Dave Banack : March 2009 Archives

Between the FLDS events in Texas and the continued popularity of Big Love, polygamy (or plural marriage, as it is often termed) has been in the news lately. It has always been a topic of regular discussion on LDS blogs, where opinions are all over the spectrum. Here are a few recent posts.

LDS Public Affairs released a press statement announcing a soon-to-be-released Spanish edition of the "LDS Bible." The 1979 English language "LDS Bible" used the King James Version for the text, but added new chapter headings, cross-references, and an LDS bible dictionary. The new Spanish language edition uses "the 1909 Reina-Valera edition of the Bible," with some changes: "The 2009 Latter-day Saint edition modernizes some of the outdated grammatical constructions and vocabulary that have shifted in meaning and acceptability."

I wonder if they have ever noticed the "outdated grammatical constructions and vocabulary" in the KJV? For an illustrated overview of the new edition, visit the Santa Biblia page (strangely, in English).

No, it's not the Unitarians. In the Salt Lake Tribune, "Godless 'congregations' planned for humanists." Just another sign the religious landscape is changing.

The monthly schedule is church-like, with its parenting classes, guest speakers and small group meetings to hash out shared beliefs. But God isn't part of this Cambridge congregation.

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, is building a God-free model of community that he hopes helps humanists increase in numbers and influence.

A reliable-looking blog cites an email from the "outreach coordinator at the GLBT Drop-in center at the Unitarian Church in Ogden" announcing gay service projects over the upcoming Conference weekend (April 4-5). The email is trying to counter claims circulating by email that there are large protests being planned. I hope their service project is a rousing success.

That's a softer title than the author used in a Christian Science Monitor opinion piece: "The Coming Evangelical Collapse." I'm not sure how seriously to take the argument: the author is a popular blogger but not a scholar. There's no data used or referenced in the article. The recent ARIS results (see my post from two days ago) tells a similar story using data to document a secular trend affecting all religions rather by citing a litany of alleged Evangelical faults and failures.