A unique facet of Mormonism is our view of God’s plan for his children, or our purpose in life. Today’s lesson focuses on what JS restored regarding this plan.
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Media in the Bedroom
Beginning as far back as March 2001, the Church has advised members not to locate their computers in a bedroom. William C. Porter, in the “I Have a Question” section of the Ensign and then again in April Conference suggested that “parents need to make online use a family, not a private, activity. Put the computer in a room that the whole family uses, not in a child’s bedroom.” Right now our computers are located (1) in the kitchen alcove, and (2) in the parents’ bedroom (which is actually more of a public area than our living room!) We...
What is Tolerance?
I wrote an article explaining how I become converted to “political correctness”. I was really talking about “tolerance.” Tolerance: I hear that word a lot. Words are funny things because they often mean different things to different people. And sometimes (often? usually?) other people have little incentive to bridge any communication gap.
An Act of Violence
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and another book was opened, which is the book of life And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. -Revelation Ch. 20 (vs. 12-15) Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring. Bound by wild desire, I fell into a ring of fire. -Johnny Cash In the LDS church, members are written into the book of life with their baptism and confirmation. For some, the love affair with the gospel can truly become a fiery...
How Active Are You? How Orthodox Are You? A Self-Assessment
Take this assessment and find out: (Taken from D. Jeff Burton’s For Those Who Wonder : forthosewhowonder.com. Similar to a Correlation Department survey on Religion and Life conducted among LDS Church members in the mid-1980s)
The Theology of “Saturday’s Warrior”
Many Church members consider Johnny Lingo to be the zenith of kitschy Mormon culture (for the uninitiated, you can see it here). When I was at BYU 15 years ago, I often ran into “wild and crazy” RMs sporting “Mahana, You Ugly” or “Wanted: Eight-Cow Woman” T-shirts. But for me, while Brother Lingo and his island crew hold a special place in my heart — along with that kid from the “Cipher in the Snow” — they pale in comparison to the granddaddy of all Mormon cheese: Saturday’s Warrior. For the sake of brevity, I will refrain from a...
What is Heaven? What is Hell?
We pray. We read scriptures. We go to Church. We fulfill our callings. We obey our Church leaders. As much as we’d like to think that what we do is based on selfless, altruistic motives, I think an honest self-examination will reveal that many of our choices are motivated by our desire for an eternal reward in the hereafter, or to avoid an eternal punishment. But what exactly is the eternal reward we are seeking, and what is the eternal punishment we are trying to avoid?
Merging with God
We talk all the time in our Church about returning to God some day. Everything we do in life is to gain experiences, and then to return. If we are pure and righteous, we can live with Him once more. What does this mean though? I think a lot of people picture us going from where we are to some distant place, like it is a separation by location, a journey from here to there. We go to the heaven. That is up in the sky somewhere right?
What Would You Change?
What if you were given free reign and could change or remove one requirement the church makes of its members — forever? Today’s post is from guest blogger, Carter Hall.
Spiritual Poverty vs. Spiritual Destitution: More on Matthew 5:3
Debt is an interesting thing. On one hand, it allows us to acquire things we don’t have but need. On the other hand, it allows us to acquire things we don’t need but want. On one hand, our needs are bought and paid for – fully and completely – with no regard for our ability to reimburse our benefactor. On the other hand, our wants are purchased on credit – financed with an interest rate that can become impossible to repay. On both hands, spiritual debt has a significant impact on how we see ourselves and the world around...
Alma 36
In Sunday School I was assigned to teach Alma 36-39. I decided to concentrate on Alma 36. I refused to use the word “Chiasmus” during the lesson. I’m not an expert in ancient Hebrew poetry, so I thought I’d leave such arguments to others. And really, I don’t care. What I did want to emphasize was the structure of Alma’s thoughts about his own redemption. Alma has structured his thoughts beautifully and very creatively. Alma 36 uses a series of thoughts that lead up to Jesus Christ, and then reverse back out, often with the reverse thought. For example,...
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