There’s an entertaining post by the newest contributor to the Sunstone Blog, Matt Thurston. He describes his ironic first encounter with a controversial biography of Joseph Smith while serving as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan. He then asks his readers to share their own first encounters with troubling Church history.
Try as I might, […]

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I just gave mind on fire a new set of insides–it’s now running on WordPress two point something. This is progress, because before it was running on hamsters feasting on my old tea leaves.
Seriously, though, I would never subject hamsters to running a blog or eating soggy bitter greens. And I don’t think […]

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My passion for blogging kind of bottomed out a couple of months ago–I can trace it back to my “There but for the Grace of God… post and the emotional exhaustion I experienced dealing with the ironic violence that resulted. Sunstone West and end of semester projects depleted the rest of my energy.
The past […]

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Today I attended a lecture by Stanley Fish and ended up eavesdropping on a conversation between my former advisor (a wonderful human being and the chair of the brand new Religious Studies program at UCI), Mark C. Taylor, and Jack Miles. What was the topic? Mormons! Specifically, Joseph Smith and the Mark […]

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I think it a hugely ironic that a post that focused largely on conflict resolution gave birth to one of the most contentious conversations on MoF. In spite of it being my son‚Äôs birthday, I spent considerable time thinking about the thread (in the shower, while driving, on my run). I‚Äôm going to […]

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Thanks to Jana and Holly, I’ve learned a thing or two about images of women in the media and in Western history, religion and literature. I decided to explore some of the options I had available to me in terms of attractive women and men tempting the viewer with luscious fruit.
There were two or […]

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I’m experimenting with different banner images. Please let me know what you think–be sure to let me know which banner you’re describing.
[Addendum: (written at 6:23 a.m. on 2/17, after Holly’s third comment)]
There are nine banner images, selected at random whenever the page is refreshed.

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Mind on Fire has been on my um…mind lately. There’s a lot of wonderful comments I’d like to respond to. I’m trying to get through two last papers and an office move (two more days!), then I’ll write individually and collectively. Thanks, everyone, for your support!

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Made a few changes to the site design. I’m adjusting things on the fly, on the live site–I know this isn’t adhering to the best design or programming principles, but if I wait until I have the perfect development site, there wouldn’t be a mindonfire.com.
This time around, the major change is the […]

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I’m experimenting with different banner images. Let me know what you think–but tell me which image you’re commenting on first.

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