Posts

Freedom from...

I was thinking about the famous speech of Franklin Roosevelt, where he speaks of a future where we will all be free from many of the unpredictable pitfalls of life. I realized that this marked a critical transition in the history of the United States, when freedom became replaced by "freedom from." It represented a shift of focus from the citizenry and the sovereignty of the individual, to the preeminence of the state and its role as caretaker. The principles of natural rights - which weighed heavily with Enlightenment thinkers and America's founders - were eclipsed by the concept of entitlements. While it's true that the first two of Roosevelt's "four freedoms" are anchored in the Enlightenment and the US Constitution, the intent was to present the 'new freedoms' - or New Deal, if you will - as a natural extension of the constitutional ideals. Interestingly, property rights receive no mention among the essential freedoms. Instead, the emphasi

The Fabric of our Lives

We just finished watching the General Conference for our Church, and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts. Every year, in April and October we have a televised conference where some of the men and women who serve in leadership positions in the church give sermons, which we call "talks". Since we don't have a television provider, we watch it over the internet, streamed from lds.org. Perhaps the talk that had the greatest impression on me was the one given Sunday morning by Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  President Uchtdorf is one of two counsellors to President Thomas S. Monson, who is the president of the Church, and a prophet of God. These three men form what we call the First Presidency, and perform the same function that was performed in New Testament times by Peter, James, and John. President Uchtdorf is himself, like James and John, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  With that explanation out of the way, President Uchtdorf spoke of those times when it seems that &q

What Is Love?

At church today we were discussing what love is, and I thought I'd write down some of my thoughts on the matter. So what is love? What an ambiguous word. It can mean so many disparate things, that often have little to do with one another. Granted, the English language severely limits our expression in this regard. It's not the only language that forces such a general vocabulary for endearment, but there are certainly languages that provide a richer lexicon on the subject. So many things are called love that are, in fact, far from it. But then, how do we define love? I'll use divine love as the defining standard here, which should provide some clarity. Some call it “unconditional love,” but it is never described this way in the holy scriptures. I've never liked this term because of the baggage that it tends to carry with it. It's too often distorted to accommodate personal and institutional agendas. Instead, the scriptures refer to God's love as “perfect love

Mormons, Ritual Worship, and Other Mysterious Things

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One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly among those of other Christian faiths, is our emphasis on ritual. This certainly contributes to the sense of mistrust felt by some protestants toward Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons). Of course, the Catholic faith and the various Orthodox churches contain a great deal of ritual. However, the Latter-day Saints are probably unique in the amount of direct participation by ordinary church members in ritual worship. Before I go further, I'll clarify some terminology, as I have done previously. The name of our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The short form of this is the Church of Jesus Christ or, less formally, the LDS Church. Members of our church are called Latter-day Saints, or sometimes “the LDS people.” Terms such as Mormons, Mormonism, or “the Mormon Church,” are incorrect. These are nicknames given to us by others because of our bel

Pastor Jeffress defends 'Mormonism is a cult' comment

Watch the interview here . While members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are often called Mormons, this is not the correct name for our Church or its members. Admittedly, we have a long name. However, the correct short name for our church is the Church of Jesus Christ, not the Mormon Church. This is the name I will use throughout this blog, when I do not use the Church's full name. Instead of Mormons, members of the church are correctly called latter-day saints. This is why we are often called the LDS Church. This does not imply that we are all saints as the word is commonly used. Rather, it simply means that we are the Lord's covenant people, which is the same way the word is used in the Bible. So now let's talk about Pastor Jeffress' interview with the BBC, and his comments about Mormonism. Is it true that Mormonism isn't Christianity, and that Mormons aren't Christians? First of all, we need to be careful about terminology. Without a commo