Okay, so our meetings are dull. Complaining about it is dull. I’ve been wondering though, what about the wards that have better meetings? What makes them better? Whenever this topic arises, people want to toss around blame. Either the church or the individual members are responsible. After all, if the church is run by God, if the meeting is boring it must be YOUR fault. I think there may be some truth to that.
Monthly Archives: August 2010
I Admire Faith
I admire faith
Resolving the Conflict between the TBM and the ExMo
Today’s guest post comes from Ulysseus, a frequent commenter at Mormon Matters and elsewhere in the b’nacle. His website can be found here. To take a line from Shakespeare — a pox upon both your houses. The Ex-Mos and TBMs continue to argue past each other and never the twain shall meet. While the thought of a kind, loving heavenly being comforts and then closes the ears of the believer, the list of inconsistencies, logical disconnects and “anti-Mormon” cliches assuages and then closes the ears of the non-believer.
Presiding in marriage and otherwise
Let me start with a true story, I recently observed and that resulted in this post: It is obviously a vacation weekend. The only member of the bishopric in town is a very junior second counselor. He spots a member of the stake presidency sitting in the back with his family. With a sigh, the poor brother walks up to the stand. The counselor relaxes, opens the meeting with the note that the “poor brother” is presiding and goes on. In our worship services, presiding means sitting there and, by being present, enabling other people to take the lead,...
The Mormon Therapist on Sexual Education
We have reached the point where we need to begin having discussions with our child about sex. Our child is 9. One of the major issues is what to teach them on this particular issue- masturbation. I don’t want to condone the practice but I also don’t want them to feel completely terrible about themselves and their value as a person if they slip sometimes. My view of this practice is not as hard-line as the Church’s view. How is the best way to go about opening up discussions with children about this issue?
Religious Archaeology and Evidence
I’d like to discuss both Biblical and Book of Mormon archaeology. Most people believe the Bible is on solid archaeological footing, but that isn’t actually true. Many books have questionable authorship, and many places remain unidentified. In a previous post, I discussed Questions about the Exodus: there isn’t a shred of evidence that it actually happened. During Passover celebrations in 2001, Rabbi David Wolpe created international headlines in Israel by proclaiming to his Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, “the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all.” I’ve been listening to...
Mormon.org FAQ: Polygamy
The church has initiated a new online profile campaign on mormon.org in which those interested in the church can “meet” actual members who’ve posted pictures of themselves, personal experiences with the church, and their own answers to a variety of questions about Mormonism. A few of those questions are on more controversial topics, and it is interesting to read answers that members have posted.
A New Church? — The New Mormon.org PR/Marketing Campaign
Hey. If you haven’t seen it yet….a new Mormon.org PR campaign is upon us…and all I can say is…”Wow.” Seriously. Wow. An “independently minded womn”. A priesthood-holding black man in an interracial marriage. Working moms (too many to link to here in one sentence). An apparently non-garment-wearing skateboarding photographer of partially naked women who claims that God wants us all to be individualistic and not robots or chess pieces. Awesome. Seriously. So……awesome. This is a brand of Mormonism I can stand squarely behind.
Viewpoints, part one
It is delightful, some times, to see how the LDS Church is seen from the outside. For example, you might be surprised that one thing many Baptist scholars respect about the Church is the way the Church is open about the flaws in its leaders and history compared to other institutions. Further, it seems that the further in the past something is, the easier it is for people to be open. No one seems to blanch at the thought that Noah got drunk and passed out in public, that Peter after he began to lead the Church still bowed...
Rules, Principles, Seeds & Shells: Part II
Last week, I began to sketch out the relationship between rules and principles. For the CliffNotes: faith is a process of applying correct beliefs that enlarge our souls and enlighten our minds. This application process is best analogized to the planting of a seed, where the seed is the Word (and the various beliefs, principles, and rules within). As we apply correct beliefs, the seed takes germinates, sprouts, and grows. What catches in our souls and minds, enlarging and exlightening them, is the true principle. Our goal is to get at true principles, but we are best able to...
Hanging Out with Apostles at Sunstone
Sunstone has been going on since Wednesday here in Salt Lake City. It ends tomorrow, and I thought I would give a few words about the conference. I have been blogging here at Mormon matters for about a year and a half, and have never met any other bloggers here….until this week! It has been nice to nice BiV and Stephen Marsh. I hope to meet others tomorrow. It was also nice to meet with a few apostles.
The Latest in the Prop 8 Fight
This past week, Judge Vaughn R. Walker in a U.S. District Court ruled California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution in that “Proposition 8 harms the state’s interest in equality, because it mandates that men and women be treated differently based on antiquated and discredited notions of gender and that fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote.” (Excerpts from the federal court decision, from the Los Angeles Times Website)
Commenting Styles, Posting Styles (and you expected a Sunstone Post, didn’t you?)
Ok, I actually have my entire presentation written down, and I could have posted it, so you could read it at Mormon Matters if you aren’t listening to me talk. But where would the fun be in that? Instead, it is my turn to do a meta post about the bloggernacle.
Discussing the Temple Initiatory from a Faithful Feminist Perspective
I recently had my temple recommend renewed and I’ve been thinking about the temple initiatory for women and wishing I could discuss it from a faithful, feminist perspective. Unfortunately, there are some obstacles which stand in my way of doing this. Number one, of course, is the proscription from discussing certain sacred aspects of the temple. I’m a bit more liberal than many in talking of my temple experiences. I think there are certain parts in the temple which we are clearly told not to discuss, and I’m willing to draw the line there. But can we talk about...
The Mormon Therapist on Making Kids go to Seminary
I am looking for some advice. I have 3 children. My oldest is a freshman in high school. We are an active LDS Family. My daughter is refusing to attend seminary. We have begged, pleaded, bribed, punished, fasted, prayed and are out of solutions we can think of. Do we allow her to choose to not attend or do we keep trying to find ways to get her to go? I am so exhausted by the fighting but am also worried that not going to seminary will make her choice of colleges exclude church schools. She says she doesn’t...
Elder Brown Defines Political Extremism
There are a large majority of Mormons (especially here in Utah) that think the Church is wedded to the Republican Party. A very interesting letter was read here in Utah on Mar 22, 2010 as Utah prepared for the upcoming Caucus Meetings. Let me quote something very interesting from the letter. (The full text from the LDS Newsroom can be found here.) “Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of various political parties.” (Emphasis mine.) Why does it seem that many Mormons don’t seem to believe this, despite the church’s oft-quoted emphasis that the church...
Why Do People Struggle? (With Poll!)
Through my time in the church, I’ve known many who have left the church, many others who have seemingly never had an issue, and a vast majority who struggled with one aspect or another yet remained active (or resumed activity after a period of inactivity). What’s your experience with struggling?
Why Mormon History is Not What They Say
Our controversial guest post today is from Rock Waterman. Check out the original unabridged post at his blog, Pure Mormonism, so titled from his observation that the organic religion founded by Joseph Smith was nondogmatic and libertarian. A couple of weeks ago Jeff Riggenbach sent me his latest book, Why American History Is Not What They Say: An Introduction To Revisionism. I’ve had a passion for revisionist history for as long as I can remember, but something I read in Riggenbach’s informative volume caught me up short. It was an essential factor that I had never known or considered...
things that scare you
The best advice I ever received was about a month into my mission. I was naturally struggling to learn the first few principles of the first discussion in Japanese, and struggling to stay interested every day in repeating the same brief sentence to everyone: “chotto ii desu ka?” (roughly, “Hi, do you have a minute?”). I met one day with my Zone Leader, who was short, with dark hair and huge hands. He was from Kentucky. We knelt down on the tatami mats and he asked me how things were going. I explained that I was really glad to...
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