Given all the discussion on LDS film director Richard Dutcher, I thought this story was interesting. To sum up: the story discusses LDS actors and how they maintain the Church’s standards in a sometimes decadent industry. Jon Heder is quoted as saying he told a director once that the scene had to be changed or he would not perform it.

One important point: people in all kinds of jobs face questions about honesty and Gospel principles on a daily basis. This is not a problem just for actors and directors. The temple recommend interview asks if you are honest, and many bishops tell me this is the one that is often hardest for people to say “yes” to. So, I am not by any stretch implying that only actors and directors face challenges. But it is interesting to look at how prominent people deal with these issues.

As I perused one of the LDS blog aggregators yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice a post titled, “Did You Watch a Man Die?” written by Melissa De Leon Mason on BCC.

My thoughts did not immediately go to the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging; I’ve already watched that video. Rather, I tried to remember the first time I watched a man die. (Caution: Reader discretion is advised.)

Continue reading →

This is a story in which this blogger finally got to see a three-person band and an enthusiastic Gospel choir in an LDS chapel. Thank heavens for Gladys Knight.

There is no doubt in my mind that Sister Knight has been called at this time to add her testimony to the many others out there. She may bring thousands if not tens of thousands to the Church.

This documentary sounds like a fascinating project. I welcome it and think it will help the general lack of understanding of our Church. I’ve always thought – even before I was a member – that the story of our Church is interesting simply as a historical phenomenon. It’s always annoying to introduce yourself as a Mormon and get the polygamy question. I have no illusions about that changing anytime soon, but maybe this documentary will inform a few people?

Guess which prominent General Authority said the following? Extra credit for indicating when he said it.

With numerous others, I am greatly disturbed at the rapid move of our government to socialism and what seems to be an approach toward dictatorship; with a controlled Supreme Court, the administration continues to impose more and more demands upon the people…Taxes are becoming back-breaking, expenditure and waste are alarming. The Church must remain independent and furnish its own funds for all its own adventures and projects. The government seems too anxious to give, give, give to the poor, to the aged, to the schools, to everyone, and blinded people feel they are getting something, whereas they pay it to the government so that the government can after great overhead expense return a part of it to the people. And every time a gift returns to the people–a so-called gift–it comes with fetters binding and tying and enslaving. For every block of funds given to the people, they lose a bigger block of liberty.

I’ll wait a few days before posting the answer and commentary. I’m guessing our intrepid commenters will find the answer soon, however.