Type of site | Multi-author weblog discussing contemporary Mormon culture, thought and current events |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Created by | Steve Evans, et al. [1] |
URL | https://bycommonconsent.com (blog) https://www.bccpress.org/ (publisher) |
Launched | March 2004 |
Current status | Active |
By Common Consent (BCC) is a group blog featuring commentary and discussions, especially regarding the culture of and current events within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was founded in 2004 and is one of several blogs in the group known as the Mormon Bloggernacle. [2] [3] According to the blog's mission statement, BCC was founded to "provide a thoughtful, enjoyable, and reasonable place to post and discuss Mormon topics." [4]
The blog is named after the 1830 revelation given to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which instructed that "All things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith." [5] This statement is now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 26:2 in the LDS Church. [6]
Although "By Common Consent" was used immediately as a working title for the blog, readers were asked to give suggestions on a permanent name. Suggested names included:
Although By Common Consent was originally created to provide a place for more politically liberal members of the LDS Church to discuss issues, [9] a vast majority of the content found on BCC is not political in nature. The topics of posts frequently address practical application of tenets of the LDS faith, Mormon history, analysis of ancient and modern scripture, poetry, music, humor, and current events.
The blog gets updated daily by the "permas" (permanents) with additional posts provided frequently by guest bloggers. The blog supports comments from readers and aims to maintain an environment that fosters respectful interfaith dialogue, even though the majority of participants in comment discussions are adherents to the LDS Church. It includes articles, discussions, scholarly research, satire, devotionals, and humor.
Since 2004, BCC has introduced several recurring features, including:
Over the years, BCC has featured a number of authors from the LDS community. The contributors to the blog come from backgrounds including homemaking, law, history, social sciences, humanities, fine art, biology, chemistry, and computer science. Religiously, the contributors represent "a varied swath of their lived religion," with different approaches to faith, doctrine, and religious living. [4] Additionally, several of the contributors write for other online or print publications on topics such as literature, politics, pop culture, and science. [20] [21] [22] [23]
Note: the asterisk (*) denotes original authors.
Hodges B.
Cynthia L.
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BCC also features content produced by guest authors from the Latter-day Saints community, including sociologist Armand L. Mauss, [35] biographer Gregory A. Prince, [36] and parenting author Richard Eyre. [37] Additionally, BCC periodically posts interviews with members of the LDS community, with comedian and author Elna Baker, and Michael Otterson, the former managing director of Public Affairs for the LDS Church. [38]
Since the initiation of the Bloggernacle's annual "Niblet" awards in 2005, BCC has consistently won the award for "Best Big Blog." [39] In 2009, BCC authors won the Niblets in the categories of "Best Overall Blogger," "Funniest Thread," "Best Humorous Post," "Best Historical Post," "Best Personal Post," "Best Doctrinal Post," "Best Current Events Post," "Best Podcast," "Best Book/Article Review," and "Best Contribution to the Bloggernacle." [39]
Several of the blog's long-term guest contributors are also editors or board members of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought . [3] [40] [41] Kristine Haglund, one of BCC's permabloggers, is currently the Editor in Chief of Dialogue, while Ronan JH and Steven Peck, two other permabloggers, serve as Dialogue editors, and other current and former permabloggers contribute to the Dialogue editorial board. [42]
The editors at BCC inaugurated the non-profit book publisher BCC Press in April 2017, with the intent to publish books of Mormon-themed "philosophy, theology, history, scriptural exegesis, fiction, poetry, personal essays, and memoirs." [43] [44] Serving as president of the press is Steve Evans, attorney and popular Mormon blogger. [45] Michael Austin (writer) is the press's director.
BCC is also the home of the BCC Zeitcast, [46] one of the Bloggernacle's few podcasts. The BCC Zeitcast is typically approximately 30 minutes in length and takes the form of a talk radio, with anywhere from two to five contributors participating in a given episode. The podcast consists of a free-flowing conversation on Bloggernacle meta-topics, popular culture, current events, religious topics, or news from the world of Mormonism.
The first BCC Zeitcast was posted on January 11, 2007, with subsequent episodes recorded and posted semi-regularly until Spring 2009. [47] During this period, the primary contributors were permabloggers from BCC such as Steve Evans, Ronan JH, Amri Brown, and Brad Kramer, but would occasionally feature guests. The BCC Zeitcast returned in December 2009, with largely new permabloggers contributing to the new season. [48]
The September Six were six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church in September 1993, allegedly for publishing scholarly work against or criticizing church doctrine or leadership. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. The church's action was referred to by some as evidence of an anti-intellectual posture on the part of church leadership.
Brigham Henry Roberts was a historian, politician, and leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He edited the seven-volume History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and independently wrote the six-volume Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Roberts also wrote Studies of the Book of Mormon—published posthumously—which discussed the validity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient record. Roberts was denied a seat as a member of United States Congress because of his practice of polygamy.
Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
Various spectrums of beliefs or practice within Mormonism account for categories of Mormons possessing faith or skepticism regarding various doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or pertaining to issues of orthopraxy/heteropraxy, among those identifying as Mormon. People may also partake of Mormon culture to some degree as a result of having been raised in the LDS Church or else having converted and spent a large portion of their life as an active member of the LDS Church. Such "cultural" Mormons may or may not be actively involved with the church. In some cases they may not even be, or have ever been, official members of the church.
The Mormon blogosphere is a segment of the blogosphere focused on issues related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought is an independent quarterly journal that addresses a wide range of issues on Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint Movement.
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, or Maxwell Institute, is a research institute at Brigham Young University (BYU). The institute consists of faculty and visiting scholars who study religion, primarily the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The institute is named after a former LDS Church apostle, known for his writings and sermons.
John Parkinson Dehlin is an American podcast host. He holds a PhD in psychology. Dehlin founded the Mormon Stories Podcast, as well as several other podcasts, blogs, and websites. He was an influential early participant in the "Mormon blogosphere," and blogs at Patheos.com. He advocates for LGBT rights and other views outside mainstream religious culture. In January 2015, Dehlin was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Journal of Book of Mormon Studies is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering topics surrounding the Book of Mormon. It is published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship with funding from the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies.
Louis C. Midgley is a Mormon apologist and retired professor of political science at Brigham Young University. Since his retirement he has been closely involved with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, writing many book reviews, articles, and book chapters defending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from perceived critics.
Feminist Mormon Housewives (fMh) is a group blog, podcast, and Facebook group featuring commentary and discussion on contemporary Mormon culture and women's issues. According to The New York Times, "Unlike the more mainstream Mormon blogs – known collectively as the Bloggernacle – that by and large promote the faith, this online diary focuses on the universal challenges of mothering young children and on frustration with the limited roles women have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Mormon Stories Podcast is a podcast principally hosted by psychologist John Dehlin featuring interviews with individuals and occasionally scholars on Mormon topics. The podcasts are noted as a platform for individuals critical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, skeptic and dissident individuals.
Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of individuals and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement associated with the Book of Mormon, though not all churches and members of the Latter Day Saint movement identify with the terms Mormon or Mormonism. Denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest, as well as the Community of Christ (CoC) and other smaller groups, include some categorized under the umbrella term Mormon fundamentalism.
Steven L. Peck is an American evolutionary biologist, poet, and novelist. His literary work is influential in Mormon literature circles. He is a professor of biology at Brigham Young University (BYU). He grew up in Moab, Utah and lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Stephanie Nielson is a Latter-Day-Saint mommy blogger, burn survivor and until 2021 author of the blog "The NieNie Dialogues". She is also the younger sister of another popular blogger, C. Jane Kendrick.
John C. Hamer is an American-Canadian historian and mapmaker. His research has focused primarily on the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, authoring several books on the topic. Hamer is a leading expert on various schisms within especially non- far-Western (U.S.) portions of the Latter Day Saint "Restoration" movement. Raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hamer left the religion before joining Community of Christ in 2010 and now serves as Pastor of its Toronto Congregation.
Matt Page is an American graphic artist living in Farmington, Utah. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is known for his satirical LDS Church comics and image manipulations.
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Deseret Nationalism, popularized online as #DezNat, is a far-right Mormon nationalist movement in the United States. It was originated in 2018, following the Unite the Right rally. by Logan Smith, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is known as "JP Bellum" on Twitter. While the term originated as a Twitter hashtag, collecting upwards of 114,000 original posts, its significance goes beyond social media. DezNat represents a loosely affiliated group of LDS Church members who share common ideals and values, despite the Church's negative stance on the concept. The impact of DezNat can be observed through the actions and behaviors of its followers in their communities.
This is a list of literary works by Steven L. Peck. His academic publications are not included, but can be found on his curriculum vitae.
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