I served a mission in France and Belgium and it was there that I began to understand the consequences of war. It was there that I first saw in innumerable rows of white. Verdun, her rolling hills capped with a chapel to the dead. The windows that let you gaze upon the anonymous bones. The neighboring city that was no more – only a memorial chapel and pock marks instead of pedestrians. Calais with her white cliffs. The bunkers remained. (more…)

There is a persistent meme in the bloggernacle that chronicles the social dysfunction of the heterodox within the church. I, myself, am rather heterodox; however, I seem to enjoy full fellowship in the kingdom. So gather ‘round. The time has come to share three simple rules, that you too can enjoy the fullness of our community. (Streaming audio training seminars are $25.00 and come with free Ginsu knife!) (more…)

Zina D. Huntington is an important figure in early Church history. As many in their time, both Zina and her mother, Zina Baker, exercised great spiritual gifts. More specifically, they pushed the envelope of their faith in a manner that yielded extraordinary manifestations of God’s power. A few of these experiences were so puissant that their hearts quailed. Perhaps these events are illustrative of an overall cultural willingness to explore the power of the Spirit, which exploration resulted in the rich empirical bounty of our early Saints. (more…)

My whole life it seems that I have been conditioned to distance myself from the Leaders of the Church. All matters are to be handled locally. This condition is reinforced in the mission field where the white handbook explicitly proscribes communicating with the General Authorities. This is why I have been intrigued by President Hinkley’s recent addresses – he has read letters…written to him…by members of the Church. (more…)

Provoked by a controversial passage in the McKay Biography review and in an effort to leverage some of my professional training, I offer a brief overview of caffeine. Over the 20th century, Mormons ascribed varying degrees of importance to the compound. While many Mormons view caffeine as falling under the prohibitions of the word of wisdom, Temple recommends are denied only to the imbiber of coffee and tea. The following will review caffeine’s prevalence in our diets and any health risks associated with its consumption. (more…)

This post is not making a political statement. I want to address the recent hubub (I can’t find a headline right now. If you have one, I’d be glad to have one here, but I don’t even know what search terms I’d use.) about the church where the pastor told everyone they had to vote for Bush. Eventually, he created enough pressure that the members voted out members who openly opposed him on this. (more…)

I have followed the recent reports of violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As I consider the acts that catalyzed this violence – the purported desecration of a Koran by an interrogator in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility – I return frequently to the accounts of the 1994 Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson Concert in Salt Lake City. (more…)

In countless testimony meetings, I have heard witness that the Church and the Spirit are the same wherever you go. People find the continuity of lesson manuals and hymnals across continents reassuring. The more I have studied our history, however, the more I realize how things have changed. The Church may be the same here as in Paris (okay, maybe not the same), but it is not the same today as it was yesterday. I propose that some general changes in the Church are a reflection of a declining sense of community, as illustrated by certain changes in temple ordinances. I realize that this is a sacred topic and ask that any comments be respectful of such sensibilities. (more…)

It’s Mother’s Day, and this Mother’s Day, I’m very thankful for my wife. My question, however, has as much or more to do with fathers. I want to know if there is a male equivalent to the mother heart. (more…)

While preparing for some previous posts, I stumbled across several statements by Heber J. Grant that were noteworthy. Heber was self-declared member of the Democratic party. As President of the Church he endorsed government policies, but decried politics. The following is a selection of his lamentations on the subject during General Conference. (more…)