Prophet

I wanted to continue Ken Burns’ discussion of the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows as part of his series, The West (available on Netflix.)  In Part 6, he discussed the trial of John D. Lee.  At the beginning of part 6, he begins with this introduction. By 1874, Washington had launched still another assault on [...]

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 [...]

Who determines worthiness in the temple recommend interview?  The bishop?  The individual?  The questions? Other methods of discernment?  Can the bishop rightly withhold a temple recommend based on nothing more than a hunch or the Spirit even if probing reveals no wrong answers? I recently read a blog post written by a group of ex-Mormon [...]

Pope Benedict 16th stunned the world last week when he announced his resignation due to “lack of strength of mind and body.”  Geoff over at RationalFaiths modified the pope’s statement, writing if as if President Monson made a similar announcement, and then discussed the history of emeritus status in the LDS Church.  Geoff writes, In [...]

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 [...]

When I was a pre-teen, I remember overhearing a conversation between adults about the ERA, the political push for women to have equal rights in society and in the workplace.  I was proud to think that while others of my friends belonged to churches that led by fallible men, we had God at the helm, [...]

“Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.”  Tom Stoppard How old is too old?  Is older always wiser?  We retire GAs, but not apostles or prophets.  Should we? Discuss.

This article is inspired by an experience I had at my new Ward (congregation) at church a few weeks ago. In preparing for General Conference, the Bishop (Pastor) of the ward was giving a lesson to the adults in the congregation.  He was asking certain questions and getting feedback from the members.  I can’t remember [...]

A recent Huffington Post article discussed the difficulty the Mormon church has in making an official apology for the Priesthood Ban, and according to the article, the reason is not racism.  This will come as no surprise to most Mormons who are not racist but hesitate to completely throw revered prophets and church leaders under [...]

. . . and who is this Steve guy? Discuss.

A series of alternate Sunday School lessons should include, for the year on the Doctrine and Covenants, some of the more significant teachings of Brigham Young. I thought of that as I was listening to a friend of mine who was serving on the board of a JRCLS chapter.  She came into a meeting of [...]

Community of Christ is attempting to form a tradition — now that its World Conferences are held every three years instead of at six month intervals as is customary in LDS practice — of having its Prophet address the church in non-Conference years in something of a “state of the church” address. Community of Christ [...]

Today’s guest post is by Wayfarer. Joseph Smith approached both Helen Mar Kimball (14 years old) and Nancy Rigdon (19) to join him as his celestial wife, using in both cases the promise of exaltation if complied with, and something quite onerous if not.  Neither woman/girl wanted to accept the ‘principle.’  Helen Mar received a [...]

This afternoon’s post is by guest author Childe Jake. His other posts can be seen here and here. His personal blog is at http://thejakefoyer.blogspot.com/. Dear Dr. Carl Sagan, In The Demon-Haunted World, you write of a struggle that took place in your heart over whether or not there is an afterlife. You preface this struggle by introducing readers [...]

Critics of Romney have worried that his Mormonism will affect him in his office as President of the United States.  This concern has been raised from several different angles, and becomes an even bigger question as his tax records reveal his tithing contributions.  To those who lack the context, donating 10% of your income to [...]

George Albert Smith was the eighth president of the LDS Church.  He suffered from  lupus erythematosus (an autoimmune disease) and was disabled for a period of about two years (bedridden from 1909 to 1912). The short summary of his life is: George Albert Smith was born on April 4, 1870, in Salt Lake City. His [...]

I recently read an excellent OP on By Common Consent by Brad titled Notes Toward a New Vision of the Prophet.  I’ve always had some contradictory thoughts about JS, and I’m not sure this changes them. JS does seem to be a megalomaniac and opportunist to me, someone who became increasingly blind to the consequences [...]

As I was researching a post last summer on some of the organizations that have sprung up in the stead of the RLDS movement as fundamentalist alternatives to the Community of Christ, I discovered that a childhood friend had become one of the leading officials of one such organization, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of [...]

There is a common concern among those who have experienced doubts in the church as to how much they should disclose about their doubts, to whom, and what the consequences of that disclosure might be.  A recent internet discussion involving someone whose temple recommend was withheld for sharing her struggles and doubts with a well-meaning [...]