![\"Oregon's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/portland-temple-lds-1079112-gallery.jpg\")
<\/a>(LDS Media Library). There will soon be three temples in Oregon, with an additional temple being built across the Columbia River in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I want to call the attention of those who might be in the area on that night that I will be giving a fireside in Beaverton, Oregon (i.e., in the greater Portland area), on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025. \u00a0The tentative title is \u201cA Cloud of Witnesses.\u201d \u00a0(I\u2019ve been asked to speak about the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.) \u00a0The event will take place in a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse \u2014 I believe but am not certain that it is the Beaverton Oregon Stake center \u2014 located at 4195 SW 99th Avenue, Beaverton, Oregon. \u00a0Those who are in the area on that evening will want to plan to be as far away from the epicenter as they can<\/em> be.<\/p>\n This interesting new item, by Jeff Lindsay, was posted today on the never-changing blog of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201cShared Themes Between Doctrine and Covenants 88 and \u201cThe Words of Gad the Seer.\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I glanced through the comments from readers on this article earlier this morning and they seemed to run overwhelmingly \u2014 that is to say, with very, very few exceptions \u2014 to the view, strongly stated, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is wrong on this matter, uncaring toward children, harmful, and perhaps even evil, and that clergy privilege ought to be abolished, with reports to the authorities being legally mandated: \u00a0\u201cLatter-day Saint abuse help line and clergy privilege protect children best, church attorney says:\u00a0\u2018This is as valuable a tool as exists in the world to protect children,\u2019 Randy Austin says at FAIR Conference\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Several commenters seemed to believe that Randy Austin was being either willfully stupid or flatly dishonest.<\/p>\n It seems commonsensical obvious, of course, that requiring clergy to break confidentiality and report sexual abuse to legal authorities would lead to better outcomes for children. \u00a0But surprisingly, as alluded to by Brother Austin, the data seem to contradict that idea. \u00a0Josh Coates has shared the two following links with me:<\/p>\n I love this story, which I saw online yesterday:<\/p>\n The American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut Dr. Owen Garriott (1930-2019) spent sixty days aboard the U.S. Skylab space station in 1973. \u00a0He had brought a cassette tape recorder with him. On it, his wife, Helen, had recorded a few prepared lines that had been specially designed especially for flight controller Robert Crippen, himself an astronaut, back at Mission Control.<\/p>\n One day, right before the usual daily check-in with Earth, the voice from Houston came through:<\/p>\n \u201cSkylab, this is Houston. Do you read?\u201d<\/p>\n Garriott held his cassette player up to the microphone, pressed \u201cplay,\u201d and a woman\u2019s voice came to Houston from orbit high above Earth\u2019s surface:<\/p>\n \u201cGood afternoon, Houston. This is Skylab.\u201d<\/p>\n There was silence. Then came a confused voice from Earth:<\/p>\n \u201cWho is this speaking?\u201d<\/p>\n The female voice replied: \u00a0\u201cHi, Robert. This is Helen\u2014Owen\u2019s wife.\u201d<\/p>\n A long pause followed. \u00a0Then Crippen, clearly panicked, asked: \u00a0\u201cWhat are you<\/em> doing up there?!\u201d<\/p>\n Helen answered calmly: \u00a0\u201cThe boys haven\u2019t had a home-cooked meal in so long I thought I\u2019d bring one up.\u201d After several minutes in which she described a beautiful sunrise and several forest fires seen from space, she said: \u201cOh oh. I have to cut off now. I think the boys are floating up here toward the command module and I\u2019m not supposed to be talking to you.\u201d<\/p>\n And then . . . \u00a0radio silence. \u00a0Total chaos at Mission Control. \u00a0For a full minute, the room froze.<\/p>\n I would have given my eye teeth to have pulled off a prank like that one.<\/p>\n Okay. \u00a0Here\u2019s something, from the Alberta Worker<\/em>, that may leave you scratching your head just a bit: \u00a0\u201cWhy I no longer identify as a communist\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cKim Siever is an independent queer journalist based in Lethbridge, Alberta, and writes daily news articles, focusing on politics and labour.\u201d<\/p>\n And, in other news from the Latter-day Saint political left: \u00a0\u201cGaza Genocide Provokes Anti-War Dissent Among Mormons:\u00a0Campaigners are targeting the hearts, minds, and multibillion-dollar investment fund of the Utah-based faith.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s time, once again, to share some recent discoveries from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 I want to call the attention of those who might be in the area on that night that I will be giving a fireside in Beaverton, Oregon (i.e., in the greater Portland area), on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025. \u00a0The tentative title is \u201cA Cloud of Witnesses.\u201d \u00a0(I\u2019ve been asked to speak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":15885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10763,8046,3379,2905,788,4327],"class_list":["post-112388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abuse","tag-child","tag-clergy","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-sex"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>\n
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Not nearly as funny as Groucho.
Much more deadly. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n