Posts Tagged ‘ culture ’

I still contend I was not being insensitive — just naive. I arrived on the East Coast in 1973 — freshly out of grad school — having been selected for the one job at John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab I’d wanted more than any other I’d even considered applying for. After my church had canonized [...]

One of my guilty pleasures is watching the TV show “Alaska State Troopers” on the National Geographic Channel. The pleasure part comes from seeing spectacular scenery and wildlife like moose and bears I’ll never be able to visit in real life. However, the guilty part comes because most episodes also pose the question as to [...]

How does knowing you’re supposed to grow up being part of the “aristocracy” affect a political candidate’s ability to connect with everyday people? In elementary school in the 1950′s, we used to be given as “enrichment” a little news magazine called the Weekly Reader tailored toward stories on current events that would appeal to children. [...]

Over the New Year holiday, a comment by Stephen Marsh in his own post on rent seeking reminded me of something John Dominic Crossan had talked about in his book The Historical Jesus — the parallelism between the concepts of an earthly patron in the development of the Roman Empire, and heavenly patronage as it [...]

I like dystopian novels. I think that if many of the ideals espoused by most people were executed to perfection the result would be captured by one of the many dystopian novels that have been written. I think this says something very important about ideals, paradox, uncertainty, and truth. I’ve been reading “Brave New World” [...]

Over at my personal blog, I reminisced over the time in my life that seemed to me to be the earliest, simplest, purest root of disbelief. The setting was junior high in the middle of the Bible Belt. I frequently got into debates and discussions with my friends over Mormonism as it stood with respect [...]

The United States has been preoccupied with economic issues and domestic politics. So it was shocking to have the Attorney General of the United States call a news conference to announce that Iran’s government was implicated in a plot to murder the Saudi Ambassador to Washington while in the city and (from other sources) conduct [...]

I can remember making 3 bets in my life — all the result of foolish pride leading me astray. Barely above the age of accountability at the time of the first bet, I was sitting in my kitchen while my mother gave me a haircut when she made some terribly offensive remark about how cute [...]

A recent online group made by YSA in the UK provides a way in which witty comments and cynicism can promote change.

Last time I addressed the topic of our discussion in the church I talked about faith in Christ, and how we might shift our discussion from speculation on doctrines designed to create an emotional response to discussions about faith in our real lives. In perhaps a not too dissimilar vein, I’d like to talk about [...]

To really understand a culture, you have to be able to see it both as an insider, fully immersed, and as an outsider, looking back. Hawkgrrrl has been living with her family in Singapore this year and has gained some insights into American traits from a distance.

“Finally have put a finger on an issue I have with the priesthood of this church. A lot of you want us to embrace, uphold, accept and defend the practicing homosexual. Why is it that because I do not agree with you that you try to paint me as hateful to everyone else?” Thus began [...]

Because I have had my own trials of faith, and have stood in the figurative shoes of those who see things from a non-believing standpoint, I have become increasingly aware of the language we use and the ways in which it contributes to our cultural peculiarities and often times sets people up for failure. Sometimes [...]

My son’s recent experience in early morning seminary caused me to look a little more closely at the church’s stance (or perhaps lack thereof) on evolution.  While teaching about the book of Genesis, his teacher made a few claims: that she is not descended from monkeys that the earth is literally 6,000 years old that evolution contradicts the [...]

The terms “less-active” and “inactive” are slowly being dropped from church vocabulary, but you won’t hear it announced from the stand.  Earlier this year in a training led by the Area Presidency, UK stake public relations committees were informed that the church no longer classifies people as less-active or inactive; everyone is simply just members of the [...]

We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know. W. H. Auden For the individual, what is the lesson we are supposed to learn from tithing?  IMO, the blessing of tithing is the blessing of detachment (or maybe non-attachment).  Jesus advocated detachment when he admonished [...]

There has been a book of personal testimony making waves in Evangelical Christian circles for the past few months. Indeed, it isn’t just limited to Protestant Evangelicals; the person who recommended it to our family is a devout Catholic liberal. The book, entitled Heaven is for Real, is the real life story of Todd Burpo, [...]

Is the church antagonistic toward academics and others with conflicting opinions?  Critics would say yes.  I suggest that the real issue is that some members (even those in leadership roles) do not know how to deal effectively with disagreement within the church’s culture.  Today is another post by guest Jake. As Boyd K. Packer taught, the purpose of correlation [...]

In response to revelatory guidance accepted at its 2010 World Conference, the Community of Christ scheduled a US National Conference for the summer of 2012 specifically to deal with questions of sacramental marriage and priesthood ordination for GLBT members of the church. On May 25, the church announced a delay in the US National Conference [...]

A few months ago, I was at a work dinner chatting with a colleague, also a Mormon (a previous bishop), and we were talking about some colleagues whose behavior we didn’t approve.   Some of our co-workers from another department (probably sales) were drinking too much at a work event which resulted in some rather unprofessional behavior.  I was rolling my [...]