New Addition!

Please welcome the newest member of the Monk family!

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Jesus at Harvard, Mormons at Waco?

In reading Marcus Borg's  Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time , I can't help recalling the last occasion when I met Jesus for the first time--the last time I saw Jesus of Nazareth with new eyes, as a foreigner, someone I didn't already recognize. Six months ago I finished reading  When Jesus Came to Harvard , in which Harvey Cox characterizes the Christ as a political operative. When Jesus teaches his Sermon on the Mount, Cox argues, it is with one eye on heaven and the other eye on Rome. "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus teaches, "for they shall be called the kingdom of God" (Matthew 5:9). These words, Cox argues, "were a direct challenge to the ruling Roman ideology. . . . The empire's main claim to fame and legitimacy was that Rome and Rome alone was the peacemaker. It sustained the  pax Romana  under the magnanimous auspices of Caesar Augustus, a divine ruler. One of the imperial titles of the divine Augustus was that of 'peace-b...
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On Priesthood Blessings

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Priesthood blessings have been on my mind recently, for a number of reasons. My mother-in-law is feeling poorly and has been for at least a week. On Monday night, she requested that I give her a blessing. Since neither Alana nor I had firm plans for our Family Home Evening lesson that night, we decided to teach my two-year-old son Gabriel about priesthood blessings. He folded his arms reverently three times: once when I consecrated oil for the healing of the sick, once when Donald Gilreath (my mother-in-law's home teacher) anointed her with the oil, and once while I gave her a blessing. He listened patiently while Alana and I explained how priesthood blessings can make us feel better and help us learn what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Then, he ran to me and said very seriously, "I want a blessing, Daddy." I, of course, was glad to oblige and touched that he wanted a blessing. This is the blessing he received: " Gabriel Ogarek Hutchins, by the power of t...
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Coffee, Not Caffeine; Tea, Not Tannins

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ adhere to a code of health first outlined in an 1833 revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith. He taught the saints that "hot drinks are not for the body or belly" (Doctrine and Covenants 89:9). Subsequent revelations have clarified this injunction by identifying coffee and tea as the "hot drinks" referenced. Some well-meaning members have interpreted this focus on coffee and tea as a condemnation of caffeine because that is one compound which both drinks share, but coffee, not caffeine, is the banned substance--and with good reason. While caffeine may be harmful, studies have shown that coffee contains other substances which impair human health. According to a 1997 article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ,  "the polyphenols (tannins) in coffee bind to iron in the intestinal lumen, forming an insoluble complex and thereby inhibiting iron absorption" (168).  A second article, published ...
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