! The fields must be worked intensively amid droughts, late springs, and early frosts. For the disobedient and despairing who refuse to plant, plow, or harvest, theirs is not simply a “winter of discontent” but a despair for all seasons. The indifferent and lackluster who work only on the surface of life will harvest little. Only for the perspiring and “anxiously engaged” faithful will the harvest be manyfold (see Matt. 19:29).

Profanity in the News

This news item caught my eye. It has nothing particularly to do with the ancient world or academia, but the author is correct. This commentary says a lot:

I long for the days when comedians such as [Bill Cosby] could do a two hour routine without any gratuitous sexual references or vulgarity.

I remember Michael Medved made the point a couple of decades ago (and this is not a verbatim quote):

When was the last time you heard someone walk out of a movie and say: "That was a good film, but it needed more swear words"?

One can think of one of the climactic scenes from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth Bennett (who can certainly hold her own verbally) says:

You have insulted me in every possible method. (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chapter 56).

And yet, no profanity or vulgarity appears in the chapter. Even in insults, one need not stoop so low.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A More Excellent Way (1967), 13-14:

Finally, when we falter, or get discouraged, the Church offers us a panorama of models who have prevailed; these authenticators are evidence of the fruits of faith and the holiness of hope. As we encounter the mist-shrouded portions of life's trail, we can grasp the "iron rod," for the age has now arrived, which Dostoevsky foresaw when

‎‎"Freedom, free thought, and science will lead mankind into such straits and will bring them face to face with such marvels and insoluable mysteries, that some of them, the fierce and rebellious ones, will destroy themselves, and others . . . will destroy one another, while the rest, weak and unhappy . . . will . . . whine 'save us from ourselves!'"

Double Standards in Academia

Peter Wood's article entitled, "A Serious Blow to Academic Freedom," serves as an interesting, and appalling, illustration of the politically-correct double-standard applied to academic freedom by courts. The University of Central Florida committed a clear injustice to one of its own faculty by turning over his emails to an activist. Then they changed their minds and tried to get the emails back. The activist sued them. Judge Donald Grincewicz's opinion seems capricious and poorly argued to me, but I am not a lawyer. If Professor Michael Mann deserves the protections of academic freedom, then certainly so does Professor James Wright.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A More Excellent Way (1967), 10:

The absence of authority is not freedom; nothing is more controlling than anarchy—in the home or in the streets.

A Nice Analysis in an Unlikely Source

An interesting analysis of academia shows up in a science fiction novel:

But the system had overlooked one crucial factor: How were the teachers chosen?

They were career military, all of them. Proven officers with real ability. But in the military you don't get trusted positions just because of your ability. You also have to attract the notice of superior officers. You have to be liked. You have to fit in with the system. You have to look like what the officers above you think that officers should look like. You have to think in ways that they are comfortable with.

The result was that you ended up with a command structure that was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out.

That was the military. These teachers were all the kind of people who thrived in that environment. And they were selecting their favorite students based on precisely that same screwed-up sense of priorities.

(Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow [New York: Tor, 1999], 202.)

.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1972), 1:

Some assessment of our strategic situation is required. We have a larger corps—quantitatively and qualitatively—of outstanding, almost elite, young people in the Church than we have ever had in this dispensation. They are committed. They want to serve. They believe the Gospel is true. They strive to apply it, and have already made some difficult life choices consistent with their beliefs. They are vibrant with burgeoning knowledge and increasing commitment.

Not all LDS youth, however, fit in this category. There is also a wide center band of reasonably active and informed young Mormons in the spectrum who are impressive, but who are not yet as thoroughly committed and versed in the Gospel as the "elite." To one side of the spectrum's center are numerous inactive LDS youth who are basically good, but bored. They feel no need for Church activity or prefer the illusory "autonomy" of non-involvement with the Church. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the disenchanted, the dissenters, the rebels and the defectors. Some of the rebels are more distant from us than any star and more determined in their differences than ever. Their rebellion is not simply reflexive—some of it is issue-oriented. Fortunately, some of the latter group are still of active concern to their LDS peers who desire to reach them.

A Treacherous Weapon is Ever a Danger to the Hand

A little wisdom from J. R. R. Tolkien:

But let us not darken our hearts by imagining the trial of their gentle loyalty in the Dark Tower. For the Enemy has failed---so far. Thanks to Saruman.'

'Then is not Saruman a traitor?' said Gimli.

'Indeed yes.' said Gandalf. 'Doubly. And is not that strange? Nothing that we have endured of late has seemed so grievous as the treason of Isengard. Even reckoned as a lord and captain Saruman has grown very strong. He threatens the Men of Rohan and draws off their help from Minas Tirith, even as the main blow is approaching from the East. Yet a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand. Saruman also had a mind to capture the Ring for himself, or at least to snare some hobbits for his evil purposes. So between them our enemies have contrived only to bring Merry and Pippin with marvellous speed, and in the nick of time, to Fangorn, where otherwise they would never have come at all!

'Also they have filled themselves with new doubts that disturb their plans. No tidings of the battle will come to Mordor, thanks to the horsemen of Rohan; but the Dark Lord knows that two hobbits were taken in the Emyn Muil and borne away towards Isengard against the will of his own servants. He now has Isengard to fear as well as Minas Tirith. If Minas Tirith falls, it will go ill with Saruman.'

'It is a pity that our friends lie in between,' said Gimli. 'If no land divided Isengard and Mordor, then they could fight while we watched and waited.'

'The victor would emerge stronger than either, and free from doubt,' said Gandalf. 'But Isengard cannot fight Mordor, unless Saruman first obtains the Ring. That he will never do now. He does not know his peril. There is much that he does not know.' (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, chapter 5.)

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Yes, “the enemy is combined,” but when we are combined with the Lord’s “chariots of fire,” then “they that be with us are more than they that be with them”! (2 Kgs. 6:16–17.) Furthermore, the divine promise is that no weapon formed against the Lord’s work shall finally prosper; this “is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.” (Isa. 54:17; D&C 71:9.) I so assure; I so testify!

Putting on Your Poker Face

Those who study such things assert that non-verbal communication is an important part of communication. A poker face is thus a means of hiding or miscommunicating information. A poker face is a two-edged sword. We may think that a poker face communicates care or neutrality. Our audience may interpret it that way. Our audience, however, might also interpret it as indifference, or heartlessness or being past feeling.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Time to Choose (1972), 74:

Sometimes even the most articulate and inspiring words fail to bring the desired change because of the hearer's refusal to listen, but we need to be ready even if he is not. Ready not only with content, but with conviction. A casual, uncaring testimony may not be an effective witness at all.

On Pure Text Corpora

Stephan Seidlmayer makes an important point about text corpora in this article:

Für die Grammatik sucht man sich „reine” Corpora zusammen, Gruppen von Texten, von denen man meint, dass sie dieselbe Sprache sprechen.

For grammar one seeks for "pure" corpora, groups of texts which one considers to be in the same language.

But such pure corpora are illusory:

Die Auswahl „reiner“ Corpora ist, indem sie auf einer petitio principii fußt, zirkulär.

The selection of the texts as representing a "pure" corpus is a circular argument. What we find in Egyptian texts is a range of usage that changes over time. But we also have various registers of language that authors slide between.

To speak or write in an archaic form of the language or in an antique style conveys something different than doing so in a contemporary style. The same thing happens when one uses classical Arabic instead of colloquial or King James English (or even imitation King James English) rather than a more contemporary idiom. This is not to say that using archaic Egyptian necessarily meant the same thing to an Egyptian that archaic English does in modern English, but that in both languages the shift in register provides different connotations than the use of contemporary speech. A master of the language can use such things to great effect. Unfortunately, not all writers are masters of the language.

Speaking of text corpora, one of my favorite selections of texts was used by E. A. W. Budge in his book Egyptian Language. The text examples come either from the Pyramid of Unas or Papyrus D'Orbiney. The texts are about a thousand years apart. It would be a little like learning English with examples from Beowulf and Jane Austin. While there may not be such a thing as a pure text corpus, there are reasons we usually do not put those particular texts together.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Lord, Increase Our Faith (1994), 99:

In Lehi's vision of the rod of iron, a most interesting outcome was described. Some Church members, "after they had tasted of the fruit . . . were ashamed" (1 Nephi 8:28). Why? For some objective reason? No. Simply "because of those that were scoffing at them." We see a few around us who simply can't stand to be separated from the "politically correct" multitudes in the great and spacious building. These multitudes are "in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit" (1 Nephi 8:26-27). The "finger of scorn" has its own way of separating the faithful from those who have little or no faith (see 1 Nephi 8:33).

Like Lehi, the faithful in our time will endure the pointing fingers of scorn from the world and "[heed] them not," even when the ironical fact is that some of those pointing fingers of scorn once grasped the iron rod.

Some have little faith which then fails, because they can't stand the peer pressure, the shame and scorn heaped upon them by the world. They simply cannot learn to "despise the shame of the world" (see 2 Nephi 9:18), and they let go of the iron rod and slip away. Learning to despise the shame of the world means coming to think nothing of it, just as in taking no heed of temptation (see D&C 20:22).

Who Lives Longer?

In the first book of Herodotus, Herodotus tells the story of Solon visiting Croesus and figuring out how many days a seventy-year old lives. For us that is 365 x 70 = 25550 with an additional 17 days every fourth year for leap years. For the Greeks, however, there are not leap years but leap months which are added every other year.

Given twelve months of thirty days in a typical Greek year, how many days does Solon think a 70 year old lives for? Would you rather live to be seventy years old as an ancient Greek or a modern one?

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

The more what is politically correct seeks to replace what God has declared correct, the more ineffective approaches to human problems there will be, all reminding us of C. S. Lewis’s metaphor about those who run around with fire extinguishers in times of flood. For instance, there are increasing numbers of victims of violence and crime, yet special attention is paid to the rights of criminals. Accompanying an ever increasing addiction to pornography are loud alarms against censorship. Rising illegitimacy destroys families and threatens the funding capacities of governments; nevertheless, chastity and fidelity are mocked. These and other consequences produce a harsh cacophony. When Nero fiddled as Rome burned, at least he made a little music! I have no hesitancy, brothers and sisters, in stating that unless checked, permissiveness, by the end of its journey, will cause humanity to stare in mute disbelief at its awful consequences.

Ironically, as some people become harder, they use softer words to describe dark deeds. This, too, is part of being sedated by secularism! Needless abortion, for instance, is a “reproductive health procedure,” which is an even more “spongy expression” than “termination of pregnancy” (George McKenna, “On Abortion: A Lincolnian Position,” Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1995, 52, 54). “Illegitimacy” gives way to the wholly sanitized words “nonmarital birth” or “alternative parenting” (Ben J. Wattenberg, Values Matter Most [1995], 173).

Church members will live in this wheat-and-tares situation until the Millennium. Some real tares even masquerade as wheat, including the few eager individuals who lecture the rest of us about Church doctrines in which they no longer believe. They criticize the use of Church resources to which they no longer contribute. They condescendingly seek to counsel the Brethren whom they no longer sustain. Confrontive, except of themselves, of course, they leave the Church, but they cannot leave the Church alone (Ensign, Nov. 1980, 14). Like the throng on the ramparts of the “great and spacious building,” they are intensely and busily preoccupied, pointing fingers of scorn at the steadfast iron-rodders (1 Ne. 8:26–28, 33). Considering their ceaseless preoccupation, one wonders, Is there no diversionary activity available to them, especially in such a large building—like a bowling alley? Perhaps in their mockings and beneath the stir are repressed doubts of their doubts. In any case, given the perils of popularity, Brigham Young advised that this “people must be kept where the finger of scorn can be pointed at them” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 434).

Matthew 24:17-18

When the abomination of desolation was to appear, Jesus advised his disciples:

17     ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δώματος μὴ καταβάτω ἆραι τὰ ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας αὐτοῦ,
18     καὶ ὁ ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ μὴ ἐπιστρεψάτω ὀπίσω ἆραι τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ.

He who is on the roof, let him not go down to take the things of his house, and he who is in the field, let him to return back to take his clothes. (Matthew 24:17–19)

Two cultural points stick out. The first is the flat roofs (see also 2 Samuel 11:2). The second is the tendency to lay aside outer clothing to work in the fields. In this scenario, quick action is required and when it is time to go, it is time to go immediately. In some emergencies delay is deadly and Jesus says that this is one of them.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this article:

Fortunately, in the midst of all these things, so many Church members are sincerely striving for consecration. They “seek … first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness” (JST, Matt. 6:38). These members, in spite of their individual trials and discouragements, nevertheless, rally again and again and say, “Shall we not go on in so great a cause?” (D&C 128:22).

Soberingly, we are also advised, “Behold, the enemy is combined” (D&C 38:12). Faithful Latter-day Saints will thus surely be encompassed round about (see D&C 76:29), yet we can still develop our communities of Saints who are spiritually “one, the children of Christ” (4 Ne. 1:17).

Matthew 24:16

Since I have already discussed Matthew 24:15 in two places, I will skip to Matthew 24:16:

τότε οἱ ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ φευγέτωσαν εἰς τὰ ὄρη,

Then, let those in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:16–17)

As a military strategy, fleeing to the mountains had already been successful on at least two different occasions in Israelite history. Once under Joshua when Israelite settlements were almost always in the hills. The second time was under the Maccabees. The latter seems to be the historical precedent to which Jesus refers.

The idea is to get away from Jerusalem, which was corrupt. The idea partially backfired at Masada. Masada was partially successful because the place was defensible and the Romans had to lay siege for a couple of years. The Romans won in the end but the victory was very costly. One cannot think of what the Romans did at Masada and not think of the words of Tacitus (Agricola 98):

ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant

They make a desert and call it peace.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this article:

Thus, life is carefully designed to produce for us, if we are willing, a harvest of relevant and portable experience. But there is such a short growing season! The fields must be worked intensively amid droughts, late springs, and early frosts. For the disobedient and despairing who refuse to plant, plow, or harvest, theirs is not simply a “winter of discontent” but a despair for all seasons. The indifferent and lackluster who work only on the surface of life will harvest little. Only for the perspiring and “anxiously engaged” faithful will the harvest be manyfold (see Matt. 19:29). (Enduring Well/17)

Then What Else Matters?

I like this story, told over forty years ago by Gordon B. Hinckley:

Mine has been the opportunity to meet many wonderful men and women in various parts of the world. A few of them have left an indelible impression upon me. One such was a naval officer from Asia, a brilliant young man who had been brought to the United States for advanced training. Some of his associates in the United States Navy, whose behavior had attracted him, shared with him at his request their religious beliefs. He was not a Christian, but he was interested. They told him of the Savior of the world, of Jesus born in Bethlehem, who gave his life for all mankind. They told him of the appearance of God, the Eternal Father, and the resurrected Lord to the boy Joseph Smith. They spoke of modern prophets. They taught him the gospel of the Master. The Spirit touched his heart, and he was baptized.

He was introduced to me just before he was to return to his native land. We spoke of these things, and then I said, “Your people are not Christians. You come from a land where Christians have had a difficult time. What will happen when you return home a Christian and, more particularly, a Mormon Christian?”

His face clouded, and he replied, “My family will be disappointed. I suppose they will cast me out. They will regard me as dead.

As for my future and my career, I assume that all opportunity will be foreclosed against me.”

I asked, “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?”

His dark eyes, moistened by tears, shone from his handsome brown face as he answered, “It’s true, isn’t it?”

Ashamed at having asked the question, I responded, “Yes, it’s true.”

To which he replied, “Then what else matters?”

These are the questions I should like to leave with you this morning: “It’s true, isn’t it? Then what else matters?”

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

However, enduring and submitting are not passive responses at all, but instead are actually more like being braced sufficiently to report for advanced duties, while carrying—meekly and victoriously—bruises from the previous frays.

What are a few fingers of scorn now anyway (see 1 Ne. 8:33), when the faithful can eventually know what it is like to be “clasped in the arms of Jesus”? (Morm. 5:11).

What are mocking words now, if later we hear those glorious words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? (Matt. 25:21).

Ein Witz

It must be German week. A reader sent me a joke in German.

Hast du befolgt, was der Arzt dir geraten hat? Nur zu essen was Kinder essen?

Ja, leider. Ich habe Sand gegessen und eine Sicherheitsnadel, eine Kröte und ein paar alte Münzen verschluckt. Aber ich kann nicht sagen, dass ich mich jetzt besser fühle.

I was going to omit the translation, but my son persuaded me otherwise. The following translation is loose:

Have you been following the doctor's orders to only eat what babies eat?

Yes, unfortunately. I have eaten sand and swallowed a safety-pin, a toad and a pair of old coins, but I can't say that I feel any better.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

As we take our stand, the faithful will not be alone—not that alone, however. Of necessity, the angel who stood by Christ in Gethsemane to strengthen Him left Him (see Luke 22:43). If we hold aloft the shield of faith in God and faith in His commandments, His angels will be “round about [us], to bear [us] up” and “have charge over [us]” (D&C 84:88; D&C 109:22). Of this promise, I testify.

In for the Long Haul

Stephen Seidlmeyer, in a recent article, points out the same obvious fact that I usually point out to my classes at the very beginning of class:

Das ägyptische ist die seit ältester Zeit und über die längste Dauer in Schriftquellen bezeugte Sprache der Menschheit. Von der Erfindung der Schrift im Niltal am Ende des 4. Jahrtausends v.Chr. bis zu den letzten koptischen Textschöpfungen im 14. Jahrhundert n. Chr. spannt sich ein Bogen der Literatur, der historischen und religiösen Texte, der Briefe und Verwaltungsdokumente, der alle Aspekte alten ägyptischen Lebens in Tradition und Transformation über mehr als vier Jahrtausende erhellt.

Egyptian is the human language attested at the earliest time and for the longest duration. From the appearance of writing in the Nile valley at the end of the fourth millennium B.C. until the creation of the last Coptic text in the fourteenth century A.D. it covers a spectrum of literature, of historical and religious texts, letters and administrative docuemtns, that covers all aspects of ancient Egyptian life in continuity and change for more than four thousand years.

Egyptian is uniquely situated to falsify many theories of historical linguistics. Chinese will not catch up for at least another millennium.