![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/800px-Scorpion_Ridge.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s spiritually beneficial to see the Grand Canyon from time to time. \u00a0I just saw it again two or three hour ago, albeit from at least 30,000 feet. \u00a0Even at that altitude, though, it\u2019s still pretty impressive.<\/p>\n
And, from the Deseret News<\/em>, this is pretty impressive, too: \u00a0\u201cThe strong message AJ Dybantsa and Bear Bachmeier sent while attending this BYU class:\u00a0The innovative class helps bridge the gap between newcomers to BYU and the culture on campus. The results have been eye-opening\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I think that the class is a brilliant idea, and it seems to be doing some good. \u00a0Otherwise, I really can imagine a new non-LDS arrival on campus might find a great deal about the experience rather baffling and, perhaps, quite unwelcoming. \u00a0There is so much cultural understanding and in-group jargon that we take for granted and don\u2019t really explain.<\/p>\n You\u2019re probably familiar with this story, but I love it. \u00a0I would give credit for it to somebody, but I have no idea who that somebody might be:<\/p>\n A professional therapist moves to a mostly Latter-day Saint community and opens his practice there. \u00a0Eventually, a woman goes to see the therapist and he asks her what\u2019s wrong. The woman replies, \u201cIt\u2019s the sunbeams. They\u2019re driving me crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh?\u201d replies the therapist, a bit puzzled.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, they keep running everywhere, they won\u2019t stay still, they\u2019re too loud, and they won\u2019t listen to me when I tell them to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n The therapist is getting confused, thinking that he has a real case on his hands.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you tried talking to somebody about this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I talked to the president about it but she couldn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n Now the therapist is very<\/em> concerned and is eyeing the door, wondering if he should call for assistance.<\/p>\n \u201cCan anyone else see and hear these sunbeams?\u201d the therapist asks.<\/p>\n The woman looks at him and says, \u201cI\u2019m guessing that you\u2019re not LDS. \u00a0Right?\u201d<\/p>\n While serving on a stake high council, I also served at least once as a stake Sunday School president. \u00a0And I\u2019ve served in at least one other Sunday School presidency, as well. \u00a0For the life of me, I honestly couldn\u2019t see much real point in the position of Sunday School president, whether at the stake level or<\/em> at the ward level; I didn\u2019t feel that I was contributing anything of value to the Kingdom. \u00a0(But then, perhaps that merely reveals my own lack of vision. \u00a0And it raises another topic: Have I ever<\/em> contributed much of value to the Kingdom? \u00a0Views on that question might disagree rather dramatically, I suspect.)<\/p>\n I think that Sunday School presidencies can add value if they are always there to substitute when a teacher is ill or must be absent for some other reason \u2014 although, when I\u2019ve served as a teacher and needed a substitute, I\u2019ve generally asked somebody to fill in for me, directly, without involving the presidency. \u00a0Often, I haven\u2019t even known who the Sunday School presidency were<\/em>.<\/p>\n Once, a stranger came up to me at the end of a Gospel Doctrine class that I had taught. \u00a0He identified himself as the stake Sunday School president and observed that I clearly hadn\u2019t based my lesson on the official course manual. \u00a0I conceded that that was so. \u00a0\u201cAre you unaware,\u201d he said, \u201cthat the Church\u2019s official Sunday School is given by revelation?\u201d \u00a0I responded, rather gently, that I was serving at that time on the Church\u2019s Gospel Doctrine writing committee, and that I knew pretty well how the manuals were produced because our committee was responsible for producing their first drafts (before they went, among other things, through correlation).<\/p>\n At the time that I was called to serve on that Gospel Doctrine writing committee (on which I eventually served for about eight years or so), I told the General Authority who extended the call to me that I wasn\u2019t sure that I was the person they wanted for the position. \u00a0I thoroughly disliked the Sunday School manuals, I said to him, and found them impossible to teach from. \u00a0My mind simply doesn\u2019t work that way. \u00a0He replied that I was exactly the kind of person they wanted<\/em>. \u00a0But I never really felt that my preferred approach had much of an impact on the final product, after it had gone through various curriculum committees and, in the end, through the Correlation Committee.<\/p>\n Despite all of my grousing here, I\u2019m pleased to see a small policy change that has just been officially announced by the Church:<\/p>\n I\u2019m happy to see women being given more leadership and service opportunities across the Church, and I\u2019m very pleased to see their talents and abilities given more scope within the Kingdom \u2014 however limited, in my experience, the scope of Sunday School presidencies turns out to be. \u00a0I could never see any reason why members of a Sunday School presidency needed to be male or to hold the priesthood. \u00a0So this is a welcome change.<\/p>\n I recall very well the first time that I saw several women \u2014 and only<\/em> women \u2014 \u201cmanning\u201d the recommend desk in a temple; I was delighted. \u00a0Women can now serve as witnesses for ordinances in and out of the temples, and young women regularly serve as \u201cgreeters\u201d at the doors of my home ward (and, I presume, of other wards beyond mine). \u00a0Small things, perhaps. \u00a0But welcome changes.<\/p>\n Eight episodes of Becoming Brigham<\/em><\/a> \u2014 eight of what we project to end up at approximately seventy or seventy-five \u2014 are now available online for you to watch. \u00a0The eighth of them<\/a> was posted on Monday, and, with one or two planned exceptions, new installments will be posted every<\/em> Monday until roughly the middle of next year.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n
<\/a><\/a>