Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan

The first black Area President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be Joseph W. Stati. He will also be the first president of the Afeica Central Area and will be running it from a city where he and his wife and children were the first full family to join the Church back in 1986 and he was the first stake president. President Sitati's 2nd counselor in the area presidency will be Thierry Mutombo from DR Congo, who may not have yet been replaced as mission president in Baltimore. Elder Mutombo also was baptized in 1986, but was only 10 as opposed to Elder Sitati who was 34 when baptized. Note that Elder Dube was baptized first of the four black African general authorities but Elder Sitati is the oldest. Elder Mutombo was a fulltime Church et employee. I believe he was a materials manager and then human resource manager and then family history manager. In the last position he not only oversaw records acquisition but also a,very aggresive oral history program to

Jorge Beccerra is without question an American Latino General Authority. More to the point to some he is a Mexican American general authority. He is also from Utah. His background is working as an investment advisor. His wife is an Anglo-American. He grew up attending the Lucero Ward, at least some of that time the only Spanish-speaking ward in Utah. Back when Thomas S. Monson was a child it was the only Spanish-speaking ward in the Church. Everything else was branches. Elder Beccerra was not born until 1962, so 35 years after President Monson. By them President Monson had moved out of downtown to the southeast suburbs of Salt Lake. Elder Beccerra's grandfather joined the Church in Mexico as did his parents. The family moved to Utah before his birth. He served his mission in the Arcadia California Mission where he met his wife who was a missionary there. He now lives in Sandy, having thus moved to the suburbs and he was mission president in Arcadia. The question is, was Elder B

As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exits scouting, the cost to be in scouting is skyrocketing. It is unclear how much these things relate. Since this particular cost that is rising is the fee paid to the national organization, there may be a connection. The national organization has laid off 36 employees. The Utah Councils have also cut staff. In Hawaii their two councils are merging. In Arizona they are elimanating one of the sub-council districts, although since that was a non-geographic one specifically for troops sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it was problematic. The sticker shock issue is that the cost to register as assessed by the national organization has gone from $33 per boy to $60 per boy. Youth leader charges have gone from $33 to $36. The whole way it is being done shows lack of foresight or outright deception on the part of scout leadership. Why do I say deceptions? A high percentage of cub packs, and some scout troops,

Here  https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/10/14/stuart-c-reid-oaks-does/  is a well balanced article written for the Salt Lake Tribune defending the teachings of President Dallin H. Oaks, specifically his well thought-out talk to the General Women's Meeting in General Conference. Reid presents a well reasoned argument. What he never deals with is the reasons behind Riess's hateful attacks on President Oaks for his talk. To understand what is fully going on one has to realize in the past Riess has attacked President Packer for his comments on LGBT issues in general conference. The best theory is that Riess is not in accord with or agreement with the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on sexuality. She should stop pretending, as she did with her earlier reactions to President Packer, and just admit that she does not view the leaders of the Church as inspired men, clearly does not believe the Book of Mormon is the revealed word of God in an

Here  https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2019/10/18/looking-for-a-tough-group-to-interview-try-the-amish  is an comment article about the journalism issus in creating an article on a PAC trying to convince the Amish to vote. To me this does not get to the route of the issues involved. The Mennoties, the Amish and the Jehovah's Witnesses are the only religious groups I know of that hold it as a violation of their religion to vote. It is extremely hard to start this discussion without fully stating that fact. There are some Muslims who object to voting, but it has been about 20 years since I saw an article on such groups, so I have doubts they have much place anymore. This is the antithesis of what one sees in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where the leaders of the Church encourage voting. Of course, one needs to remember the disparate, localized nature of the Amish and Mennoites, where there is not really a higher religious authority than the bishop of th

The following was a post in response to a Get Religion article on the Catholic Church and Cardinals. I doubt my post there will get posted so I will post it here. One of the few other worldwide religious organizations run like the Catholic Church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However coverage of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally is less susceptible to being read along political lines. This is partly because President Russell M. Nelson, the early head of the Church engages in rhetoric, such as praising bridge building over wall making, that could be seen as anti-Trump. President Nelson like his predecessor has pushed an outreach program to refugees. However he also has very clearly stated the Church's teaching of man woman marriage and the inborn nature of sex, which in turn is not "assigned at birth" or more realistically created at conception but in the teachings of the restored Church of Jesus Christ sex was a premarit