Posts Tagged ‘ Leaders ’

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 [...]

How should leaders contact the youth?  Through any means necessary?  Are parents overprotective or rightly cautious in their desire to protect their kids from personal contact with leaders?  Should we get with the times and use technology to perform our callings? Would your answer differ from how you think adults should contact each other?  Discuss.

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 [...]

“Maps are powerful tools”, said John Hamer at the 2011 John Whitmer Historical Association meetings. His remarks have be published in the latest issue of the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (Fall/Winter 2012). He goes on to say Beyond their capacity to dazzle, maps allow historians to organize information in a completely different way than [...]

I wanted to follow up on Grace for Grace’s discussion about revelation, and whether we need to be living righteously to receive revelation.  Many people have wondered if apostles have seen Christ.  Michael Quinn discusses this in The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Quinn says on page 1, [Oliver] Cowdery told the new apostles: “It [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

Plan A was to have the economy humming by now and see Obama cruise to re-election on the success of Keynesian counter-cyclical stimulus. Hope and change would have proven itself superior to the failed policies of the Republican past and the country would eagerly follow Obama into yet more “transformational” policies in his second term. [...]

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

The LDS church is an Apostolic church. It has a Prophet, but the Prophet is chosen according to seniority of his position among the Apostles upon the death of his predecessor. Further, the Twelve in Salt Lake City are considered successors in office to the Twelve originally called by Jesus in Jerusalem. It’s a bit [...]

I was pleased to be invited to a screening of the film 17 Miracles.  At the beginning of the film, the authors made a note that they took some liberty with the sequencing of events, but all of the miracles really happened. The story follows a pioneer by the name of Levi Savage, played by [...]

I was in high school when the original Star Trek television series premiered. As nerdy then as I am now, I watched every episode, and every re-run, and every afternoon syndication for years. I finally stopped — not because I wasn’t interested in the Star Trek universe, which was infinitely expandable (as multiple incarnations have [...]

First, I must start with a confession.  I haven’t yet watched General Conference.  Despite living in the future here in Asia, we are living in the past in terms of General Conference which will be aired at the local church next weekend (or alternatively, live on-line now).  However, I have read some of the recaps, [...]

Last October, I missed all of General Conference because I was traveling for work.  I missed the controversial talks about the 14 fundamentals and homosexuality.  This year, technically I listened to all of the sessions, but I didn’t get very much out of conference.  Due to an emergency, I had to work on Saturday.  Since [...]

I’ve always believed the church has a right to make a public stand on political issues.  In protest of the church’s position on Prop 8, gay marriage proponents have floated a proposal that the church should stay out of politics, and should lose their tax-exempt status.  Now that LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton has come [...]

I received a wonderful surprise in the mail a few weeks ago.  I received an advance copy of The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History from Signature Books.  It will be released on March 24, and I just added it to my Books and Movies page.  If you pre-order, Amazon is offering it for 34% [...]

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Why do LDS leaders spend so much time [...]

In discussions on the bloggernacle, the subject of how change happens in the church often comes up.  We often talk past either other when it comes to defining “changes” within the church.  There seem to be different views about policy vs. doctrine and why change happens in the church: View 1:  Policy changes are just [...]