Church doctrine changes. Period. Some people get in a huff about this. I think that this is, perhaps, the result of a constrained perspective. The Church hierarchy, by common consent, has three divine mandates: to receive revelations for the body of the Church, to govern the Church (i.e., the rights of presidency), and to administer priesthood ordinances (baptism, sacrament, bestowal of the Holy Ghost, Temple). These three things don’t preclude changing doctrine. (more…)

Perhaps I have beaten this subject to death. But I have one final rant about the students. That problem is that students dont read anymore. There, i said it. I have had functionally illiterate students in class (I mean besides the athletes). Why are illiterate people in college? They have been passed on through non-functioning school systems. Don’t yell at me about people with learning disabilities. I know, I know. I provide every opportunity for disabled students. But there are plenty who just can’t read. (more…)

Okay, I have to admit, maybe alot of the problem is my fault. You see, I confuse students. They have been brain-washed to think that that need to crawl inside my brain and answer as they think I would. Doing that with me is virtually impossible, and usually the wrong answer to boot. (more…)

As discussed previously here at Splendid Sun, there is a dynamism in the administration of Temple ordinances. A fascinating example of this is recounted by Joseph C. Kingsbury. The following is the outline of his experience as presented in his diary (1): (more…)

Well, the results came back from the second exam, and the results were less than stellar. I expected the first exam to have a low average (66%–I write the first exam a little harder to motivate the students), but on the second, they sunk to new lows (64%). As soon as the scores were posted, I was inundated with furious e-mails and catclls from the back row. “I am a Junior and I have never gotten lower than an A” and the ever favorite “I came to every class and still only got a C”. When I asked the students who were vociferous in their condemnation to come see me during my office hours so we could go over their exams and their notes they usually declined. “I don’t take notes, thats why I come to class” and again the “You go too fast, I can’t take notes quickly enough…you should give us outlines”. (more…)

We live in an age of equity. It is not surprising that concepts of birthright and inheritance in the Old Testament are incongruous with our enlightened existence. Perhaps, in light of Joseph Smiths temple theology, a connection can be drawn between them and us, though attenuated with time. (more…)

OK, I realize a post on censorship is nothing new. And yet, I’m continually bugged by the sanctimonious railing against it as if it were always evil, and the worst of evils. The fact is, our current bias against it is a product of culture. (more…)

In a current Times and Seasons post there is a discussion of the definition of terrorism. As this is my primary research interest, I thought it might be helpful to expound on my own personal definition here in this forum. (more…)

My son turned 12 and became a deacon this last month. I was and am very proud of him and his choices and decisions. He is as worthy a young man as ever recieved the priesthood (he had personally read the book of mormon before his baptism). However, in my studies of the Doctrine and Covenants, nowhere do I find reference to young men recieving the Aaronic Priesthood. Indeed, the references I find typically address adults being given the Aaronic Priesthood. The responsibilities of the Aaronic Priesthood are great. I must admit to wondering why young men who mostly do not understand the implications nor the resposibilities are given the priesthood. (more…)

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague of mine at work that was cause for more deep reflection than I had thought initially necessary. As has been mentioned on this blog before, I am a Neonatologist who works in a high level neonatal intensive care unit. An unfortunate part of my job includes dealing with the inevitable demise of fatally ill infants and the repercussions as it affects their families. In situations when death is unavoidable or preferable, it is not uncommon for families to request to have either the hospital chaplain or their own clergy baptize the newborn before the end. (more…)

I was once in a choir that was preparing a piece for a ward fireside. As we practiced, the director became quite emphatic about our vowels. While the number was not a hymn, at least strictly speaking, she complained that our “pop-y” vowels couldn’t possibly carry the spirit. (more…)

I recently read a post that J. Stapley responded to where he misspelled the word “bureaucracy”. I had to laugh. J. served a mission in France and yet even he had a problem spelling the English word derived from the French bureaucratie.

My children have both been their class representatives in their school/district spelling bees. When they have problems spelling a word, inevitably they murmer “must be French”. The fact is, French contributions to English are hard to spell. There are all these extra letters that are never pronounced. Whats the use? (more…)

I was recently teaching a course on International Defense Policy in the US and we were discussing the honor code that the military was expected to live by. Certainly this honor code is more stringent than what is expected of society in general. Adultery as well as academic misconduct such as cheating on tests or papers is forbidden serving officers. The consensus was that the concept of an honor code was outdated. I then proceeded to ask the students if they had ever cheated in High School or College (which was defined as cheating of a test, using other’s work, or plagiarism on papers). 95 percent of them had cheated (this included ROTC Cadets). When I asked them about cheating, the sentiment was that everyone cheated and if they didn’t they wouldn’t be able to compete. Besides, it’s “so easy”. My finding seemed to be backed by the center for academic Integrity…their research found 80% of students cheat. (more…)

The garden of Mormonism is poetic and primal. A place of purpose – where we shed the shell of innocence, where we stretch the wings of new wisdom. There are many gardens in the Mormon narrative and perhaps the most controversial and obscure is Brigham’s, though it too is beautiful. (more…)

Recently, the health department and schools in the area have sent out notices that pertussis has been identified in our county. Pertussis, better known as whooping cough, is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. While it often mimics the symptoms of a cold, it is highly communicable and especially dangerous to children. There have been documented deaths related to this outbreak. Children receive an inoculation against pertussis in conjunction with tetanus and diphtheria. (more…)

Recently, a member of my wife’s family took their son out of school in order to home school. Their reasons were perfectly valid…they were in a district in Utah that was so stressed that their son’s needs were not being met. He has medically documented needs, but the teacher was so stretched that she could not see to them. As my sister-in-law was signing the documents, the teacher said, “I can’t help but think this was all my fault.” She was right and yet there are other factors as well. Utah ranks the lowest of all states in per pupil spending: $4,331.00 compared to the national average of $6,835.00.[1] The national teacher/pupil ratio average is 15.9, but Utah’s is 22.4.[2] Finally, the average teacher pay in Utah is $38,268.00, while the national average is $45,771.00.[3] Especially given the concentration of church members in Utah, I think I can safely say shame on Utah for its failures in something that the church has emphasized as important for all its members. (more…)

As a follow up to my last two posts, I wanted to comment on something that was said to us often in our ordeals:

“Don’t worry too much. The Lord has said he won’t give us more than we can bear.”

The problem is, He never said that. The correct reference is 1 Corinthians 10:13

“…But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

The Lord never said that we wouldn’t face obstacles in our lives that we couldn’t overcome. I think that the vast number of Saints don’t understand this principle and are hasty to judge those in the throes of unbearable pain.

Sealings for Mormons are the ultimate sacraments. Man and woman, parent and child cast together by the fire of Elijah’s spirit. Modern Mormons expect the systematic temple liturgy to alloy them in the Abrahamic order. Perhaps surprisingly, this standard was not apparent during the lifetime of the Prophet; moreover, while Temples remained sparse through to the 20th century, the liturgy remained dynamic. (more…)

One of the big problems facing those inflicted with infertility is the lack of clear teaching/doctrine about infertility. The pourpose of this post will be to pose some of the questions we faced and appeal to the bloggernacle for clarification in doctrine, et al. I will also give my understanding of the answers.

1. When does life start? When my wife had her tubal (see previous post), the fallopian tube actually burst, putting her life in danger. When the doctors went in to rectify the situation, they found that the only reason that she didn’t bleed out was that the foetus had lodged against the burst, exerting pressure on the rupture and stemming the bleeding. At the time I knew that I had lost a child, but even in the act of loosing the child, I felt a sense of sacrifice to save my wife. (more…)

The following is my wife and my true story of infertility. It is a sensitive subject and one I have been reticent to share. However, in this story there are many important subjects that deserve to be talked about.

My wife and I are both active members of the church. We both served missions and have testimonies of the gospel. My wife is the oldest daughter of 11 kids and always pictured she would be the mother of a large family. We met at BYU and I finished up a year after we were married. We felt it was responsible to wait to start a family as we had no real income of our own. We employed responsible birth control. I graduated and started the quest for a job and benefits. Within the next year I was to face an illness which threatened to end my life as well as our family. As I was scrambling out of the effects of my illness, we decided we could no longer wait and started trying to have a child. We were a little surprised that we did not get immediately pregnant. After all, the result of unprotected sex is pregnancy, right? However, eventually (within a year) we were successful and my wife got pregnant. I finally became healthy enough to work again and landed a decent job. (more…)

Minuit Chr