-
Mental Health Monday: Love vs Codependence and Abuse
Happy love / friendship / warm regards / commercial exploitation of affection season, everyone! This Mental Health Monday (at least in American Samoa!) let’s break down the difference between love and codependency (and abuse), using various hymn examples and others from church. However, let’s start by ruining this iconic photograph celebrating V-J Day (the end
-
The LDS Church and the Constitution
First, I’m not a lawyer. Second, this is not a political post. With that out of the way…. Part of the American Mythology is the notion that God has, many times, intervened to establish and preserve the territory of the United States, the representative republic that serves as its form of government, and, specifically, the
-
Are You Okay?
It’s a cruel irony, what ICE has done in the land of Minnesota Nice. People are not okay. People are mad. People are dead. I’d always heard it the other way, but apparently the only thing that can stop a good guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun. To stay engaged
-
The Church of Personal Piety?
Over the last weeks and months, I’ve been thinking about the Church’s self-image. How does it view itself? What does it think its mission is? What does it believe its obligations are? This is, naturally, in the context of the Church’s silence in the face of a concerted assault on the U.S. Constitution,[fn1] a terror
-
Some Thoughts About Mormon Notions of Death, and Also My Mom
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] By the time my youngest brother, Baden, and I arrived at the Spokane Valley Hospital in Washington state on Thursday, November 13, 2025, our mother, Kathleen Jolley Fox, was no longer truly communicating with others. Baden and I, residents of Nevada and Kansas respectively, had the furthest to travel out
-
Theseus’ Old Ship of Zion
A decade ago, Elder Ballard gave a talk admonishing members of the church to “Stay in the [Old Ship of Zion] and Hold On!” Apparently Brigham Young referenced this metaphor frequently. Enough people asked for specific directions on — what, exactly, is “The Old Ship of Zion” — that Elder Ballard offered a second talk the next
-
Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 10
Russell M. Nelson In the inaugural January 18, 2018 press conference of a newly installed First Presidency consisting of Presidents Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, and Henry B. Eyring, D&C 132 made an important appearance. In an exchange with Salt Lake Tribune reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack, Stack asked the new presidency how they might
-
Thank You, Bobby!
It might come as a surprise to some (or maybe not) that BCC has within its ranks of bloggers a fair number of Deadheads. We, like many of you, are deeply saddened by the passing Bobby Weir. I count myself among the fortunate who got to see Bobby a bunch of times. And whether he
-
Before the Beginning
The Bible begins with the words “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” But what was there before this “beginning”? —CFM for Jan 5-11, 2026 Well, Come Follow Me, I’m glad you asked! Joseph Smith provided an answer to that through the Books of Moses and Abraham. As did fiction writers Terry
-
In Which I Continue To Beef With Nephi
And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords… And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and
-
The Day Tonga Became a Threat
A guest post from friend of the blog David Cook. Somewhere deep inside the machinery of the Trump travel ban, someone apparently decided that Tonga posed a serious threat to the United States. As of January 1, 2026, there are stark restrictions on student and short-term visas for the approximately 100,000 citizens of the small
-
Mental Health Monday: How to Hold Conflicting Feelings
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had restful and restorative time with family, friends and food. And I hope everyone has leftovers in the fridge, now that we’re back to the grind. I’ve been toying around with the idea of writing a monthly (?) series about the intersection of the gospel and mental health. Most
-
Elementary School Cafeteria Mormonism
You thought regular Cafeteria Mormonism was theologically precarious? Just wait until that cafeteria is in an elementary school.
-
Ring Out Wild Bells!
Of all the songs the songs in the LDS hymnbook, the hymn “Ring Out, Wild Bells” may be the most niche: if you don’t sing it on the Sunday immediately before or after New Year’s Day then it’s likely you won’t sing it all year. Partly for this reason—but also because if it’s haunting melody
-
A Church Stocking Stuffer Wishlist
Merry Christmas! At our home, Santa puts his big gifts under the tree. But the candy, the chocolate, and some smaller wrapped gifts end up in (or next to) the stockings that hang from our banister (because we don’t have a chimney—I had to give Santa a key so that he could get in). These
-
Everything Old is New: A Christmas Series from the Past
Years ago, I put up a series of posts on the Christmas story from the Gospels. It was fun at the time, and you may find it useful in the present. Here you go, and Merry Christmas from all of us at BCC: https://bycommonconsent.com/tag/Christmas-Story/
-
It May Be Christmas, But Easter is Coming
In a major oversight on the part of my Bishop, I was asked to share a five minute message during our Christmas service. I would like to share what I prepared for my ward with the BCC family as well. Merry Christmas, and thank you for being part of this little space of internet Mormondom.
-
Ready for your Abrahamic or Marian test?
Merry Christmas! Update on garment survey at end of post. Earlier this year, I had what you might call an Abrahamic Test. I felt very, very strongly prompted that I should do a Specific Thing. I was uncomfortable with it. It went against my grain in a number of ways. The Specific Thing was deeply
-
Claiming Incarnation
The word “incarnation” has had a tough ride in LDS circles. At the most basic level, the word incarnation communicates the idea that in Jesus, God became flesh. However, this is where things get a little complicated for the LDS community. In most Christian circles, when they say “God became flesh” they mean that the
-
Looking Forward to the Hebrew Bible
As 2025 comes to a close, the LDS study of the Doctrine and Covenants also wraps up (I hope everyone will read WVS’s series on “The Family: A Proclamation to the Word” in preparation for the discussion tomorrow!). And with the transition from 2025 to 2026, LDS congregations around the world are about to move
-
The Future of LDS Bible Study (Maybe)
By Matt Bowman The LDS church has authorized the use of non-KJV Bibles. There are two reasons why this shift is significant–but first, some history:
-
The Grand Inquisitor and the Christ Child
After the shepherds had returned to watch their flocks at night, after the wise men had left to their own country, deliberately avoiding another audience with Herod, the Holy Family received one more visit: the angel of the Lord came to Joseph and warned him to take his family, leave Bethlehem, and seek refuge in
-
How Are The New Garments?
The last time we discussed garments, the conversation centered on where they came from, things that feel powerful about their symbolism, and nods to specific ways the culture around them objectifies women’s bodies. Now that the new garments have been out for a little while, I’d love to know what people’s experiences have been like:
-
Joseph Smith and The 1995 LDS Proclamation on the Family, part 9
Families Are Forever? A Building Block of Rhetoric for the Proclamation The sealing of parent to child, husband to wife, and the living to the dead suggested (or at least partly enabled) by D&C 132 and Joseph Smith’s preaching, was reinforced by a sacramental/ritual interpretation of the Elijah vision. But in the minds of Nauvoo
-
Christmas Albums 2025
Once we pass Thanksgiving, it’s officially Christmas music season! And there is absolutely a wealth of Christmas music—if no new Christmas album ever came out, we could probably still be content for decades. But Christmas music does keep coming out. And some of it is legitimately good! This year, my favorite new Christmas find is
-
Religious Refugees
A person becomes a refugee when the point of moving is to leave, not to arrive. When the familiar isn’t safe, so they seek safety in the unfamiliar. What about people who leave their faith to find spiritual safety in the religiously unfamiliar?
-
Count Your Blessings
And I want to open up By Common Consent to that seasonally-appropriate attitude. Because even with everything that’s going on in the United States and the world, recognizing and being grateful for our blessings is powerful, both societally and for our own souls.
-
Baptism for the Remission of…Migraines?
My youngest child, H, loves the story of “Jesus coming out of the water,” aka, Jesus’ baptism. Almost every time we read scriptures, she’ll ask for this story. One night, I started at the beginning of Matthew 3, and got as far as verse 4 before our real discussion started:
-
Timeline of the Saturday Evening Session of LDS General Conference
I’d forgotten that the Saturday evening session of LDS General Conference had been canceled before. Given this week’s announcement that President Oaks is eliminating the Saturday evening session I made this timeline.
-
How to Find a Therapist that Understands the LDS Church
Have you ever wanted a guide to finding an LDS therapist? Especially one that understands the LDS church? Here it is, in six steps.
Recent Comments
I believe the Constitution may have been inspired for its time. Unfortunately the politics of that time allowed slavery to…
I have been following the Buddhist peace walk not political but so political. They reveal a different way without arguing…
Hey MDH, sorry if I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t trying to imply that you thought the US Constitution was written…
I think the church’s position is read totally differently in my stake in the UK. This stake is pretty much…
Hey Sam– in the spirit of word that matter, I never claimed God ‘wrote’ the U.S. Constitution (though maybe I,…
A Canadian here. I am not going to weigh in on the political divide in the U.S.A. and issues surrounding…
#1 All Christians have one central religious and civic responsibility: Egalitarian class warfare. Christ commanded us to enforce equality, which…
I’ll approach a couple of your middle questions. First is, while D&C 98 has been read for a long time…
Death, ugh. I lost my wife of 40 years, too soon. I gently closed her eyes in the end. She…
I wanted to mention how much I appreciate Bishop Mariann Budde’s comments on the crisis in MN. In a recent…