Christian
Father Forgive them…Not in Original Bible?
My wife gathered the family together to go over the 1st lesson of the new Home Study program earlier this week. (Note my previous post expressing mixed feelings about the 2 hours block cutting out half the lessons.) Anyway, for Christmas this year I got a copy of Thomas Wayment’s New Testament Study Bible for […]
Please Give Me Advice for a Calling I Don’t Want
After a few pleasantries, including how busy my life is, here’s the gist of a conversation with a counselor in the bishopric. Counselor: Brother, the reason why you are here is that we have prayed on our knees, and the bishop feels inspired to call you to be the building coordinator. Now you don’t have […]
Elder Oaks: Be One, Unless You’re Gay
I attended the “Be One” celebration last night at the Conference Center. It was truly an amazing service. I encourage you all to watch it. Gladys Knight, the Bonner Family, the Be One Choir, and all the performers were amazing. I got a little emotional as I listened to these wonderful black performers discuss the […]
A Couple of Interesting Sacrament Meetings
I’ve attended a couple of interesting Sacrament Meetings the past 2 weeks. In one, the bishop got up an asked a few rhetorical questions. “How would you react if the church suddenly asked for 20% tithing, rather than 10% tithing? What would be your reaction if the church suddenly said once/month home teaching isn’t good […]
Having “The Talk” with your Parents
If/when your parents sat you down to discuss the facts of life, it was probably pretty awkward. Turnabout is no fun either. I’m afraid that my siblings and I have to have an uncomfortable talk with my parents, and I am not looking forward to it at all. If you have any advice, I would […]
Drunk Driving in Utah
The National Highway Transportation Board (NTSB) is encouraging all states in the U.S. to change the threshold of drunk driving from .08 to .05. Back in 1983, Utah was the first state to drop the limit from .10 to .08, which became a nationwide federal mandate in 2000. The NTSB wants Utah to be first […]
Gays & the 2nd Article of Faith
There was an interview released last week where Paul Reeve admitted being the source behind the Race & Priesthood essay at LDS.org. While I think that was a nice scoop, there was another part of that interview that I think is very important and may have gotten lost in the headline. I have been very vocal […]
Mental Illness – Part 2
Back in 2010, I asked for advice on how to handle a mentally ill man that I was home teacher of. I called him Ted back then and will continue to use that pseudonym. Let me quote from that post because to be frank, he scared the hell out of me. So, I dropped by […]
Can the Nation Heal?
In 2015, a Vox article noted that it is now socially acceptable to discriminate based on political affiliation. Some excerpts: “Political identity is fair game for hatred”: how Republicans and Democrats discriminate The experiment was simple. Working with Dartmouth College political scientist Sean Westwood, Iyengar asked about 1,000 people to decide between the résumés of […]
A Different Take on the Samaritan Story
I want to subtitle this post: Defending the Priest and the Levite. Not long ago, we had a lesson in priesthood on the Good Samaritan. This is one of my favorite parables, but the lesson quickly devolved into the traditional platitudes. People began to point fingers at the “hypocritical” priest and the Levite walking past the […]
Mormon Heretic 