When this photo was shared with me yesterday, I was struck by the expressions an the three faces. The young mother on the left, XX, is preparing for the upcoming blessing by the elders of the church of her firstborn, YY. The little girl standing next to XX and her daughter is XX’s cousin, ZZ. For ZZ, this day sharing in XX’s motherhood joy will be worth more than a half dozen Sunday lessons on motherhood. But ZZ is too young for this day to stay a specific memory. It will form the background of things she has always known. This day will have to be built upon with future experiences like this one. And since truths must be taught by precept and by example, a couple dozen Sunday lessons on motherhood will be a valuable way to explicitly bring the meaning of her experiences to the fore, felt and also thought about intelligently.

It occurred to me on Sunday, July 10 while sitting in my ward’s chapel that Pioneer Day this year would fall on a Sunday. For years I have said that half of us are no less qualified to sing a solo in church than we are to speak in church; that doesn’t get any of us out of speaking, so maybe those who sing to us shouldn’t only be “singers.” Another thought that had been growing on me these past years was the desire to sing a hymn I heard in 1988. David Pettit and Steve Ostler were walking along singing it together one evening.

“We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”

From “The False Gods We Worship,” Engsign, June 1976, Spencer Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“The Brethren constantly cry out against that which is intolerable in the sight of the Lord: against pollution of mind, body, and our surroundings; against vulgarity, stealing, lying, pride, and blasphemy; against fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and all other abuses of the sacred power to create; against murder and all that is like unto it; against all manner of desecration.

“That such a cry should be necessary among a people so blessed is amazing to me. And that such things should be found even among the Saints to some degree is scarcely believable, for these are a people who are in possession of many gifts of the Spirit, who have knowledge that puts the eternities into perspective, who have been shown the way to eternal life.

“Sadly, however, we find that to be shown the way is not necessarily to walk in it, and many have not been able to continue in faith. These have submitted themselves in one degree or another to the enticings of Satan and his servants and joined with those of “the world” in lives of ever-deepening idolatry.”

From “Statement on the Signing of the US Respect for Marriage Act”, December 13, 2022, Elder Jack Gerard, General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and currently Executive Director of the Church Communication Department, who participated in the celebratory White House signing of the Respect for Marriage Act:

“We extend a heartfelt thank you and our congratulations to all who played a part in the passage of the amended Respect for Marriage Act. Their efforts to protect religious freedom as Congress sought to codify the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision are both historic and commendable.

“The amended Respect for Marriage Act specifically recognizes that ‘diverse beliefs about the role of gender in marriage are held by reasonable and sincere people based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises.'”

“The Church has been pleased to participate with many others in the difficult but worthy work of civil engagement that accompanied the passage of this bill. Like the Church-supported Utah law in 2015, our efforts are helping the nation pursue freedom, fairness and respect for all.”

Kent Budge’s friend and neighbor Gary Stradling wrote of Kent for the Los Alamos Daily Post.
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An obituary for Kent was also published a few days ago.
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Kent died Thursday, November 10. The last entry on his Wanderlusting the Jemez blog, entered Sunday four days earlier, expressed hope in the progress of his recovery from his accident. Tuesday, though, he suffered a pulmonary embolism, and his body failed.

Death holds another captive until the resurrection frees us all.

Was the Psalmist filled with the spirit of prophecy to foretell events of Jesus ministry? Or were Jesus and his chroniclers so familiar with and fond of the Psalms that they could often find one to fit the circumstance and the mood, much as a modern-day fan of Bob Dylan or the Killers might?

Tomorrow morning our Washington DC temple will be re-dedicated. It closed in the spring of 2018 for two years of renovation and another two years of waiting out COVID-19. I remember going to the temple one last time with Elizabeth that spring four years ago. During that rollercoaster year, that was one of the periods that was looking up. Elizabeth went to the temple one more time in the summer. A dead friend’s mother had given Elizabeth permission to perform ordinances for the friend in the temple, and Elizabeth’s sister took her to the Philadelphia temple.

I had been looking forward to having our temple back, but I did not have strong feelings about the re-dedication itself. This week that changed for me. (more…)

An internet resource provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I spend a fair bit of time with is the old map page:
classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps

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[Elder Erastus Snow in the Logan Tabernacle, Saturday afternoon, February 2, 1884, as recorded in the Journal of Discourses v. 25, p 31]
The time was, in the infancy of this Church, when our minds were so narrow compared to what they are now, that we looked for the speedy coming of our Lord, and the accomplishment of His great work before this time. But as our minds grew, and our ideas enlarged, we began to perceive that we were only children in our views and feelings, our ideas and expectations. We had the views, ideas and expectations of children; and we see how the Lord has enlarged Israel and expanded His work; and now we behold so much more to be accomplished than what has been accomplished, that we are apt in our minds to put off the day of the Lord a great way.

The time was that we looked for one temple. The early revelations given to the Latter-day Saints predicted a temple in Zion, and Zion in our minds at that time was a little place on the Missouri River in Jackson County, Western Missouri—a town and a few surrounding villages, or a country, peradventure it may be as large as a county. When we first heard the fullness of the Gospel preached by the first Elders, and read the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, our ideas of Zion were very limited. But as our minds began to grow and expand, why we began to look upon Zion as a great people, and the Stakes of Zion as numerous, and the area of the country to be inhabited by the people of Zion as this great American continent, or at least such portions of it as the Lord should consecrate for the gathering of His people. We ceased to set bounds to Zion and her Stakes. We began also to cease to think about a single temple in one certain place. (more…)

I wed anew in April.

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We rather enjoyed the appearance of the four lepers in 2 Kings chapter 7, those low-class stumblers-upon of big happenings. If I were staging this chapter, would I portray them as Dogberry, Touchstone, C3PO, and Peregrin Took? Or maybe Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Groucho?

It would have been 1987 that my college roommate’s parents came to Provo for a visit; it was their first time back since they themselves had been students at Brigham Young University. The parents took a stroll around campus and found to their dismay an 11-story tower in the middle of their quad. Such is the fate of alumni: they properly go away, don’t give ol’ alma mater a whole lot of active thought, but send occasional donations. When their children come of age for higher education, their attention to such things rises, and the alumni find a lot has changed while they were bowling in the hills.

This comes to mind this morning on learning that BYU plans to demolish the Harris Fine Arts Center. I have two sons who are near the end of their time as BYU undergraduate students, and as a friend said, it is remarkable how much more often I have chosen to travel to Provo these past five years compared with the twenty before them. The last couple times I have visited my sons’ apartments but not their college campus. The campus is a bit alienating for someone my age.

My first hint of this was a decade or so back when a BYU fundraiser called. (more…)

I happenned to see this displayed today in the Ronald Reagan Airport, across the Potomac from Washington, DC.