My general experience with illegal aliens is similar to the one called to mind by George Bush: people who at great risk and significant hardship have sacrificed and done what they could to provide a better life for their children. It is tempered by my wife’s experience providing anesthesia to family oriented young women who are proud to give their children “American” names and to become a part of life in the United States. I am aware that historically the risk and hardships were greater, the financial rewards of coming to America were much less. Political and religious freedom were…
Mormon Therapist on Sexless Marriage
My wife never touches me… I am quite frustrated in my marriage and it stems from issues of sex and intimacy. I have been married for 15 years, and we have four children, the youngest just started Kindergarten. My marriage has devolved into almost a roommate situation. My wife has no interest in sex, and she never shows me any affection whatsoever.
Comparing Correlation with the Supreme Court
As I mentioned before, I am enjoying Greg Prince’s biography of David O McKay. Under the McKay Administration, correlation of LDS church materials made a great deal of headway. While correlation has cut down on duplication of church materials, it has become a bit unwieldy. I found a quote by Paul Dunn that discussed how correlation has had some unintended side effects, and he likened these problems to the Supreme Court. We are all familiar with “legislating from the bench”, and there seems to be a similar problem with correlation. Paul Dunn gave an interview in 1995 and said on…
Mormon.org FAQ: Race Restrictions
We’ve explored some of the answers members have posted on the mormon.org site in the church’s new profiles campaign. So far, we’ve discussed member answers to questions about polygamy, women& the priesthood, politics, parenting, and prophets. Today, let’s see what members had to say about priesthood & race restrictions.
What if somebody is watching me?
Firetag has brought up some things that are dual** — that is they are contradictory things at the same time. The classic example is that light is both a particle and a wave. Some times in the scriptures when we see things like that we have a “blind men and the elephant” situation, but sometimes we have things that appear to be dual because there is no elephant.* Sometimes the act of seeing, the presence of an observer and how the observer chooses to look actually changes recordable reality. That is, depending on whether you look, and how you look…
The Blog that Ate Religion
“The Blob” was one of those horror movies from the 1950′s that I, as a young boy, found right on the boundary of “too scary to watch”. The blob that consumed everything you saw as safe was scary, to be sure, but at least, at the end, a young Steve McQueen could save the day. (The scariest movie, because of its utter hopelessness, was “On the Beach”.) And so the “blob has come down to us as something that is scary only to the very young. A younger Christianity once found science very scary — although history shows the conflict…
Your Opinion is Wrong!
Since I was a teenager, I noticed when people discussed an issue or topic that was contentious and heated, the typical style was to attack the person and not the topic. This is called argumentum ad hominem. As I became slightly more sophisticated, I realized that, in many cases, one was not simply attacking the character of the other person but simply dismissing their side of the argument by considering that what they were arguing was just not right. In respond to this observation, I coined the phrase, “your opinion is wrong.” My friends and I began to use this…
Renee Olson just died
Her death was sudden and unexpected. For more about her: http://www.blacklds.org/renee-olson-full-testimony Her Facebook memorial page here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Renee-Olson-memorial/158092054201230 She will be missed.
Even beyond idle speculation — the worst things you’ve ever heard at Church?
I still remember a meeting where the speaker said “I was never part of your organization and knew nothing about it until I was called to be in charge of it, now I appreciate how important it is” followed up by a couple tone deaf comments about the organization. She quite successfully got the point across that (a) serving in the organization was insignificant insofar as any leadership position in it mattered and (b) understanding the organization was not necessary either. The only worse thing that happened was when one of the women complained about it, an elders quorum president…
Mormon Therapist on “Are two parents better for kids?”
I’d like to see your reply to this: http://www.cupblog.org/?p=742 Are two parents better for kids?
Mental Illness and Suicide
My sister recommended that I should listen to John L Lund’s three-talk set called How to Hug a Teenage Porcupine. This isn’t the normal type of talk that I listen to because these talks often seem simplistic and syrupy. While there was plenty of syrup, I thought Brother Lund had some interesting insights that I wanted to share, and I think his advice for dealing with toxic relatives was outstanding. I wanted to share a few of his insights. In discussing teenagers, he touched on the topic of suicide (relating it to how teens can make bad choices.)
Mormon.org FAQ: Homosexuality
We’ve explored some of the answers members have posted on the mormon.org site in the church’s new profiles campaign. So far, we’ve discussed member answers to questions about polygamy, priesthood, politics, parenting, and prophets. Today, let’s see what members had to say about the church’s stance on homosexuality. Heaven help us!
Sorrowing for Korihor
Mormon Heretic’s post on forgiveness from a few weeks ago touched me deeply, but I needed time to get my thoughts together about it before I could respond. I once had the neighbor from hell. I use the expression with theological intent. Smart and relentlessly treacherous, he was somewhere on the spectrum from malignant narcissist to full-fledged sociopath, and I had no desire to observe closely enough to find out where. I do not know what horror had befallen him — if anything more significant than a stray cosmic ray hitting the genome at the wrong time — but he…
all decisions are emotional
I always have to laugh when people claim we Mormons (or even believers in general) make our decisions based on “feelings.” What they don’t realize, is EVERYONE makes EVERY decision, at least in part (and often mostly) due to their feelings.
the Authority of Paul
For some reason, I was thinking about the structure of the New Testament Church after the ascension of the Savior. What is clear is that Peter is the Chief Apostle and the one left in charge by Christ. By LDS theology, Peter held the Keys of the Kingdom as “President of the Church” although two LDS Church Presidents, David O. McKay and Spencer W. Kimball, likened his position more as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. But who succeed Peter after his death? And as a second thought, what of all the doctrine taught by Paul? Did…
Duality, Doctrine and When Less is More
D&C Section 77 and its companion section 113 have an interesting history. An “older” high priest was publicly debating with local ministers about doctrine and was winning the debates. Local church leaders felt he was espousing false doctrine and decided to excommunicate him. At his trial he had a surprise advocate who spoke passionately in his defense, even though he was 100% wrong on the doctrine. The advocate who completely turned things around: Joseph Smith (whose corrections became those two sections). He gave what is one of my favorite sermons about how we have freedom to believe and how open…
Mormon Therapist on “My husband is homosexual.”
Several years ago, my husband confirmed my worst nightmare. He sat down and said that he is homosexual and receiving counseling. He has suffered from addiction to pornography and has battled it all of his life. Now, years later, I am unable to confide in him or be intimate with him. He doesn’t try either and so we lead a celibate life. I do not talk with him about the problem and I don’t ask what he does on the computer. Often, I turn away from the slightest show of affection. At this point, I wonder how we will make…
Coke, Rum Cake, and President McKay
I just started reading Greg Prince’s book, David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. It’s been a great read so far. Prince tells some interesting stories about President McKay and the Word of Wisdom.
Mormon.org FAQ: Prophets
We’ve explored some of the answers members have posted on the mormon.org site in the church’s new profiles campaign. So far, we’ve discussed member answers to questions about polygamy, priesthood, politics, and parenting. Today, let’s see what members had to say about prophets.
Duality and Divinity
In both theology and religion, there is a concept called “dualism”, which — to avoid confusion later — I’ll note now has nothing much to do with “duality” as understood within modern physics. The former concept involves the notion that there are two aspects of reality which may either be diametrically opposed, mutually inconsistent, balanced or unbalanced, or even complementary — but always conceptually separable such that they refer to two different things. Good or evil. Material or immaterial. Mind or matter. Spiritual or physical. Even male or female. As this article from the Jewish Virtual Library describes, many of…
Job, Healing and Elder Oaks
Elder Oaks General Conference talk on healing has ended up as one of the talks widely used for an alternate week priesthood and relief society lesson. I almost got derailed into posting about the Book of Job and neo-Calvinism (the rich get that way because of the grace of God rewarding them for their merit, the unlucky, poor and distressed get that way because of their sins — that is the message of everyone in the Book of Job who God repudiates at the end …) but Elder Oaks talk was what I originally planned to write about.
Mormon Therapist on Cutting Self
I first noticed signs of depression and anxiety when I was in Jr. High School. I am now happily married with two young children. With the help of counseling and medication, I am as stable and well adjusted as the next girl. My friends would never guess I had such a rough patch in my life. The scars in my heart have healed, but unfortunately, the ones on my arms have not.
Mormon Bishop Killed at Church
There was very sad news from Visalia, California on Sunday. A mentally ill man named Kenneth Ward walked into a church looking for a leader. Members pointed him to a Bishop Clay Sannar, father of 6. Ward shot Bishop Sanner, and then fled. A few minutes later, he called police, confessing to the crime. As police arrived, he opened fire. Police killed the assailant. It is a truly senseless act. More details can be found at the KSL website. Please pray for his family.
Mormon.org FAQ: Role of Husbands & Wives
We’ve explored some of the answers members have posted on the mormon.org site in the church’s new profiles campaign. So far, we’ve discussed member answers to questions about polygamy, women& the priesthood, and politics. Today, let’s see what members had to say about gender roles.
Unsolved Puzzle
A few years ago I wondered what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I wondered: is it ok if my testimony dwells down to, “I really don’t believe in all of this spiritual stuff, but from an organizational perspective, I believe that the church is great at moving and shaking…and it has moved and shaken me to be a better person”? I concluded that was not ok. A religion isn’t just a collection of practical life advice and a church isn’t just the hub to receive and practice such advice. It…
Book of Mormon Geophysics
When most people use their rational faculties to test their testimonies about their religious scriptures, they tend to concentrate on things like history, archeology, or textual development. A number of writers on this site and elsewhere in the bloggernacle have far more expertise in those areas than do I. So I have to take their arguments second-hand. Instead, I like to test my scriptural canon in the disciplines where I have my own professional training in college or experience on interdisciplinary teams later in life. So rather than argue about Mesoamerican artifacts, I like to look instead at Mesoamerican volcanoes.
What kind of “Mormon” are you?
TBM? NOM? Ex? Post? Orthoprax & Unorthodox? Deist? Liberal? Conservative? Orthodox? Fundamentalist? Faithful? I’m not sure what category, if any, I fit in. Sometimes I think categories are only useful or good for those who are doing the categorizing. I suppose this post should be titled, “Tell me what kind of Mormon you think I am.”
Favorite and Most Difficult Church Callings
What have been your favorite and most difficult Callings you’ve had at Church? In some cases, they may be one and the same, but likely, they are different.
Ok, time to speculate on gender essentialism
There are lots of ways to start this off. I could start with the more than forty sexes of slime molds (why stop at 4 or 5 gender types when you can have 47 sexes). Or I could start with race and culture differences and variety and how they relate to sexual differences. Or how about the differences between the terms gender and sex as the words were used in 1770, 1970, 1990 and 2010. Should I dredge up fetish behaviors and the animal companion marriage movement? And just what does it mean to be human? How much difference is…
Yom Kippur and the Symbolism of Jonah’s Spiritual Journey
OT SS Lesson #33 If your ward happens to be just a little bit behind on the Sunday School lessons, you might experience the synchronicity of having the Book of Jonah read on Yom Kippur. This year, the Jewish holiday falls on September 18 (close enough to Sunday the 19th!) and Jonah is traditionally read as part of the celebration. Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is the holiest and most widely observed day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of fasting, lengthy confession of sins, prayer, and repentance. Jonah’s prophecy is included in the liturgy for that…
Mormon Therapist on Internet Infidelity
I have been happily married for 7 years. I recently came across this anonymous chat website that lets you chat with a random stranger at the click of a button. It has become almost an addiction for me. I have problems making friends because of shyness, self-esteem issues but I am able to be freely and truly myself on this silly website. However, several of the best conversations I’ve had have been with men. I find it thrilling to know that they find me interesting and even sexy. The only one I’ve ever felt I could do this for is…
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