Mormon Heretic

There are 13 memorials similar to this one dedicated to Utah Highway Patrol Troopers killed in the line of duty.  The Atheist Association Inc of New Jersey, sued to have the crosses removed because they claimed the crosses violated the separation of church and state.  A federal court ruled for the Atheists.  Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on the case, meaning that the crosses likely will need to be removed

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1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Why do LDS leaders spend so much time looking at white shirts, beards, and short hair?

Apparently, General Authorities really care about how we look, even if some of the local leaders don’t want to make a fuss about it.   Read more…

I posted this at Mormon Matters, but since I am not there any more, I wanted to preserve this on my blog.  I loved Greg Prince’s biography of David O McKay.  Under the McKay Administration, correlation of LDS church materials made a great deal of headway.  While correlation has cut down on duplication of church materials, it has become a bit unwieldy. I found a quote by Paul Dunn that discussed how correlation has had some unintended side effects, and he likened these problems to the Supreme Court.  We are all familiar with “legislating from the bench”, and there seems to be a similar problem with correlation.  Paul Dunn gave an interview in 1995 and said on page 158, Read more…

I was driving to work this morning and saw a billboard titled “Remember 9/11″ with an image of the collapsed World Trade Center.  In smaller print on the right, it said “”Stand up and be heard.  No mosque at ground zero.”  You can see the sign on a video at this website.

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I came across this recent article at Christianity Today describing meetings between evangelicals and Mormons.  Here are some interesting excerpts from the article:

LDS president Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors permitted Standing Together, an alliance of 90 Utah evangelical churches, to use the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle for a September 13 revival meeting. Throngs of evangelicals and Mormons enjoyed gospel songs and prayed together.

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I recently made the acquaintance of Morgan Deane, who runs a blog called Warfare and the Book of Mormon.  Morgan is a scholar in Military History, and has used some of his expertise in analyzing some passages in the Book of Mormon as related to warfare.  Here’s what he says about himself on his website.
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Ok, it’s always nice to be creative when proposing.  But hiding the ring in a milkshake, and then having a race to finish the shake is a really bad idea.  Yep, she swallowed it!  You can read more here.  (Oh yeah, they’re LDS.)

Internet anonymity can have both good and bad consqeuences.  Some people can fall in love, yet never meet in person.  Others, can engage in sociopathic behavior that they would not do without the cloak of anonymity.

This blog came about because I wanted to ask provocative questions that I didn’t feel safe to do in church.  So, anonymity has helped me be more truthful than I otherwise would be inclined to be in public.  I will also admit that on occasion, my temper has gotten the best of me, and perhaps I have left some comments on other blogs that could have been phrased in a more polite manner.

I came across this article at MSNBC which talks about Anonymous behavior, both the good and bad (although it concentrates more on the bad.)  So, is anonymity a good thing, a bad thing, or both?

Here in Utah, during the week of the Utah-BYU football game, also known as the “Holy War”, fans on each side and get downright fanatical.  Being the church school, many mormons pretty much bear testimony that BYU is “the Lord’s school”, and that God wants BYU to win.  Fans of Utah get quite upset about this, and complain about BYU fan’s haughty attitude.

It’s always refreshing to me when I discover similar attitudes in other religions.  This article on MSNBC:  Does God care who wins the Super Bowl? even references the Holy War…  Here are some quotes from the article I found particularly interesting.

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Ok, I will confess that I love learning about the Middle East.  I love learning more about Jews, Muslims, Arabs, etc.  I have so much to learn.

I’m a grad student working on some genetic studies (one of my many jobs).  As part of the genetic study we are doing, we have our study participants tell us their race.  In medical studies, different treatments can affect different races quite dramatically.

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There is a new movie out in theaters called Errand of Angels.  A preview can be found here, and it is available in Utah theaters Aug 22.  This will be at least the 3rd5th “Hollywood LDS Missionary” movie, coming since God’s Army, and The Best Two Years, Other Side of Heaven, and States of Grace (God’s Army 2).

I saw this movie at the LDS film festival back in January, so I thought I would give a movie review.

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I want to give a shout-out to my friend April.  She has a blog called Normal Mormons. April is a relatively recent convert living in Idaho, and I have enjoyed hearing her observations about mormons, our sometimes strange culturalisms, and her efforts to become more Christ-like.

I comment on her blog occasionally, and have often commented that nothing really strange happens in my ward.  Well, today we had an unusual event.

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I need a change of pace, so I thought I’d do a little pop culture for a post.

My wife and I went to see the new Indy movie the Friday morning after it came out.  I’m a big Indy fan.  I liked the movie, but it wasn’t as good as #1 or #3, but better than #2.

Anyway, I don’t want any plot spoilers, and I don’t think this is, so if you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to stop reading here, but if you don’t care, read on.

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