The Gospel According to Jeffrey

The following is adapted from a talk I gave in the Gardendale Ward (Birmingham, Alabama Stake) on 10 May 2015. Enjoy! Brothers and Sisters, aloha and happy Mother’s Day! When I was first asked to speak today, I was told I could pick any topic I wanted. But of course, since it’s Mother’s Day, I’d certainly be remiss if I didn’t choose something to do with moms. And you know what? That’s actually pretty cool, because even though there are a lot of people here that have a lot more experience than I do, being a mom, I do know a few things about moms because I’ve spent most of my life living with one. And one thing I’ve learned is moms are like the greatest thing ever, and you frankly don’t get half the recognition you deserve. As a dad, I’d love to think I’m just as good as a mom, but let’s face it: there’s really no comparison. Yes, dads are important, and the world would be a really sad place if all the dads disappeared. But when you come right down to it, a mom is so much more ...

I’m going to say something that may not be popular, something which might even cause some people some hurt. I preface this by saying that I grew up in the New York City area, where people have the reputation for being rude and unfriendly, which I personally find insanely laughable. You want to find rude and unfriendly, go to the Midwest or to Utah; I’ve experienced quite a bit of each, in both places. Conversely, New Yorkers are very open and accepting; we just don’t beat around the bush. We tell it like it is and expect everyone to accept that, because in our world, everyone does. If you don’t want to hear me tell it like I see it, feel free to read something else. Yesterday afternoon, Elder Neil L. Andersen  (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ) addressed the 184th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In his discourse, he reiterated two of the Church’s consistent positions: 1) We should respect everyone and bully no one. ...

It’s time for yet another installment of Responding to Facebook , the show where I share stuff that’s really just way too long for microblogging. For the last few months, the Bloggernacle has been rife with stories about the Ordain Women Movement , a group that seeks to have The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints change its longstanding policy of only ordaining men to specific offices in the Priesthood. While the reasons behind this are far too complex to be treated in this post, the point is that this group wants this change to occur, and has been attempting to effectuate this change through a variety of methods—not the least of which is showing up at the Priesthood Session of the Church’s Annual and Semiannual General Conferences and requesting admission to the men’s meeting. (As an aside, the men’s meeting is always preceded by a General Women’s Meeting, the preceding Saturday. Of course, all women are invited to attend this meeting, and men requesting admissio...

In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about “gender equality” in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While so-called “Mormon feminists” have been around since at least the 1970s, the current renewed focus seems to have started with a Facebook group encouraging women to wear pants to Church on Sunday, 16 December 2012, in contrast to the prevailing culture which encourages them to wear skirts or dresses. (The Church, for its part, does not have any position on pants vs. skirts. As Church spokesman Scott Trotter stated in response to the proposed action, “Generally church members are encouraged to wear their best clothing as a sign of respect for the Savior, but we don’t counsel people beyond that.”) As for my ward of the Church, my perception was that “Pants Sunday” was an utter failure. As far as I could tell, most people had no idea it was even happening. My wife and I saw a grand total of two women that seemed to be participating, but one of them alway...

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe in the authority and power of the Priesthood. However, unlike many religious traditions, we do not understand the Priesthood to be an organization or even a group of religious leaders, but rather a power. A page on Mormon.org entitled What Is the Priesthood?  repeats the definition most often heard in Church meetings and lesson manuals: “The Priesthood,” it writes, “is the authority to act in God’s name.” Whereas some religions view priesthood like an electric company, we view it as the actual electricity; it exists independently of its holders, ready to be called upon by all those who are authorized to do so. So my question is: who, pray tell, is so authorized? It’s an interesting question, to say the least, and one that I don’t think has been particularly explored among Latter-day Saints. I know, for example, that I am authorized to perform certain ordinances because I am an elder in the Church. I can ...

If you missed my last post, check it out . Otherwise, here’s Part II. :-) I’m now going to conclude my thoughts by pointing out something I’ve spoken of, many times before: the issue of how men are treated in the Church. I don’t claim to know how things were done in the 1980s or the 1880s or whatever other era, but I can certainly say that in the almost 20 years I’ve been a member of the Church, men have been treated like crap. This past Sunday would be a perfect example. Last Sunday, Anna and I attended the  Auburn Hills Ward  in the Wichita, Kansas Stake. Following the youth speaker, the second speaker was a single mother in her mid-30s, whose topic was womanhood. The crux of her talk—which point she kept revisiting—was, “I don’t claim to know what’s it’s like to be a man, but being a woman is really hard.” The implication, of course, was that women’s roles are so difficult to balance that merely filling them at all is enough to warrant praise. Following her rema...

Warning: this is a long post, and it actually kind of devolves into a rant, for a while. If you’re a first-time reader, don’t worry; I’m usually not this bad. ;-) So I saw an interesting post, this morning, on a Latter-day Saint blog called  Times and Seasons . The post, entitled Women and Meetings , cited a recent professional conference the author attended, in which speaker  Dr. Bruce D. Perry  stated that “The IQ of group decision-making goes up in direct proportion to the number of women participating in the group.” The blogger’s question, therefore, was what the reader thinks of this claim, and specifically its implications for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Recent changes making the Ward Council (with three women) rather than the PEC (with zero women) the primary group decision-making body at the LDS congregational level improves the quality of decisions made at the local level. The absence of women in the senior councils of the LDS Church at ...