A recent visit at FMH and John Dehlin’s Mormon Stories interview with fmhLisa (Butterworth) has made me realise something about myself that I am not very proud of. Therefore, in the spirit of a post I wrote for another blog, I want to confess something. I am sexist. Continue reading…
Bishop Bill with a situation that happens to probably every bishop. Read on. Continue reading…
Bishop Bill again, folks. Now for one that has nothing to do with the ward. Continue reading…
I listened recently to a Mormon Expression podcast with John Dehlin, in which he comments upon the difficult position the Church leaders face. He observes that their are times when they make particular decisions based upon a legalistic-bureaucratic framework that sometimes seem incomprehensible, even unchristian but that these decision are understandable. I would like to ask this question: Is there an alternative? Continue reading…
OK, Bishop Bill here again with a really difficult situation. Continue reading…
There are those among the disaffected who would like to reap the benefits of the church as a community although they may no longer share the belief system that is the foundation of the church. For some, this works very well; for others, it’s an endless source of frustration. I recently read a great book called Connected: The Power of Social Networks that described how social networks work. As a result, I have drawn up 7 Rules (tips, really) for making church work as a social network. Continue reading…
Last month, one of the RS/PH lessons was about the nature of God. Since the lesson was only about a page and a half long, the discussion in RS ended up raising the question whether God is still progressing or whether, being God He has arrived and is no longer progressing. Read and and share your views. Continue reading…
Bishop Bill back with more. We’ve had fictionalized situations in the last two installments with a YW and a YM. Now, let’s have a situation with an adult. Continue reading…
Bishop Bill back with your next installment of “You’re the Bishop.” Just to be clear, the examples I am using have been changed enough that not even my wife or former counselors in the bishopric would recognize who I am talking about. Continue reading…
Some time ago, as a guest I wrote a post entitled ‘Academic freedom in the Church‘ which tried to explore some of liberalizing tendencies seen in LDS culture since the September Six, but particularly over the last decade. Having recently read an excellent (as usual) article by D. Michael Quinn on the development of the ‘Sacral Power Structure‘ of Mormonism, I wanted to re-visit this issue as a result of some of the reasons he gives for the increasing authoritarianism and conservatism in the Church. Quinn argues that the expansive growth of the Church during the 1950-1970’s led the hierarchy to emphasize an ‘unquestioning rank-and-file obedience to Church directives’ which is rooted in the ‘inherent fear of centrifugal tendencies of enormous Church growth’[1]. Continue reading…
While there are moral truths that all religions tend to share (don’t kill, don’t steal, be nice to people, etc.), religions also include “bizarre” differentiators to distinguish each religious community (often in food prohibitions, clothing choices, or supernatural beliefs). These “bizarre” elements hedge up the community and create borders between the religious group and those not in the religion. Without these “fences,” a church would cease to be a community. But a negative byproduct of these “bizarre” elements is that they are indefensible on grounds of logic or “truth.” So, what elements of Mormonism are “true” and which ones are merely “bizarre”? Continue reading…
Welcome to “You’re the Bishop,” a new installment at Mormon Matters. My name is Bishop Bill. Once every few weeks I’ll post a situation that I had while I was bishop, and let you decide how to handle it. Everybody gets to play, even the ladies out there. After a week, I’ll add a comment with what I did in the situation, and how it turned out. Let’s play! Continue reading…
Exit stories are the tales told when someone leaves the church. The internet is full of these stories, and in many, there is drama in the family as a result of the person’s decision to leave. Often the person attributes at least some of that family drama to the church itself as an organization. Yet, it is also true that there have been people who have left the church without family drama or disagreeable behaviors. So, is the church environment complicit in fostering “bad” behaviors or is it the families themselves who are prone to these behaviors? Or both? Continue reading…
Some time ago I spoke to someone I knew about a Patriarchal blessing they had received which seemed to have failed to come to pass. We discussed it at some length and I then asked them if I could have some time to think about the issue more. I tried to find reasons to explain the failure and then we discussed each one according to their circumstances, but I raised all as possibilities. I admit that I was trying to be both comforting and honest, which in this situation was not easy. The possible reasons I gave the person, as I wrote them down and initially sent them, are below: Continue reading…
In the church, we learn how to be good followers. There are many things we are told to follow: the prophet, good examples, our parents’ instructions, the gospel, the brethren, the Spirit, and the dictates of our own conscience. We are told, on the one hand, NOT to follow the world or the crowd. But we are told to surround ourselves with good people and follow their good examples. So, what do you follow when you sense a conflict between two of these? Continue reading…
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