My family is hanging out at a Best Western up here in Hermiston, Oregon.

After making our way this morning across the Snake River Plain of Idaho, we spent a good part of our afternoon at National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on the outskirts of Baker City, Oregon.

I have always gained much pleasure in tracking pioneer history.  And I learned some more about the colorful character named Jason Lee, a western missionary back in the early days of the 1830’s,  a period abounding with great religious fervor.

But my title question has been sparked by two sources:  1)  I am reading BYU prof. Craig Harline’s book, Sunday (Doubleday, 2007), and 2)  I saw an emigrant’s entry today hanging high in the hallway of the Oregon Trail museum.

On May 9, 1852, Esther McMillan Hanna wrote,

I am sorry to see that some of our company are disposed  to travel on the Sabbath. . . . We will not have any further dealing with them.

What do you think about this?

Ten years ago, Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art in Provo, Utah, put on display a two-part exhibit titled, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Story of Masada:  Discoveries from the Excavation.  In that same year, 1997, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies produced a colorful souvenir booklet, Ancient Scrolls from the Dead Sea:  Photographs and Commentary on a Unique Collection of Scrolls, edited by M. Gerald Bradford. (more…)

This week, my family is headed to the Oregon Coast for a Wood reunion.  It is time for some reading on the beach.  My eyes are set on getting to know the works of three LDS authors while playing in the sand for a few days.

First, what is up with Stephenie Meyer?  This past week, an article in USA Today, shared with me how her latest teenage book, Eclipse (2007), is blowing away the seventh book of the Harry Potter series.  For a little background, I checked an early discussion she had on the Motley Vision blog (in an earlier blog format).  And this past week, Paradox over at Enduring to the End speaks of Eternity when thinking of Meyer’s books. (more…)

Alyson Skabelund Von Feldt, a highly engaged LDS mother, writes in the latest FARMS Review (vol. 19, no. 1, 2007),

Does God have a wife?  Yes.  Or so members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have understood since Joseph Smith’s time (81).

This is how she begins her 38-page review of William G. Dever’s book, Did God Have a Wife?  Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 2005).  For a counterpoint perspective, please read the book review, “Did God Really Have a Wife?” by Shmuel Ahituv in Biblical Archaeological Review (September/October 2006). (more…)

The day before yesterday, my initial plan was to ride an approximate 200 miles from Idaho Falls to Swan Valley, then over the Pine Creek pass to Victor, to agonizingly plod up the Teton pass and zip down to Jackson Hole, then to circle south to Hoback Junction, through Alpine Junction, back west to Swan Valley, and on to home.

About 6:00 a.m. and 24 miles east of Idaho Falls, I got a flat tire.  Stupid me.  I knew I should have tried to pump up that back tire to its 120 psi recommendation.  But I was an even greater dimwit.  I willfully decided to not carry a tire pump on this solo ride.  I know.  Just label this action as impertinent, reckless pride. 

Circumstances have a way of purging one of never trying such stunts again.  I had my thumb in the air, but no one picked me up.  For about an hour, I walked back to Idaho Falls, periodically adjusting my floppy back tube and tire so that it would even turn.  But at 7:00 a.m., a Good Samaritan pulled over.  As a fellow biker, he empathized completely with my predicament.  I laughed in sheer relief.  This particular Samaritan grew up in Idaho Falls, went to school in Utah, presently lives in Boise, and is a lawyer working for Frank Vandersloot in southeastern Idaho.  I am filled with gratitude for this helper who rescued a highway straggler.  (Reminds me of two months ago when my car broke down on the I-15 freeway, and a kind LDS husband and his wife, a graduate from BYU-Hawaii, saved me from being stranded.  But that is another incredible story.) (more…)

Turn to 4a in USA Today.  I just saw this before bedtime. (more…)

In the FARMS Review 19/1 (2007), Dan Peterson writes in response to Roger D. Launius’ criticism of Richard Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling. 

On page xxxix of the Introduction, Peterson writes,

Unsurprisingly, Launius rejects the antiquity of the Book of Mormon.  To question the book’s historicity, he announces, “does not cast into doubt the legitimacy of the religion nearly so much as Bushman seems to believe.  All religions–all ideologies–are predicated on myth and symbol and they are not any less useful, compelling, and true because of it.”

I strongly disagree with Launius.

Interestly, Peterson responds,

Well, yes and no.  Would it really make no difference to Christianity, say, if it were somehow proven that the resurrection, and indeed the life, of Jesus Christ were mere fiction?  Would the zeal of Christians around the world continue unabated in such a case?  That seems highly unlikely.  Are liberal Christian denominations prospering?  It will not, I hope, be considered uncharitable for me to observe that the contrasting historical and demographic trajectories of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its more liberal “Reorganized” cousin, currently called the Community of Christ, strongly suggest that abandoning literal belief on core matters makes a palpable difference (xl).

Is the Community of Christ liberal?  Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headed in this direction?

On the blog, By Common Consent, read what Community of Christ scholar, David H., has to say.

And I pray for this family, today.