jchandle writes

  “ Come now, let us argue it out,      says the Lord” - Isaiah 1:18 (NRSV) Here’s a question that’s been on my mind for several months: is faith a choice? For every question of truth, you can gather all the evidence on both sides and depending on the quality and quantity of evidence, you believe one side or the other. But what’s happening when being convinced happens? Do you consciously select a side to believe or do you just believe what you believe as a natural response to the evidence processed? Is the verdict a decision or is it more like a shiver in the cold or sweat in the sun?  I’ve judged enough High School debate rounds to say that there definitely are belief-decisions that are consciously made. As a judge, I have to write an “RFD” or “reason for decision” indicating why I chose to side with the affirmative or the negative. But even then, sometimes my decision and its reason is contrary to what I actually believe. In spite of the way the debate ad...

  Centering When Life Begins I’ve seen a few posts/videos on social media warning people not to let arguments about reproductive rights be centered around when life begins. The argument made by these posts is very good, and it goes approximately like this:  “The question of when life begins is totally irrelevant. No one is entitled to your body, even if access to your body is necessary for their sustained life. For example, imagine a person needed an organ transplant, and your organ was the only available match. While it might be a good moral choice to donate the organ, you cannot morally be forced to give up your organ for the other person’s wellbeing.” Like I said, I personally think this is a very good argument, but I don’t think it’s as powerful a tool for convincing the other side as some people make it out to be.  For one, the organ donation analogy is not a perfect analog with pregnancy and abortion. To illustrate, notice the similarities in a second, parallel anal...

  This is the talk I gave in church on Mothers day. When I gave the talk, I cut about a 3rd of it for time, so this has a few more examples and a little more elaboration in some parts. Funny enough, at the pulpit, I didn’t even mention my wife! Also worth noting for the history books: I heavily reorganized the talk a few hours before church. Then I gave my phone to my son to distract him while I was on the stand. I brought my laptop with me to give the talk but then realized that I’d never brought my laptop to church before so it didn’t have access to the wifi and therefore didn’t have access to the new draft in google docs! So I started this talk by freaking out a minute and asking the bishopric for the wifi password.  Eve , whose birth is the crowning event of six initial periods of creation, and who saw beyond the literal conditions set before her to imagine and then attain a better world. My Sixth Great Grandmother on my father’s side, Johannetta Elisabetha Mai , who left ...

  I watch a TikTok account called @readingbom which features a born-again Christian reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. He has my rapt attention.  Never before have I had a stronger desire to share a copy of the Book of Mormon with someone–not because I feel a burning in my bosom, or even that I feel great swells of faith and an urgent need to share my beliefs with others. But  I want my very own @readingbom who sends his summaries, questions, and concerns with the text in real time as he earnestly studies the book that is central to my religion.  I find it so fascinating to hear what an intelligent person thinks as they read a book that is so second-nature to me and with which I continue to wrestle.  But while I listen to this guy’s comments and questions on TikTok, I find myself with thoughts about his methods: The frameworks he uses to approach the text, the assumptions he makes, the way he interprets certain verses.  But before I talk about ...

  In Exodus 1:9, Pharaoh worries that the Israelites as one ever-growing people would challenge Egypt’s authority. This reminds me of God’s reasoning for confounding the languages in Genesis 11:6. The structure is the same between these verses and the verses surrounding them as well. There’s a comment on the progress of the people, followed by an observation of their increasing strength and an expression of fear about what they might accomplish, and then action to decrease the risk of those accomplishments from taking place. The story of Babel in Genesis 11 is just one example of this kind of logic in Genesis though. There are lots of times when God works to prevent humans from reaching his status.  But then God, the LORD, a specific god with a specific name, makes covenants with Abraham and his children. We know there is an underlying assumption and acceptance of other gods in the Pentateuch, and one possible description of what’s going on in the saga is that the ancient auth...

  I don’t think very many people read this blog and that’s okay. I started publishing to it more heavily this year as a way to synthesize my learning as I study the Hebrew Bible from a translation other than the KJV for the first time. I also use it to publish thoughts that I find easier to think through in writing, whether they relate to the Bible directly or not–though most of my thoughts do have to do with religion in some way.  I haven’t published a post in a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking/writing. I have fallen behind on my Bible study, but I have started several posts in this time on a few topics. But none of them have felt very complete. But part of the purpose of publishing a blog, for me, is the possibility that I might get others to discuss these things with me, so I want to publish my thoughts even if I don’t consider them fully-formed.  In the spirit of that, I’m going to publish a few posts labeled “fragments.” If you see this word in th...

And before he even argues, and before I even fill up There’s a spider on the counter And his lips are painted red.  And before he fills it backwards On the couch-ride to the city There’s a monkey three weeks backward With a cradle for his head.  Today I saw at least 200 Cedar Waxwings in the trees outside Isis, or rather, on the walkway between Isis and Heaven.  I remember when I had my interview day, they explained that we had the name first, and that we’re holding onto it in hopes that our building far outlasts the terrorist group.  The Waxwings were hopping from branch to branch, and chirping with little mini screeches.  I didn’t know what kind of bird they were, but I figured I’d be able to identify them since they were so distinctive looking.  They had bold, yellow bellies, and sharp little crests on their heads like faux-hawk hairstyles. And little black stripes on their faces that went out from almost their beaks and back to almost to where their win...