I recently posted something of a bleg for suggestions on lesson topics and materials for a Gospel Essentials course which I have occasion to teach in my local ward. I made a couple of mistakes in the post and comments, and consequently the thread never really took the direction I had hoped, and instead resulted in (mostly) comments on gospel instruction generally in the LDS Church. The point of the post was to seek ideas for 5-6 lessons which could be taught at any given moment with little advance notice as the need arises. The basic issue at hand is that, on many Sundays, we don’t have any actual investigators or new members attending, and the course is made up primarily of recently reactivated folks, the missionaries, and a handful of others who attend for reasons I’ve never been quite certain of. On those Sundays, I don’t really have a preference for lesson topics, since the attendees have enough experience in the gospel and the Church to handle about any lesson they’re given.
However, from time to time, we do have actual investigators, and on those Sundays, I feel the need to accomplish a few main goals: First, I want to knock their socks off, so to speak–I want them to come away from Sunday school uplifted, inspired, and feeling like they had a meaningful experience in a Mormon meeting. Read more…
I learned at Stake Priesthood leadership meeting that we can increase our spirituality by gleaning insights from the biographies of BYU football players.
I also learned that you shouldn’t make gagging noises during Stake Priesthood leadership meeting if the bishop is sitting behind you.
Unknown to most readers at BCC, there has been a significant effort behind the scenes to reboot the once-proud Zeitcast–BCC’s podcast, in which a handful of permabloggers shoot the bull over the Interwebs about topics Mormon or otherwise. Unfortunately, each and every attempt up to this point has failed, with the grandest and most epic of failures coming last night.
Failure #1:
My first attempt at a podcast! Just before Halloween, Steve Evans, John C, and I discussed Halloween candy, Trunk-or-Treats, and a Book of Mormon-based novel that John found in his local library. After recording, I discover that the software I was using to record (Audacity) has multiple input settings, and that I had chosen the wrong one. Thus, I had recorded 15 minutes of silence. Steve mocks me harshly, and exaggerates the length of time we were recording before I caught my mistake to anyone who will listen.
Failure #2:
Another pre-Halloween attempt, in which Steve Evans, Guest Kyle M, and I fail to launch on account of Steve’s struggles with his recent installation of Windows 7 and Audacity’s compatibility with it. Of course, we don’t realize that his software has failed until we have been talking for 35 minutes or so about a variety of topics, including Halloween, Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, and other minutiae. I feel poetically smug as Steve tries to reconcile his mockery of me the week before with his own foul up. Read more…
I had the temerity to raise my hand in Elders Quorum last Sunday and ask if anyone was interested in putting together a Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving Day, and so was naturally put in charge of the event. I forgot about this responsibility almost as soon as it was given to me (in keeping with my General Theory of Elders Quorum Responsibility Forgetfulness), and didn’t give it another thought until Tuesday afternoon when I got an email from someone in the EQ asking about the game and if anyone was planning on playing. Repenting of my sloth, I drafted a note about the game and sent it to the EQ email list.
By the time the game was supposed to start–yesterday morning at 8:30am–it was clear that the number of hands who had expressed interest in playing was a gross overstatement of the number of people who were actually willing to show up and toss around the pigskin. We waited 30 minutes or so past the scheduled starting time, and finally managed to scrounge up 6 players, myself included. We all stretched out, the hardcore footballers put on their cleats, and we staked out a shortened field since our numbers were so few, and no one really wanted to run much anyway.
Thus went the Harbor Hills Ward Elders Quorum Turkey Bowl 2009: The Armpit of All Turkey Bowls: Read more…
Mormons may be accused of herd mentality, and they may be guilty of it from time to time, but my Bishop is determined to break that stereotype.
Since I moved into my ward over three years ago, I have observed an interesting phenomenon. Every Sunday during opening Priesthood exercises, which are held in the gym, all the men stand in the exact same formation–we form a perfect half-arc around the 3-point line on the basketball court. No one stands inside the 3 point line except the Bishop, who stands directly below the hoop.
Well, last Sunday, my Bishop put an end to it, and made us all take five big steps in toward him. The awkward tension in the room was palpable–kind of like asking 50 families who have been sitting on the same pew for 20 years to find a different pew, all at the same time.
I am doing a first today–I will be attending a book signing Bill Simmons is holding at Disneyland to promote his new book, The Book of Basketball. I am utterly ignorant as to how a person is supposed to behave at such an event, but from reading Simmons’ article on ESPN.com the other day regarding earlier book tour stops, I can infer that asking him to sign my chest is not likely to be considered appropriate. Read more…
(Note: The “Big Changes” I promised are still coming, but I had to get this post off my To-do list first. This was supposed to be a guest post last week, but I ran out of time and energy. Writing an open thread to a small audience is a recipe for lameness and non-commenting, (especially in light of GIGANTE, but I wanted to post it anyway for my own sake.)
For the Newport Beach California Stake, in which I happen to reside, Stake Conference will be held this coming Saturday and Sunday. I am usually really excited for the conference weekend, because as odd as it may sound, I actually enjoy the extra meeting or two on Saturday without the kids where the local leadership is able to give us specific instruction and counsel for the current challenges in the area. Over the years, some of the most meaningful spiritual experiences in my life have come in these meetings. Additionally, I like Stake Conference because the 10am start time on Sunday means that I can sleep in an extra hour. Lastly, it is just a nice break from the normal 3-hour block routine. Read more…
After Pres. McKay died, Pres. Smith only served for two years – then Pres. Lee served for less than two years (dying of an unexpected heart attack even though he was the youngest president to take office in decades at 73). I don’t think lifting the ban was a priority for either of them, especially since Hugh B Brown (one of the strongest proponents of lifting the ban) was not kept in the presidency of either President Smith or President Lee after Pres. McKay passed away.
I don’t think lifting the ban was a priority for either of them, especially since Hugh B Brown (one of the strongest proponents of lifting the ban) was not kept in the presidency of either President Smith or President Lee after Pres. McKay passed away.
Not disagreeing, but…correlation = causation? Hmm…
Although I suppose in the case of the latter, President Lee = causation for correlation
Just a little correlation committee humor for you, folks. I’ll be here all week.
(UPDATE: If you don’t get or like the joke, then don’t feel bad. As I note in the comment section, you’re not alone.)
I have been informed that I failed to make good on a promise–I had said that I would re-post the audio to the BYU-Aladdin song that I heard on PMS a while back (read this post if you need a reminder), since the file I linked to then has been removed from Youtube. I said I would take a vote, and since only 2 people voted, the audio goes up. We’ll see how long my fragile conscience survives and I decide to take it down for being too mean.
I think re-posting this will qualify as the “really bad thing” that makes me deserving of having my site banned by BYU (which, by the way, is still in force. I’m so proud.)
A new article, written by Ben Edelson of the Harvard Business School, and published in the current issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives has shown that, among all the states in the United States, Utah–with it’s high-majority Mormon population–is the leader in subscriptions to online pornographic/adult entertainment (per 1000 broadband connections).
Can we just jump to the conclusion that, despite continuous warnings about porn in, well, pretty much every meeting since 1998, the biggest vice among Mormons really isn’t just caffeinated soda pop? Well, not really, in my opinion. I think it is far more likely to be a function of Mormon-influenced social policies than anything else. Read more…
Look at the picture you below. Zoom in, if you have to. Do you know what it means?
It means that BYU has blocked this website–www.deadseriously.net. Some friends of mine at BYU (faculty no less!) tried to look at my site yesterday morning, and discovered that I have been banned. Folks–I have honestly never been so proud of anything in my entire life. I think I’d be okay with dying now. There’s nowhere to go from here but down.
While this was probably initially due to my use of a redirecting site TinyURL.com from my Facebook profile, apparently the destination site was blocked as well, so going directly to my blog from campus was not an option either.
The irony is that I haven’t really made fun of BYU for some time now–BYU fans are almost always unbearable to be around, but considerably less so after Utah’s football season. Figures.
If you had 1 hour to prep a bunch of teenagers for a field trip to see the Mormons, what would you talk about?
A friend of mine is a youth instructor in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. One of the (many) admirable things U.U. congregations do is provide an introduction to different religions, including the LDS Church. For a given religion, this takes place over a few weeks–first a lesson, then a field trip to a meeting house for worship meetings, and lastly a follow up discussion.
(They will be attending the local Mormon ward next Fast Sunday. Yeah. I know. Bad breath and crazy people, all at the same time. Read more…
Glenn Beck is not someone I quote very often, but he said something that was passed on to me by a friend this morning that caught my attention:
“But that’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what Mormons are. I think they are most libertarian in their principles. There are a set of principles to live by, but you choose to live by them. If you don’t, nobody is damning you to hell. It’s freeing because I don’t answer to anyone but my God.”(Full text here)
Note: I originally wrote and posted this a couple of years ago, but have changed it quite a bit to remove some outdated references and to reflect more of my current thinking than that from when I wrote it.
What is the value of a prophet? Why do I care about having one? What benefit does a prophet give to my life that another preacher couldn’t give provide? Which, if any, of all my personal opinions, am I willing to change if a prophet were to ask me to do something that runs counter to my opinions? Or do I only agree with a prophet if he agrees with me? Based on my knowledge of the scriptures and past prophets, is it a reasonable expectation that, at some point, a prophet will ask me to do something I disagree with, or which is very unpopular and hard to understand? Read more…
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about the bathroom my company shares with a few other firms on our floor. Recently, the management has installed a new soap dispenser on the wall adjacent to the sinks–it’s kind of a distant and inconvenient location, and kind of a stupid addition, given that there are perfectly find soap dispensers right next to the faucets on the counter. So the other day, my boss came back into the office after using the restroom, and, having just noticed the new dispenser for the first time, asked us which we use (we were all sitting the same room). Two of my coworkers and I all said that we just use the old one, but the other guy said that, because he doesn’t like the kind of soap the building management uses, he just comes back into our break room and washes his hands their with our own hand soap.
—Say what?! It sounded like you just said that you don’t wash your hands after you pee!
To clarify, after doing his business, my coworker: opens both the bathroom door and our main office door (which both have handles you must use), and turns on the water in our kitchen.
I said a couple of posts ago that I want to write my own Mormon history, but that I wasn’t really sure what form it would take. This has actually been a long time in the coming. About 5 years ago, I started a project to convert all of my journals from my mission to Finland into electronic format. Initially, I figured would take me roughly six months if I worked hard at it. I knew I’d get big blessing-points in heaven for such a goal, since Church leaders are always admonishing us to keep good records, but also because I wanted a refresher on all the awesome experiences I had recorded as young man in Finland. Also, I just wanted a backup copy so no one would be able to pull a Lucy Harris on me.* Read more…
I think that My Religious Blog is really funny. It’s funny kind of like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is funny–you’re sitting there, reading in silence, and you come across something that is so absolutely perfect that you have an uncontrollable need to find another human, make them read it, and watch them partake of the same joy you are experiencing. Of course, most of the time, they don’t laugh, and often say something far worse like, “Yeah, I saw that movie. It was pretty funny.” (FYI: The movie was not funny. It was beyond awful.) So you end up looking like a moron. But I digress. Read more…
I need your help. No, my ward needs your help.[1] Please brace yourself, because I intend to ramble for a bit before explaining.
I live in a ridiculously huge LDS ward in Southern California–the actual numbers fluctuate a bit during different seasons, but we’re in the mid-600′s on a regular basis.[2] To deal with the ridiculous hugeness of our ward, some individuals receive callings[3] that are designed solely to help manage the inflow and outflow of members and make sure that everything is running smoothly. I am one of these people, and I think that my calling is somewhat unique, in the sense that I’ve never heard of anyone else in the Church having my specific set of responsibilities. The official title I have is “Ward Fellowshipping Chair” and could be generally described as a charge to make sure that new people and visitors feel welcome, veterans feel included, and that everyone is sociable and likes each other. Just kidding about the last part. Sort of.
Remember in Kindergarten Cop* when the Governator was first trying to get to know all the kids in the classroom so he could figure out which one had weird daddy-issues, so he’d know who was the son of the drug lord he was chasing after? It’s the same part where, among other things, you get a lesson in male and female genitalia from a 5-year old kid named Joseph (5th quote from the top, if you need help in this department).
