As I’ve observed before, Mormons are a goal-setting people.  It’s pretty much unheard of to have an organization in the church which doesn’t have yearly goals and possibly monthly and weekly goals as well.  As a missionary, I learned that goals were practically part of the gospel.  We set goals every month and we were expected to meet them or know the reason why.  I believe in goals, and enjoy setting yearly goals for myself and trying to meet them.  Even if I don’t get there, I like knowing that it’s something I’m working toward, and if I do get there, I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment I get from that.

But then we had a meeting about ward mission goals. (more…)

There has been an astonishing dearth in the bloggernacle over the years. Not a dearth of bread or of water, but of hearing about the School of the Prophets. That shining institution set on the hill in Salt Lake City, which our beloved prophets founded and attended, and which has distinguished itself so well lately in the magnificent game of football.  I speak, of course, of the University of Utah, and its football team. (more…)

As I thought might happen, the text version of Elder Packer’s controversial talk from conference was changed from the spoken version.  There are two (in my view) very important changes made to the text at the most controversial passage of the talk.  I want to discuss what the changes mean, whether you think they went too far or not far enough, and any other thoughts you might have about the changes. 

UPDATE: The full transcript, with changes shown, is available at Mormons for Marriage. HT: Heather.

Here are the two versions of the talk:

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This talk was given in the priesthood session and is a simple talk, as great ones often are. Eyring is a perennial favorite of mine, along with the obvious ones like Holland and Uchtdorf.

I loved this talk more because of the feeling I had at the end, rather than any particular thing that was said, but it seemed to me to give a glimpse of so many things that I love about the gospel, especially because, when we talk about the gospel as designed for our happiness, we aren’t talking about just a happiness in the eternal world, or an abstract concept of happiness, we’re talking about real honest happiness and basic cheerfulness that can be a real part of our everyday lives right now, and by which we can bless the lives of others.

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Come one come all to a bloggersnacker in SLC this weekend. Those who are in town for oh, whatever, and would like to hang out for a while, please let me know!

markcquinn at comcast dot net

Thanks!

A lot has been said over the last few days about Elder Jensen’s apology. A major strand of those conversations has revolved around the idea of how to best effectuate “Change” in our church. There are those, mostly outside of the Church, suggesting that change will only happen from (surprise, surprise!) outside pressures. Then there are those who are mostly within the Church suggesting that change will only happen from within. I must say that I’m shocked, SHOCKED that the two sides disagree on this point. (more…)

This recent thread at Feminist Mormon Housewives bugged me (shocker, I know). The post itself was fine, asking readers for questions that would be asked of a Seventy at an upcoming stake conference. Okay. But most of the submitted questions were one of two types: (more…)

I’m forming a hypothesis. (this is my escape clause in case you find it lacking signs of intelligence)

I just returned from SLC where I had wonderful visits with old friends, new friends, and blog friends. John Dehlin’s family exceeds the definition of graciousness and delight. MCQ and ARJ’s mountain biking prowess (and bikes!) are my new source of jealousy. And Silus Grok continues to charm and captivate us blubbering posers.

But it was in the presence of old people that I had my epiphany. (more…)

Rusty was in my neck of the woods last weekend, so we got together at my place with Silus and a random John for some fine talk, fine treats, and to solve the world’s problems.  You’ll be glad to know that we’ve got it all figured out.  The answer is 42. (more…)

I was recently discussing prayer with my 16 year old son and he mentioned that he has found himself saying the same things over and over again in his personal prayers, which seemed silly and un-spiritual to him.  He felt he was getting nothing out of these repetitious prayers and that the Lord was probably not happy with them either.  His remedy for that was to simply stop saying any more personal prayers until he had something important to say.  Sort of like telling the Lord that no news is good news. (more…)

This has been bugging me for several days now. We are having a family reunion and while the whole family is here we are going to bless a baby.

I asked permission of the Bishop (since it won’t be a regular Fast Sunday) he said no problem just let the executive sec. know – which I did.

The Exe. sec. called me to confirm and tell me that the father would need to come early to fill out some paperwork and that those who plan on being in the circle must have a current Temple recommend.

I have one son who is an Elder but is not endowed yet. He has a current limited temple recommend for baptisms only. (In fact I arranged with the temple president to do a special family baptism while everyone is here and this son is obviously included).

Anyway I wanted to make sure there weren’t going to be any embarrassing last minute glitches, so I told the Bishop everyone would have their recommends but one is not endowed. He asked me to get the name of the Ward and the name of the Bishop of my son’s ward so he could give him a call.

I was a bit stunned, but didn’t say anything. Now I kind of wish I had.

Why does my Bishop think he needs to check-up on this son? Isn’t a temple recommend a temple recommend? Since when do Bishops need to check up on Temple recommend holders coming to their ward and why does it take a special call just to stand in a circle with other Mel. Priesthood holder’s for a baby blessing?

If this son is worthy enough to go to the temple and do baptisms then isn’t he worthy enough to stand in the circle?

My son just moved into his current ward about a month ago, his Bishop didn’t issue the recommend and barely knows who he is. And his Bishop was going out of town this week, so my Bishop may not even be able to speak with him.

So should I say something, should I just let the chips fall where they may and hope there’s no problem or what?

In the October 2009 conference of the church, I heard something that I had never heard before. An apostle revealed one of his past transgressions. (more…)

When I was a kid, I had an LDS friend whose grandfather served during World War I and had, for a while, been assigned to the firing squad. He would brag to me (more than once) that he was proud to say he never killed a man while on that duty. When the command was given to “Aim!” he’d point his rifle slightly to the side of the prisoner, so when it was time to “Fire!” he’d always miss. Of course, others in the squad would aim accurately and kill the man, but the grandfather’s conscience was clear. He said he knew the feel of a live round, and he wasn’t about to find out after the fact if he had one. He was pretty tickled, too, about how he had fooled the army. Unfortunately, when he confessed it to his bishop, it cost him his recommend (dishonesty, disobedience, dishonor, something like that) and got him a major tongue-lashing. He never regretted his choice, though and, of course, he did eventually get another recommend.

Personally, I can’t see the Lord agreeing with the bishop on this one.

I really enjoyed the Banner of Heaven retrospective that Scott B at BCC put together (most of it appears here), and I have been thinking about it and gathering my thoughts ever since it ended. 

Mostly, I think the retrospective was an interesting historical look back at a time and an event that was an important watershed in the bloggernacle.  It’s something that will always engender some controversy and both good and bad feelings on the part of those who were participants in the drama, and also those who got involved after the fact.  I thought Scott did a good job of presenting all sides, but there was something missing in the end.  I would like to hear from people about the answers to a few questions that were raised by the final podcast with Steve Evans and which I posed over in the thread following the podcast at Bloggernacle Times.  No one really bothered to try to answer them there, so I’d like to try it over here to see if we can get a more relevant discussion going ( I swear I will delete any references to the Song of Solomon).  Here are the questions (feel free to add to this list if you want) and my answers: (more…)

I love top-5 lists as much as anyone, but this post only serves up the problems without offering any practical solutions. So let’s pretend that part of your stake calling is to strive to improve the quality of speaking in Sacrament meetings across the stake. What do you do?

A few points to consider:
- You hold no authority over the speakers nor those whom are primarily responsible for the quality of Sacrament meetings (bishops/bishoprics).
- Generally (those who are willing) adult members each speak around once a year.
- This isn’t about music, it’s about speaking.
- This isn’t about teachers, it’s about speaking.
- The wards are diverse in culture, language, age, knowledge, experience, and speaking ability.
- Bishops/bishoprics aren’t necessarily the best speakers in their wards.

Ideas? Solutions?