The chance to do an interview like this doesn’t happen too often. David Murphy is a kind, energetic young man who does promotions for Simeon “Young Sim” Lawrence’s clean record label, Feel Good Music in Salt Lake City. On Friday, a 45-year-old man named Jeffrey Boyd Ackerman was shot and killed in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and a suspect with a weapon ran from the crime scene, pursued hotly by the police. David was working and witnessed the pursuit, in front of the business where he worked. What did he do? He ran out of his business and tackled the suspect, holding him down until the police could apprehend him. After I heard this amazing story from Sim, I just had to interview David about his experience.
Archive for February, 2009
And now, dear friends at Mormon Matters, is your regular report from the Dark Side of the Moon.
I was reading a comment in another article here, and what Doug had said intrigued me:
This board started out as a place for middle-way thinking people to discuss problematic issues with doctrine and history. It would now appear that anyone with an opinion different then the “current LDS view” is attacked as I and many others have been. On several other discussion boards, mormon matters is considered a pro LDS blog. Gentlemen, just say the word and I’ll find another place to try and help those who don’t see the church the way you do understand that they’re not alone. I guess it’s true; there is in reality no room for a NOM in the church.
I don’t know if I have ever thought of MM as anything other than a pro-LDS blog. But I *have* always recognized that this site is of a different caliber, of course, than M* or T&S and others. So I guess, I’ll try to shake things up and offer a different perspective and hope that I don’t get chased out on a rail. Continue reading…
NOTE: This post is a combination (with minor edits) of two posts that I wrote on my own blog this month, as I contemplated Matthew 6:5-13. If anyone is interested in the foundation post on those verses, it is titled, “Resolved to Pray: KISS“.
I always have struggled to pray formally and daily on a personal level. For as long as I can remember, I have had a hard time kneeling alone and praying vocally. For most of my life I didn’t understand why, and, although I tried to recommit numerous times, I never could “conquer” that particular habit. My struggle continued through various church callings, including stints in a Stake Mission Presidency, as a Ward Mission Leader, in a Bishopric and to this day as a High Councilor. I still have a hard time, but now, at least, I understand why a little better. Continue reading…
Although Brigham Young is one of the most well-known Presidents of the LDS Church, perhaps second only to Joseph Smith, it seems most Mormons are completely unaware of his passionate beliefs about caring for the Environment.
We owe Hugh Nibley an enormous debt of gratitude for collecting Brigham’s teachings about the Environment and publishing them in his 1972 essay, “Brigham Young on the Environment”. When a home teacher shared the essay with me several years ago, I was shocked to read statement after statement by Brigham Young that one would expect to hear from a radical environmentalist, and I quickly discovered my need to repent and abandon my laisseiz-faire attitude toward the Environment.
Joseph Campbell said: Read myths. Read other people’s myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts–but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. So, what are the myths of Mormonism? Continue reading…
By the time my FHE activity was over, I had the counselor in the bishopric grumbling about how I was on the high road to excommunication (“like those historians at BYU”). Why? Because I suggested that Joseph Smith might have actually temporarily imagined a different “right place” besides the Rocky Mountains. Where? Texas. Continue reading…
There are some fascinating articles we find occasionally and post in the sidebar, and then there are others that simply are too funny to ignore.
Feel free to read and comment in a free-for-all style on any or all of the following articles – or anything else in the sidebar:
RIP, Larry Miller – and all that Jazz
The Parietal Lobe: God’s Footstool
Dwight Shrute on Religious Persecution
I forgot why I was supposed to hold my breath . . .
The Oval Office Ain’t Sacrament Meeting
The Consequences are Much Worse than Blindness
I really don’t know if it’s just me, but have you ever noticed that there are a lot of LDS dentists?
I mean, sure, we’ve already heard from reliable sources that Mormons like professions, but what is the deal? Continue reading…
One of my favorite parts about BYU-Idaho, or rather, one thing I actually liked about BYU-Idaho, was the religion classes. Systematic, academic study of the Standard Works was something I’d never experienced before and I loved it.
One thing that hit me like a ton of bricks in the middle of a religion class at BYU was this: I don’t know who the Holy Ghost is. Even my religion instructor admitted ignorance on the subject, though speculation abounded.
Since Hawkgrrrl does not offer Virtual RS/PH lessons anymore, I thought I’d try my hand at it this one time. My wife was preparing Lesson 27: Beware the Bitter Fruits of Apostasy, and I couldn’t help but think that this was a perfect bloggernacle discussion.
A while back, some of us had an interesting discussion on my blog called “The Faith Gene.” We were examining the possibility that certain people were born with such a gene, while others weren’t. Continue reading…
polemics: The art or practice of disputation or controversy, especially on religious subjects; that branch of theological science which pertains to the history or conduct of ecclesiastical controversy. (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996.)
Although I am often entertained by bad apologetics, I am equally amused by bad polemics. I find it simply fascinating when I see both camps use exactly the same faulty reasoning, but to prove exactly the opposite point. Continue reading…
Many view the Second Coming as a time when Jesus will personally and politically reign, not just host lamb & lion mixers. So what do you think? Will Jesus govern politically? Or is the notion that Jesus will govern politically more of the same wishful thinking that people had the first time around when they thought the Messiah would free them from political oppression by the Romans? (Weren’t they disappointed!) Continue reading…
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