When asked to write a paper about a subject that fascinates you, a subject that you’ve always wondered about, is it appropriate to choose the founder of your religion?
Am I overly sensitive? Is it normal to give an oral presentation on the awesomeness of Joseph Smith, with information easily gleaned from your church library? (I could have given that presentation on Joseph Smith and I haven’t been an active member for more than thirteen years.)
Hearing about how incredible Joe Smith was makes me wish I chose a subject more controversial than nature conservation. I wish I had written about FLDS polygamous sects and how the principles they practice are in line with what Joseph Smith taught. That he implemented a structure of male superiority that has encouraged and harmed generations of women and children, all because of his visions and prophesies.
Bleah.
As they say…”oh my heck”. Unbelievable.
i would write about tupac.
Wow… If you had known that fellow classmates were going to pull out all of the stops and discussing such exciting topics, you should have written about something like dirt, or even NASCAR.
I find religion fascinating, particularly in that car-crash, half-repulsed way. But does devotion and ready knowledge equal fascination? Sounds to me like your classmate took the easy way out, hopefully your teacher thinks so too.
NASCAR is far more exciting than that topic.
I once wrote a paper about Mary Baker Eddy because I was the only Christian Scientist in the class. In the school, too. I admit I used a lot of materials from my mom’s library to write it. So easy!
I hope you asked her about his reputation as a gold digger who used a magic stone in a hat to find gold buried in the ground during the Q&A section (if there was one, and I hope there was). Or maybe you could have asked about how he “translated” the Book of Abraham from scrolls containing “reformed Egyptian” that later, thanks to the Rosetta Stone, were shown to be portions of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, which makes no mention of Biblical Abraham. (Love how Mormons try to explain that one away.)
Well, IMO, yes. It is perfectly acceptable from the parameters of the paper you outlined. Joseph Smith is fascinating from a historical point of view (Both for the good or the bad. Either way? He’s interesting.)
I can’t say that I would write about religion for a college essay, but I am just not like that.
I’m trying to figure out what aspect of this really bothered you.
Was it that the paper was poorly executed and basically a cut and paste from a wikipedia article? Or would it have bothered you if it was well written and original but still Pro-Joseph Smith?
When you ask people to write about things they are passionate about it, it will resonate poorly with a good many in the room.
If your assignment was to write about a subject that fascinates you, then I am presuming it was not supposed to be an unbiased paper, therefore, I have no problem that the student did not make is so, though I would have given it more weight if they had attempted to address the more controversial aspects of his life. (Like Sra said.)
Obviously, they were an active Mormon and they believe in Joseph Smith. I know that you don’t agree with it and I’m sure there was a lot of eye rolling, but they still had the right to write it. I don’t agree that cows are sacred, but I wouldn’t expect a Hindu to write anything else in their paper, ya know?
Dude. Longest answer ever. Just me being devil’s advocate. I’m like that.
I guess it’s “appropriate”. However, having been an uber-religions nutjob myself, if I had done that…it would have been more about proselytizing than a subject that truly fascinated me. I grew out of that by college, but I’m sure I did stuff like that in high school.
Did they mention his mad treasure hunting skills?
I wrote a paper on the guy who played “Fleegle the Beagle” on the old TV show The Banana Splits.
I think that it’s definitely appropriate…And it’s really neat to learn more about incredible people in history. It is very fascinating.
I was almost missing Utah today. After reading this, I don’t.
I think your classmate took the way out. Maybe he resurrected a lesson from Priesthood meeting. Did he have that drippy priesthood holder voice? Does he refer to himself as the patriarch of the family?
That said, I’m off to break the word of wisdom with my good friend, cafe con leche.
Person doing that in any other state of the union = okay
Person doing that in Utah = lazy pandering.
You should write about Oreo Cakesters.
Its me! Bur-ee-toe! I haven’t been on this damn thing for so long I can’t even remember my login. I just wanted to say hi and that I hope you appreciate what a spaz I am sending out that picture of me with a giant bear. I’m seriously in heaven at my new job. I love stuffed animals and I’m not afraid to admit it.