Mormon Life - Opinions & Features

BYU Devotional: "Harvey and Howard: Lessons From Two Grandfathers"

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:24:00 -0700

source: news.byu.edu

Thomas H. Fletcher, a professor in the Brigham Young University Chemical Engineering Department, addressed students Tuesday in a campus devotional address he called, “Harvey and Howard: Lessons from Two Grandfathers.”

Fletcher is the grandson of Harvey Fletcher, whom the university honored during Homecoming Week in 2010. Though Harvey was a renowned scientist, Fletcher’s message was that he learned lessons from both this famous grandfather and his other grandfather, a man named Howard Tonks, who quietly raised his family and worked on a farm his entire life.

From his two grandfathers, he learned the following lessons:

Togetherness, not fairness, should rule

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:19:00 -0700

source: MormonTimes.com

Over the past few weeks, I've been traveling from bookstore to bookstore chatting about the Prodigal Son.

I'd tell you why, but that would be too self-serving.

(OK, one hint: It has to do with my new book, "Rescued," about my years as a prodigal.)

As people would come in each store, I'd start talking with them about my experience.

'Why I'm a Mormon': Stephanie Nielson

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:13:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: Love her. Editor's note: This is an excerpt from "Why I'm a Mormon" edited by Joseph A. Cannon, which includes the testimonies of 53 influential members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Being a Mormon means that I know who I am, I know where I am going, and I know, understand, and love the plan that has been laid out for families, particularly mine.

The Mormon church helps us understand that living as a family is God's plan, and we are taught how to rear our children in righteousness, following the Savior's example. This knowledge has changed the way I teach my children, how serious it is to me that they know and understand good choices versus bad ones and the consequences of each.

Wright Words: You know I'm a Mormon, but do you know why?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:23:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

It’s hard to believe nearly two years have passed since I wrote the column, “Author Jason Wright confesses, 'I am a Mormon.’ ” To this day, it remains one of my favorites.

The piece was a public realization that I’d spent too long simply waiting for people to ask me my religion, rather than volunteering it as a major component of who I am and where I come from. For years I treaded lightly around religion because the majority of my readers are members of other faiths. It’s ironic that in my efforts to avoid offending people over differing religious beliefs, I was offending the God we share in common.

President Hugh B. Brown’s Most Famous Statement

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:06:00 -0700

source: keepapitchinin.org

One of the best-known, most famous of General Authority statements is Hugh B. Brown’s admonition to BYU students during a May 13, 1969, campus-wide Devotional that “We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts.” Brown, at the time, was First Counselor to Church President David O. McKay. Few other “official” statements articulate so succinctly the Church’s commitment to freedom of the mind.

Does it, should it, matter that President Brown never actually spoke those words?

Reader Voices: LDS Church's welfare plan was pattern in a 1930s Virginia community

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:49:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

One of the best things about living in a historic house is learning about the generations of its former inhabitants. Our Virginia home, part of which dates to the Colonial era, is rich in history; but we've learned of a connection with the Welfare Program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from a former employee and friend of the family who implemented the plan. Dykeland, in Amelia County, Va., is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. It is notable for its mid-19th century owner Lewis Edwin Harvie, a state senator and ardent secessionist. It was Harvie who first introduced the bill of secession in the Virginia State legislature. The bill was rejected initially, since Virginia was reluctant to go to war, only to be reintroduced and passed after the firing upon Fort Sumpter in South Carolina.

Mormon Helping Hands revitalizes school in Brazil

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:16:00 -0700

source: news.lds.org

Approximately 50 Mormon Helping Hands volunteers—including members of the Church, their friends, and Latter-day Saint missionaries missionaries—mobilized on Saturday, January 21, 2012, to help clean, weed, and otherwise revitalize Ivone Maria Menezes, a state school in Macapá, Brazil.

The activity, coordinated by the school board and organized by the Macapá Brazil Amapá District’s public affairs director, Kleber Sainz, drew attention and coverage from several local media outlets.

A jubilee year for missionary language instruction

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:22:00 -0700

source: ldschurchnews.com

Three years after the Church was organized, the Lord decreed that "every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power" (Doctrine and Covenants 90:11).

Today's missionary training centers — including the first one established 37 years ago in Provo, Utah — help fulfill that prophecy and are the culmination of a modest effort that began 50 years ago this past December.

LDS scholars share perspective on Mormonism

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:31:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Several prominent LDS scholars are joining in the national conversation about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sharing their views and perspectives as Mormonism continues to shine in the media spotlight.

Matthew Bowman, an LDS Church member who holds a doctorate in U.S. religious history from Georgetown University and who is a visiting assistant professor of religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, went on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program to talk about his new book, "The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith."

Mormon Media Observer: Religion writing seeing noticeable improvement

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:21:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

In the late 1990s, Trinity College professor Dr. Mark Silk wrote a powerful book about news and religion coverage. Like so many other authors before him, he seemed to bemoan the quality of news coverage of religion.

The traditional complaint about news coverage of religion was — and continues to be — that news reporters are secular, and more irreligious in their outlook.

You need only look at a 2007 report by the Pew Charitable Trust to see that news reporters tend to be significantly less religious than their fellow Americans outside the newsroom.

Traditional Christianity and the Latter-day Saints

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:15:00 -0700

source: Newsroom.lds.org

Mormon Life says: The author answers a few frequently asked questions about the LDS Church. The following is an essay by Robert L. Millet, professor of religion and emeritus dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.

The issue of whether Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are Christian is not a new one, but the current media climate has caused the question to be revisited in both private and public conversations. No matter the circumstances, the underlying question is an important one and a matter whose implications reach well beyond the momentary news cycle.

RootsTech speaker predicts 7 billion to participate in genealogy

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:09:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

By 2060 nearly 7 billion people will participate in family history, FamilySearch’s former Chief Executive Officer Jay Verkler told attendees at RootsTech.

FamilySearch has grown 3 percent per year, said Verkler, who retired last month. He is being replaced by Dennis Brimhall. The future and growth of family history work was the central topic at Thursday morning's keynote address at RootsTech, an annual conference on family history and technology that is held in Salt Lake City.

Answering questions about marriage and family

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:38:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Last week we wrote about the importance of distinguishing between people who are "interested" in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and should be invited to have the missionaries and those who are merely "curious" and need a thoughtful and well-worded answer to a question they have.

Often the quality of our answers to questions can determine whether someone comes to view the church favorably; and sometimes a clear and accurate answer can even help curiosity turn into interest.

A week ago, we offered the wording we use when we are asked (or challenged) with questions about whether Mormons are Christian.

Never been on a date? LDS singles' experiences provide tips, skills

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:31:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: There's also a printable quiz to see how experienced you are as a dater. For LDS singles, going out on a first date is a rite of passage. It is viewed as an activity that should be simultaneously fun and purposeful. A February 2011 study of Utah Valley University students indicated that both men and women who dated did so about three times a month.

Surprisingly, the study indicated that about 16 percent of UVU students had not yet dated. Many of them were freshmen.

What is the best advice for the brand-new Latter-day Saint dater?

Elder Cook Expresses Love to Members in Australia, New Zealand—Part 2

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:14:00 -0700

source: news.lds.org

Following a visit to Sydney, Australia, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles traveled to meet with members, missionaries, and local officials in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in Melbourne and Auckland in Australia.

Accompanying Elder Cook were his wife, Mary, and other Church leaders and their wives: Tad R. Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop Keith B. McMullin of the Presiding Bishopric, and members of the Pacific Area Presidency—Elder James J. Hamula, Elder Kevin W. Pearson, and Elder F. Michael Watson of the Seventy.

Former missionaries return to Ecuador to serve 20 years later

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:42:00 -0700

source: news.lds.org

It’s Friday afternoon when the two dozen or so children who attend Control de Tareas (Homework Control) at the Annika Tutoring Center in Guayaquil, Ecuador, exit the facility.

In years past, the center, run by the Fundación por Ayuda Humanitaria (Foundation for Humanitarian Aid—FAHUM), could accommodate as many as 300 children, but recent economic struggles and a reduction in donations necessitated cutbacks, allowing only 50 to attend.

During a 2011 humanitarian trip organized by 20 former missionaries of the Ecuador Guayaquil South mission, however, the Annika Tutoring Center was able to add a second floor to the facility and increase its total attendance to more than 75 children on average.

Service brings magical rewards

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:40:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

There is something magical about the combination of helping others while receiving nothing tangible in return that gets into your soul and takes you on a magical journey.

Jessica Braithwaite is a mother of five, lives in Highland, Utah, and has been on many magical journeys throughout her life.

I met Jessica four years ago as she volunteered at my annual basketball camp. She was busy helping children sign up, get their T-shirts, name tags and welcome them to camp.

Readers' forum: Politics and religion

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:24:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

I was very heartened by the Christlike attitude shown by Pasor Joel Osteen of the Lake Wood Church, Houston, Texas.

During an interview on CBS he stated that Mitt Romney in his view, is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and although there exists differences between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and mainstream Christianity, those issues were not a problem for him.

When is it OK for girls to be mean? When standards are on the line

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:21:00 -0700

source: MormonTimes.com

Raising three teenage daughters is no picnic, but has, on occasion, been a feast of opportunities to grow, stretch and parent much differently than we planned.

When our girls were young, school was a breeze and they had few academic challenges. So my husband and I often spent parent-teacher conferences asking about their social skills.

“Is she nice to other kids in your class?”

Joy found in stabs of 'divine homesickness'

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:10:00 -0700

source: deseretnews.com

A central theme in C.S. Lewis' autobiographical book "Surprised by Joy" — and the obvious source of its title — is what he terms "Joy."

Yet Lewis struggles to convey what he means. "Longing," he calls it, sometimes using the evocative German synonym "Sehnsucht." He describes fleeting instants when, encountering a landscape or phrase or musical passage, he suddenly and unexpectedly "desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described."