David T
@improvementera.com
Latter-day Saint Christian. Random musings on Scripture, History, Culture, Lived Religion & Liturgy. Not a hater.
Also, the Church continues to publish new editions of "Book of Mormon Stories", which may be the angle they're going with on the use of the term "Mormon Stories".
November 24, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Also, the Church continues to publish new editions of "Book of Mormon Stories", which may be the angle they're going with on the use of the term "Mormon Stories".
Well, specific editions of the text. I think the 1920 edition of the text is the most recent copy-right free one - that's the one Grant Hardy needed to use for his Oxford Annotated Book of Mormon, even though his Maxwell Institute Study Edition (published by BYU with permission) used the 2013 text.
November 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Well, specific editions of the text. I think the 1920 edition of the text is the most recent copy-right free one - that's the one Grant Hardy needed to use for his Oxford Annotated Book of Mormon, even though his Maxwell Institute Study Edition (published by BYU with permission) used the 2013 text.
Mormon presence here seems small and quiet. But I also haven't experienced or witnessed anyone jumping into people's Mormony comments and mentions being antagonistic in any way. It's quiet in general in that regard, but, honestly, it's a nice change from Other There.
November 22, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Mormon presence here seems small and quiet. But I also haven't experienced or witnessed anyone jumping into people's Mormony comments and mentions being antagonistic in any way. It's quiet in general in that regard, but, honestly, it's a nice change from Other There.
Listen, I take what I can get.
November 19, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Listen, I take what I can get.
Oaks has been the one in the forefront of expanding the notions of how Priesthood includes women in his spoken rhetoric, and that has been shown to be very influential. it will be interesting to see what actions he takes on that front now that he's in the driver's seat.
November 19, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Oaks has been the one in the forefront of expanding the notions of how Priesthood includes women in his spoken rhetoric, and that has been shown to be very influential. it will be interesting to see what actions he takes on that front now that he's in the driver's seat.
I actually wouldn't be surprised to see that pop up in future general sessions, now that Conducting duties have been recently expanded to the full Q15 rather than just the FP.
November 19, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I actually wouldn't be surprised to see that pop up in future general sessions, now that Conducting duties have been recently expanded to the full Q15 rather than just the FP.
Likely on or around December 1, the Church will change its website and primary social media account icons from Blue to Red. That, along with a change to Purple for the month leading into Easter, is the closest thing we get to observation of anything resembling Liturgical Colors to mark the year.
November 19, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I do. They brought it back saying it would be used for specific themes, but that was only really tried once or twice. I think there's just no defensible reason for having what become just another general session.
November 19, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I do. They brought it back saying it would be used for specific themes, but that was only really tried once or twice. I think there's just no defensible reason for having what become just another general session.
So far, I consider the fact of an Apostle and Presiding Bishopric being announced prior to and separate from the sustaining conference session significant departures from precedence that show that Oaks will continue in the Nelson mode at least in that regard.
November 19, 2025 at 5:26 PM
So far, I consider the fact of an Apostle and Presiding Bishopric being announced prior to and separate from the sustaining conference session significant departures from precedence that show that Oaks will continue in the Nelson mode at least in that regard.
Here's the most official acknowledgment of the likely late date of the composition of the Pentateuch I've seen ("the book of Genesis...can be dated back to the Jewish exile in the sixth century BC"), but with a funky caveat at the end which is itself complicated by its above take on Book of Moses!
![These five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) are also called the Pentateuch—a Greek word meaning “the fivefold book” (Bible Dictionary, “Pentateuch”). Jewish people refer to these books as the Torah or the law of Israel (see Guide to the Scriptures, “Pentateuch,” Gospel Library). The Bible itself does not identify who wrote the Pentateuch. Many scholars believe that there were multiple writers, editors, and others involved in producing the text we have today (see Avram Shannon, “Authorship,” in Old Testament Cultural Insights, ed. Taylor D. Halverson [2022], https://biblecentral.info/library/chapter/authorship/). For example, the book of Genesis in its current form can be dated back to the Jewish exile in the sixth century BC (see Michael D. Coogan and others, eds., The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version, 5th ed. [2018], 6). Regardless of the complexity involved in the creation of the Pentateuch as we have it today, Restoration scripture confirms Moses’s central involvement in these works of scripture (see 1 Nephi 5:10–11; Moses 1:40–41; 2:1).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4lchli2ta3uvcoeso5rvnb2i/bafkreibcq6yxskgp57ns5m6nbkk3g5cubb5k42ddypl2sw2fw2qjbqzm4q@jpeg)
November 14, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Here's the most official acknowledgment of the likely late date of the composition of the Pentateuch I've seen ("the book of Genesis...can be dated back to the Jewish exile in the sixth century BC"), but with a funky caveat at the end which is itself complicated by its above take on Book of Moses!
See also:
bsky.app/profile/impr...
bsky.app/profile/impr...
Great discussion of the change from Joseph Smith's adoptionist cosmology to the transformation to viviparous spirit birth as the new orthodoxy, but with a hopeful note of JS' cosmological view making a comeback :)
November 14, 2025 at 8:38 PM
See also:
bsky.app/profile/impr...
bsky.app/profile/impr...
And yes, this Scripture Helps volume continues to provide room for the Catalyst Theory of the Book of Abraham text as an orthodox position:
"Another possibility is that the Prophet’s study of the papyrus served as a catalyst that prompted a revelation about Abraham."
"Another possibility is that the Prophet’s study of the papyrus served as a catalyst that prompted a revelation about Abraham."
November 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM
And yes, this Scripture Helps volume continues to provide room for the Catalyst Theory of the Book of Abraham text as an orthodox position:
"Another possibility is that the Prophet’s study of the papyrus served as a catalyst that prompted a revelation about Abraham."
"Another possibility is that the Prophet’s study of the papyrus served as a catalyst that prompted a revelation about Abraham."