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Blog of contemporary Mormon culture, thought and current events From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
By Common Consent (BCC) is a group blog featuring commentary and discussions, especially regarding the culture of and current events within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was founded in 2004 and is one of several blogs in the group known as the Mormon Bloggernacle.[2][3] According to the blog's mission statement, BCC was founded to "provide a thoughtful, enjoyable, and reasonable place to post and discuss Mormon topics."[4]
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Type of site | Multi-author weblog discussing contemporary Mormon culture, thought and current events |
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Available in | English |
Created by | Steve Evans, et al.[1] |
URL | https://bycommonconsent.com (blog) https://www.bccpress.org/ (publisher) |
Launched | March 2004 |
Current status | Active |
The blog is named after the 1830 revelation given to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which instructed that "All things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith."[5] This statement is now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 26:2 in the LDS Church.[6]
Although "By Common Consent" was used immediately as a working title for the blog, readers were asked to give suggestions on a permanent name. Suggested names included:
Although By Common Consent was originally created to provide a place for more politically liberal members of the LDS Church to discuss issues,[9] a vast majority of the content found on BCC is not political in nature. The topics of posts frequently address practical application of tenets of the LDS faith, Mormon history, analysis of ancient and modern scripture, poetry, music, humor, and current events.
The blog gets updated daily by the "permas" (permanents) with additional posts provided frequently by guest bloggers. The blog supports comments from readers and aims to maintain an environment that fosters respectful interfaith dialogue, even though the majority of participants in comment discussions are adherents to the LDS Church. It includes articles, discussions, scholarly research, satire, devotionals, and humor.
Since 2004, BCC has introduced several recurring features, including:
Over the years, BCC has featured a number of authors from the LDS community. The contributors to the blog come from backgrounds including homemaking, law, history, social sciences, humanities, fine art, biology, chemistry, and computer science. Religiously, the contributors represent "a varied swath of their lived religion," with different approaches to faith, doctrine, and religious living.[4] Additionally, several of the contributors write for other online or print publications on topics such as literature, politics, pop culture, and science.[20][21][22][23]
Note: the asterisk (*) denotes original authors.
;Cynthia L.
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BCC also features content produced by guest authors from the Latter-day Saints community, including sociologist Armand L. Mauss,[35] biographer Gregory A. Prince,[36] and parenting author Richard Eyre.[37] Additionally, BCC periodically posts interviews with members of the LDS community, with comedian and author Elna Baker, and Michael Otterson, the former managing director of Public Affairs for the LDS Church.[38]
Since the initiation of the Bloggernacle's annual "Niblet" awards in 2005, BCC has consistently won the award for "Best Big Blog."[39] In 2009, BCC authors won the Niblets in the categories of "Best Overall Blogger," "Funniest Thread," "Best Humorous Post," "Best Historical Post," "Best Personal Post," "Best Doctrinal Post," "Best Current Events Post," "Best Podcast," "Best Book/Article Review," and "Best Contribution to the Bloggernacle."[39]
Several of the blog's long-term guest contributors are also editors or board members of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.[3][40][41] Kristine Haglund, one of BCC's permabloggers, is currently the Editor in Chief of Dialogue, while Ronan JH and Steven Peck, two other permabloggers, serve as Dialogue editors, and other current and former permabloggers contribute to the Dialogue editorial board.[42]
The editors at BCC inaugurated the non-profit book publisher BCC Press in April 2017, with the intent to publish books of Mormon-themed "philosophy, theology, history, scriptural exegesis, fiction, poetry, personal essays, and memoirs."[43][44] Serving as president of the press is Steve Evans, attorney and popular Mormon blogger.[45] Michael Austin (writer) is the press's director.
BCC is also the home of the BCC Zeitcast,[46] one of the Bloggernacle's few podcasts. The BCC Zeitcast is typically approximately 30 minutes in length and takes the form of a talk radio, with anywhere from two to five contributors participating in a given episode. The podcast consists of a free-flowing conversation on Bloggernacle meta-topics, popular culture, current events, religious topics, or news from the world of Mormonism.
The first BCC Zeitcast was posted on January 11, 2007, with subsequent episodes recorded and posted semi-regularly until Spring 2009.[47] During this period, the primary contributors were permabloggers from BCC such as Steve Evans, Ronan JH, Amri Brown, and Brad Kramer, but would occasionally feature guests. The BCC Zeitcast returned in December 2009, with largely new permabloggers contributing to the new season.[48]
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