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Eastern Orthodoxy: Theosis/Deification

July 6, 2010
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Eastern Orthodoxy: Theosis/Deification

Covenant Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian Seminary.  They have online courses that you can listen to for free!  If you pay tuition, you can get a Master of Divinity Degree online.  I have found the podcasts incredibly interesting. I’ve learned some interesting concepts from class on Ancient and Medieval Church History.  Session #23 discusses Eastern Orthodoxy.  First, let’s have a little background.  The Eastern Orthodox Church officially split with the Catholic Church in 1054.  The Pope excommunicated the Patriarch in Constantinople, so the Patriarch did the same to the Pope.  There had been some different emphasis on theology for...

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A Horrific Tale of Forgiveness

June 29, 2010
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A Horrific Tale of Forgiveness

I really miss my book club, but I am participating in the Stay LDS Book Club.  The first book that we have decided to read is Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  It is her story of the Rwandan Genocide.  I previously discussed the movie Hotel Rwanda, describing the events from Paul Russebagina’s point of view.  Immaculee has an incredibly inspiring story as well.  The book is intensely moving.

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The Mormon Therapist on the Color Gray

June 13, 2010
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Natasha Helfer Parker is a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist and a member of the Church with 13 years of experience working with LDS members. Here she shares with us representative cases from her practice and insights she has gained from her work as a therapist.  She blogs at mormontherapist.blogspot.com. I think so many people want a clear “black and white” answer on many issues. Instead our leaders and the Lord give us great freedom (leeway so to speak) to live our religion. A lot of people seem to be on a quest to “decide” what our Heavenly...

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Binding the Broken-Hearted

May 23, 2010
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Binding the Broken-Hearted

Nothing is more painful than a broken heart. When this kind of sorrow gets deep into a person’s soul, all troubles are magnified, blessings are unseen, and it seems almost impossible to bear the daily experience of life. Getting out of bed is misery. Living is torment. A broken heart can cause such an intense reaction that many of us feel our lives have been completely stripped of meaning. Jobs, hobbies, and friends no longer hold any joy for us. In fact, some even experience physical pain with a tight chest, nervous stomach, or terrible insomnia. Nobody understands a...

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What the Golden Rule Does NOT Say: or, “Jesus wouldn’t recognize that rationalization.”

April 28, 2010
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One of my monthly New Year’s Resolutions last year was taken from Matthew 7:9-12, a slight change in my original plan. (See here.) These verses state: Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to...

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Giving Back His Name

April 13, 2010
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Giving Back His Name

“Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day; And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.” (3 Nephi 27:5-6)

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Increased Civility in Our Conversations

April 2, 2010
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On this Good Friday, I want to make a request based on a wonderful post I read over at By Common Consent by one of my favorite writers, Russell Arben Fox.  It is entitled “Friday Reflections on Mormonism and the Cross” – and it can be read in its entirety at the following link: http://bycommonconsent.com/2010/04/02/friday-reflections-on-mormonism-and-the-cross/ I am going to include my own thoughts on that post – then take this post in a very different direction.

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Home Teaching the Mentally Ill

February 21, 2010
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I posted a longer version of this on my blog.  Last month I had the most unusual experience I have ever had in regards to home teaching.

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A Tribute to Charity

February 13, 2010
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My father had a stroke on Wednesday. The artery in his neck is 95% blocked, and he will have surgery to try to correct that problem next Wednesday. Since my New Year’s Resolution posts on my personal blog this month are focused on charity envying not, I want to repost something that I wrote a little over two years ago when one of my nieces died unexpectedly. Much of what I know of charity envying not (and charity in totality) was learned by watching my father – particularly as he laid down his own life for the woman he...

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Time to Study the Old Testament Again Part 6 – Symbols, Signs, Types and Shadows, and Tokens

February 12, 2010
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Time to Study the Old Testament Again Part 6 – Symbols, Signs, Types and Shadows, and Tokens

“Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him.” 2 Nephi 11:4

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The Fourth Purpose: Haiti, and Who is My Brother?

January 26, 2010
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An article from the Salt Lake Tribune listed in the Mormon Matters sidebar sometime ago noted the official elevation of “care of the poor and needy” to the status of a “purpose” of the Mormon (LDS) church. Church news sources are noting how LDS resources are being mobilized from both the United States and the Dominican Republic, in coordination with partners such as Islamic Relief, CARE, Food for the Poor, and Healing Hands for Haiti. All of its missionaries are reported to be safe, and the church is using nine meeting houses to provide shelter for members and an...

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CoC to tackle Major Issues at April Conference: Gay Marriage & Baptism

January 20, 2010
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This is the second guest Post from FireTag, a member of the Community of Christ (formerly known as RLDS).  As he mentioned in his previous post, the Community of Christ is going through the process of canonization of a new revelation.  Here’s his latest installment of the process. CofChrist Prophet: Baptism in Christ Transcends Culture “5 It is imperative to understand that when you are truly baptized into Christ you become part of a new creation. By taking on the life and mind of Christ, you increasingly view yourselves and others from a changed perspective. Former ways of defining...

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Gregory House and Emmanuel Levinas: Finding Meaning in Suffering: Part 2

December 21, 2009
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Gregory House and Emmanuel Levinas: Finding Meaning in Suffering: Part 2

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on suffering.  Resulting from a thoughtful critique of that post, by Andrew S, and a recommendation (in the following discussion) to read Emmanuel Levinas’ essay on ‘Useless Suffering’, I have decided to present a re-formulated version of my comments; because my thinking has moved on.  I hope that this is not redundant, it certainly has not been for me.  I actually hope to write a third post based on a more detailed survey of Levinas’ arguments but that will be in the future.

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Christmas Gifts: Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh

December 20, 2009
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Christmas Gifts: Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh

Many lament that Christmas has turned into a commercial gift-giving holiday.  However, the Bible shows that gift-giving happened right after the birth of Christ.  The Book of Matthew tells of 3 gifts the Wise Men gave:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Prof Deirdre Good of the General Theological Seminary in New York tells us the meaning of these particular gifts in Mystery of the 3 Kings: “The gift of gold is for royalty.  The gift of frankincense is for divinity.  The gift of myrrh is for death.”

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A Child Is Born In Bukavu

December 15, 2009
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A Christmas message, by today’s guest poster, mormongandhi. A child is born in Bukavu A child is born in Bukavu, and sadness fills his mother’s heart… Bukavu is not the city of David. It is a town in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. War has been ravaging the country for years. Ever since Kabila invaded the former Zaire with military support from the US. It is a war that no one speaks of – but it has cost the lives of millions of people and caused unimaginable suffering.

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‘Christmas’ or ‘Winter Festival’: I’m not sure I care!

December 14, 2009
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‘Christmas’ or ‘Winter Festival’: I’m not sure I care!

This must be the the third year that I have heard people bemoan government plans to change the name of Christmas to ‘Winter Festival’ or some such other variant.  A little research shows that this is unfounded, in most cases, and seems linked to a gentleman named Bill O’Reilly, but there has been some rumours bubbling in the UK.  But is this really a big deal?

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12 Days of Christmas and 3 Kings Day

December 13, 2009
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12 Days of Christmas and 3 Kings Day

Everyone is familiar with the Twelve Days of Christmas. It’s a funny song where the gift-giver gives strange gifts of “lords a leaping”, and various birds, including turtledoves and a “partridge in a pear tree.”  (Really, who would want all those birds?)  With the 12 days of Christmas, it seems the gifts are given the 12 days before Christmas.  The Bible tells us of the first gifts given in celebration of Christ’s birth by the Wise Men, and one tradition holds that the Wise Men visited 12 days after Christ’s birth.  January 6 is celebrated in some parts of...

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Have you ever received a Christmas card from the First Presidency?

December 10, 2009
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Have you ever received a Christmas card from the First Presidency?

This year I received a Christmas card from the First Presidency.  I have heard that Church employees get one, but it has not been my experience so far.  Nor did it occur to me that I would get one.  I received it with a DVD for the youth of our ward.  I cannot tell whether it was to accompany the DVD or whether Bishops get Christmas cards every year (this is my first Christmas as a Bishop).  

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Like a Virgin

December 10, 2009
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Like a Virgin

This post is a response to Aaron Shafovaloff over at Mormon Coffee. If you go to enjoy the lights on Temple Square, you are likely to see him striking up gospel conversations. From viewing Aaron’s video of himself witnessing at Temple Square I’m getting the feeling that he wants us to believe that if something is miraculous, it has to be completely incomprehensible. But he doesn’t realize that concept doesn’t appeal to us. Mormons are likely to say that God does not defy law, but he works through physical laws, a fundamental principle of the universe. This in no...

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Eternal Progression and The Evolution of God

November 6, 2009
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Eternal Progression and The Evolution of God

As part of a discussion group, I have been reading Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God. My group isn’t anywhere near finished (the “heart” of the book focuses on the three major Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — yet we’ve only finished through the part on Judaism that sets the stage for Christianity), but as I blogged about on my personal blog, I already have concerns about the arguments that Wright presents. Some of my comments, however, may not necessarily apply to Mormonism. For example, Wright seems to rely on this idea of a God that can...

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