Monthly Archives: June 2014

The Church is Not Lying When It Says Discipline Decisions Are Made Locally

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I’m seen the accusation all over LDS blogs and from people on Facebook that the church is lying in its statement yesterday that decisions regarding discipline “are made by local leaders and not directed or coordinated by Church headquarters.”

They point to the fact that Brother Dehlin and Sister Kelly were summoned to disciplinary councils nearly simultaneously as evidence that church headquarters is in fact coordinating the discipline and therefore lying when they say otherwise.

But it isn’t a lie at all.

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A Call to Repentance – Stop Inviting People to Leave the Church

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As online discussions concerning dissent and apostasy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have grown during recent months, I have seen a good number of faithful, believing members of the church wrongly encourage other members of the church to leave and find a different religion, or to start one of their own, because they have come to believe things that are contrary to the teachings of the church.

We need to stop it.

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John Dehlin and Kate Kelly reportedly face Church disciplinary councils

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I post this story from the NY Times with some highlights.

Two Mormons who have gained national attention for pushing their church to ordain women to the priesthood and to accept openly gay members have been notified this week that they face excommunication for apostasy.

The two are Kate Kelly, a human rights lawyer who founded the Ordain Women movement, and John P. Dehlin, the creator of a popular online forum for Mormons and a doctoral candidate in psychology who has published his research into the problems faced by gay church members.

It is the first time since 1993, when the church ejected a handful of intellectuals known as the “September Six,” that it has moved so forcefully to quash such prominent critical voices.

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The Psalms – lesson #25 in the OT Sunday School lessons

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This is a post I wrote 4 years ago during the last time we went through the Old Testament in Sunday School.  It has some great stuff on Psalms, and so I wanted to share it with my M-Star friends.  I may post other OT lessons here, as well in the ensuing months. – rameumptom

OT Gospel Doctrine Lesson #25, Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord

The Psalms are composed of temple/tabernacle hymns by David and some of the priests. The Psalms covers so many concepts that not all can be easily done in one lesson. Sadly, when we try to cover the entire Old Testament in a single year, we miss out on some of the best poetry and teachings in the scriptures. And that is what we find in Psalms. Continue reading →