June 2008 Entries
By: The Baron
Imagine a particular type of congenital heart defect that strikes children from birth and dooms them to an early death, usually before they are a year old. Suppose every year throughout human history about 100 children worldwide are born with this defect and pass away within a year, with really nothing anyone can do about it.
By: The Baron
Kaimi asks whether it's hypocritical for the Church to oppose same-sex marriage on a 'marriage = one man and one woman' basis, given its polygamous history.
Is it contradictory to oppose gay marriage while allowing (in principle) for polygamy? Not at all: polygamy does not, in fact, violate the 'marriage = one man and one woman' principle.
By: The Baron
"Milk before Meat" is how the axiom goes--see 1st Corinthians 3:2. Not so in the blogosphere, where largely we view ourselves as full-fledged carnivores looking for the juiciest steaks we can find.
Or perhaps not. It came to me one day as I was sitting in a recent Sunday School class...
There is no 'meat' in the gospel.
Or rather, rephrasing: the milk *is* the meat.
By: The Baron
"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith..." (Ether 12:4)
"O ye that are bound down under a foolish and a vain hope, why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things?" -- Korihor (Alma 30:13)
Question: what's the difference between a real hope and a false (or 'vain') hope?
By: Starfoxy
I knit. I don't know how I came to enjoy knitting so much, especially since I live in a convection oven. There isn't much demand for knitted goods around here, so I end up giving quite a few things away.
By: Eric Nielson
I received a copy of an email from one of our High Council members that informed us that ward mission leaders were supposed to report baptism numbers and goals every month to the stake. The reason for this was reported to be that baptism numbers in North America were down 80% this year. This is a huge drop in baptisms over a significant amount of time in a large area. From the email, it appears these numbers are coming from an Elder Pitts who is our Area Authority Seventy.
By: The Baron
On August 6th, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan--quickly followed three days later by another on Nagasaki. This bombing essentially ended World War II in the Pacific front, as Japan surrendered to the Allies immediately after.
The use of atomic bombs to end the war—causing over 200,000 deaths within the first year, and many more following due to radiation exposure—was and is, to say the least, a controversial decision. Was dropping two atomic bombs on Japan a ‘mistake’ by the US? Something that, in hindsight, was highly regrettable, and shouldn’t have happened?
By: The Baron
Recently, I received the following spam email from a local member:
I am contacting as many Mormon bloggers as I can to spread the word about my petition, “LDS Financial Disclosure.” As you know, the Church does not disclose any of its financial records. Financial disclosure is an easy way for any organization to do right by its supporters and publicly declare that it is ethically managed and putting its funds to good use. Further, this will enable the church to clear the air of any detractors and demonstrate how it is using Church funds to bless lives.
This is a oft-heard complaint, and one of the classic 'no-win' situations for the Church...