Author: Sharon Lindbloom
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Buying Blessings?
A thought-provoking article was published last week on OpEdNews.com. Bringing Sense To Tax Exemption: A Coming Mormon Dilemma was written by Douglas Wallace, a former Mormon who served his mission in the United Kingdom as “Mission Architect.” As Mission Architect, he was involved in the initial planning for the first Mormon temple in England. Mr.…
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No “Comedy of Errors”
The game Chinese Whispers (known as Telephone in the US) is a long-time favorite at parties. Someone whispers a phrase or sentence to another, who in turn repeats the words to another, and so on until reaching the last player, who then says the words out loud. The fun of the game is in the…
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Saying, ‘Peace,’ When There Is No Peace.
An interesting post appeared on the LDS & Evangelical Conversations blog last week. Eric, raised Evangelical but converted to Mormonism a dozen years ago, wrote “What Mormons Should Know About Evangelicals.” For the most part, Eric’s comments are very helpful. He addresses many basic areas where Mormons misunderstand Evangelicals and the way Christian churches operate.…
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The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah
Brian David Mitchell, the man accused of kidnapping the young Mormon girl Elizabeth Smart in 2002, has spent most of the past six years in a mental health facility. Mr. Mitchell is now in the news again as prosecutors try to prove that he is mentally competent to stand trial. KSL.com reports: “After Brian David…
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In the Shadow of the Temple
On October 10th (2009) a new documentary will debut at the Exmormon Foundation Conference in Salt Lake City. In the Shadow of the Temple by Pepita Productions promises to provide 55 minutes of interesting and insightful glimpses into the lives of people who have chosen to leave Mormonism. From the producer’s blog site: Documentary Film…
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Joseph Smith’s Powerful Influence
“It is by no means improbable that some future textbook… will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith,…
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Coats of Skin
Yet another interesting difference between Mormonism and evangelical Christianity has caught my attention recently. The July 2009 issue of the Ensign magazine includes an article about modesty written by Silvia Allred, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency. As Ms. Allred discusses the principle of, and blessings associated with modesty, she also explains the…
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Mormon Church Showcases Statement, “The Church does not stand or fall on the Book of Abraham”
On Tuesday, August 11th (2009) the “Authorized news web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (Church News) showcased a lecture given by John Gee, “an associate research professor of Egyptology at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU” (the organization formerly known as FARMS). “While critics of the…
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Keeping the Word of Wisdom on the Internet
This is a bit of silliness. Google is working on an indexing and infrastructure update it has named “Caffeine Update.” A forum discussion on the tool included this comment: “So Google is developing an updated search tool called ‘Caffeine’ “I’m not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon…
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The ‘Careful Finagling’ of Repentance
I read an article about repentance in the August 2009 Ensign magazine. “Mending Quilts, Mending Lives” illustrates the idea of repentance in a story about a damaged quilt. While making a quilt, one of the quilters accidentally put a hole in the fabric when she carelessly handled a pair of scissors. The author wrote, “We…
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Keeping Up with the Mormons
In the Mormon Coffee discussion regarding recent changes to Gospel Principles, one commenter wrote, ” The Church started out and was against something, and in a few years, they were for the thing they were against, a few years later they were against it again, and now the are sort of, kind of, celestially for…
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Summer 1844: Sorrowful Times in Nauvoo
Latter-day Saints Isaac and Sarah Scott were married in Massachusetts in 1843. They moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they became eyewitnesses to the events surrounding the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Sarah wrote to her in-laws beginning on July 22, 1844, a few weeks after the murders; Isaac added a short note at the…
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A Song for Joseph
In August 1844, still reeling over the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the LDS newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois published a new Mormon hymn. William W. Phelps wrote the words of this song about Joseph Smith and set it to music, using an old Scottish folksong for the tune. “Praise to the Man” identifies Joseph…
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Worth Fighting Over
The June 2008 issue of Tabletalk magazine included an article rooted in the biblical book of Jude. Noting that Jude speaks directly and forcefully to the issue of false teachers, the Tabletalk article by Niel Nielson explains, “Notice that Jude isn’t writing to [his readers] about voices calling from outside the visible faith. These people…
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The venom of asps*
On June 25th (2009) Mormon Times published an article titled “Healing the rift between Brigham and Emma.” The article discusses current efforts toward removing tensions and prejudices that exist between the families descended from Brigham Young and Joseph Smith. One step in this effort was a 2007 written “Healing Document” delivered to the Joseph Smith…
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Gods and Goddesses, Kings and Queens
In November 2004 Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Seminary, spoke in front of a packed house at the Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square. Dr. Mouw apologized for the way evangelicals had borne “false witness” about the teachings of Mormonism. Later, when asked to clarify his statement, Dr. Mouw wrote, “I have received emails in…
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Exaltation Companion
In July of 2004 Mark Hacking called the police to report his wife, Lori, was missing. Almost a year later Mark was convicted of first-degree murder. He had shot his sleeping, pregnant wife in the head with a .22 rifle and sent her body off to decay in a Salt Lake County landfill. Mark and…
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The Demise of the LDS Church in Kirtland
Mormonism began in 1830 in a sleepy township in upstate New York. After Mormon missionaries realized great success gaining converts in Ohio, the religion’s founder, Joseph Smith, moved his fledgling church 250 miles west to the little town of Kirtland. Within months, Joseph sent a number of Church members farther west to Missouri to begin…
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No-Cross Protocol
“It’s no accident that Mormon steeples, temples and necks are free of Christian crosses. “LDS leaders long have said the cross, so ubiquitous among traditional Christians, symbolizes Jesus’ death, while Mormons worship the risen Christ.” So begins a recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune (Mormons and the cross). This interesting article by Peggy Fletcher…
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