Celestial Life

The boy fidgeted. His Mom and Dad were holding his hands while deeply contemplating the magnificent treasure map on display before them. Then he got “the look.”  “Dear, you know how important this map is.” “Yes, Mom.” He knew that there was great symbolism, but none seemed to know what it all meant. Curiously, that > > Read More …

Yesterday I attended two Sunday School lessons. The second was filled with truth and light. At one point during the first, my arms and hands were shaking uncontrollably. I had to take a time out, unnecessarily heading to the restroom. It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t sorrow, grief, guilt, or regret. Nor was it pain, or > > Read More …

Implicit in agency is the need to discern between good and evil. I used to believe that one could get this right simply by listening to the Spirit. That might require faith in the form fasting/prayer, study and other efforts, and a lot of patience. That’s the easy answer, but it doesn’t take much thought > > Read More …

One can hardly have anything to do with Mormonism and not find oneself regularly pondering polygamy, especially when it is the Sunday School topic du jour. As an aside, I skipped out. I’ve been thinking about this “lesson” for two weeks, and just can’t imagine listening to the “narrative.” Nevertheless, as I was in Sacrament > > Read More …

One can hardly have anything to do with Mormonism and not find oneself regularly pondering polygamy, especially when it is the Sunday School topic du jour. As an aside, I skipped out. I’ve been thinking about this “lesson” for two weeks, and just can’t imagine listening to the “narrative.” Nevertheless, as I was in Sacrament > > Read More …

Soon after posting the prior, a rather obvious question that I somehow previously missed came to mind: which church/Church is that? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? The church/fellowship that I regularly worship with? The group of friends (AME, Baha’i, Christian, Muslim, etc.) with whom I regularly have meals and discuss politics/religion/race? The > > Read More …

There is a certain sublimity in the succinctness of “that voice” that makes it readily identifiable. Rarely has it come with an imperative. Comprehension usually distills over time. Nevertheless, my knee jerk response was to ask, effectively, “what does that mean?” “I gave you a country, own it.” Immediately the mind begins to fill in > > Read More …

Money, money, money, Must be funny,In a rich man’s world. Introduction Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been struggling with this theme for many years now. But, it just won’t leave me alone. Let me give a couple of examples of questions / issues. World’s Richest Man Forbes compiles the list of the world’s > > Read More …

These last several weeks, I’ve had increasing opportunity to search out God in lunches with a new Muslim friend, while communing and spiritually stretching in a BaHa’i devotional, while offering an invited prayer (on my Birthday, very memorable) at a anti-gun-violence prayer meeting / peace vigil, and having deep theological discussions with disaffected or questioning > > Read More …

Note: herein I choose to reference a different compilation of the scriptures so that nothing Joseph Smith included is left out. Of course we’ve heard a lot of science in the last two decades about confirmation bias and not just how susceptible we are to this, but how those of us who attempt to be > > Read More …