It has been interesting for me to watch the reactions this past week as news stories illuminated yet again the contested territory where the free exercise of religion meets civic considerations and obligations. As I observed other LDS people comment on these stories, I realized that in our recent past, we have experienced something even more egregious and more threatening than being pressured to refrain from performing proxy baptisms for Holocaust victims.

In the Vietnam era during the late 1960s,  all young men were required to register for the Selective Service and make themselves available for the draft. Young men who were healthy, single, and heterosexual were classified as 1-A, eligible for military service, and they were quickly inducted into the service to undergo basic training. There was a different classification for ordained ministers, 4-D, and a young man with that classification would not be drafted. Among LDS people, young men who anticipated serving missions often succeeded in getting their classification changed from 1-A to 4-D. But as the war grew more serious and more troops were needed, the Selective Service became more and more reluctant to grant 4-D status to our missionaries, and it notified the church that all our young men should consider themselves candidates for the draft. [Read more...]

This post was submitted by a BCC reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

You are an area authority seventy. A stake president calls you seeking direction on behalf of a bishop who has in his ward Barry Bubble Boy. Barry has an autoimmune deficiency that requires that he live inside of a protective bubble specially built inside of his home as his bedroom. He was transfered unto the room from the hospital when he was four, and has never left it. He is now 12.

Barry was born in the church, has a testimony of the Gospel, and desires to be baptised. Given his environment, it is impossible for him to be totally immersed in water. Even if a tank could be constructed in his bubble, his doctors would advise against subjecting him to total immersion in water. You should take as given that he cannot be immersed in water without grave risk of death.
[Read more...]

This one comes from a different mystery correspondent:

As Stake President you know that Bishop Dubloseven of the Yuppie 2nd Ward has been in the process of applying to the FBI for the last three years. Just yesterday he informed you that he was offered and accepted the position and training begins in two weeks. There is, of course, no problem with a bishop being in the FBI, rather it is the training that raises conflict. [Read more...]

You have recently been called to a position in the ward that requires your attendance at ward council.  You just moved in six months ago, and one of the things you noticed right away and really like is how people in the ward magnify their callings and go the extra mile in assuring that the work of the church goes smoothly.  Your fellow council members are not only very talented people, they are also models of commitment and dedication.  This is, hands down, the best ward you have ever lived in.

[Read more...]

From my mystery correspondent:

You are the bishop of the Splitsville 4th Ward. You hear from your wife, who is not above trading in gossip but is generally accurate about such things, that Brother and Sister Schism, an active couple in the ward, both 45 years old and temple-married to each other 15 years ago, are in the process of divorcing. Jim Schism is the Gospel Doctrine teacher. Jan Schism is the first counselor to the Relief Society president. They have one child, a 14 year-old son. [Read more...]

If you saw You Make the Call and came here expecting a quality post from my co-blogger Kevin Barney, I’m sorry to disappoint you.  He kindly allowed me to move in on a good thing.   

 You are the bishop of the Outer Suburbia 2nd ward, and your Sunday starts with a 6 ack emma PPI with the stake president.  Yes, you are aware that the ward’s home teaching numbers need to improve, and yes, you are aware that the ward’s fast offering fund is in the red.  Bishopric meeting and ward council run until church starts at 10.  You catch a breather at about 1:30, long enough to eat the granola bar and banana in your briefcase, and then you start in on the long afternoon and evening of interviews. [Read more...]

From my mystery correspondent: You are the mission president of the Suckistan Mission, which includes the 2 separate sovereign nations of North Suckistan and South Suckistan. South Suckistan is a relatively free and safe country, in which you have 100 missionaries. North Suckistan is relatively unfree and dangerous, particularly for your 25 American missionaries (you have 30 total missionaries in North Suckistan.) You reside in South Suck. [Read more...]

From my mystery correspondent: Angie Academic is a constitutional law scholar at a state law school. She is also the temple preparation teacher in her ward. Angie wrote an academic paper, recently published in the Harvard Law Review, in which she takes the position that the constitutional and statutory protections of religion are too strong and that measures should be taken, including a constitutional amendment, if necessary, to allow the federal government to force churches to ordain women and otherwise enforce anti-discrimination measures against churches. In one section of her paper, she gives the example of the LDS church as one that would be improved by the forced ordination of women, stating that otherwise the “out-of-touch, gerentocratic nature of the church hierarchy” made it unlikely that that church would voluntarily extend the priesthood to women for another 50 years or so, which she viewed as “unacceptable.” She also stated that without the priesthood, LDS women were currently “second-class citizens in the church.” [Read more...]

From my mystery correspondent. Remember the ground rule: This is a parlor game, so no punting to the “guidance of the Spirit.” If you were the official presented with these facts, what call do you make? [Read more...]

A friend reminded me of those old commercials featuring a close play in an NFL game, with the tag line “You make the call!.” The idea was for the TV viewer to pretend he is the referee and call the play how he sees it, and then compare the actual call the referee made in the game. So, in that spirit, my friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) offers the following: [Read more...]

You make the call.  Last week I bought a used car from my neighbor and it has this on the trunk:

[Read more...]

Suppose a couple, having problems with fertility, decides to try IVF as a means of having children. For the sake of the hypothetical, let’s say initial fertilization goes very well and the couple ends up with 30 viable embryos. After 8 pregnancies with three embryos implanted each time, the couple is exhausted and now has 24 children. They are done having kids.

What does the couple do with the six remaining embryos? You make the call. [Read more...]

For many years, I have been perplexed by the question of what I am required to do and believe as a latter-day saint.  Confronted by a long and often contradictory history of commandments and culture attitudes within the church, the process of sorting out commandments from suggestions was nearly impossible.  Finally, I settled on the belief that I am primarily accountable for acting upon only those precepts I have learned by my own experience to be important.  While I respect those ideas that I do not now agree with, I have faith that God will hold me accountable only for acting with the best of my ability upon those concepts I personally know to be correct.

[Read more...]

All three synoptics recount an episode during the Perean ministry of the Saviour where a rich young man (called a “ruler” in Luke) approaches Jesus and asks what he can do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and in response to a request for clarification refers to the Ten Commandments. The young man replies that he has kept these from his youth, and then asks what yet he lacks. The reply is to sell all he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus. The young man then walks away sadly, because he had great possessions.

Following this story is a section where Jesus utters the now famous proverb, which I will quote below as it is given in each gospel: [Read more...]