Exodus 20:7:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Euphemism:
1. the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.
This got me thinking about something I’ve never been quite sure about. How do we Mormons really feel about the cross? Continue reading…
About a week ago (if I’ve got this newfangled blog software system set up and can submit this article correctly this time, that is [what's worse is that I use this stuff for my own blog, actually {sorry guys; I'm really breaking the blog fourth wall here}]), Hawkgrrrl wrote about The Problem with Morality. In it, she raised that oft-repeated idea that Mormons are so unquestioningly obedient to their authority leaders that “when the prophet has spoken, the thinking is done.” She raises this up in a somewhat negative light (and haven’t you seen it brought up in a negative light?) Usually…someone is criticizing the church or its members for taking such an obedient position. Continue reading…
I had a job a long time ago as the Training Manager at a company that was going through the ISO 9000 certification process. For those who are unfamiliar with that process, it is an auditing system that focuses on the internal working of a company – looking not at whether a company is involved in “best practices” but rather whether a company is articulating and following clearly defined practices and procedures. I summed it up at the time as being able to do three things:
1) Say what you do.
2) Do what you say.
3) Prove it. Continue reading…
I am going to state what is bound to be a wildly unpopular opinion: I really like the Correlation Committee. Continue reading…
I’ll get back to folk doctrines and unsubstantiated rumors in a little bit. Right now I’m going to write about one of the most enduring of the false doctrines.
“Read your scriptures”
“Go to Church”
“Watch Saturday’s Warrior” (heaven help the Sunday School who has a Saturday’s Warrior faction)
“Sunday School answers” generally do not receive very good press from many Latter-day Saints, especially those of the blogging ilk. Instructors beg, plead with their students: “Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?” The typical response is either befuddled silence or a massaged version of the above. Normally, it is explained in the context of a personal experience…after all, we note, this means we’re applying the doctrine (note the almost elixir-like aura surrounding the word apply–as though all applications were equally relevant to classroom discussion). I mean, seriously, does that story about your dog finding a bone really tell us much about missionary work and scripture study? And then, if one expresses frustration about the intellectual drain that such questions have on your mind, you invariably hear a response–either then or later in a Sacrament meeting talk: “Primary answers are primary answers for a reason *insert some chestnut about how they are “primary” to our faith and always reliable, so forth, so on*” And all in the name of uplifting one another when all we’re doing is banalizing hackneyed stories and analogies… Continue reading…
NOTE: This is another post from our newest author – Faithful Dissident.
Whether we’re Mormon, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim, we all believe that God is on our side and that we are doing His will. Could it be that God really is on all our sides, as long as we are doing what is “good” and “praiseworthy?” For the Catholic nun who is visited by The Virgin Mary; for the Baptist who receives the miracle he asks for; for the atheist who one day has a spiritual epiphany and becomes a born again Christian; if God is a Mormon, then why doesn’t He lead all of those He is apparently talking to, to the Mormons? With the Church being worldwide and so many meetinghouses and missionaries spread throughout the globe, the Mormons are only a few steps away for many. Continue reading…
I think it’s fascinating to watch people justify their angst over prophets by pointing out all the “weird” stuff about which prophets used to speculate, then turn around and criticize the current church leaders for being “boring” because they won’t speculate any more. I also think it’s fascinating that most of the people who long for “the good old days” rarely mention that those “good old days” included INTENSE persecution, death and incredible hardship – or the that “bad new days” include explosive growth and much more of a “rolling stone” appearance than the “good old days”. Continue reading…
Mormons are sometimes criticized for their unquestioning obedience to authority. Statements like “When the prophet has spoken, the thinking is done,” and the Primary song “Follow the prophet” come to mind as well as the belief that even if leaders are mistaken, we should follow them. Do Mormons have an unhealthy respect for authority? Continue reading…
As I sit at the computer in my office, my back is to the 400 or so books I have about the Church in my library.
This post edited to clear up confusion caused by careless and clueless use of language.
Some miracles seem to be reliable. As a missionary, I found that if people would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, they would feel the Spirit. However, some miracles just seem to happen, and it is, perhaps, counterproductive to generalize from those miracles. Like the dear member who invited us to teach his best friend. After we had taught a lesson and given him a Book of Mormon and encouraged him to read and pray, the member told him to ignore us — all it had taken the member was a prayer, the Spirit had fallen on him like fire and the rest of the effort was excess.
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