This week the news was filled with accounts of the hack of Ashley Madison, a website helping married individuals cheat on their spouses. It was disclosed that several prominent individuals had accounts on the site. Most notably, Josh Duggar, a staunch religious conservative who has garnered attention for his strong positions on moral issues, admitted that he had an affair on his wife using the site. Sam Rader, a vblogger who became a viral sensation for surprising his wife with a positive pregnancy test and who is known for daily devotional videos, also admitted to having a paid account (but said that he did not have an affair from it).

It’s been disappointing although not at all unexpected to see friends of mine on Facebook reacting to the news. Continue reading →

Walking into and participating in the Temple for the first time can be for anyone a disorienting experience. I was no exception, although there have been a few rare individuals who went in with prior understanding. Most of the LDS prophets are not among them. During a 1956 Mesa, Arizona Temple expansion dedicatory address, Pres. David O. Mckay said with candor:

Do you remember when you first went through the House of the Lord? I do. And I went out disappointed. Just a young man, out of college, anticipating great things when I went to the Temple. I was disappointed and grieved, and I have met hundreds of young men and young women since who had that experience . . . I saw only the mechanics when I first went through the Temple. I did not see the spiritual. I did not see the symbolism of spirituality. Speaking plainly, I saw men, physical state, which offended me . . . We thought we were big enough and with intelligence sufficient to criticize the mechanics of it and we were blind to the symbolism, the message of the spirit. And then that great ordinance, the endowment. The whole thing is simple in the mechanical part of it, but sublime and eternal in its significance.

Those are some powerful words coming from someone who is considered a towering spiritual figure. He obviously got over it and so did I after my first time. It was not without struggle.

Difficulties with Dissonance

First off I had to get over my own expectations of not only what I was used to going to regular Sunday services, but my own self definition. Like many I went to the Temple in preparation for going on a Mission. My parents accompanied me on the trip. Each detail was absorbed and analyzed in the hopes of forming some kind of spiritual impression. The reality was that my intellectual curiosity overshadowed any religious enlightenment. In other words, all I ended up noticing was the mechanics. At the end of the endowment stood me and my parents in strange clothes having no everyday parallel. Thoughts about the accusation of “cult” ran through my confused brain. Even my Baptism for the dead excursions in recent teenage years didn’t compare. The people and place seemed completely out of the ordinary for both my secular and religious life. Continue reading →

Thanks to Meridian Magazine for this meme:

Source: http://scriptures.byu.edu/gettalk.php?ID=1822

As Deseret News’ Tad Walch reported yesterday, “Church leaders changed the name of the faith’s Priesthood Executive Council to the Priesthood and Family Executive Council.” Click here to read the full article.

It was during the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball when the leadership of the Church formally aligned themselves with the three-fold mission of the Church:

Proclaim the Gospel
Strengthen the Members
Redeem the Dead

The three presidents of the Church’s organizations headed by women have been invited to be permanent members of the the Executive Councils aligned with this three-fold mission.

The Relief Society General President, Sister Linda K. Burton (right), becomes a permanent member of the renamed Priesthood and Family Executive Council.

The General Young Women’s President, Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson (center), joins the Missionary Executive Council.

The General Primary President, Sister Rosemary Wixom (left), joins the Temple and Family History Executive Council.

The women who have served in these positions have often been ad hoc participants in these councils in the past, but the formalization of their membership in these councils and broadening the focus beyond “priesthood” is highly significant. This move does not merely add three women to the highest Church councils, but serves as an initial step towards integrating tens of thousands of women into Church leadership throughout congregations in all the world. Continue reading →

in my continued reading of the book “Discourses in Mormon Theology” (ed James McLachlan), covering several topics from the initial 2004  conference of the Society of Mormon Theology and Philosophy (SMTP), I cover an article by Dennis Potter (UVSC) on Liberation Theology.

Dennis gives a generous overview of what Liberation Theology is.  He focused on the events of 4 Nephi, where the people had their hearts knit together in unity, sharing all things in common, and having no poor nor rich among them.  Sounds enticing, doesn’t it?  People coming together as a mandate from God to share all things and erasing poverty from the earth.

And it is a mandate. Sort of. As we are asked to consecrate ourselves in the temple to the Lord and his service.

Unfortunately, Dennis only gives a part of the story on Liberation Theology. Continue reading →