At least a part of our shared faith revolves around the times of hardship during the Restoration, and the number of faithful Saints who gave their lives in defending their religion against merciless mobs. It is perhaps worth examining how many people have died as martyrs to Mormonism, and consider the relative importance of their sacrifices. [Read more...]

There may be no language to describe the Atonement; recurring passages in the Book of Mormon and other works show the incapacity of mortals to express the joy and wonder inherent in God’s glory. When we try to approach the divine through language, one of the more common scriptural tropes for Christ’s expiation and our relationship with God is that of indebtedness. References to our indebted nature occur in all of the standard works.(1)

How far can the language of indebtedness take us in coming closer to God through Christ? [Read more...]

As promised in Part I, Steve gets reamed in this one.

[Read more...]

I told Sumer the other day that after much prayer and fasting, I finally understood what it meant to preside in the home. She was of course enraptured to hear my explanation, but the things of Steve are not so easily understood or explained. Instead I drew a sketch of my revelation. As you can see in the attached Revelatory Flow Chart, the secrets of Righteous Priesthood Leadership in the Home (TM) can be learned in minutes but take a lifetime to master.

No need to thank me, Bloggernacle. Print it out, go have a great FHE, courtesy of me.

I was grousing the other day to my bishop about how the Church during my halcyon days of youth seemed to have a number of practices and activities that were fun, challenging, at times embarrassing, but ultimately productive ways of forming community and strengthening the ward. I realize that correlations and the ever-growing CHI have stifled many of these activities, some for good (and liability-limiting!) reasons, but still — I’m bringing churchy back. Most of these, upon reflection, are simply ways to use the stages in our cultural halls.

1. Roadshows. [Read more...]

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Kylie Turley asked for this one.

When my son Pearson was born, he weighed five pounds and four ounces, had a wheezy cry and pink skin with just a little too much yellow. Shortly after the miracle of birth (which I have previously described as “pulling a frog out of a butterball turkey”), they whisked him and his sister away to get cleaned up and swaddled. Later that day they would take my boy up to the NICU and observe him, occasionally putting him under biliruben lights that reminded me of the heating lamps in fast-food restaurants.

And then the nurse told me to take off my shirt. [Read more...]

I read news articles, blog posts, punditry and other pieces on the internet pretty much every day. Increasingly I find myself drawn towards some authors, whose work I read religiously, while other authors I almost never read. I thought it might be interesting to talk about the people whose opinions and views we always read, and think about where that leads us. [Read more...]

UPDATED.

Sometimes when people get “banned,” they’re actually placed in a queue where we can approve (or delete) their comments (the truly “banned” just show up as spam). It is very telling how people behave after they get some administrative nudges. In same cases (such as this), I think we see true colors for the first time.

That is all. Go your way.

This is the third part of a three-part series. Part I can be found here, and Part II can be found here.

*As usual, please remember that I am not a financial advisor and that these posts of mine are not advice for you to take without talking to your own financial advisor and giving serious thought to your own finances. Seriously.

So we have good guesses as to the origins of the present crisis and have some good practical tips for the kinds of short-term things we ought to be doing. What next? [Read more...]

Friday comes early!

Nearly all legislation pertaining to abortion considers the duration of gestation. The human mind has presumed to determine when “meaningful life” begins. In the course of my studies as a medical doctor, I learned that a new life begins when two special cells unite to become one cell, bringing together 23 chromosomes from the father and 23 from the mother. These chromosomes contain thousands of genes. In a marvelous process involving a combination of genetic coding by which all the basic human characteristics of the unborn person are established, a new DNA complex is formed. A continuum of growth results in a new human being. Approximately 22 days after the two cells have united, a little heart begins to beat. At 26 days the circulation of blood begins. To legislate when a developing life is considered “meaningful” is presumptive and quite arbitrary, in my opinion.

Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless,” October 2008 Ensign (not yet available online).

Discuss.

This is the second part of a three-part series. Part I can be found here. Part III will deal with long-term investment strategies and policymaking.

UPDATED DISCLAIMER: As I noted before, these are just my thoughts are ARE DEFINITELY NOT financial advice that you should take without first talking to a financial advisor. Please do your own research before doing (or not doing) anything I mention. Also, I am NOT advocating a run on any banks!!

So let’s say you have a savings account at Washington Mutual…. [Read more...]

As I mentioned in a previous post, our ward has a nascent blog for Gospel Doctrine. Once in a while I may cross-post between the sites. Here’s the latest.

Our discussion yesterday dealt with Samuel’s exhortation for the Nephites to repent, and in particular the notions of freedom to choose and moral agency (see Helaman 14:30 for an example). Some asked about the differences between “freedom,” “free agency,” “moral agency” and “liberty.” [Read more...]