General Conference is just around the corner. Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women website is promoting the idea that women should be ordained to the priesthood, and has organized a campaign to try to get admitted to the males-only General Priesthood Session this coming Saturday night in Salt Lake City. While some women wouldn’t mind being ordained, not everyone agrees that this is a good tactic. The Deseret News has recently published a Pew Research Study stating that 90% of LDS women do not support female ordination. Grant Hardy writes about the gender gap on the issue: nearly 50% of LDS men support female ordination. Continue Reading »
BYU Linebacker Suspended for Big Game
We are just hours away from the big BYU-Utah football game, and starting linebacker Spencer Hadley will not be playing today. Will it affect the outcome of the game? Who knows, but surely it isn’t a good sign for BYU. Hadley was allegedly photographed while clubbing in Las Vegas, which at a minimum is a BYU Honor Code violation, but could potentially be an NCAA violation as well. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that by a Utah fan sent the photo to the Utah Compliance office, who then forwarded it to BYU. So far it sounds like a 5 game suspension is being handed down by BYU.
Let’s assume that no NCAA violations occurred. What’s your opinion on the matter? Will BYU blame it on Hadley (or the Utah fan) if they lose?
What Should be the LDS Church position on Syria?
Tony Gentile / Reuters
Pope Francis attends a prayer calling for peace in Syria, in Saint Peter’s square at the Vatican, Sept. 7, 2013.A somber-looking Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal before 100,000 people on Saturday to avert a widening of Syria’s conflict, urging world leaders to pull humanity out of a “spiral of sorrow and death.”
Francis, who two days ago branded a military solution in Syria “a futile pursuit,” led the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in a global day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East and the world.
“Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!” Francis said at the midpoint of a five-hour prayer service. Police and the Vatican estimated a crowd of about 100,000 in St Peter’s Square.
FireTag, You are greatly Missed!
FireTag (aka Darryl Holliday) is on the left with a friend. The photo is from November 2010.
This morning around 9 AM, I received some terrible news. My good blogging friend FireTag (known to his family as Darryl Holliday) passed away Wednesday night following an illness due to diabetes related complications. I first became acquainted with him over at Mormon Matters where I learned he was a member of the Community of Christ (aka RLDS Church.) We both enjoyed talking about Book of Mormon geography theories. He had a different sense of humor, and I remember that our first encounter was a little awkward. However, we soon became friends and blogging buddies. Continue Reading »
Modernizing the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
I’ve been reviewing The Challenge of Honesty which was released Sept 1. (You might want to check out my first post, or second post on the book.) Frances Lee Menlove relates the following.
Today I am going to tell you a story. This is a Jesus story, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, which Jesus told to some people who trusted their own righteousness and regarded others with contempt.
I’m a grandmother, and I’ve learned that stories are not only important but can be adjusted to meet the occasion. One of my grandson’s favorites is “The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.”
I will first tell the parable as it appears in the Gospel of Luke and then take some liberties with it. I’m allowed to do this because I’m a grandmother.
Is Excommunication Useful?
Denver Snuffer
Denver Snuffer is the latest Mormon author to face disciplinary action from the Church. He posted his disciplinary letter on his blog; his disciplinary meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Aug 31. In case you are not familiar with Snuffer, he is a lawyer here in Sandy, Utah, and has published about 12 books, most notable among these are: The Second Comforter: Conversing with the Lord Through the Veil, and the book that’s getting him in hot water: Passing the Heavenly Gift. I’ve purchased the first, but have only read a few pages. Now I really want to see what is so subversive in the second. Continue Reading »
Growing up Uncorrelated
This is my second post on The Challenge of Honesty due to be released Sept 1. (You might want to check out my previous post.) Frances Lee Menlove tells about growing up before correlation existed.
The Correlation Committee was started in 1961 and, in the words of John-Charles Duffy, “encompasses a philosophy–one might even say, a theology–of Church governance, in which LDS doctrines about priesthood and prophetic authority are synthesized with strategies for organizational efficiency drawn from the world of business. This philosophy sets a premium on strong central authority, uniform procedures, and unified discourse. … One of correlation’s several objectives is to preserve purity of doctrine in Church discourse, which is to say that correlation acts as a mechanism to police and promote orthodoxy.”2 Continue Reading »
The Challenge of Honesty
This will be the first of a series of posts on The Challenge of Honesty due to be released Sept 1. Signature Books and Frances Lee Menlove (edited by Dan Wotherspoon) have put out this wonderful book, I really enjoyed reading it. The book is a series of essays given by Frances over the past (almost) forty years. Her first essay has the same title as the book, and was written in the inaugural issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. (Menlove is one of the founding members of Dialogue, and a frequent contributor to Sunstone.) She is a psychologist and chaplain from Oregon. In her first essay, she talks about self deception. From page 6, Continue Reading »
Mormon Doctrine: Face Cards
I’ve never been much of a gambler; my dad loves to play Solitaire (with real or computer cards), and it was a fun game. We were taught that gambling was bad, and growing up thought it was a sin. We played Uno, Crazy-Eights, and many card games with or without face cards. With the Wheatmeister poll this weekend, it reminded me that a few months ago, my wife was concerned that my dad taught my son how to play Solitaire with face cards. My reaction was “Are you serious? This is a problem?” Continue Reading »
Global Warming as a Religion
Al Gore
I just finished SuperFreakonomics, the sequel to Freakonomics. It’s an entertaining book that I highly recommend. In chapter 5, they discussed whether global warming is even a threat, and took on both conservatives and environmentalists.
the movement to stop global warming has taken on the feel of a religion. Continue Reading »
Mormon Heretic 