The Mormon Monk

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 ...

Yesterday I read "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams with my class:  so much depends  upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens One of my students observed that an excellent analog to the poem might be titled "The Green Toothbrush," an idea I liked so much that I couldn't help but compose the poem:       a pea-sized iridescent orb, like      a pearl so obviously pained    with polishing one indomitable grain   of sand that it quivers, sits       on the stiff unbending bristles     of my son’s green Peanuts toothbrush. Get it?  Like it?

Let's start with an exercise. Can you rank the following countries in order, from "highest percentage of the population attending church services" to lowest? (Answer at the bottom of the post) Brazil, China, France, India, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Sweden, US. The ordered list will, I suspect, surprise you and cause you to think deeply about your assumptions regarding the religiosity of various countries. This answer is just one of the fascinating nuggets I gleaned recently from a groundbreaking study of religion in the United States during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: American Grace , by Robert Putnam and David Campbell. One year ago--in April 2011--Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cited American Grace  as evidence that "Latter-day Saint women are unique in being overwhelmingly satisfied with their role in Church leadership. Furthermore, Latter-day Saints as a whole, men and women, have the strongest attachm...