Published in Bloggernacle,
Culture,
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Folklore,
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Happiness,
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Logic,
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families,
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ordinances,
polygamy,
questioning,
resignation,
righteousness,
spiritual progression,
temple and
tesimony .
A close friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous recently saw in the shadow of the temple his story follows
In October, I was fortunate to attend the Portland, Oregon, screening of the movie, In the Shadow of the Temple. http://www.intheshadowofthetemple.com The screening was hosted by the producers, Karen Di Millia and Dennis Lavery. Prior to the screening Dennis and Karen spoke for 10 minutes and explained how they started this project. After the screening they took questions and answers for roughly 30 minutes.
Lavery and DeMillia, who are not–and never have been–LDS, originally planned to make a movie about people who had left the religion of their youth. They attended a meeting of the Portland Humanist Society, explained their project, and asked if anyone had such stories they would be willing to share. In the course of discussing the project with members of the society, they were told that who they really needed to talk to was Sue Emmett, who had left the LDS church. After talking with Sue and others with whom she put them in touch, they decided to re-focus their project on the experience of those who have left the LDS church. Continue reading…
Published in Charity,
Culture,
General Authorities,
LDS,
Mormon,
Mormons,
apologetics,
apostasy,
christ,
gay,
homosexuality,
love,
mormon,
orthodox,
questioning,
religion,
resignation,
sexuality and
spirituality .
At the Evergreen conference held September 18-19, 2009, Elder Bruce Hafen gave a talk regarding homosexuality. The talk was reprinted on the official LDS Church Newsroom website. I will not synopsize the talk here but I suggest reading it yourself. Within a very short time, for obvious reasons, the bloggernacle was dissecting and analyzing the speech. These actions generated some interesting discussions here, and one permablogger at FMH did a good job of challenging the less-than-spectacular research here. Continue reading…
Published in God,
Jesus,
Mormon,
christ,
doctrine,
doubt,
faith,
fear,
resignation,
righteousness,
salvation,
testimony,
theology and
violence .
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61.” (Bob Dylan)
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) has written about the experience of Faith. His short book ‘Fear and Trembling’ discusses the experience of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, and his subsequent designation as the ‘Father of Faith’. This is probably not the place for an in-depth discussion of this book but I want to outline his views because it asks some important questions about what Faith is, how we exercise it and its fruits. Continue reading…
I had a job a long time ago as the Training Manager at a company that was going through the ISO 9000 certification process. For those who are unfamiliar with that process, it is an auditing system that focuses on the internal working of a company – looking not at whether a company is involved in “best practices” but rather whether a company is articulating and following clearly defined practices and procedures. I summed it up at the time as being able to do three things:
1) Say what you do.
2) Do what you say.
3) Prove it. Continue reading…
Published in Culture,
LDS,
Mormon,
Mormons,
apostasy,
church,
doubt,
faith,
families,
fear,
mormon,
orthodox,
resignation and
testimony .
Two men pull up to a house they’ve never been to before. It’s dark, but a few lights appear on. They slowly get out, not saying much and walk up the walk to the door. One reaches out and rings the doorbell. Soon, a woman appears and opens the door.
One says: “Are you Sister Smith?”
Continue reading…
Published in God,
Mormon,
Peace,
apostasy,
diversity,
eternity,
excommunication,
faith,
fear,
repentance,
resignation,
salvation,
theology and
violence .
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God[...] and another book was opened, which is the book of life[...] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
-Revelation Ch. 20 (vs. 12-15)
Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring. Bound by wild desire, I fell into a ring of fire.
-Johnny Cash
In the LDS church, members are written into the book of life with their baptism and confirmation. For some, the love affair with the gospel can truly become a fiery passion. That passion produces its greatest defenders, but sometimes the fire consumes its lover. So the stage is set for the most intense crime of passion, the greatest act of violence… the blotting out of a name from the book of life. Continue reading…
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