LDS Church News Conference on Balancing Religious Rights with LGBT Rights

Mormon_Leaders_Call_for_Laws

This morning, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held a news conference to make a statement regarding Laws, Religious Rights, and the Individual Rights of people who identify as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender).

Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Twelve Apostles of the church, introduced the conference, saying that such news conferences are relatively infrequent and usually called only to make an announcement or when they have something significant to say. He clarified that no changes in doctrine or policy were being announced, but that the church did have something significant to say regarding the increased tensions between advocates of religious rights and advocates of gay rights.

Short statements were then given by Sister Neill F. Marriott of the church’s Young Women general presidency, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Twelve Apostles of the church, and Elder Jeffery R. Holland, also of the Twelve Apostles.

Video of the conference can be viewed at http://youtu.be/iTLVjL7g7LA?t=48m56s (At this time the video appears not to have been edited from the live streaming, so it starts at minute 48:56) .

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LDS Church Releases Video About Temple Clothing and Garments Including Photos

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released an official video about the sacred clothing Mormons wear in the temple and the sacred garments worn by members under their everyday clothing.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/temple-garments

The video is intended for those who are not members of the Church and are curious about this practice and includes photos of our sacred temple clothes and undergarments.

 

The video does an excellent job of contextualizing Mormon practices among other religious traditions and asks those not of our faith to speak respectfully of our sacred clothing as they would about the sacred clothing of their own or other faiths.

My Internet Puppet Show

I hope you will excuse a bit of off-topic self promotion. One of my hobbies is puppetry. It has come up now and then over the years in the blogs and jokes about me and puppetry have sometimes been made in LDS blog circles.

So I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve launched a web-based video series for kids featuring my puppets. It’s called Rusty & Ollie’s Fun, Facts, and Follies.

Check it out.  And please share it with your friends and family.

You can watch a brief introduction to the series here.

And here is the first episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vvFTb93yFM

 

West African Mormon Missionaries Sing Called To Serve

[Cross-Posted from Sixteen Small Stones]

A few years ago my brother, Ben, visited Ghana to do some research into how music, drums, and rhythm are used in traditional practices and shamanism. While he was there he shot a lot of video and during part of the visit he got to go teach with some of the missionaries there.

Even though it’s been a while, he recently rediscovered this video he shot of a couple of Mormon missionaries from West Africa singing the LDS missionary anthem, “Called to Serve” and he just put it up on YouTube.

With all of the potential pop-cultural misperceptions of Mormon missionaries resulting from the “Book of Mormon” Musical, I thought it would be useful to share a taste of real LDS missionaries in Africa.  Enjoy and share!