LDS

Adam and Eve: the First TBM & NOM

June 29, 2009
By
Adam and Eve: the First TBM & NOM

There have been several attempts over the years to categorize Mormon “belief-styles”: Orthodox Mormon versus Liberal Mormon, Iron Rod Mormon versus Liahona Mormon, and so on. In the online world of LDS blogs commonly called “the Bloggernacle”, Mormons are often categorized as being TBMs (True Believing Mormons) or NOMs (New Order Mormons). One evening when my wife and I had the opportunity to reflect on the timeless story of Adam and Eve, it struck me that their different responses to God’s commandments, and to Lucifer’s “temptation”, perfectly exemplified the different mindsets of TBMs and NOMs, and symbolically portrayed the...

Read more »

The Power of Choice

June 18, 2009
By

One of the most important doctrinal points of the LDS Church is the power of choice, called agency or free agency in the Church.  In many ways, the entire Plan of Salvation hinges on the power of choice.

Read more »

What is Revelation?

June 16, 2009
By
What is Revelation?

People have different opinions on what personal revelation is.  Is it from God or from within us?  Is it personal or universal in the scope of its truth?  Does it only come in some ways or should we take inspiration however we can get it?  Is it only available through the HG, or to all who seek truth?

Read more »

If someone should get only one thing out of the church, what should it be?

June 6, 2009
By

In an ideal world, we would like everyone to be members of the church (actually, this is just a generalization that I’m going to write just so I can have an introduction to this article). Ideally, we’d like them to be faithful members of the church who sustain the prophet, live great lives, enjoy their lives and find purpose with their lives that match up with the Gospel. In an ideal world. Unfortunately, Liebniz was a little off the mark. We live in a good world (again, if you disagree, please just go with this one so I can...

Read more »

Taking the Fun Out of Funerals

June 2, 2009
By
Taking the Fun Out of Funerals

What do you want your funeral to be like?  Do you care or do you figure you’ll be dead anyway?  How do you feel about burial vs. cremation?  Are you an organ donor?

Read more »

The consumer model of religion — A look at a BCC post

May 30, 2009
By

I was reading BCC the other day, and I came across this post that just seemed like this tremendous threat to me. I know John C had nothing in mind and really, I’m just writing this for the melodrama, but as an ex-mormon atheist, it seemed to hit close to home. John just had it out for those militant atheists, but I guess they do enough to deserve some of it. I wanted to make a qualification and…perhaps…a defense…of what he lambastes as a “consumer model” of religion…especially since recently on my blog, I’ve been talking about the need...

Read more »

Women are from Venus, Men are from Kolob

May 27, 2009
By
Women are from Venus, Men are from Kolob

Based on my experience, I would guess that the majority of LDS women under age 65 would say that polygamy is NOT an eternal principle and that it doesn’t require any earthly worrying as a result.  While the men are probably not worrying about it (although any of them who are married to me should think twice about expecting additional wives in the future), my impression is that a higher percentage of them believe it is an eternal principle that will be practiced long term.

Read more »

The Problem with Tolerance

May 19, 2009
By

The church has a history of high level leaders making sweeping pronouncements that are later deemed incorrect, speculative, or unauthorized, yet in each case, church leaders are reluctant to make public correction of those presumptions.  This tolerance sometimes results in dogmatic voices flourishing, drowning out those same tolerant voices that have graciously granted them access to the open mic.

Read more »

My Perspective on Polygamy

May 17, 2009
By
My Perspective on Polygamy

I have long avoided talking about polygamy on my blog.  It is a source of tremendous discomfort for me, but it keeps coming up, so I want to give my impressions about this early practice in Mormonism, as well as my beliefs and reconciliations.

Read more »

An Explanation of My Reduction in Participation

May 14, 2009
By

For the past two years (almost), I have been an active blogger – to say the least. (*grin*) Actually, to be more precise, I have been a VERY active blogger. OK, that is an understatement. That has changed over the last three weeks.

Read more »

Interfaith International British DJ

May 13, 2009
By
Interfaith International British DJ

OK Paul technically isn’t exactly an international DJ, not unless you consider that you can listen to his interviews on line.

Read more »

Worship or Whine?

May 12, 2009
By

This post was inspired by David Stout’s series of posts on LDS Worship, Part II and Part III as well as HawkGrrrl’s post entitled “More Christ at Church.”

Read more »

Mormon Masks

May 11, 2009
By
Mormon Masks

Often people have a hard time with intimacy (intimacy = “into me see”) because they feel vulnerable.  They would rather deal with ideas than people, and they don’t want others to see who they are.  They might feel insecure or care what others think of them.  People who feel this way wear what we call social masks to hide who they are and present a facade instead of their true self to others.  And sometimes, the mask people wear is the church.

Read more »

When the Ward Splits

May 8, 2009
By
When the Ward Splits

Since I have lived in Colorado Springs (almost 6 years), I have witnessed a phenomena at Church I hadn’t experienced before while living in San Jose.  Ward Splits and Stake realignments.

Read more »

Botched Hymns

May 7, 2009
By
Botched Hymns

We are all familiar with this phenomenon.  You’re listening to a song you’ve heard many times, and you think you know the lyrics, but you don’t really.  And often our mistaken lyrics radically change the meaning of the song.

Read more »

That We Could All Be Like – Satan?

May 7, 2009
By
That We Could All Be Like – Satan?

Today we have a guest post from Bishop Mike T. Young of the Spanish Fork 401st Ward.

Read more »

April 2009 General Conference – Word Stats

May 3, 2009
By

Based on word count, what was the focus of April 2009 General Conference?  Before you scroll down, see if you can guess the top 3 words that were used.

Read more »

Who Should Go to Church, Anyway?

May 2, 2009
By

So over at T&S they’ve been having this discussion about the recent media report about the majority of America’s drifiting faith issues. And I know, you’re about to say, “Dude, this isn’t T&S. We do things differently at Mormon Matters,” and I understand. And while I discussed this a bit at my blog, I most definitely know we do things differently here than there. So I wanted to try to approach the subject differently here and add some value (well…perhaps I won’t be so successful at this latter endeavor.)

Read more »

More Christ At Church

April 30, 2009
By
More Christ At Church

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?

Read more »

Temples Unbuilt

April 30, 2009
By
Temples Unbuilt

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.

Read more »