The mission of the church is to bring people to Christ (it is not the tri-fold mission of proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints and redeem the dead). Yet many members feel that the focus on Christ is missing in our weekly worship. So, what’s the best way to bring Christ back to the center of our Sundays? Continue reading…
I happen to be cruising around the LDS Temple website the other day and I was looking at the Temples under construction. I was wondering whether we the Church had announced a Temple and not built it. I knew that this happened, so I thought it might make an interesting post. Most of my information comes from that website, except where noted.
The tragedy of 9/11 had a big impact on my views about the relationship between faith and reason. As I watched the video footage of the jumbo jets flying into the World Trade Center towers over and over again, it dawned on me that I was witnessing the destructive power of faith unchecked by reason. Consider for a moment the faith proposition that motivated the 9/11 hijackers: “If you slit a few throats to hijack a plane and then fly that plane into a skyscraper, killing yourself and all your comrades along with thousands of civilian men, women, and children, then God will reward you in Heaven with 72 virgins who will provide you more sensual delights than you could ever have hoped to enjoy during mortality.” Viewing the fruits of the hijackers’ faith — the twisted steel and endless ash, the homemade “Missing” flyers plastered everywhere, the sobbing relatives of the victims — I couldn’t help wishing the hijackers would have run that faith proposition through the wringer of reason before deciding to act upon it.
Faith needs reason because faith unchecked by reason can be just as deadly as reason unchecked by faith proved to be in the gulags of Soviet Russia, the Cultural Revolutions of Maoist China, and the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia. (Would Stalin, Mao, and Pot have ordered the killings of millions if they had had faith in an afterlife and final judgment?)
We Mormons are certainly not immune to the potential dangers of unquestioning faith. Continue reading…
I am struck regularly by how many members fail to focus on the life of Jesus and, thus, fail to realize that there are incredible lessons (particularly in the Gospels) about specific things we can do to become more like Him – things that can lessen the effects of our sins and actually help decrease the frequency of those sins – thus bringing internal peace and a measure of calmness to our lives in the here and now, regardless of the storms that rage therein. I believe we sometimes buy into the apostate obsession with the afterlife – as though it’s OK to be miserable here, since we’ll be happy there. The problem is that we are told that the same spirit we develop here will rise with us there. (Alma 34:34) In other words, if we become peaceful in this life, we will be at peace in the next life. That’s worth pondering all on its own – that we are accountable for whether or not we develop internal peace. Continue reading…
My home teacher (who is very cool) came by yesterday to drop off some starter cables for my car and as one does in that short interlude we discussed the celestial kingdom and being Gods after this life. He believed that those who don’t make it to the highest kingdom in the Celestial Kingdom won’t have any sexual relationships and if you don’t have sexual relationships their will be no need for sexual organs.
I saw a recent thought experiment. The author asked: what if you had to chose between a doctrine you disliked and results you liked (lets call them doctrine A and result B) or doctrine you liked and results you disliked (doctrine B and result A). Which would you chose?
I know my mother has better things to do at work than to forward generic Christian chain mails to everyone in her address book…my problem is I can’t convince her of that. And so, every day, I receive a treasure trove of faith-promoting Christian stories that make me — a nonbeliever — cringe.
I couldn't resist one of these
And while I ranted on my blog about how offensive I found various parts of one recently received email…I realized too that I found a strange comfort in realizing that it was just a generic Christian chain mail. This served to be one of the times when I was deeply thankful that we Mormons are a peculiar people — I realized that some of the ‘pop’ doctrines espoused in this email would be uncharacteristic for an LDS email. So, I wondered…what if we could deconstruct Christian chain mail and come up with LDS orthodox counterpoints?
So, the email, and some points to lead our discussion after the break!
Since my last post was quite speculative and controversial, I thought I’d go for a change of pace and talk about something we’re all familiar with, or so we thought. The history of baptism is quite interesting, and much more complex than most people know. Some have questioned the Book of Mormon’s account of baptism which predates Christ. So, I wanted to learn more about the history of baptism, and came across a concept of Mikvah.
This article by a guest blogger originally appeared at Gospel Doctrine Underground. We want to thank the author for allowing us to re-post it here.
The Law of Consecration offers a lot of interesting discussion topics and ideas. To me, a political junkie, one of the most interesting concepts tied up in consecration is the idea of equality. The Book of Mormon has some interesting passages regarding equality; I cannot help thinking that they got Joseph thinking about economics and righteousness. Or, the impact of temporal things upon righteousness, anyway. So, when the Lord gives the newly organized Church his Law, equality is a big issue. Continue reading…
There is a strange parable in D&C 88 about workers digging in a field and their boss giving them the joy of his countenance for an hour during their shift. Read on to weigh in what you think this means. Continue reading…
Recently, a veritable Icon of the Bloggernacle, who for purposes of anonymity we shall call “Aloysius Miller”, published a post stating: “I don’t see the church as an exclusive conduit to God,” and “I reject the claims that the church is a sole avenue to God.” Aloysius further stated: “I realize that those claims are a standard part of Mormon theology, and so my rejection of them makes me heterodox in that sense.”
Aloysius’ proclamation of self-declared hetrodoxy made me ask myself: Is he really at odds with Church doctrine in rejecting the notion that the LDS Church is “an exclusive conduit to God”? In other words, does the LDS Church even claim to be “an exclusive conduit to God”? Continue reading…
Last time, I did a lengthy post on Nepotism in the Church, which you can find here. This is an update for this year so far. As you can see, the list is pretty short. I haven’t had a chance to go back and do more research on the appointments other than General Authorities, Temple Presidents and Mission Presidents. Biographical information is hard to come by for Area Authorities and Stake Presidents.
One thing is clear; the church is getting much more diverse in appointments for Mission Presidents and Temple Presidents. While there are still a number of Mission P residents coming out of Utah and other church strongholds, local/regional callings are on the rise.
As far as Temple Presidents, with the large number of Temples in operations, local Temple Presidents are now the norm. Except for the “big” Temples in various areas, Utah, Hawaii, and Washington D.C where emeritus General Authorities or released 2nd Quorum of 70 members are called.
And while you don’t see a significant number of relatives being called to the General Authorities, long time Church employees or other “well-connected” members are getting the nod. But this has probably always been true as President Hinckley was a long time Church employee prior to his call to the General Authorities.
| Name | Position | Relationship | Relative | Position |
| Allan F. Packer | 1st Quorum 70 | Son | Boyd K Packer | Quorum of 12 |
| Charles W Walton | Mission Pres 2009 | Son in Law | Ray H Wood | 2nd Quorum 70 |
| Clark B Hinckley | Mission Pres 2009 | Son | Gordon B Hinckley | President |
| Dale G. Renlund | 1st Quorum 70 | Son in Law | Merlin Lybbert | 2nd Quorum 70 |
| David J Bullock | Mission Pres 2008 | Son in Law | Boyd K Packer | Quorum of 12 |
| Gregory M Saylin | Mission Pres 2009 | Son in Law | Keith K Hilbig | 1st Quorum 70 |
| Michael Tally Ringwood | 1st Quorum 70 | Son in Law | Russell M Nelson | Quorum of 12 |
| Miguel Tenorio | Mission Pres 2008 | Son | Octaviano Tenorio | 1st Quorum 70 |
| Richard A Hunter | Temple Pres 2008 | Son | Howard W Hunter | President |
It’s been over a year since someone posted something on Book of Mormon geography, so I think it’s about time. Most of you believe that the Book of Mormon occurred in Central America, right? Well it turns out there are over 100 theories. Check out this big list, which is incomplete.
In 1991, John Sorenson of BYU, the “dean” of Book of Mormon geography, created a book called “The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book“. (It is hard to find because it has no ISBN #, but can be purchased at the BYU Bookstore as well as some bookstores specializing on obscure Mormon books.) I reviewed the book, and grouped the theories into basic categories.
There are some speculations I learned about by all the sermons to the contrary. When I was much, much younger, I read a lot of sermons and essays and excerpts. One thing that struck me was the number of talks by Prophets and Apostles who spent a lot of time lecturing that speculation born of the mores of the day was wrong and that women were equal to men and to be treated as equal partners in marriage, not treated as property or subservient.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve constantly run across speculation to the contrary. That proves just how dense some people are and explains why the huge mass of preaching correcting that conclusion. It is obvious that some people just don’t get the message about what the doctrine really is and what the scriptures should mean, out of all the possibilities. My thoughts, on realizing that point, were wondering what in all the sermons I had probably missed (just like those guys missed the point) and I got to wondering about my own blind spots.
Rather than leave you guessing, I am going to engage in some speculation so you won’t have to wonder where my blind spots are. Don’t worry, I’ve more than enough mistakes for a lot more posts.
Comment on any of the following articles – or anything else from the sidebar – or any other article of interest to this forum that we missed.
Some Q12 Subscribe to Sunstone
Mormon Stories Archive Back on Line
African Mission Churches Are Reaching Into America
These Researchers Have a Good Grasp of the Obvious
Times & Seasons Divorce: Don’t Cry for Me, Adam Greenwood
Big OOPS – Just a Typo, but a Good One
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