- Opa on My Experience Fasting For a Week: “One needs to be careful with longer fasts. There is some indication that after the normal clean up of cells through fasting (autophagy), the heart muscle itself can be affected and lose some of its own muscle.” Sep 24, 07:03
- on Mental Illness at Church: “Thank you for sharing such poignant thoughts. My daughter is about to get diagnosed with either bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder (or possibly both), so much of what you have written has been on my mind lately. It’s such a hard road for both the person with the illness and their loved ones.” Sep 23, 09:46
- on Mental Illness at Church: “My son has been under treatment for schizoaffective disorder for several years, but in the last few years has had several times when he paused medication and ended up hospitalized. As he was on his way into one of the breakdowns, he was offended by the content of a blessing a missionary offered to give him, and he decided to resign from the church. Getting accepted back for baptism seems to be a long road, and one of the challenges in it is that he believes that it will lead to the gift of being healed and being himself again.” Sep 22, 15:00
- on Childless Church Members and the LDS Fertility Advantage: “Infertile person here. I appreciate what you are trying to do here, especially focusing on data, but overall I hate the conversation. Because it comes from a premise that having children is the correct default. Until that default is eliminated it is not possible to have a reasonable conversation on the matter because all it does is spawn judgements of those who deviate from it” Sep 22, 12:11
- on Missionary Numbers are Peaking and Will Start to Decline: “This sounds about right to me. Maybe I’m a little more optimistic about the Global South filling some of the gap, but I’m a little more pessimistic about our retention rate. The next question is what this will do to convert baptisms. If they do decrease, I expect it will be by a good bit less (proportionally) than the missionary numbers. Church media and members will continue to drive referrals, and the missionaries will spend less time finding and more time teaching, which is all to the good. And yes, demographics are starting to affect universities up the scale. At the state flagship where I work, most of us had smugly assumed we could always get as many students as we wanted. So it came as a surprise a little over a year ago when leadership announced that the student population had peaked and belt-tightening was the order of the day. That immediately manifested in the cancellation of the annual fund for merit pay increases, though oddly enough there was still money for the chancellor’s pet projects. Part of me wonders if they were really anticipating the consequences of Trump being elected (who really does always manage to make an appearance in every discussion about everything, but there’s a reason for that).” Sep 21, 22:11
- on Mental Illness at Church: “One of the hardest things about finding a church–as someone “between churches,” seeking some sort of home–is that I want to feel like I deserve to be there, or at least that I won’t be kicked out while I figure it out. As someone who has struggled with mental illness (visibly or invisibly), someone without a family in middle age, someone without the six- (seven-?) figure salary suggesting success…it’s been a long time since I felt welcome, even though I’ve been basically stable and successful-ish for a while now. I don’t expect to be welcomed, no decent church would want me to join and bring down the median member score, but at least not rejected. So I’m one of the people looking for that space you want to create.” Sep 21, 20:47
- on Book Review: Ports to Posts: Latter-day Saint Gathering in the Nineteenth Century: “I was excited to see that when I was posting the review there yesterday!” Sep 21, 17:47
- on Missionary Numbers are Peaking and Will Start to Decline: “Latin America has cratering birth rates. I know many African saints. They are full of faith, but there have been major difficulties passing on the leadership baton. I think some of the other commenters might be correct and missionary work will have to change significantly.” Sep 21, 13:15
- on Missionary Numbers are Peaking and Will Start to Decline: “Who knows what missionary service will look like in the future. We assume the way it is now, sending youth around the world. It started with sending only Apostles, then older men, then younger men, then women, then couples, recently service only missionaries and single older men and women etc. Maybe it will be just members and everyone stays home? That would bring the numbers up a bit. (if we even need to be concerned about the # of missionaries serving) I find it fascinating that we send someone’s son in Prove to Atlanta and someone’s daughter in Atlanta to Provo. Is it really easier to convert strangers than friends? I really dont do much “member missionary” stuff as I “served” my mission and leave that to the ones who are “serving” now. I have no desire to serve a senior mission with my wife. Perhaps if all the missionaries were sent home and we were told the member missionary program is the program, I would do more? Probably not. My neighbors may be even more afraid to speak to me knowing I was a “missionary” and not just a member. Maybe the harvest is winding down? The future of missionary work could be interesting.” Sep 21, 09:11
