Guest Author
Browsing Category
judging
8 posts
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Nephi expound on JOY (The lies our culture tells us about what matters — and a better way to live)
“Joy is not the expansion of self, it’s the dissolving of self.”
The restoration was MESSY (and that’s OK)
Matthew Watkins
Years ago, I heard a Bishop say: “Brothers and sisters, the restoration was messy.” I didn’t think much about his wording at the time. But over the few years following (including my mission), I encountered a lot of people wanting to “educate” me about early Church leaders. Joseph Smith was the most common target, of course. They cited all sorts of stories about him that seemingly “proved” he was a lying, womanizing con man.
I mostly brushed off these claims during my mission. Those critics were not historians. I knew their agenda. I figured they were mostly lies, or at least huge distortions of the history. So, when I got home from my mission, I bought an 800-page history of Joseph Smith. It was written by an active stake patriarch and Church historian who worked on the Joseph Smith Papers project, so I figured his book would blow away all those false accusations with the fiery testimony of truth.
But I was surprised to find that instead of tearing down all the stories the critics had told me, history largely confirmed them. And you know what? That’s OK!
MillennialMormon: how focusing not just on the true name of the church is necessary but can also help us focus on being true Christians
We talk all about our frustrations that come along with “Mormon” culture and how focusing not just on the true name of the church is necessary but can also help us focus on being true Christians.
Michael McClean’s faith crisis (If you have doubts, you’re not alone)
dyejo
Does being a “molebrity” (Mormon celebrity) make you immune from faith crises? Apparently not . . . See what Michael McClean (of THE FORGOTTEN CAROLS fame) says about he overcame…
What I know of grace, I learned from my mother–watch this AMAZING rendition of AMAZING GRACE sung by THE GARAGE GUYS
“What I know of grace, I learned from my mother. That kind of love cannot be defined. But I can feel it when I sing. It is the feeling I had while singing this arrangement of Amazing Grace with my friends. And I can tell you that as we sang, my heart wanted to break wide open with joy.”
The Place for Gays Inside the Mormon Church (by Greg Trimble)
Homosexuals need to know that they absolutely have a place in the church.
“We’re still family”—one LDS family’s journey learning to accept and love their LGBT son
Becky and Scott Mackintosh have loved their son as he has grown up, served a mission, come out as gay, and left the faith he was raised in. The entire family has learned to love in new, more inclusive ways.
Cultural judgments involving missionaries persist (THE DAILY UNIVERSE)
“As human beings, we really like simple frames of references,” Finlayson-Fife said. “Not just Mormons, but as human beings in general. We like ways to quickly assess if someone is good or bad, or like us or not like us.”
