Mormon Bloggers

Yesterday at a work event I had a dessert that had been cooked with liquor.  My boss who was with me, knowing I was Mormon, asked if that was o.k. that I was eating that.  I hadn’t even thought about it being an issue and told him from what I could tell the alcohol was cooked out.  I guess from living in Europe where many dishes are prepared with alcohol I had become accustomed to eating food that had been cooked with alcohol. The interesting thing was that this morning I received an email from the LDS Living magazine that had a poll asking the two questions to LDS readers: 1. Do you use alcohol in cooking? 2. How do you feel about cooking with alcohol?  The question had been answered by close to 5,000 people.  Nearly 1/2 of the LDS population that took the poll said they cook with alcohol and 75% of Mormons felt either neutral or positive about cooking with alcohol. If you’re not a Mormon this is probably pretty trivial, but if you’re a Mormon where do you fall... 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 »

I wanted to digress more into this when writing the science/religion post, so I decided to do a post on it,  a short one. Because it doesn’t really require that much room to say, that I don’t see that Orthodoxy is such a big deal for Mormons at all. For some, but certainly when I [...]  Read More →

~by Michelle A short answer about what Mormons do to bring in the new year is that, like many other people, we’ll throw or attend parties, or have family gatherings. Youth will sometimes have organized Church activities to be together in a wholesome environment. Some people will stay home and watch the New York ball “drop.” In my family of origin, watching football games is pretty much a given on New Year’s Day. Mormon New Year’s Eve parties and gatherings may be a little different than some, though, because we don’t drink alcohol. You can read Jenny’s response to this question from last year’s Ask a Mormon Woman post here. LDSSplash shares some New Year’s tradition ideas. What about New Year’s resolutions? Mormons are like others and will often set goals at the beginning of a new year, although the concept of goal-setting and improving oneself are really just part of Mormon doctrine to implement all year. Looking for tips... Read the rest of this entry »

This simple question follows me throughout the year. At every doctor appointment the doctor and I have this conversation- Doctor: “I see in your paperwork that you don’t drink alcohol.” Me: “That’s right.” Doctor: “Not even a little on New Year’s?” Me (smiling): “No, not even a little on New Year’s.” Doctor (sternly): “Really?” Me (sternly): “Really!” You may remember from previous posts on Mormon Women that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a health code referred to as “The Word of Wisdom.” One of the admonitions in this health code is abstaining from alcohol and other strong drinks (even on New Year’s!). This may lead some to think that we don’t celebrate New Year’s or that our celebrations are boring. But that’s just not true! Similar to our Christmas celebrations that we posted about two weeks ago, the church is worldwide and full of a variety of people so our celebrations vary too. (I find it hard to... Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me, you get a bit of sass now and again from people who mock the LDS Word of Wisdom. In recent years, one favorite thing for this crowd to bring up are the supposed health benefits to be found in moderate drinking. You know what I mean: research shows cardiovascular health benefits from a glass of wine a day, so on and so forth. I’ve always been suspicious of this research. (This comes of years teaching statistics and research design.) Nobody seemed to be asking two questions: (1) but what is the downside of moderate drinking? and, (2) could you get those benefits some other way? Well, now someone has been asking those question, and the answers aren’t too favorable for the moderate drinking crowd. In an article featured today on Yahoo!, dating from a Sunday feature on HealthDay, we read that there are some nasty little problems with moderate drinking: Drinking any alcohol at all is known to increase your risk for contracting a number of types of cancer,... Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me, you get a bit of sass now and again from people who mock the LDS Word of Wisdom. In recent years, one favorite thing for this crowd to bring up are the supposed health benefits to be found in moderate drinking. You know what I mean: research shows cardiovascular health benefits from a glass of wine a day, so on and so forth. I’ve always been suspicious of this research. (This comes of years teaching statistics and research design.) Nobody seemed to be asking two questions: (1) but what is the downside of moderate drinking? and, (2) could you get those benefits some other way? Well, now someone has been asking those question, and the answers aren’t too favorable for the moderate drinking crowd. In an article featured today on Yahoo!, dating from a Sunday feature on HealthDay, we read that there are some nasty little problems with moderate drinking: Drinking any alcohol at all is known to increase your risk for contracting a number of types of cancer,... Read the rest of this entry »