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

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 a...

There are multiple Hmong wards and branches in the USA, although here in Detroit we no longer have one as we did in the 1990s. A large percentage of the Hmong fled Vietnam after the Vietnam Ward. Actually I think they were more in Laos, but their working with the CIA made them personas non grata when the USA lost.  There are various ethnic minority groups in central Vietnam bubbed the Montaignards, or mountain people. A certain part of North Carolina, near a large military base has many people from this ethnic group. It seems to me there is potential for missionary outreach to them in North Carolina. The Church of J.g Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Vietnam is confined to major metropolitan urban centers. We know from Nigeria there is lots of potential for outreach in villages, and I believe we see the same thing in Polynesia, but the interpretation of centers of strength has of late nade rural outreach rare. I think some of the Naya speaking stakes in Guatamala are a testi...

We just had stake conference in the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. It was truly a day in Zion. I have been called to invite others to come and see and come and share and to take a name to the temple. The latter I will do with the name of one of my wife's relatives. I was so glad to hear from Elder Peter M. Johnson of the 70 who made mention of being from New York, and the trouble of moving to the dry climate of Utah including having to work extra hard on his 'fro. Elder Johnson is the only African-American general authority (not the only black one though, Elder Sitati and Elder Dube are clearly black, African, just not in any way shape means or form American). The most moving talk was by a girl who just turned 12 last month. I wish I had had the vision of temple envolvement when I was her age. The failure to find as many names is partly due to a harder process, little internet access (we didn't get intern...

Word choice matters. We see this in Leftists use of scare quotes around terms like Religious freedom. We also see this in the case of the Salt Lake Tribune covering issues related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They refer to the Sepetem Six purge, without even putting quotes around purge. A purge historically was a killing of leaders. That is not fit here. Also, since the people were not Church leaders the whole rhetoric of purge does not make sense. It only has resonance if you falsely assume the Church is lead by intellectuals instead of by the people who are called and sustainted to lead the Church such as the general authorities. The restored Church is lead by a lay priesthood, and this is something that the Tribune does not seem to want to understand. Even though the general authorities receive a stipend for their running of the Church on a fulltime basis this does not change their lay nature. They are not called based on having studied for the ministry. A...

The claim heard in some conners recently "no stakes created this month" does not bear up under scrutiny. It might be a reaction to what happened in July, but there are almost never new stakes in July. August has seen a stake was just created in Forteleza Brazil. Multiple stakes have been formed in Lima this year. Also multiple stakes have been formed in the Phillipines this year. The Church also continues to clearly grow in Utah. The Africa West Area being split in two is possible, but I do not know how likely it is. At present we have about 2/3rds the areas the Church had at the hight of the area phenomenon. That said, the history of administrative units between that of stakes/missions/districts and the Church as a whole is so complex, that I have only ever seen one article come close to getting it right. That is an article from the book on THe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada. Even there I am not sure they fully explain regional representatives (who o...

Some indications are that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may not be gorwing as much in the US as we think. However I always question the results of the Pew survey. I question them even more on Islam. The Pew survey says that conversion is not a factor in the growth of Islam in the US. Why, because the number of former Muslims and converts to Muslims are both roughtly 20%. However with this being an adult survey and 58% of Muslim adults in the US being immigrants, I think the modeling involved here is flawed. Why, for one thing, without converts Islam would be 20% smaller. However more to the point, we need more indepth studies on the former Muslims. For one thing how does someone like Peter M. Johnson show up in this study? Johnson became a Muslim when he was about 12. I think he was either Pentecostal or Baptists before that. When he was about 20 he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is now a general authority. So does he count as a former ...

The article " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_and_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#Teachings_from_1978%E2%80%93present  to me is a clear example of POV pushing. Basically it sets out to prove that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintained racist resistence to interracial marriage until 2013. The problem is most clear in sighting a footnote to a talk by Russell M. Nelson. This was a talk in 1996, but was in a footnote, not in his actual remarks. What he said was "The commandment to love our neighbors without discrimination is certain. But it must not be misunderstood. It applies generally. Selection of a marriage partner, on the other hand, involves specific and not general criteria. After all, one person can only be married to one individual.The probabilities of a successful marriage are known to be much greater if both the husband and wife are united in their religion, language, culture, and ethnic background."The com...

The misuse of courts has reached a new low. In a rambling and clearly unhinged suit someone has now tried to begin a class action lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the grounds that it misrepresents its history for corporate gain. The suit claims that it is known that Joseph Smith did not translate the Book of Mormon from the gold plates and that it is known that Joseph Smith did not see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the First Vision, but the Church tries to manipulate and downplay these facts. The problem for the suit is that it makes false claims on what is and is not known, and then outright lies about the implications. First off, the seeming main claim is that because at least some of the translation of the Book of Mormon was done by Joseph Smith looking in a seer stone in a hat it was not translated from the golden plates. This is a clear false claim. The belief of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that t...

This year seminary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is finally getting on the same schedule as the rest of the Church programs. The differences in coverage date back to a time when seminary was often by grade and you did a different subject in each grade. When I was in seminary in the late 1990s it they finally changed the order they went through so that it was the same ordered progression as the rest of the Church programs. More recently scripture mastery was revamped and then about 2 years later it was scapped in favor of a new program.

Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke to the national convention of the NAACP in Detroit on Sunday, July 21st, 2019, 2 days before Riot Day, the dark day that marks Detroit's desstruction as the model city of racial progress. President Nelson was introduced by Amos C. Brown, a baptist pastor from San Francisco who studied under Martin Luther King Jr. He was speaking at the Cobo Center, the very spot where Martin Luther King Jr. first gave his "I Have a Deam Speech" after a march down Woodward Avenue arm in arm with Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh. This co-march was the epitome of Detroit being the model city for racial progress, an idea shattered in violence 4 years later. 1963 to 1967. During that time President Nelson was a stake president in Salt Lake City and a leading edge heart surgeon. Amos Brown mentioned President Nelson's background as a heart surgeon. President Nelson taught keeping the first great commandments,...

There is an attempt to delete the well researched Wikipedia article on Octaviano Tenorio. I am posting it here to save the contents. {{Infobox LDS biography | name                       = Octaviano Tenorio | birth_name                 = Octaviano Tenorio Domínguez | birth_date                 = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1942|10|31}} | birth_place                = Tilapan, [[Veracruz]], [[Mexico]] | position_or_quorum1        = [[First Quorum of the Seventy]] | called_by1                 = [[Gordon B. Hinckley]] | start_date1                = {{start date|df=yes|2007|03|31}} | end_date1                  = {{end date|2012|10|06}} | end_reason...

Again and again the Arizona media come off as very anti-Latter-day Saint. This is another example of such  https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe-breaking/2019/05/31/lds-youth-secretary-brandon-hernandez-accused-sexual-encounters-with-14-year-old-girl/1305457001/ Look at this closely. A 20-year-old who has known a 14-year-old for seven years was arrested for having a sexual relationship with her. For the Arizona Republic to have established any reasonableness in mentioning the Church connection they would have had to establish things they did not establish. Was the "girl" in the same congregation as the accused? Was the "girl" even a Latter-day Saint? Secreteries I would say are more of a leadership position than Hawkins admits, but leadership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is very disperate. This is not a 35-year-old man having sex with a 14-year-old. In fact in light of current cultural practices, treating a 20-year-old as a ful...

The Church has renamed Mormon Channel. They have renamed Mormon library. Basically every social media account The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has has been named away from using "Mormon" or "Latter-day Saint". True, the decions to rename the Choir to The Choir at Temple Square, while the 2001 changes had clearly exempted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and then been walked back with the 2002 launch of Mormon.org and later with the advent of the "I'm a Mormon" campaign was a big issue. It still goes back to President Nelson's emphasis that we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to be the onen to lead out in the new langauge. As I mentioned in my last post, I have yet to see much evidence that this is occuring. There are those I have heard speak of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The full name of the Church is clearly being put in place, but the media still in general resist...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a unique organization. For those of us who believe in its divine origin this is felt to be a result of the fact that it is actually lead by Jesus Christ. The method of succession that involves no campaigning or jockeying for influence may be unliked by religion reports who thrive on conflict, but it works to help the work move forward more effectively. The fact of the matter is that the nature of how the Church is run is sometimes not understood much by members of the Church. This is because it is a highly hierarchical structure, that at the same time puts lots of autonomy and direction at a very local level. Decisions to admit people in the Church are largely under the direction of the mission president and administered by missionaries themselves, usually the district or zone leader approving the actions of individual missionaries, but with mission president or mission president counselor approval needed in some special cases....

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the central decisions of the Church are made, with the guidance and inspiration of Jesus Christ, by the First Presidency. The President of the Church cannot in most cases act unilaterally. Joseph Smith who set the Church up initially by revelation that directed him, later established the councils that would run the Church, counsels that make direction not just from one man. Most decesions on the course of the Church are made by the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 together. While many decisions on such subjects as granting permission to be sealed in the temple again to men who have been divorced are done by the First Presidency, heavily rellying on the fact finding done by the bishops and stake presidents of the people involved, most policy decisions on the course of the Church are done by the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 together. Some would wisely argue that this staement overemphasizes policy in the course of the...

Well, I have learned a little more on Elder Johnson. His wife is white. How did I learn this because ComeuntoChrist.org has this video  https://www.mormon.org/video-peter-johnson-on-prophets I also learned a little more of his children. A recent Deseret News article on Elder Johnson linked to this article  https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865673983/Two-sisters-at-SUU-a-walk-on-at-USU-and-other-returned-Mormon-missionaries-in-college-basketball.html  That article does mention "Peter Johnson" as the father of Whitney and Kiana Johnson on the SUU basketball team, and mentions both were returned missionaries, serving in Mexico and Cape Verde. The photos make it clear that the Johnson sisters are at least partly African-American. Still with Peter a marginally common name and Johnson being one of the three most common names in the US without the link from the other Deseret News article I would not have been positive there was a link.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living Church on the face of the earth. I know that Jesus Christ is our saviour and redeemer, and it is only through him we can overcome sin. Only His atonement pays the price for our sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know it was written anciently and translated by the gift and power of God. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I know Russell M. Nelson is the prophet of God today. He is a man called, prepared and chosen to lead the Church at this moment in time.

With several missions having clear sub-regions, the past reasons to support specific missions are not as clear in the present. Also, missions are one place where calling more than 2 counselors to the presidency is a generally allowed practice. So if the number of missionaries does not justify a seperate mission, there are various ways to appraoch the issue. It should also be born in mind that the logistics of finding enough Church members willing to committ 3 years to leading a mission, with a couple where both meet the full worthiness and sportual maturity requirements and such is not easy. Leaving for 3 years is a big burden in some cases, and I have known people who were in academia and told if they accepted a call as mission president by other they knew there that these other people would make sure they never returned to the academic world. So these logistics do mitigate against creating more missions than needed. Other issues to consider. Many of the reasons to have unfied...

Well the main reform of 2018 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2018 were the move to 2-hour church and the connected more home centered curriculum combined with the move to one Melchizedek Priesthood quorum in each ward and the move to ministering. Changes in mission calls include one system for full-time and church service calls for young people, sending them electronically and a shift to using smart phones by missionaries, although the last may pre-date 2018. A year ending one was the move to cohorts for youth and allowing people to start in Aaronic priesthood, young women and temple attendance when they are still 11 is they will turn 12 that year. Also the year has seen clear statements against abuse, policies allowing women and youth to have a second adult present during interviews, and clear publication of interview questions. The second one seems not so much a full change as more publication of an already existing but little known policy. The final set...