Category: Life in the Church
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Quadrupling Fast Offerings
About a year or so ago our stake made a move to improve fast offering receipts. The bishop supported this and urged everyone to donate to fast offerings and, in addition to the general admonition, he reinstituted Aaronic priesthood collection of fast offerings after church.
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We Did It
We’ve finally read the entire Book of Mormon as a family, all of us (those that can read, anyway) taking turns verse by verse. It only took us four and a half years, and we’re ready to do it again.
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Natural Succession or the Prophetic Death Card?
Does God control who is Church President by ending life (using the “death card”)? Or does he control who is President by controlling the order in which Apostles are called? Of course, both can be true (or neither depending on your theological persuasion), but let’s examine these questions systematically.
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Could the Restoration have Happened Elsewhere and Elsewhen?
The common answer heard today in the Church is no. A variety of reasons are usually given:
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Making Money off the Mormons: Sacrament Butt-pads
When I was a senior in college, I worked at Seagull Book and Tape, an LDS book and trinket store across the street from the LA Temple. (The pay was lousy, but working with books was fun. So it turned out to be a decent job.) I was amazed by all the stuff that Mormons…
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Race, class, and retention
As a missionary, I was constantly admonished to ensure that our potential converts were spiritually, and not just socially converted.
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Primary Lesson Supplements 20-24
I’ve been distributing weekly lesson supplements to our senior Primary teachers; I figured I might as well post them here. “Those might be of some use,” as my four-year-old would say. You can also use these ideas for FHE, Sharing Time, etc.
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Growing Old
I was going to title this “growing older,” but I decided to be honest. I’ll be fifty-nine this year and, though I’m not yet decrepit, by most people’s measures I’ll officially be old next year.
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Tempted to Violate the Word of Wisdom
When we think of temptations related to the Word of Wisdom, we usually think of, you know, being tempted to violate the WoW. But I can think of a few different WoW-related temptations.
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“Well, yes, actually, there is.”
That’s not the answer you expect when you toss out the standard home/visiting teaching line asking if there is anything you can do to help your teachee.
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Salting the water
If you’ve had any cooking training, you almost certainly were told to salt the water in which you cook vegetables. It turns out that, objectively/scientifically, it doesn’t matter whether you do.
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Polygamy
A comment from my introduction: #2 I hope you feel inspired to blog on your unique perspective on polygamy. That would be fascinating, I think.
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A Primary Primer
I haven’t been in Primary very long, but it has been long enough to notice this: most adults could benefit from a few simple ideas that will make them much, much better at teaching a group of children.
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Correlation Gone Mad!
BCC is hosting an all-star panel of academics on questions relating to correlation. Talking about correlation reminds me of a time from our history when doctrinal correlation efforts were incredibly restrictive.
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Jews and Mormons
In some way, Jews and Mormons seem to be kin culturally, whatever the doctrine about our kinship.
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An Open Letter to BYU Students
On Tuesday, gay rights activists will, according to news reports, hold a rally on or near the BYU campus. How might you respond to this?
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Hidden Treasures
I just finished reading Mormon Lives: A Year in the Elkton Ward and–wow–what an amazing book. It reminds me of Saints Well Seasoned: Musings on How Food Nourishes Us–Body Heart, and Soul. Not only were both books quirky little takes on Mormonism, but neither seems to be very well known. What LDS titles do you…
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I am now officially not young
It happened not long ago. I started getting emails from something called the Cambridge Stake MSA. As is my habit with all mass mailings, I deleted the first few without reading them, but after a while I noticed them and realized that I didn’t know what MSA stood for. Turns out MSA is the “Middle…
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An Easter Activity for Family Home Evening
I can’t take credit for this idea–these are sometimes called Resurrection Eggs and they’ve been around for a few years.
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Worthless dating advice
The October 2004 New Era was a special issue dedicated to marriage and dating. As a member of a singles ward, I was encouraged to read the issue, so I did. Frankly, it was to me more a source of hilarity than inspiration– probably at least in part because I was almost twice the age…
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Prophecy vs. History
Not too long ago, I stumbled across the PBS presentation of Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel (2d ed. 1999). It reminded me of dealing with the book at college and enjoying the ideas presented and the sweeping take of world history that it offered. But while watching the presentation and contemplating the message…
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What If President Hinckley Says This Next Month…
“…brothers and sisters, there is another matter of which I’d like to mention before we close this glorious conference. We live in a new age. A time where information surrounds us. The internet has grown to be a regular part of many people’s lives. Email makes it easier to communicate… but I’m not going to…
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The Principle of Non-Distraction
A short while ago a recently reactivated member of our ward sang a solo for the musical number in Sacrament Meeting. You must understand that the man is a professional vocalist who has sung with Michael Jackson among others. The song he sang was absolutely gorgeous… but it wasn’t something you often (or ever) hear…
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A Modest Bit of Navel Gazing…
I try (or at least I think that I try) to avoid posting on the bloggernacle as bloggernancle.