In the last few days, a story has begun to circulate widely among many LDS members, which claims to be the testimony of an assistant matron at the Los Angeles California Temple. Here is the story, as it has been publicized by e-mail and blogs: Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008, 6:16 PM My dear family, brothers and sisters, friends and leaders:
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Deconstructing the Book of Mormon — the four things to never do
The Book of Mormon states: 2 Nephi 27:31 For assuredly as the Lord liveth they shall see that the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed,and all that watch for iniquity are cut off; In context, there are four things you should never do, and this scripture is at the heart of a warning.
Mormonism and the State of Nature
Today’s post is by Andrew C. As a registered Democrat and a political junkie, it’s difficult for me not to notice politics at church. I’m often surprised by the positions and policies that people often take for granted, without much independent thought of their own. Of course, I find that I tend to be reflexively liberal too if discussing a topic I haven’t given much thought to. Why is that? Why do we tend to gravitate to one party, or one ideology, or the other? Most political philosophers begin their treatises exploring the state of nature – that is,...
Excommunication: Shame or Fame?
We’ve all seen the headlines: Excommunicated: LDS Church boots creator of ‘Men on a Mission’ calendar Local gay Mormon faces excommunication LDS author facing excommunication Note: The links are all active Where do these headlines come from? The Church or the individuals themselves?
Dealing with feelings of betrayal — when your spouse apostatizes
I end up talking with people on this theme several times a year. There are people who feel terribly betrayed. Especially when a spouse leaves the gospel. Apostatizes.
Offenders for a Word, Part 2 – Do Mormons Worship Jesus?
In my last post I wrote about how we are all forced to take a thought and translate it into words and that this is a sloppy and imperfect process. To make matters worse, the person that has to take those words and decode them back into a thought will fail to do so correctly in many cases because they’ll get stuck on the words used, either because they don’t realize words have many meanings or because they have incentive to misunderstand. In this post, I want to apply what we’ve discussed to a real life situation: Bruce R....
An Hour of Peace and Rest
I usually enjoy going to church. I look forward to it, despite talks that are occasionally less-than-dazzling, overly-perfumed women in the pew in front of me, and the family in the third row that refuses to take their baby out, even when she screams during the sacrament. There’s one pet peeve, though, that irritates me every week. Drives me crazy. Every week without fail. The noise level in the chapel before the meeting starts. Sometimes I feel more like I’m at a football game than at church.
Offenders for a Word – Part 1 – Is Jesus God?
I love words – I love to read, write, talk – but I think words leave out almost everything. That frustrat… feeling that what we can share with other people is so much more limited than what we actually experience… (link)– Jaron Lanier Oh, Lord, deliver us in due time from the little, narrow prison, almost as it were, total darkness of paper, pen, and ink; – and a crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language. — Joseph Smith (History of the Church 1:299) I’ve thought a lot about the confines of language in the last several years. Having...
God’s Hit List in the Book of Mormon
One of the most unseemly and disturbing images in the Book of Mormon is when Nephi is commanded to cut the head off of Laban who lies drunken at his feet. So, what did Laban do to get on God’s hit list? Did he deserve it? Was it necessary? And how did some of the other deserving baddies (such as Laman & Lemuel) escape with their heads intact?
The Sun Never Sets on the Mormon Empire: Cultural Colonialism
I was talking with a French colleague at dinner about the differences between European politics and American politics, and he made a statement that left an impression. European politics are colored by their colonialist histories and how to balance a preservation of their culture while dealing with the other cultures they have essentially subordinated over time. For example, he mentioned the Muslims in France who demanded equal consideration of their separate cultural preferences in the very strict and isolationist French culture. The French people are very concerned with preserving their culture, values, and language (even governing the number of...
A Non-Member Kirtland Experience
I recently read an interesting post by a non-member couple and their visit to Kirtland. IMO, their contrast of the Kirtland temple (Community of Christ) tour guides and the missionaries at the LDS-owned sites was cringe-worthy and brings up a few questions about how we as church members respond to (non-investigative) questions.