Here’s a significant newspaper opinion piece on an often controversial and divisive subject:
“The church and LGBT youth suicide: Inaccurate claims may do more harm than good”
And let’s continue, for a moment, on the topic of the Church and gay issues:
“Of Convocations and Coming Out”
***
And, while we’re on controversial issues, here’s another:
“‘Apostate’ Book of Mormon Geography”
I’m sorry to see contention among members of the Church — especially when that contention centers on what is, after all, an issue of at most secondary importance. I’ve been on the receiving end of “Heartlander” attacks, both public and private, some of them remarkably nasty and abusive, for quite some time. So, in that sense, I’m not displeased to see that certain members of the Church (I don’t know who they are; I don’t even have a hunch or a suspicion) have begun to respond to similar attacks. Here are some examples of such responses:
“Jonathan Neville’s staggering lack of self-awareness”
“Jonathan Neville and the art of psychological projection”
“Neville’s “any stick with which to beat them” approach backfires”
“Neville’s reviews of ‘Mormon’s Codex’ now zero for five”
“If it’s so obvious, where is the evidence, Brother Neville?”
I certainly don’t accuse all “Heartlanders” of being abusive and personally insulting — although I disagree with their views on the geography of the Book of Mormon, I would never for a moment dispute the fact that many if not most of them are sincere believers and kind people — but I do genuinely worry about advocacy of the “Heartland” geographical model potentially turning into a kind of schismatic cult.
I find myself thinking, in this regard, of a famous quotation that’s often incorrectly attributed to St. Augustine but that actually comes from a rather obscure heretic who doesn’t appear to have taken his own principle to heart:
In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas.
It has been translated in various ways, among them:
“Unity in necessary things; freedom in doubtful things; love in all things”
and
“In necessary things unity; in uncertain things liberty; in all things charity.”
***
And here’s yet another potentially controversial issue:
“Church Honors NAACP for Advancing Equality and Justice in Society”
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Finally, for a change, I give you something that’s not very controversial but, instead, is just plain pleasant. Good news:
“Groundbreaking Held for Second Ecuador Temple”
Posted from Luxor, Egypt
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