ScriptureLog

Scripturelog is a free, open source plugin for the popular WordPress blogging platform that turns WordPress into a collaborative online LDS scripture study journal.

ScriptureLog can be used by a family or a study group to read and comment on the scriptures from a distance.  It can be used by a Sunday school, seminary, or school religion class to allow for preparatory or follow up discussion by class members on the scriptures being studied for a class. It can be set up on an local network for private use or hosted publicly.

ScriptureLog benefits from all of the great features of WordPress. And there are scores of free plugins and themes that can be used to customize the site to your liking: plugins to make the site private, or to require registration; plugins to allow people to subscribe to be notified of comments by email; plugins to allow people to login using Facebook or Open ID; plugins to interface with twitter.

Currently only the Book of Mormon is available.  It is organized in a way to help readers understand the textual structure of the book. Though not yet available for download, the code for the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price is substantially complete.  However we are still working on an organization that helps illuminate some of the textual structure of these other books, like we have for The Book of Mormon, so we have not made them available quite yet.

Every ScriptureLog page links to the corresponding section at the official LDS Scriptures website.

Because it is open source and built on WordPress, the plugin is open to innovation by others.  Wordpress has a well documented plugin API and we hope that in addition to suggesting patches to the plugin itself, other developers will produce companion plugins to enhance features.

In March of 2009, I posted an Outline of the Textual Structure of the Book of Mormon to my blog.  The outline was an outgrowth of our work on the ScriptureLog Plugin.

President Ezra Taft Benson, in his famous sermon on the Book of Mormon said:

"The time is long overdue for a massive flooding of the earth with the Book of Mormon for the many reasons which the Lord has given. In this age of the electronic media and the mass distribution of the printed word, God will hold us accountable if we do not now move the Book of Mormon in a monumental way."

ScriptureLog represents the culmination of our personal attempts to find ways to better study the scriptures, in particular the Book of Mormon, and we hope that it can contribute to the fulfillment of President Benson's prophetic vision.