Mormon Bloggers

The idea for this post comes from “Things Of My Soul”. On February 18th, 2011, Papa D discussed the issue of bearing one’s testimony at an LDS service. The question he addressed was “how can one KNOW that there is a God, the Church is true”, etc. He referred to a previous essay by Elder Boyd K. Packer in which Elder Packer spoke of testimonies being strengthened by the sharing of them, and criticized those who misrepresented that counsel to mean “Fake it until you make it”. One of the people who derided Elder Packer’s counsel, and the original author of the “Fake it until you make it” canard, is Infymus, who runs the anti-Mormon Mormon Curtain website. In this March 6th, 2005 post entitled “Boyd K. Packer Advocates Bearing False Witness”, Infymus cherry-picks Elder Packer’s phrase “A testimony is found in the bearing of it”, removes it from context, and tries to use it to claim the Elder Packer is... Read the rest of this entry »

After reviewing one of my previous essays, a thoughtful reader asked my opinion about the idea of perfection and if the requirements for salvation had changed.  He said, “Open just about any page of the book of Leviticus and you’ll see laws that were of life and death importance to the early church, but not today. In contrast, there is no mention of baptism or confirmation in the Old Testament as a requirement for salvation, yet today, they are taught as essential.” He also asked about the need for the Word of Wisdom, temple ordinances, plural marriage and the second anointing. He concluded, “If God is eternal, and heaven doesn’t change, shouldn’t the requirements to get into heaven be the same, no matter when you were born or what culture you lived in?” Although his email was private, great questions like these deserve a response that can be shared in my blog so others who might be interested can benefit from the dialog. Perfection means completed The savior... Read the rest of this entry »

“They Straightway Left Their Nets” – Historical Context Gospel Doctrine Class – New Testament, Lesson #6 Luke 4:14-32; 5; 6:12-16; Matthew 10 The purpose of this week’s study is to help individuals understand that the Apostles were called to be special witnesses of Jesus Christ. Because Apostles are divinely called of Christ, we are blessed [...]  Read More →

    God Is Your Loving Heavenly Father God is your Father in Heaven. He knows you personally and loves you more than you can comprehend. He wants you to be happy in this life and in eternity. To accomplish this purpose, Heavenly Father provided a plan called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ [...]  Read More →

In various work environments have established safety policies and procedures. In my former place of employment, an employee had to be cognizant of his/her surrounding areas. If something went wrong, there are specific Lock Out Tag and Try procedures that must be performed in order to safely work on the machine, remove any fiberboard that [...]  Read More →

The father looks up wistfully from his reading; another argument and another angry outburst of frustration. It had been only a couple of years yesterday when his youngest son announced that he and his young family had left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And when his son came to visit with his [...]  Read More →

All my life in the church I have heard the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are held out as motivating ideas that are intended to help us resist the pull and attraction of worldly pleasures.  In this short essay, I would like to consider just one of those promises and the power for good that it should have in our lives. Of course, the attraction of promises pre-supposes that you are the kind of person that is motivated by the “moving-toward” model.  If you’re not familiar with the idea, it comes from the book Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins.  He states, “All human behavior revolves around the urge to gain pleasure or avoid pain.” Tony’s shorthand for this is “pain or gain.”  Which one drives you?  Of course the concept is not original with Tony but he made it a focus of his seminars and books.  The idea has been around forever and stated in different ways by various thinkers.  The process is not absolute.  We move toward some things and away from... Read the rest of this entry »

The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She went for a walk in the forest. Pretty soon, she came upon a house. She knocked and, when no one answered, she walked right in. At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry. She tasted the porridge from the first bowl. “This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed. So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl. “This porridge is too cold,” she said So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge. “Ahhh, this porridge is just right,” she said happily and she ate it all up. After she’d eaten the three bears’ breakfasts she decided she was feeling a little tired. So, she walked into the living room where she saw three chairs. Goldilocks sat in the first chair to rest her feet. “This chair is too big!” she exclaimed. So she sat in the second chair. “This chair is too big, too!”... Read the rest of this entry »

Particular doctrines, specific beliefs, and sacred rites of passages of most religions set forth, in what James Talmage refers to as, “formulated creeds” (Talmage, 1976). One of the very first of these creeds ever to have established did not come out of the First Century of the Common Era but came out of the third [...]  Read More →

Did you know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a prison ministry? The details are put forth in a paper entitled “Providing Support for Those in Correctional Facilities”. Also referenced is the most current version of the Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 1, which is not distributed to the general public or available online (the 1998 version is available HERE). Based on the resources available, the stake president determines the support that is to be provided to those who are incarcerated at correctional facilities within the boundaries of the stake. He also supervises the support, assisted by other local priesthood leaders. If the stake needs help providing service to correctional facilities within its boundaries, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy or Area Presidency may assign one or more nearby stakes to assist and to serve as the agent stake to the facility. Members called to serve may come from outside the agent stake boundaries with the... Read the rest of this entry »

Timothy Plumlee, an Associate Content Contributor, had written an article that makes a very weak attempt at discrediting the LDS Church. While you can still read my response to him at my AC page, the conversations are a bit entertaining, especially coming from him. I have pulled my comments and his comments together to share [...]  Read More →

A slow personal recap of a couple of impressions from Saturday Morning Session. It is a privilege to follow these live from very far geographically.  Read More →