Welcome to Zeerom's Inquiry

In the spring of 2003, without much forethought, I launched a blog. Within a week or so, people were linking to my blog, even though I had done nothing to publicize it. And, though it may seem strange, I didn't want the attention. I was just goofing around with a new communication medium.

Once I realized that people were actually reading my blog, I almost stopped blogging. But I realized very early in my blogging career that writing for an audience had the potential to change me. In a good way. Blogging forced me to articulate a view. And the fact that I was blogging changed the way I interacted with the world. Whatever I was reading or doing had the potential to become a blog post, so I thought more deeply and more creatively about what I was reading and doing. It even enhanced my scholarship.

That early blogging was a "quirky mix of entries about business, law, Wisconsin, legal education, and whatever else strikes [my] fancy (including, of course, cheese)." But my blogging didn't include religion. Then, in the fall of 2003, some young lawyers asked me to join their new Mormon blog, Times & Seasons. Together we built one of the most popular sites in the Bloggernacle (a term coined at T&S), but after several years of blogging there, I ran out of things to say to that audience.

Since leaving T&S in 2007, I have largely avoided blogging about religion. Until today. I am launching Zeezrom's Inquiry for the same reason I decided to continue blogging in early 2003, namely, because I want to learn by writing. This time, my focus is Mormon scripture.

If all goes according to my mental plan, this blog will be much different than T&S. I will not be commenting on all things Mormon, but hoping merely to supplement my study of the so-called "Standard Works": The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine & Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price.

The title of the blog makes reference to my favorite character in the Book of Mormon, whom I described in a 2004 post at T&S:

Zeezrom was a lawyer, who is described as "a man who was expert in the devices of the devil." (Alma 11:21) At one point in [an] exchange with Amulek, Zeezrom attempts to purchase Amulek’s testimony against God, and Zeezrom fails. (Alma 11:22) But when Amulek describes spiritual death, "Zeezrom began to tremble." (Alma 11:46) Then Alma jumps in, calls Zeezrom a liar and reads his mind — "Now Zeezrom, seeing that thou hast been taken in thy lying and craftiness, for thou hast not lied unto men only but thou hast lied unto God; for behold, he knows all thy thoughts, and thou seest that thy thoughts are made known unto us by his Spirit." (Alma 12:3) At this point, Zeezrom changes from adversary to student as he "began to inquire of them diligently." (Alma 12:8) Eventually, he is totally converted and confesses his sins to the people, who "spit upon him, and cast him out from among them." (Alma 14:6-7) Zeezrom takes ill with a "burning fever," and he is healed by Alma. (Alma 15) Ultimately, Zeezrom becomes a missionary. (Alma 31)

The bolded passage serves as my inspiration for this blog, but I left out an important part. The first sentence of that verse reads: "And Zeezrom began to inquire of them diligently, that he might know more concerning the kingdom of God." That is the motivation for this blog, and I hope you will read it in that spirit.