Mormon Bloggers

Modesty is very important to me.  My church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), has said this about modesty: Modesty is an attitude of propriety and decency in dress, grooming, language, and behavior. If we are modest, we do not draw undue attention to ourselves. Instead, we seek to “glorify God in [our] body, and in [our] spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:20; see also 1 Corinthians 6:19). Our clothing expresses who we are. It sends messages about us, and it influences the way we and others act. When we are well groomed and modestly dressed, we can invite the companionship of the Spirit and exercise a good influence on those around us. Central to the command to be modest is an understanding of the sacred power of procreation, the ability to bring children into the world. This power is to be used only between husband and wife. Revealing and sexually suggestive clothing, which includes short shorts and skirts, tight clothing, and shirts that do not cover the stomach,... Read the rest of this entry »

I taught my son’s Sunday School class this week. It was The Dreaded Fourteen And Fifteen Year-Old Class. And I survived. In fact, it was pretty cool. I was bishop to many of these kids when they were baptized; maybe that’s why they went easy on me. Of course we use the same manual and same scripture blocks in the youth classes as in Gospel Doctrine. I prepared but didn’t quite know what to expect. I probably over-prepared. (Ok, I certainly over prepared, but I was glad I did.) When I teach a youth class, I like to have lots of arrows in the quiver just in case I need them. The lesson this week was on Paul’s second missionary journey. We looked at the maps of his journeys, and we had the kids draw a world map on the board so we could talk about to what “world” the apostles were carrying the gospel. We reminded them of the story of Saul / Paul (and they loved playing dumb about it…). We then talked specifically about how Paul had to listen to the spirit to know... Read the rest of this entry »

My nephew is serving his mission in Arizona where several of my wife’s siblings (and therefore his aunts and uncles) live. He is presenting living and working close to all of them, and they see him on the street pretty often. He is, by all accounts, an outstanding missionary, and there’s no evidence that his occasional brushes with his extended family are distracting in any way. Reading recently of their sightings of said missionary made me think of the very few times I bumped into people I knew from home while I was on my mission. I served in Germany over three decades ago. When I went, I assumed I would be in a completely different world from friends and family I left behind. (My brother had served in Kentucky, and was never more than a day’s drive from our home his whole mission.) To my surprise I did see people I knew from before my mission a few times. The first was most startling. My companion and I were changing trains in Mainz, trying to make a quick connection to get... Read the rest of this entry »

For your own good, please go read Margaret Blair Young’s wonderful series on Mormon missionaries in Africa at Meridian Magazine. The fourth article in the four-part series is here. You can link the other tree from the fourth, and it’s well worth the trip.  Read More →

As you and I dig into our pockets to help people in disasters and crises, please keep these facts in mind: The American Red Cross President and CEO – Marsha J. Evans received a salary for the year 2010 of $651,957, plus all personal, medical and pension expenses. Less than 10 cents of your donated dollar actually goes to the cause. The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary, along with numerous personal and family expense benefits. Less than 12 cents of your donated dollar actually goes to the cause. UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1.2 Million per year (100k per month) plus all living and housing expenses, including a ROLLS ROYCE. Less than 15 cents of your donated dollar actually goes to the cause. The Salvation Army Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization. 96 cents of all donated dollars go to the cause. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day... Read the rest of this entry »

I took the day off work today because it’s my son’s birthday and some of our adult children are in town to help celebrate. So this morning my wife and I had the opportunity to make our bed together. (Usually we follow the “last one out” rule — the last one out of the bed makes it. On my work days, my wife is usually last one out, unless she can’t sleep. On sleep-in days, I am usually the last one out.) As we tugged at the sheet and bedspread to get them even, we laughed as we pulled them out of one another’s hands until they were finally aligned. It would have been just as easy to be annoyed at the other’s tugging, but we had a common goal, and we were well rested enough to laugh rather than scowl. A valuable lesson in marriage: common goals and a propensity to laugh rather than scowl can make all the difference.  Read More →

In a recent article in The National Catholic Weekly magazine, a writer brought up the great marketing the LDS church is doing in New York City.  His article highlights the Mormon.org billboards that are all over as well as on the taxis, etc.  and how great of a missionary tool it is.  Something he wrote about in his article stood out to me about his perspective on the traditional Mormon missionary strategy.  He writes: The ”I’m a Mormon” campaign, showcases video and print portraits of young, diverse and energetic Mormons — and steers clear of images of missionaries in white shirts and black pants or talk of theology – “Steering clear of images of missionaries in white shirts and black pants…” is the line that stood out to me. What is the image that most people who aren’t LDS think of when they see the Mormon missionaries knocking on doors like they have done the same way for probably close to 100 years now?  Is that still an... Read the rest of this entry »

Not only is poison ivy a pernicious weed, but it’s, well, poisonous. My most memorable experience with poison ivy came at a church service project when I was in grad school. The stake center I attended just outside Pittsburgh had been remodeled with a new addition, and members were helping with the landscaping. Part of that process was the clearing of a hillside of weeds and brush in preparation for planting of some ground cover. I worked without gloves, and, apparently, most of what I pulled were poison ivy vines. Within twenty four hours, the welts on my hands were red and itchy. I did the only thing I knew to do: I coated them with Calamine lotion, hoping to sooth the itching a bit. A doctor friend at church noticed my hands and phoned in a prescription for me for something that would reduce the swelling. It still took some time, but eventually the welts faded, the dryness and itchiness passed and my hands returned to normal. When I wrote about vines a couple of weeks ago,... Read the rest of this entry »

Elder Clayton Christensen, then an area authority seventy, taught us in a stake conference a few years ago that maxim that the church is not a resort for the perfect, but a hospital for sinners. He said if we didn’t smell tobacco in our sacrament meeting, then we probably weren’t working hard enough to reach out to others (either in missionary work or reactivation). King Benjamin taught a similar principle: our obedience to God’s commandments does not put him in our debt, ever. We are always in His debt; we are nothing; without the atonement, we are worthless (see Mosiah 4). In our zeal to protect our home and family from evil (which we should do), how do we hate sin and love sinners? How can we judge (being sinners ourselves)? Mosiah 4 speaks of sharing our substance with those in need; does that extent to our sharing our love with fellow sinners who are also seeking a path home? I believe it does. I remember when someone shared his love with me. I was a new Sunday School... Read the rest of this entry »

After spending a wonderful time out camping with our ward, I came online to check to see what was going … Continue reading »  Read More →

Blasphemy is defined as contemptuous speech concerning God, or concerning something that stands in a sacred relation toward God, such … Continue reading »  Read More →

Scott Gordon of FAIR, an apologetic corpus of scholars and melange of high-powered LDS lay contributors to accessible online content on “Mormon” beliefs, announced yesterday at the inception of its annual Conference, the creation of the Mormon Defense League. This League is intended to rally to the defense of false media claims and to civilly correct rampant misinformation about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while opening further doors to honest dialog with interested media and journalists worldwide. The time has come, increasingly in recent years, when the silent LDS majority will more directly defend longstanding mis-attributions to a Christian people of faith and re-shape and reclaim the conversation about “Mormons.” Mormons itself is a name coined by others and carried in the media. Members of the church prefer to be known as “Latter-day Saints.” FAIR and other online constituents and lay members are engaging in the... Read the rest of this entry »