A little more than five years ago, I got an e-mail from Ryan Bell and Adam Greenwood asking me to join an as-yet-named new blog. Ryan and Davis Bell, Adam, Matt Evans and a few others were the original ring-leaders. I agreed to the summons.
We were pondering what to name this new blog, and I suggested “Laban’s Neck.” It goes without saying that the history of Millennial Star would have been very different had it been named Laban’s Neck.
My wife has had some great entrepeneurial ideas for new products based on her experiences in child-rearing. Here are a few:
1)Sound-proof glass between the children’s area and the front seats in a minivan.
I mean, wearing missionary outfits to a basketball game and then chanting “you’re still Mormon!” at the BYU fans. Really, really funny. Those guys definitely should be in the Conan/Leno sweepstakes.
But on a less sarcastic note, it is worth noting that my alma mater Stanford was forced to apologize when our “marching” band made fun of Notre Dame in ways that had anti-Catholic overtones. Err, make that forced to apologize more than once. In 1991, the band had a drum major dressed up like a nun, which enraged Catholics. And then of course in 2004, the band linked Mormons with polygamy when Stanford played BYU.
Anyway, I think we should agree that making fun of somebody’s religion should be off-limits. This doesn’t just apply to Mormons but to Catholic, Baptists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.
I was fortunate enough to be in Honolulu on Jan. 17 and hear Elder Clayton, a member of the Seventy, talk at a special stake conference. His primary subject was on remaining faithful during difficult economic times. Given that the First Presidency’s message in January was a similar theme, it seems appropriate to discuss it here.
Elder Clayton’s primary point seemed to be: be loyal to the church, pay your tithing, do your calling and home/visiting teaching, hold Family Home Evening, scripture study and family prayer, and things will turn out OK.
The Church is appealing to members to help with humanitarian relief. Read here for more.