When I look at the mortal religious scene here on earth, I think one of the adversary’s masterstrokes has been to split apart two key streams of understanding of God’s full truth. These two streams are 1) humankind’s divine origins and potential and (2) the need for a Savior and his atonement.
If you look at most pagan religions, the pagans often have very interesting, true-ish ideas about where humans came from and where we are going, but they totally lack knowledge of the need for a Savior to get us out of our current mortal dilemma. Continue reading…
Everyone does it. This essay is on how to do it with style and panache. For my proof text I will use “let women keep silence in the churches” but any verse will do.
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Professor Jeffrey Nielsen, whose op-ed two years ago against the LDS Church’s stance on gay marriage led to his demise at church-owned Brigham Young University, has written an open letter to California Mormons in the wake of the church’s request for members to support a constitutional ban on gay marriage in that state (from KCPW).
Open Letter to California Mormons
Jeffrey S. Nielsen
I am a member of the Mormon Church, a married heterosexual, and a supporter of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. I am asking you to pause and give sincere thought to the letter from our religious leaders you have heard read, or will soon hear read, over our church pulpits asking you to get involved and oppose marriage equality in California. Please think deeply about this, not only as a member of a particular church, but also as a citizen of a democracy.
Continue reading…
aka Why Our Personal Beliefs Really Do Matter and Matter A Lot
aka Why We All Believe This Even if We Claim We Don’t
Overheard on the Bloggernacle, or in the office, or just about everywhere:
All religions contain overlapping ideas and in this overlap exists the real voice of God.
Continue reading…
Published in Happiness,
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1) There is a man in my ward who is a dean at a major college in our area. He is a brilliant scholar in his field, and he has served as a Bishop and in a Stake Presidency. He also is one of the most humble men I have ever met. A couple of years ago, one of his adult daughters died in a freakish surgery accident - totally unexpected - leaving behind a husband and an infant daughter. Continue reading…
Tired of talking about gay marriage? How about women and the Priesthood? 
In all seriousness, let me share with you a recent experience that has had a profound impact on the way I view the concept of Priesthood, and that has convinced me, once and for all, that I am not the sole Priesthood bearer in my family. I believe it’s high time we recognized the service rendered by faithful LDS women as more than simply the fulfillment of a Relief Society assignment, or being a good visiting teacher. Such efforts constitute the righteous exercise of Priesthood power.
Continue reading…
Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words, Hymn no. 232
Let us oft speak kind words to each other. At home or where’er we may be;
Like the warblings of birds on the heather, The tones will be welcome and free.
They’ll gladden the heart that’s repining, Give courage and hope from above,
And where the dark clouds hide the shining, Let in the bright sunlight of love.
[Chorus]
Oh, the kind words we give shall in memory live And sunshine forever impart.
Let us oft speak kind words to each other; Kind words are sweet tones of the heart.
- Joseph L. Townsend, 1849-1942 Continue reading…
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“You may say I’m a dreamer; but I’m not the only one.” John Lennon.
Acts 2:17: “. . . your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
Continue reading…
Recently, I was in a meetinghouse in our area for the first time. On the wall directly above the entrance to the chapel, there is a small plaque. Continue reading…
Michelangelo, one of most prominent figures of the Renaissance’s A-List, is famous for his sculptures and his frescoes, nearly all of which depicted religious themes. The ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are possibly his most well known and celebrated works (perhaps rivaled only by The David.) Commissioned by and under the close supervision of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo was essentially acting as an agent of the Catholic Church. What I find most interesting though, is that when we carefully look at his art, we find depictions and representations of things that are *not* part of the theological tenants of Catholicism, but are in fact congruent with certain teachings and beliefs of Mormonism. Continue reading…
The view of God’s godliness ranges from God as a Bonewits Parasite to God as the ex nilho creator who controls everything down to the direction and location of sub atomic particles. Those views of omniscience and omnipotence as to God and just what that means inside and outside of time were to be Part Three.
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Well, an FLDS update, that includes a link to an Ikea spoof.
What other things that everyone seems to be taking seriously can you think of spoofing?
Borrowing from Grits for Breakfast:
” here’s some recent coverage that may interest Grits readers:”
This one is for you parents and aspiring parents out there. How would you answer the following question: Is it more important to you that your child be “good,” or that he/she be “happy”? Hold on to your initial responses — I don’t think it’s such an easy question.
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I work with a publisher in Great Britain who is keen to do some lavish, glossy, full-color coffee-table-type books on Mormon themes (or hot-chocolate table, if that’s how you prefer it).
This fine gent has asked me to shake some trees and see what topics Mormons would like to see given this kind of treatment, whether historical, cultural, or whatever. He prints ‘em cheap in China and stacks ‘em deep in places like Costco and Barnes & Noble.
So take a moment to sit down on your sofa and stare down at your coffee table and try to picture what kind of Mormon-themed coffee-table book you’d like to see there, something that hasn’t already been done (or, if it has been done in some form, hasn’t received the glossy full-color illustrated treatment it deserves yet).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! (And I’m sure none of them will be tongue-in-cheek…)
Something I have mentioned before is that I believe many members don’t really understand what the Book of Mormon actually says about many things - just like few Christians really understand what the Bible actually says about many things. Much of my perspective on this issue stems from my belief that it is a natural reaction to accept what others say about topics with which we do not feel comfortable claiming to be experts. As long as the explanation we hear sounds good - as long as it makes sense to us - we often take it at face value and don’t examine it closely and critically. This is true especially when the one giving the interpretation is in some position of authority.
This is my first “Common Scriptures in Review” post - something to consider as an alternative reading to what many assume. Continue reading…
The Match
Prepare for the ultimate philosophical smack down between a David and a Goliath! In one corner we have our champ Craig L. Blomberg who I have been told is one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world. Simply put, he’s brilliant.
Our contender is my former missionary companion who was never anything but a junior companion.
Craig Blomberg comes out of his corner swinging, in How Wide the Divide? His upper-cut is the logical impossibility of the Mormon concept of becoming divine and having more than one Omnipotent “being.” He says,
Even simple logic should suggest that it is contradictory to have more than one omnipotent being; otherwise, for example, not only would God be able to judge me but I would be able to judge God. Both of us could theoretically destroy each other, and then there would be no eternally existing God. (How Wide the Divide? p. 212)
Continue reading…
Over the years, the church has cut back and eliminated activities that, in some cases, were long-standing traditions. Which ones do you miss the most?
- Speech Contests
- Stake Dramas and plays
- Talent shows
- Concerts
- Roadshow
- Dance Festivals
- Monthly ward activities
- Ward fund raisers
- Inter-church sports tournaments
- Know Your Religion
- Gold & Green Ball (Laurels coming out party?)
- Others
I am sure that there are other activities that I have not mentioned. I also think that some wards and stakes may still do things that are on the list.
What were your favorites?
Published in Anti-Mormon,
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“Whitewashing” is an accusatory term often used against the church to describe efforts to gloss over sticky points in doctrine or history. So, does the church engage in whitewashing? Continue reading…
What does the Book of Mormon mean? Does it follow from its existence that Joseph Smith was (is?) a prophet, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s only church on the earth, that Thomas Spencer Monson is the only one on the earth today that has the authority to officiate for God? Alternatively,does it mean that anthropologists are mistaken about the origins, history, and cultural practices of pre-Columbian Americans? That Latter-day Saints are in possession of the real history of the Americas? Continue reading…
I recently lead a discussion in High Priests (I never call it teaching) about Discipleship, what it was and how we can become true disciples of Jesus Christ. I used several talks and articles by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He spoke quite a bit about the concept of discipleship and he always had a manner of speech and writing that made what he said or wrote seem more important. Continue reading…
I have to admit sadly if it came to push or shove Mormon Matter opinions and the Internet in the main override what information I would receive from a member of my congregation. Primarily because it’s a collective think tank that has looked at it from different angles and in more depth.
Since Mormon Stories, Mormon Matters, For those who wonder.com and a plethora of others that have come into my view it has significantly changed my insights of what I thought was black and white dramatically. Continue reading…
When you think of God, do you envision?
- a proper English gentleman
- a modernized Biblical patriarch
- an erudite English professor at a Ivy league university
- a tame Lion (returning to the C. S. Lewis reference)?
Do you recreate God in your own idealized image?
Continue reading…
Published in Asides,
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What constitutes swearing? Is it always wrong? If so, why? Continue reading…
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:45
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:11
And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
Mosiah 2:22
Discuss, my friends:
