Given all the discussion on LDS film director Richard Dutcher, I thought this story was interesting. To sum up: the story discusses LDS actors and how they maintain the Church’s standards in a sometimes decadent industry. Jon Heder is quoted as saying he told a director once that the scene had to be changed or he would not perform it.

One important point: people in all kinds of jobs face questions about honesty and Gospel principles on a daily basis. This is not a problem just for actors and directors. The temple recommend interview asks if you are honest, and many bishops tell me this is the one that is often hardest for people to say “yes” to. So, I am not by any stretch implying that only actors and directors face challenges. But it is interesting to look at how prominent people deal with these issues.

My junior companion kept coming up with excuses why he didn’t talk to the people he passed on the street. “He’s not looking at me.” “He looked busy.” “He was looking at his watch.” As a missionary in Tokyo, if you wanted to talk to men, you didn’t knock on doors, since the only people at home were harried housewives and little old ladies. You went down to the train station and waved people down. Streeting, we called it. It required a little more initiative than going door-to-door, because your next target wasn’t as well defined, but you were always assured of being able to talk to someone face-to-face if you were willing to make the effort to open your mouth in the first place.

“Why didn’t you stop that guy? He walked right by you!”

“He was wearing headphones. He wasn’t going to stop to talk to me.”

Arrant nonsense. If he didn’t know it, at least I did, and I was going to prove it to him.

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As I perused one of the LDS blog aggregators yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice a post titled, “Did You Watch a Man Die?” written by Melissa De Leon Mason on BCC.

My thoughts did not immediately go to the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging; I’ve already watched that video. Rather, I tried to remember the first time I watched a man die. (Caution: Reader discretion is advised.)

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[Part 4 in a series about improving gospel teaching. Previous entries in the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]

Continuing the discussion of principles that define good teachers…

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This is a story in which this blogger finally got to see a three-person band and an enthusiastic Gospel choir in an LDS chapel. Thank heavens for Gladys Knight.

There is no doubt in my mind that Sister Knight has been called at this time to add her testimony to the many others out there. She may bring thousands if not tens of thousands to the Church.