Morality

I recently took an online test to determine if I am a helicopter parent.  Ironically, it was a helicopter quiz!  After every question, it gave me immediate, condescending feedback about whether my opinion was right or wrong.  And with several of the questions, I didn’t like ANY of the options; they were all too helicopter-y [...]

We’ve been cleaning the chapels in most areas (except where it is not feasible) for many years now, although most of us remember a day when the church employed professional janitors to keep the building sparkling.  With so many people out of work, should the church change back to professional help? Discuss.

The headline is clear. Community of Christ will provide sacramental ordinances of marriage, commitment ceremonies, and ordination independent of sexual orientation in the USA. Specifically, after two days of discussion, the USA National Conference formally approved by a required 2/3rds majority the following recommendations to the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve: The 2013 USA [...]

People refer to weak apologetics as mental gymnastics, being willing to cling to the improbable or outright absurd rather than cutting through the crap to the logical (yet possibly faith-shaking) solution.  And yet, we are also told that truth is stranger than fiction and that with God nothing is impossible, which gives eternal hope to [...]

Feminism makes some men very nervous.  They are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and being labelled a sexist.  They may feel like outsiders, unclear of their own standing as these conversations unfold.  Men and women alike may not be sure what feminism entails, but it can seem like a daunting list, one [...]

How much detail is appropriate in a confession?  When does a leader go from being helpful to being pruriently interested in the lurid details of a confessor’s love life?  Where do you draw the line? Discuss.

Pending the birth of Princess Kate’s baby, Lady Cosima Rose Alexandra Windsor is currently 24th in line for the British throne. Lady Cosima is the nearly three-year-old great granddaughter of a grandfather of the current queen. I didn’t know that, and I really wouldn’t care, but I did easily look it up, and I could do [...]

In January 2012, I did a blog post about topics women in the church were discussing.  I identified 10 practices that some women saw as unnecessarily discriminate or that were in other ways causing women to question their value in the church.  This was in response to a request Pres. Beck made of Mormon Mommy [...]

The Ten Commandments was one of the first Biblical epics to command a mass audience, and so my parents took me into downtown Detroit as a boy to be sure I saw it in its full widescreen glory in one of the few theaters capable of so screening it. The movie was well worth the [...]

Shenpa Warrior discusses evil from a psychological view In the 5th installment of the Psychology of Religion series.

When I was 15, I had a crush on a boy named Brian from the other ward that shared our building.  His sister told me liked me, and he asked me to meet him (along with a bunch of kids from the other ward) at Rick’s Place, a dance club in nearby Lancaster.  Before I [...]

A recent news story tells of a YW leader who was released from her calling for breastfeeding her baby in a room full of young women.  She has also been threatened with the loss of her temple recommend if she doesn’t leave meetings to feed her baby.  Scott Trotter, LDS media spokesperson, was caught off [...]

North Korea wants to show its strength despite its small size by launching missiles to intimidate China.  Napolean was said to suffer from “short man” inferiority complex, resulting in his military invasions all over Europe.  Some sources say Hitler felt inferior because his absent father was a Jew, not Aryan.  In the Wizard of Oz, the “wizard” [...]

Today’s post is by new perma and longtime commenter, Hedgehog.  On 10 January, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf addressed young single adults at the firstCES devotional of the year.  The title of his address is ‘What is truth?’.  This has also been addressed by David Taymon who was rather quick off the mark. Truth, as a topic, [...]

A 2000 Supreme Court decision rules that because the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization, they are within their rights to exclude gays, atheists, and agnostics from its membership ranks.  So why did the Boy Scouts of America reverse course and announce that local units now have the ability to choose whether to allow [...]

Daniel faced a serious problem.  Darius the king had been tricked by his princes into outlawing prayer.  But Daniel felt beholden to pray to his God.  The society in which he lived restricted his personal freedoms more than his religious society did.  In fact, his religious community went underground due to the persecutions and restrictions of the [...]

Mystery guest number 1 was never a practicing Catholic. Mystery guest number 2 never believed in Temple rites. Now, there’s a good conspiracy theory. Sometimes a conspiracy theory turns out to be true. There is even a class of crime for which people go to jail that starts out “conspiracy to commit…”. But the conspiracy theories [...]

I must admit, before my trip to New Zealand over the holidays I had never heard of the Mormon Maori prophecies.  I knew that there are many Polynesian church members.  I was aware that the most popular religion in the island of Molokai (the spiritual center of Hawaii) is Mormonism, and that there are many [...]

We’ve heard the talks to the priesthood about Peter Pan syndrome:  grown men who still play video games and live in their parents’ garages, not taking adult responsibilities seriously, and not taking the initiative to get married.  Likewise, there have been posts in the bloggernacle about the infantilisation of women in the church:  male leaders and [...]

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23) At one time or another we all lie. It is mostly to ourselves about one thing or another, but sometimes to others.  In some cases, it is a “kind” lie such as, “no, that color looks great on you” or “I’ll [...]