What Mormons can learn from Catholic Mass

Last updated on: August 12, 2024 at 6:54 pm By Guest Contributor

Sacrament meetings are boring. Lets just get it out there. Whether you are an active Mormon, a semi-active Mormon, or a less active or former Mormon, you probably agree: Sacrament meetings are not a thing to look forward to. A typical LDS Sacrament Meeting has the following segments : Opening Hymn, Opening Prayer, Ward Business, Sacramental Hymn, Blessing and Partaking of the Sacrament, Two or Three Talks (hopefully the former), Closing Hymn, and a Closing Prayer. Sacrament Meetings should take... Read more

Thomas, Meet Francis: The Glory of the Outsider-Leader

Last updated on: September 18, 2015 at 2:40 pm By Stephanie

I remember the day he was elected, feeling amazed that a non-European was finally going to be in charge. I’d been LDS for a long time by then, but the prospect of some new blood…an outsider of sorts, shaking things up in my church of origin…intrigued and excited me more than might be expected of a temple recommend-carrying Mormon. The past two and a half years since his accession have been the unfolding of what I consider to be a... Read more

Ahmed Mohamed, and The Need For A New Narrative

Last updated on: September 18, 2015 at 6:39 am By Nic Jensen

Ahmed Mohamed, a high school student in Irving, Texas, had a rude awakening this past week when he brought a homemade clock to school. Much has already been written about Ahmed’s experience, as he appeared on Good Morning America, had a shout out from Mark Zuckerberg, and President Obama himself. One of his teachers thought the clock looked like a bomb, and alerted authorities. Ahmed was escorted out of class, handcuffed, and interrogated. He was not even allowed to... Read more

“The Family” Won’t Save Us

Last updated on: September 19, 2015 at 2:13 pm By James Egan

[Preliminary note: This is the second of two posts (read the other here) offering reflections on Mormon ideas about salvation and family in light of Sam Brown’s study of early Mormonism, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death.] “Families are impractical!” This was the start of one of the more memorable conversations of my time as a missionary in India. The man who ardently asserted the claim was a father, and he appeared to take... Read more

The Utah Soda Wars Are Here, So Let’s Hurry Up With The Apocalypse

Last updated on: September 16, 2015 at 2:33 am By Cody Ray Shafer

In the 1980s, America was subjected to a bizarre race to the bottom between competing soft drink marketing campaigns from Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In 2015, it there is a whole new war brewing over fizzy beverages, and it’s taking place between two Utah-based drive-thru soda fountain companies, St. George based Swig and Provo’s Sodalicious. It’s like the American Civil War if the Civil War was fought not over the nation’s soul but which side wanted the greater responsibility in cases of... Read more

American Gas: Reflections on Home After a Year Abroad

Last updated on: September 15, 2015 at 5:40 pm By Cody Ray Shafer

I’ll ask the reader to forgive my following foray into a personal travel log, but I suspect there’s some lesson to learn, or at least some idea buried deep down, somewhere, that makes this somehow worth the effort. The truth is, I’m still exhausted, jet lagged, and suffering something of a culture shock. Only, if there was a word for culture shock infused with stingy nostalgia, that word would color my experiences over the last week. I don’t think such... Read more

Marco’s Mormon Moment

Last updated on: September 14, 2015 at 7:26 pm By J. Paul Valley

The big news right now for everyone with a “Mormon” Google alert is that Sen. Marco Rubio has made it very clear the “Mormon vote” is important to him, especially in Nevada. As Politico reports, Rubio might be able to turn his brief stint as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into “his early-state ace in the hole.” Mormons in Nevada, Politico’s Elena Schneider points out, are an important voting bloc. Many of the elected officials there,... Read more

The Book of Mormon: What it is and What it is Not

Last updated on: August 12, 2024 at 6:56 pm By Guest Contributor

Recently, I have begun to read The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ from the beginning again. As always, I continue to be impressed with the work, as well as continuing to gain new insights into the work itself. One thing is for sure: Joseph Smith, Jr. could not have produced such a work. It is my testimony that this book is a book preserved by God himself for our day. However, in this post I do not... Read more

If Mormon Women are Too Busy to be Leaders, We Have a Problem

Last updated on: September 12, 2015 at 12:07 am By Emily Belanger

The recent news that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will officially include women on some of the Church’s top governing councils is just one more snippet in a long conversation about ways women can and should do more in the Church. From Ordain Women’s ongoing efforts to petition for ordination, to moderate feminist’s pleas for women already in positions of authority to be heard (such as Neylan McBaine’s book, Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact), this interest in... Read more

LDS Church frankly tackles addiction and recovery

Last updated on: September 10, 2015 at 1:54 am By Nicole Shepard

In the late Apostle Boyd K. Packer’s 1975 book “Teach Ye Diligently” he encouraged the Church’s teachers to “treat with care” the sensitivity of subjects “pertaining to sex and the dangerous world of [drugs] and pornography.” He asked for teachers to “protect first the innocence” of the members of the church before speaking frankly. Times have changed. Now, 40 years later, Elder David A. Bednar’s counsel to the South Salt Lake Area stakes in August 2012 that, “what was once... Read more