Tag Archive for ‘faith’ at Mormon Matters

Tag Archive for 'faith'

This Won’t Make It Past Correlation!

Published

on October 8, 2008

in General Authorities, God, Jesus, LDS, Leaders, Mormon, Mormons, apostasy, babies and bathwater, christ, church, curiosity, doubt, education, faith, liberal, orthodox, prayer, questioning, religion, spirituality, testimony and thought

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my new series where I provide you, the reader, with an excerpt from an LDS church manual, uncited, which I LIKE. That means no Journal of Discourses nonsense like blood atonement, racism, or Adam-God for starters. (Sorry to disappoint some of our readers with that caveat).

You can guess if you want, such things as the author (the Church used to have individual authors stand behind their words), the title, the era, or which church program the lesson was used in. But that’s all trivia, really, compared to this: You get to list ALL THE MANY REASONS why the excerpt I give you wouldn’t make it past the Correlation Committee today!

Here’s our first one:
Young people sometimes doubt the truth of the Gospel or some part of it, and feeling the worthy desire to be sincere, they cease to be active in the Church. Continue reading…

39 Comments

The Book of Mormon: A 20th Century Text

Published

John Nilsson

on September 23, 2008

in General Authorities, LDS, Leaders, Mormon, President Monson, book of mormon, church, doubt, faith, historicity, history, scripture and smith

There are many positions on which century the Book of Mormon originated in, but most seem to fall into two general camps: the book was largely produced in the fifth century by Moroni, or in the nineteenth century by Joseph Smith.

There is a third view: the text was largely produced in the 20^th century by committees of LDS Church employees.

15 Comments

How Active Are You? How Orthodox Are You? A Self-Assessment

Published

John Nilsson

on September 4, 2008

in General Authorities, God, Jesus, LDS, Mormon, Mormons, Priesthood, Sermon on the Mount, Word of Wisdom, book of mormon, christ, christianity, church, curiosity, doubt, eternity, faith, historicity, joseph, liberal, new order mormon, obedience, orthodox, prophets, religion, repentance, restoration, sacrament meeting, salvation, scripture, smith, temple, testimony and theology

Take this assessment and find out:

(Taken from D. Jeff Burton’s For Those Who Wonder : forthosewhowonder.com. Similar to a Correlation Department survey on Religion and Life conducted among LDS Church members in the mid-1980s)

Section I: Measures of Participation and Activity in Standard Church Programs

1. How often do you attend the temple? Continue reading…

65 Comments

Analogies of Belief: Expecting the Polar Express

Published

John Nilsson

on July 16, 2008

in God, Jesus, Mormon, christ, doubt, faith, religion, testimony and thought

What does it mean to say you believe something or “believe in” something? Would a child say they believe in Santa Claus? Or would they simply act and react to situations as if Santa Claus existed? That is, if their parents took them on the Polar Express would they expect to meet Santa Claus tucked away in a cozy brick house at the North Pole checking his naughty/nice list and getting fist-bumps from Mrs. Claus before he gave rousing speeches to the elves?

Is belief as expectation the best way to understand religious belief in general?

19 Comments

Our Foundation Stories Part II: The Meaning of the First Vision

Published

John Nilsson

on June 4, 2008

in Jesus, LDS, Mormon, christ, christianity, church, faith, history, joseph, mormon, new order mormon, orthodox, prophets, religion, restoration, scripture, smith, testimony and theology

Now that we’ve discussed the nature of the First Vision, what did it mean?

There are many meanings, the most vital being those which each person can discover for herself or himself. Here are those we are most familiar with, because they have been written and spoken about at length in the official media of the institutional LDS Church:

25 Comments

Our Foundation Stories Part I: The First Vision or the First Visit?

Published

John Nilsson

on May 27, 2008

in Devil, Jesus, LDS, Mormon, faith, history, joseph, liberal, new order mormon, orthodox, questioning, religion, testimony and theology

Do you believe that God the Father, the Son, and maybe even the Holy Ghost visited Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820?

Or did Joseph have a vision of them?

Does the difference matter? Do you base your testimony, your faith in the existence of God, your continued participation in Mormonism, on a visit of Deity to a young farmboy?

66 Comments

People Who Helped Me Stay Mormon Part II: Roger Keller

Published

John Nilsson

on May 21, 2008

in BYU, LDS, Mormon, church, curiosity, doubt, faith, inter-faith, questioning, religion, testimony and theology

There are BYU professors, and there are BYU professors. Brother Keller is in a class by himself. His life story alone fascinates me. Converted to the church as a young adult, Continue reading…

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People Who Helped Me Stay Mormon Part I: Jeff Burton

Published

John Nilsson

on May 15, 2008

in BYU, Jesus, Mormon, christianity, church, curiosity, doubt, faith, historicity, joseph, missionary, new order mormon, orthodox, questioning, religion, restoration, surviving, testimony and thought

Before John Dehlin, there was Jeff Burton. Continue reading…

34 Comments

Liberal Mormonism II: Why I am a Liberal Mormon

Published

John Nilsson

on March 31, 2008

in Mormon

I was raised in a household of faith. My parents are believers who encouraged discussion of religion in their home. I’ve asked around and found that this isn’t the case in many LDS homes. My parents asked what we children learned in Primary and Sunday School and then what we thought about it!

YouTube: Play Now | Play in Popup | Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

40 Comments

Liberal Mormonism I: Diagnosis

Published

John Nilsson

on March 24, 2008

in Mormon and curiosity

Let me be clear about a few things. First, I have been diagnosed as a liberal Mormon. Second, liberal Mormonism has been discussed before in the Bloggernacle, with one site devoted entirely to it. Third, I’m not talking about politics. Finally, this means some Mormons have problems with me. Continue reading…

YouTube: Play Now | Play in Popup | Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

54 Comments

The Mark E. Peterson Talk on Race — And the Possible Implications on Mormon Women and Homosexuals Today

Published

John Dehlin

on February 9, 2008

in LDS, Mormon, history, homosexuality, prophets, race, racism and women

“The fish doesn’t stop much to contemplate the water she’s in — until it’s gone, of course.”

I must begin by warmly thanking BCC for providing the full text to LDS Apostle, Prophet, Seer and Revelator Mark E. Peterson’s 1954 talk on race. I have often heard quoted the final part of the speech, but I haven’t read the full text of this talk since my mission. As Julie M. Smith said, “That Peterson talk is something else.” I’d have to agree.

There are several parts of this talk that are astounding to me….but I’ll just offer a few here. As you read these quotes, I’ll ask you to pay careful attention to the scripture, LDS General Authority quotes, and logic employed to justify these bigoted assertions:

LDS Apostle Mark E. Peterson on Black Motives Behind the Civil Rights Struggle:

“From this and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that, we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that they used to say about sin, “First we pity, then endure, then embrace.”

25 Comments

Robert Millet & Krista Tippet Pt. 3: Robert Millet as a Budding “Sunstone” or “New Order” Mormon

Published

John Dehlin

on February 4, 2008

in LDS, Mormons, faith, history, millet, mormon and theology

As I’m sure you’ve discovered by now — my takeaways from this interview between Krista Tippet and LDS Theologian and BYU Religion Professor Robert Millet say much more about me than they do Brother Millet.

That said — in part 3 of this series, I’m going to make my argument that within this interview, we can see yet further signs that both Robert Millet, and the LDS Church, are becoming more and more open/liberal/progressive/tolerant in their willingness to allow for a “Sunstone” or even a “New Order Mormon“-like perspective when it comes to an LDS belief/testimony.

Here are the signs and tea leaves I’ve identified in my own personal Mormonism Rorscharch test…. Continue reading…

96 Comments

Reconstruction Part 1: Like a Wave, Driven and Tossed

Published

Clay Whipkey

on February 1, 2008

in Mormon, apologetics, doubt, faith, questioning, tesimony and thought

Not so long ago I thought I knew certain things were true and wavering was a self-inflicted condition. I also really thought I was an independent thinker who had chosen to be a conservative Republican, and to believe that homosexuality was an illness, and that the priesthood ban was imposed by God for some reason we just couldn’t understand, and that polygamy was a holy practice when it was sanctioned, and that church leaders past and present were inspired in all things and represented the will of the Lord. I thought I chose those positions because they were simply the right, or true, things and I felt that it was of paramount importance to be right with God.

Something changed. Continue reading…

25 Comments