Last year’s FAIR conference was fascinating. I urge all people interested in Church history, the scriptures and apologetics to consider attending the 2013 FAIR conference Aug. 1 and 2 in Provo.

Hate is a strong word, but I really do hate the movie rating system.

I just saw a wonderful movie called “The Hunter” with Willem Dafoe. This is an R-rated movie.

It had:

–No sex, not even a hint of sex. No naked parts at all.
–Very low-level violence, maybe even PG-level violence.
–Use of the F-bomb four times.
–One guy smoking a joint (but the reference to drugs was very light, and it could have easily have just been a cigarette).

So, this very well-done movie was rated “R” because somebody said a bad word that kids hear on the playground about 100 times a day. Meanwhile, movies like “The Ring” and “Coyote Ugly,” which are truly horrible movies with all kinds of horrible things in them, get rated PG-13 (and can presumably be calmly watched by LDS teens). (This also applies to one of the worst movies ever made, “Breaking Dawn,” which I review here.).

How does this make any sense at all?

It seems that if we are going to take the guidance from the prophets seriously, we need to completely throw out the rating system and do deeper research on the movies we watch. Personally, I do NOT enjoy a lot of the raunchy movies out there and feel very uncomfortable during simulated sex scenes, even in PG-13 movies. A movie like “Coyote Ugly,” which is simply an excuse to show women wearing almost nothing for 1 1/2 hours, seems extremely harmful to young men.

Meanwhile, the acting in an R-rated movie like “The Hunter” is wonderful. The development of the main character is believable and quite touching. (I don’t at all agree with the hackneyed political message, which is that Corporations are Bad, but you can still enjoy the movie a great deal even if the political message is stupid). I would easily take a 10-year-old kid to “The Hunter” but I would never recommend anybody see “The Ring,” or “Coyote Ugly” or “Breaking Dawn.”

Anyway, I find the whole rating system frustrating, and the only solution I can see is to do my own due diligence on movies in the future.

President Uchtdorf met with President Obama today and told reporters he supports immigration reform.

Here are some highlights from the story in the Salt Lake Tribune:

President Barack Obama’s outline for immigration reform matches the values of the Mormon faith, according to Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the LDS Church’s governing First Presidency.

Uchtdorf joined other faith leaders in a meeting with Obama on Friday, where the president asked them to support a reform effort that would streamline the legal immigration system and create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

“He just said in this value process we need to stand together and make sure the United States is still a place where people can come and once they come can feel not at fear. And do it, of course, in a lawful way,” Uchtdorf told The Salt Lake Tribune in a brief interview as he left the White House. “He was talking about his principles and what he said was totally in line with our values.”

Uchtdorf’s comments and his involvement in the meeting are the strongest indications yet that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is sympathetic to a reform effort that many Mormon politicians, including all of Utah’s members of Congress, have so far rejected. Utah’s two Senate and four House members have rejected efforts that they believe offer illegal immigrants amnesty.

President Uchtdorf also said the following:

Uchtdorf expressed his view that the government should respond with compassion to undocumented immigrants who have worked in the United States for decades

“My personal feeling there is the United States over the last couple of decades, even de facto, encouraged others to come. You know, to work in the fields in California,or Arizona or Texas, some of those have been here for 30 years,” he said. “They are bishops in our church, but they never became legal residents because the system was not right for it and all of a sudden we are having changes even though they were more or less invited here to come because their work was needed.”

Still ,Uchtdorf said he believes a different standard may apply for more recent immigrants who did not arrive through legal channels.

“If someone is coming now to the U.S. or in the last couple of years they know they should come the legal way,” he said.

The Foundation for Apologetic and Information Research (FAIR) has put up a very good post summarizing some of subtle but very significant changes in the new edition of the scriptures, announced last week.

(Quick side note: you can download these scriptures from lds.org right now. The Android process is very easy — you just update. The ipad and iphone process is complicated and difficult. Score one for Google).

Anyway, let me highlight some of the changes mentioned by FAIR.

The following introduction has been added to the Doctrine and Covenants in the new 2013 edition of the scriptures, giving context and current interpretations on the revelation ending polygamy:
“The Bible and the Book of Mormon teach that monogamy is God’s standard for marriage unless He declares otherwise (see 2 Samuel 12:7–8 and Jacob 2:27, 30). Following a revelation to Joseph Smith, the practice of plural marriage was instituted among Church members in the early 1840s (see section 132). From the 1860s to the 1880s, the United States government passed laws to make this religious practice illegal. These laws were eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. After receiving revelation, President Wilford Woodruff issued the following Manifesto, which was accepted by the Church as authoritative and binding on October 6, 1890. This led to the end of the practice of plural marriage in the Church.”

While not creating official doctrine as part of the official canon, the addition of this introduction clarifies that the interpretation of the Church today is that monogamy is the standard for God’s people. Critics have claimed that Mormons secretly believe that polygamy is the standard, and that monogamy is a temporary anomaly that will be swept aside in eternity if not sometime soon during mortality. Such arguments cause pain and pressure for individuals who are discomforted at the thought of a practice in eternity that is not required of them in mortality. This addition clarifies that the standard is in fact monogamy, providing emotional room for those discomforted by the thought of polygamy.

Continue reading →

I’m sure we will see a lot more in-depth analysis in the coming days and weeks, but I wanted to refer readers to the Church document that shows a complete comparison of the changes made in the scriptures. These changes were announced Thursday Feb. 28. Take a look here.

Here is a summary of the changes that were made.

Two of the adjustments that will get a lot of discussion regard polygamy and the priesthood ban:

OD 1—Added the following introduction and historical background to Official Declaration 1, and placed it in an italic typeface to indicate that it is a study help:
The Bible and the Book of Mormon teach that monogamy is God’s standard for marriage unless He declares otherwise (see 2 Samuel 12:7–8 and Jacob 2:27, 30). Following a revelation to Joseph Smith, the practice of plural marriage was instituted among Church members in the early 1840s (see section 132). From the 1860s to the 1880s, the United States government passed laws to make this religious practice illegal. These laws were eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. After receiving revelation, President Wilford Woodruff issued the following Manifesto, which was accepted by the Church as authoritative and binding on October 6, 1890. This led to the end of the practice of plural marriage in the Church.

OD 2—Added the following introduction and historical background to Official Declaration 2, and placed it in italics to indicate that it is a study help:
The Book of Mormon teaches that “all are alike unto God,” including “black and white, bond and free, male and female” (2 Nephi 26:33). Throughout the history of the Church, people of every race and ethnicity in many countries have been baptized and have lived as faithful members of the Church. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, a few black male members of the Church were ordained to the priesthood. Early in its history, Church leaders stopped conferring the priesthood on black males of African descent. Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice. Church leaders believed that a revelation from God was needed to alter this practice and prayerfully sought guidance. The revelation came to Church President Spencer W. Kimball and was affirmed to other Church leaders in the Salt Lake Temple on June 1, 1978. The revelation removed all restrictions with regard to race that once ap- plied to the priesthood.