The Gospel According to Jeffrey

This morning I was thinking about something that happened to me, about eleven years ago. I had been serving as the Sunday School instructor for our ward’s 14-15–year-old class, but that morning in Sacrament Meeting, I had been released from that position and was teaching my class for what I knew would be the last time. I wanted to leave my class with a sure knowledge that I know the Church is true, so I chose from my video collection one which compiled audio and/or video recordings of the Presidents of the Church, from Wilford Woodruff through Gordon B. Hinckley, sharing their testimonies. I intended to teach an abbreviated lesson, show the video, and conclude my service to the class by adding my own testimony to that of the prophets. Everything went as planned. I taught the lesson, introduced the video, and pressed Play. I was greeted with a video that, while superficially matching the description of the one I intended to share, was definitely not the same video....

A few months back, I happened across a video on YouTube, from the HBO show Big Love . The clip depicts one of the show’s characters, a fictional plural wife, appearing before an equally fictitious Church disciplinary council. Suffice to say: while people are people and even Church leaders are extremely human, the depiction is very unflattering and completely at odds with the way such disciplinary councils should be carried out ( i.e. with Christian love for the accused). I commented on this, at the time, saying that if any real Priesthood leader were to act the way these fictional ones did, said Priesthood leader would probably also be called up for a disciplinary council. Since that time, I have not returned to the video nor its thread. A few days ago, woman named Anne replied to my posted with an honest question: out of curiosity, what is a priesthood leader and what is censure? Not a mormon just curious. Are any of these guys priesthood holders or can any mormon man be one...

It’s time, once again, for everybody’s favorite column, Slam the Press! Honestly, this isn’t going to be so much of a slam as a series of corrections that is much, much too long for the comments, so I figured I’d post them here. The article in question is from the Humboldt County, California,  Journal article The Mormon Moment , by Scottie Lee Myers. Overall, it’s a pretty good article, and it left me feeling very good about both the missionaries and the reporter himself. However, there are a few significant errors throughout the peace, along with a several more minor ones that could also stand a fix. So as usual, let’s take them one at a time. “In 1827 [future Church President Joseph] Smith was a 25-year-old New Yorker who made a living using psychic powers to find treasure.” First of all, a minor historical point: Smith was born in December 1805, so in September 1827, he would have been 21. This is actually quite significant, because when he was 25, he was serving as Presi...

So here we are again: Pioneer Day weekend. And once again, I won’t be celebrating. Before I continue, let me give some background for the uninitiated: in the 1830s, Latter-day Saints were a persecuted minority (whereas now, everybody loves us, right? Right? [crickets chirping]). Seriously, though, the Latter-day Saints were intent on building a Zion society—not a Utopia per se , but about as close as we fallible humans can get. Anyone was welcome to join the Saints in this endeavor, regardless of religious persuasion. However, the non-LdS takers were few, indubitably because of the stigma associated with the Church of Christ and its much-maligned members. About a year after the Church was organized in 1830, Church leaders moved its headquarters from the Palmyra, New York, area to Kirtland, Ohio. Shortly thereafter, the Church set up a second center in Jackson county, Missouri. But within just a few years, mob violence had become so significant that the Saints were driven out of Oh...

One of the most beautiful practices of The Church of Jesus Christ  is that of performing ordinances for the deceased, by proxy. Latter-day Saints believe that baptism is essential to salvation, and that other temple ordinances ( e.g. endowment , sealing , etc.) are essential to exaltation. We also believe that, since God is just, absolutely everyone will have the opportunity to accept those ordinances. A just God, for example, would not damn one of His beloved children just because that child was unlucky enough to be born in, say, eighth-century China, and go his entire life without even hearing the name of Jesus Christ. Because this practice is so beautiful to us, it confuses us to no end when people react so adversely to it. An extreme example of this occurred in the late 20th century, when a Holocaust-survivors group objected to somebody having submitted the names of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism. The Church’s response was to issue an official...

A couple of days ago, I posted a response to Pastor Wil’s Top Ten Questions for “Mormons”. As long-time readers know, I have blogged about dissenting opinions in the past. What makes this time different is that the dissenting author has actually seen fit to respond. Pastor Wil, if you’re reading, I greatly appreciate this courtesy. Much as I am apparently “the only member of the [C]hurch [of Jesus Christ] who has answered all the questions,” so you, Pastor Wil, are perhaps the only non–Latter-day Saint who has responded to a relevant blog post. You thus have my gratitude, as well. Now, normally when someone comments on my blog and I need to respond, I will do so in the same venue as the initial response, i.e. in the comments section. The problem with that method, however, is that it becomes quite unwieldy when a response requires more than a paragraph or two. In this case, I feel that Pastor Wil’s comment does indeed necessitate a more lengthy response, so I hope my other readers wi...

For the last few weeks, a man who goes by the name of “PastorWil” has been tweeting about the Church of Jesus Christ and so-called “Mormonism.” Today, he tweeted a link to a recent blog post entitled My Top Ten Questions For Mormons . As a so-called “Mormon” myself, I will endeavor to respond to each of his top ten questions. Here we go! :-) 1. Do you believe the Bible has been corrupted? Of course I do. I suspect you do, too. There are literally thousands of Bible translations. No two are exactly alike, and they often contradict each other. Do you believe that the Inspired Version of the Bible (used by the Community of Christ) and the New World Translation (used by Jehovah’s Witnesses) are both 100% accurate? If not, then you, too, believe that the Bible has been corrupted. 2. If the Bible is corrupted, then why does the LDS church still use the King James and not the Joseph Smith Translation? This is actually a trick question. The Church does use the Joseph Smith Translation...

I just had a very interesting experience. I’ve technically been on Twitter for several months, but I’ve just started getting the hang of following stuff. Recently, I noticed that a lot of blogs have been using the  #mormon hash tag, so I added that to my list of stuff to follow, and the results have been—shall we say—less than 100% enjoyable. Besides the wonderful pages that have popped up with information that’s actually relevant, this morning I saw a British preacher tag his podcast with the #mormon tag. Interested, I listened to the entire thing: it was a one-hour sermon on how to identify a cult, and was actually quite good. In fact, I agreed with virtually every word he said, except when he offhandedly ran down a list of so-called “cults” and, with absolutely no indication of why he was doing so, included the slur “Mormons” as part of his rapid-fire list. It frankly rather amazed me: the whole sermon was wonderful, and then he tossed in that one, tiny, off-the-cuff slu...

Today was an awesome day! Many readers will know that our family has been in Wichita, KS, for the last several days, getting to know the birthmother of a little girl (due 8/6) that it looks like we’re going to be able to adopt. Today, though, was quite different, which is why it winds up in this particular blog. After leaving Wichita at about 8:30 AM, we made it to Independence, Missouri, at a bit after noon. As it turns out, each day, there is a ten-minute “Prayer for Peace” service in the Community of Christ ’s Temple . 1 The service was nice, but we later agreed that it just didn’t have that certain je ne sais quoi that allows the Spirit to flow so freely, in our own meetings. (More on that, later.) After the prayer service, we decided to go downstairs and sign up to tour the temple. We were the only ones to do so, so an older gentleman showed us a ten-minute video (which identified Joseph Smith, Jr., as the “founder of the Latter-day Saint–tradition churches”) and then showed ...

First of all, this post is best read if you’re familiar with the concepts in my recent Primer on Family History . If you’re not familiar with my love for the pastime, or are just wondering how I got into it in the first place, check out that post. I hope you’ll find it informative. So now, let’s deal with my personal history in family history programs. Back in 1991, when I first became a Christian, I was encouraged (like all members of the Church of Jesus Christ) to begin researching my family history. (Wonder why? You must not have read the Book of Jeffrey entry. Seriously, check it out!) ;-) I don’t remember how long it was before I learned of Personal Ancestral File 2.1 (or “PAF,” for short), but I immediately knew it would be a wise investment. You see, Personal Ancestral File was an application developed by the Church, designed to help people track their family history. It was quite crude, by today’s standards, but it was a great program at the time. When I arrived home from my...

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen my status update, some 36 hours ago, in which I stated that I think I’ve finally decided on a new family history program. This status led to a rather humorous discussion of what I meant by that, but the point is that I’m finally ready to move into the 21st century, when it comes to tracking my genealogy and family history. So here’s a little background, so you can understand just where I’m coming from. Back in 1991, I accepted Christ as my Savior and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . One of the basic tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ is that God loves all of His children, not just those that are lucky enough to learn His plan during their short time on Earth. However, we also know that Christ taught that baptism is essential for entrance into the kingdom of God (see John 3:1-5 ). So what about all those that died without ever having the chance to be baptized, or even to accept Christ as Savior...

I was checking out my Facebook page, this morning, when I saw an update from my “friend” Brian Dunning. (I put “friend” in quotes because he’s really more of an acquaintance, but he seems to be a genuinely nice guy and I’m therefore happy to call him “friend” on Facebook.) Brian is a big name in the FileMaker world, in part because he maintains a very popular Custom Function repository . Furthermore, since he’s good IRL friends with the partners at Excelisys, we’ve met a few times at the FileMaker Developers Conference. Somehow, though, I’ve missed something big: in clicking on his Facebook page, I discovered that he also runs a very successful Podcast called “ Skeptoid ” that has managed to remain below my radar until now. The concept of Skeptoid is a simple one: each week, Brian takes an aspect of religion, pseudoscience, pop culture, etc., and debunks it in about ten minutes. At least, that’s the intention. I decided to see if Brian had anything to say about The Church of Je...

As a young boy growing up in Whitney, Idaho, young Ezra Taft Benson (or “T,” as he was known) learned to love the song I Am a Mormon Boy . Even eight or nine decades later, when “T” served as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he “often delighted youngsters of another generation by singing all three verses… in his clear tenor voice” ( President Ezra Taft Benson: A Sure Voice of Faith , Ensign 24:7:8 ff .). So why does it rub me the wrong way? Over the last few months, I’ve noticed what I can only describe as a rash of inappropriate use of the term “Mormon” on the web. The Church’s own media Style Guide is pretty explicit on what they will and won’t accept, but even Church-owned and -operated sites ( e.g. the Church News ) have started falling victim to the errors. I’ve sent multiple emails to Church News editor Gerry Avant—who incidentally agrees with me—but have been forced to content myself with responses such as the following email, dated 19 November 2009...

It has always interested me—and not necessarily in a good way—that so many critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints complain that the Church is a “brainwashing cult” or whatever. The irony of this becomes particularly apparent when one realizes that many of the most outspoken critics have done no firsthand (or even secondhand) research whatsoever, they just attended some “Mormonism” class that their own church put on and assume everything said in that class—like everything their preacher has ever said—is the Gospel truth. Now, don’t get me wrong; I fully recognize that there are some misinformed members of the Church of Jesus Christ that fall into this same category: that of assuming that everything a leader says, regardless of what it is, is scripture on the same level as the canonical works. This is obviously not the case, as several Church leaders—even Apostles—have been officially rebuked for certain *ahem* inaccurate statements made along the way. I have person...