Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you think: “why hasn’t this book ever been written before, and why didn’t I write this book?” “President and Prophets” is one of those books.
for me, that is. Next week I’m traveling on business to Hong Kong. I plan on visiting the Hong Kong temple. I’ll report back to let you know how it goes.
I once had a bishop who traveled around the world and had been to a few dozen foreign temples during his trips. This will be only my third foreign (non-U.S.) temple (I’ve been to the Sao Paulo and Campinas temples in Brazil as well).
I’d be interested in hearing from anybody who has been to the Hong Kong temple. Also, please comment on some of the more exotic temples you’ve been to.
[No. I am not claiming Charlie Brown is LDS or something silly like that (though I always wondered about that Linus kid.....)]
Charles Schulz was the genius who created Peanuts. One of his daughters joined the church and served a mission in England. Did you know that? I have for awhile, and didn’t think much of it beyond “hmm, that’s interesting.”
However -
I was reading reviews of the recent Schulz biography, when I stumbled across a blog post at Cartoon Brew. The ensuing discussion has Schulz’s children and other friends chiming in about the inaccuracies in the book. However, I found myself absolutely moved by his daughter’s description of her relationship to her dad and his reaction to her becoming Mormon:
Check it out here, and then return and report (or comment, anyway).
[You can read the whole amazing discussion if you're a Peanuts fan, but I figured this one comment would appeal to Mormons of all types, even ones without any particular affection for the classic comic strip].
One of the more distressing political trends of recent years is the ascent of the Lou Dobbs voter. If you want a highly favorable view of who the Lou Dobbs voter is, take a look at this article. I was astounded to turn on CNN during a trip two weeks ago and listen to Dobbs’ assault on immigration and globalization. I thought I was back in early 1930 listening to Sen. Smoot discuss the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.
My personal opinion is that the rising tide against globalization in the United States will hurt the Church and hurt its growth. On the economic front, it might drag us into another Depression.
What happens when you get some of the world’s smartest people together to ponder whether or not the universe has a purpose? Some of them sound pretty lost, whereas others appear to be on the right track. It is fascinating to consider that these really smart people could read the scriptures, which would answer many of their questions, yet without the benefit of the Holy Ghost they still wouldn’t have a clue. Another great idea: read “Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
In July, 1999, twenty-one relatively young people with nothing better to do decided to try writing novels in a month. Six of them actually did it. Eight years later, in November, 2006, nearly 13,000 crossed that same finish line (almost 80,000 gave it a shot.) Last year (2006) the participants logged a total of over 982,000,000 words — the expectation is that we’ll break 1,000,000,000 this year. I’ll be contributing my 50,000 this year, as I did in 2004, 2005, and 2006. (Promo: You can do it too!)
[edit: VoteGopher has updated the page I referenced -- see my comment]
So, various spiffy people in the wider blogosphere have been talking about how great this site is. The idea is that all the editors of the site have to take a vow of non-partisanship (presumably this applies to their editorial practices only, and not the rest of their lives) and so the information presented about each candidate and his/her stand on the issues won’t be biased. Anyone who’s tried to live with someone who’s passionate about their particular candidate will understand why this might be appealing — my senior year of college, I lived in a dorm in which, at least by October, everyone was vocally in favor of Bush, Gore, or Nader; I’m not sure I was ever able to get any actual information out of anyone.
It is universally recognized that anyone worried about the impact of large-scale immigration is a selfish, hate-filled nativist. Except when the nativist in question is a simple Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Buddhist monk. From his speech before Congress on Wednesday:
With respect to my own homeland Tibet, today many people, both from inside and outside, feel deeply concerned about the consequences of the rapid change taking place. Every year, the Chinese population inside Tibet is increasing at an alarming rate. And, if we are to judge by the example of the population of Lhasa, there is a real danger that the Tibetans will be reduced to an insignificant minority in their own homeland.
The following is a guest post from Mike Lee, who describes himself as
“the husband of my wonderful wife, married five years, and father of two great kids. I am most proud of that. I’m a graduate of BYU in Computer Science, and currently work as a software developer in Wisconsin, where my wife grew up and where I am growing to love.”
By Mike Lee
You would think, seeing that I’m married and have two kids, that I would have learned this lesson already:
I am in the middle of reading a fascinating new book, “Presidents and Prophets” by Michael K. Winder, and I felt prompted to relay the story of the reaction of many Church leaders to FDR and the New Deal. It seems especially relevant when discussing political neutrality today.
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