Tag: reactions

Categories
culture life meta

Change is in the Air

I’ve been feeling the need to reorient my online (and offline) activity for a while now. It has been interesting to work through the process of identifying what needed to change and how. There may be some person out there who noticed yet another title change. I never was particularly comfortable with the previous title, but as I identified the kind of purpose and image I would like to pursue I am very excited about “The Zion Chronicle” as it captures what I am working toward and seems fitting. I expect to be doing a lot more here writing about life and society in a quest to identify and promote the development of Zion in my own life. Hopefully others will find some gems that can bring them to Zion (or Utopia, Shangri La, Eden, or whatever other name you might assign to your ideal for human society).

As part of this change I started using Stats Counter to have some idea of what is actually happening besides me writing and people commenting. Interestingly one of the first three searches that landed someone here at my site after I signed up for stats counter was a search for “sister beck conference talk.” I don’t know if my Canadian friend was looking for Sister Beck’s most recent conference talk or something else but they landed on a post I wrote in the aftermath of Sister Becks incredible talk “Mothers Who Know” from the October Conference of 2007.

As it had been so long since I wrote it I took the time to go read what I had written about the talk. When I read the post I was, quite frankly, disappointed that someone might see that as indicative of who I am. At the time I was so busy trying to keep my site from being overly religious in an attempt to foster an open political dialog that I said almost nothing of consequence and I completely failed to convey what an inspiring and inspired talk it was. That talk is a beacon to those wishing to establish a Zion rooted in a strong family culture and I managed to water down my reaction to the point that it sounded like little more than a breath of fresh air.

Since that time I broke my political writing off into another site and actually found that I was not comfortable maintaining the kind of political neutrality that lead me to give so little praise to such a wonderful talk. I have been pleased with the outcome of abandoning that neutrality in my political writings and now I am looking at refocusing on some spiritually significant topics here (some political others apolitical). I hope that others will never have any excuse to wonder at the depth of my feeling for the topics I address here like they might well have done when reading what I wrote in October of 2007.

Categories
life

Book of Mormon Witness

It’s always interesting to see how people respond to powerful messages from General Conference. Although I spent much of conference somewhat distracted by children (what else is new) I was even able to recognize in that half attentive state that what Elder Holland was saying was powerful. In fact, it was powerful enough that I stopped paying attention to the kids for a minute when I heard him start to share the following testimony:

I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. . . I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true.

When I heard that I thought that I would be happy to stand with Elder Holland and declare, with much less public office, that I know for myself that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of the Lord tailor made for our day. I consider that to be absolutely public information recordable and repeatable by anyone who would care to record or repeat it. The message obviously touched others as it inspired Connor Boyack to create a website called Book of Mormon Witness where anyone may add their witness to that shared by Elder Holland. Hundreds of people have already added their names in the last three days since the site went live.

Categories
culture

Know What a White Knot Means?

I just stumbled onto this campaign to promote “marriage equality” at WhiteKnot.org. I have no problem with anyone wanting to express their views and even to use a little white knot to do so (sounds like a red ribbon or a pink ribbon campaign) but having heard of some people talking about distributing these white knots, I just thought I would give people a heads-up on what they symbolize, lest anyone pass them out without explaining what they represent.

Categories
politics State

Year-round School is a Given

The KSL esitorial board is supportive of a move toward year-round school. They manage to demonstrate a crucial mis-characterization of childhood education:

As Governor Huntsman put it in his recent State of the State address, “It is amazing to me that, in this age of innovation and education, we have students, buildings and teachers sitting idle for three months every year. . .”

This very statement assumes that children do not learn when they are outside the classroom. Anyone who has watched children knows that they are learning machines. There are a wide variety of lessons they are learning during their summer breaks that could not effectively be taught in a classroom setting.

The proponents of year-round school would also ignore the fact that there is a loss of academic effectiveness for every transition back to school from a break. With a traditional school year there is one major break and a large number of small breaks where students must navigate that transition. Year-round school has all the same minor breaks plus two extra major breaks to interrupt the academic progress of the students. All this is in addition to the standard complains about conflicting tracks within families and interruptions to the established patterns in family scheduling.

Many of the troubling aspects of year-round school can be mitigated, and there are some benefits (which are widely publicized), so the idea of year-round school is worth exploring but the decision cannot be safely made while we turn a blind eye to some false assumptions during the debate. These issues must be a part of the discussion if we are to come to a solution of any lasting benefit.

Categories
life

President Hinckley

I was surprised to happen upon the news that President Gordon B. Hinckley died 2 hours ago. Considering that he was 97 and that his wife had passed away already, I can’t see this as an unhappy event. Having worked so hard for so long in the service of the Savior, I can’t imagine any man more deserving of the greeting on the other side that Enos expected to receive:

I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. (Enos 1:27)

I have little to say except that President Hinckley was one of the most influential of the general church leaders for me personally – certainly the most influential president of the church for me.

UPDATE 1/28: The thought just struck me that there is some poetic beauty in the fact that President Hinckley returned to his heavenly home on Sunday – a day of rest.

Categories
culture

Second Guessing Good Works

I liked this story – Attorney offers to pay cab rides for people who have been drinking. Apparently this same attorney did the same thing last year too. Some people commenting on the story talk about all the free advertising that he receives through this. Surely had does receive the benefit of name recognition and improves his image through this gesture. I say, who cares what benefit he receives out of it. If this saves one fatality then it’s way more than worth it.

Categories
culture technology

Open Up on Blogger

This is an open suggestion to Bloggers who use Blogger – specifically those who are restrictive on allowing comments.

Once upon a time there were three options for who could comment (assuming that you allowed comments on the blog in the first place). The options were Anyone, Registered Users, and Members of the Blog. I can understand the drawbacks of allowing anyone to comment but not everyone uses blogger – that makes for less than ideal choices to be made.

Recently there has been a new option added. Registered users used to mean people with blogger accounts but that has become “Users with Google Accounts.” The new “Registered Users” option allows people to use WordPress, TypePad, AIM/AOL, or LiveJournal identities to make comments. This is nice because users like me are no longer forced to use a defunct identity to comment. Please consider using the new “Registered Users” option if you currently only allow Users with Google Accounts.

Categories
life

Answering A Call

Bob Burney claims to be an informed non-expert as he offers Mormons A Plea for Candid Truth Telling. (Funny, leaders of the LDS church are encouraging the same thing.) The charge seems simple and fair-enough – “You can believe anything you want. . . But tell the truth! If you believe it, be proud of it—don’t try to hide it.” He takes exception to church statements that seem to borrow the language of evangelicals. I would contend that there is a simple explanation for such borrowed language and it’s not so sinister as the deception he seems to infer from those statements. Basically I would ask Mr. Burney if he would expect to be more effective communicating in Moscow by speaking Russian or by speaking Cantonese.

He claims that the church has made a concerted effort to remake its image since 2002 – before which:

I remember a time when it was common for Mormons to be offended if you called them Christian.

Admittedly my public memory only goes back a couple of decades (not counting my childhood when I was blissfully unaware of much outside my immediate world), but that is well before 2002 and I don’t ever recall a time when members of the church would be offended at being called Christian. A more accurate assessment of this very real effort by the LDS church to refine its public image stems from two factors. One, church leaders became aware/concerned with the fact that there were altogether too many members of the church who mistakenly identified more with Joseph Smith than with Jesus Christ. This led people outside our faith to naturally conclude that we worshiped our first prophet.

The second factor was that in 1995 Gordon B. Hinckley became our new prophet and brought with him a lifetime of experience in public affairs. Under his direction the church organization became much more media savvy and conscious of how other people perceived the church. Under his direction they used the publicity of the Olympics as a platform to correct misconceptions. With the current interest in the church stemming from Mitt Romney’s candidacy they are once again trying to make the most of the moment.

As for the specific doctrine in question – the answer given by the church to the charge that Mormons view Satan and Jesus as brothers was apparently unsatisfactory because rather than stating “Yes we do, what of it,” the response was meant to indicate that this apparently heretical idea is not inconsistent with Protestant scripture. Christ repeatedly called himself the Son of God. Isaiah says that Satan had fallen from heaven.

As far as I can tell, the idea that men can become like God is the most radical doctrine of the church (at least from an evangelical perspective – I couldn’t say about other perspectives) but members of the LDS church are not alone in thinking this. C.S. Lewis made this same statement in Mere Christianity (p. 205-6) and he had no connection with the church. (By the way, the idea is not the we make ourselves into gods or that it just comes with time, it is that God has the power and interest to make us into beings like Himself through the Atonement of Christ. Whether you agree or not, it is not so self-aggrandizing as some people make it sound.)

I don’t mean to suggest that the leaders and other public figures in the church handle all these inquiries perfectly – they’re only human – but it would be nice if all the theological pundits out there could ascribe less-than-sinister motives to their every effort.

Categories
politics State

This Should Tell Us Something

The idea that the government should be involved in my health care has always been disconcerting to me. When I read Health care: You can’t give it away I was not sure whether I should laugh or cry. Apparently the state CHIP program is losing more families than they are adding even as they expand their budget to cover more kids. So we’re paying more for a program that is covering fewer kids because people are actively opting out faster than they are opting in. I think that should be a big red flag.

That’s the part that made me want to laugh. The part that made me want to cry was:

Judi Hilman, director of the Utah Health Policy Project, said it’s going to take a “Herculean” effort to combat the stigma that has equated subsidized health care with welfare in Utah. . .

“We need a whole strategic marketing campaign to put these programs in a more positive light,” Hilman said.

If the programs are so good for people why do the people they are designed to help choose not to participate? Secondly, and more importantly, what gives anyone the right to insist that those who are leaving or choosing not to partake should be choosing differently?

Another sentence from Ms. Hilman leads to one more question:

“These programs are absolutely essential if they [low-income families] are going to become permanently self-sufficient.”

The question is – where’s your proof?

I have been uninsured with a family of 5 to take care of and I didn’t use CHIP nor would it have helped me become “permanently self-sufficient.” I don’t mean to say that the program is useless, but I do think her statement is based on a whole range of unfounded assumptions – the kind of assumptions that lead to larger and less efficient government dragging our society towards fiscal slavery.

Categories
culture life

LDS Scouting Movement

The Boy Scout organization has always been important to me because it had such an impact on my life when I was scout aged. That is why I have been so disappointed in the scout unit I am currently working with where there seems to be so little vision to be found among most of the parents and youth in the unit. Because I was harboring those feelings of frustration I was very excited to read what Scott had to say about Mediocre LDS Scouting. That helped me to see that I was not alone in my frustration and gave me some more perspective on the true nature of the problem.

My father-in-law has been deeply involved in scouting for his entire adult life and is also widely respected in the field of education and training. I was excited when he talked at dinner tonight of a project that he has been asked to work on with the scouts. Apparently the professional scouters in multiple scout councils in northern Utah are also aware of and dissatisfied with the mediocrity that is often perpetuated in local scout units. Once again that gave me hope that this cultural problem of doing too much and doing it poorly – getting all the outward appearance with awards etc. without actually promoting the core values and skills of the program – is not being ignored by the scouting leaders.