fulfilling the caricature of Mormons as rock-ribbed Republicans
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Just switched servers and I think I have most things set up but my page can’t be rendered in Firefox. My problem is I’m using PHP without any file extensions. I have tweaked the .htaccess file to handle this but the page won’t render in Firefox.
This worked fine before and it seems to be okay in other browsers (IE and Safari) but I just see code in both Windows and Mac Firefox. If anyone has any idea what I have done to mess up rendering, I would appreciate any help.
Thanks.
The First Presidency just released a statement that in effect, throws its support behind Utah’s proposed Amendment 3 and similar measures to ban civil unions.
While the First Presidency issued a brief statement in July supporting a constitutional amendment that protects marriage as between a man and a woman, this new statement goes further in opposing the creation of any legal status for sexual relationships outside of marriage.
First Presidency Statement on Same-Gender Marriage
“We of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reach out with understanding and respect for individuals who are attracted to those of the same gender. We realize there may be great loneliness in their lives but there must also be recognition of what is right before the Lord.
“As a doctrinal principle, based on sacred scripture, we affirm that marriage between a man and a woman is essential to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. The powers of procreation are to be exercised only between a man and a woman lawfully wedded as husband and wife.
“Any other sexual relations, including those between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of the family. The Church accordingly favors measures that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and that do not confer legal status on any other sexual relationship.”
Once upon a time when I started A Soft Answer I dreamed of doing a Utah politics/religion blog. Now that I’m in the DC area, my focus (and time) has changed a bit. But I try to keep up and I have recently come across three worthwhile Utah blogs:
The State of the Beehive is run by my good friend from law school Charley Foster. He promises to blog on “Utah law, politics, history and sports.”
Utah Policymaker is from UtahPolicy.com (source of the excellent daily newsletter Utah Policy Daily). It has just started in the last few weeks but sounds promising with a lineup of state officeholders and candidates. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
KSL Radio Blog is another intriguing experiment in group blogging. The posters comprise of the news reporters for Church-owned KSL radio 1160 AM.
http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2004/10/book-of-mormon-authenticity-one-slam.html
In August, a disturbance was felt in the Bloggernacle when Tal Bachman announced that he was leaving the Church. Bachman is a pop musician who had a hit a few years ago with “She’s So High” (more important to me he is the son of – as far as I know – still member Randy Bachman of the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive). Tal’s reason for leaving had to do with the accuracy of official Church history. For much more thoughtful discussion and background check out the following: Mo’ Boy Blog, The Baron of Deseret, A Motley Vision, Orson’s Telescope, and Our Thoughts.
I bring this up because a new story today Young Bachman Mormon no more makes it look to me that young Bachman’s publicist has decided to milk this personal interest story to promote his latest release.
Tal Bachman has left the Mormons! Kind of makes the usual screwed-by-the-record-company story pale by comparison, doesn’t it? Bachman plays this afternoon at 3 at the Nest on the NAIT campus – a solo “story and song” gig to promote his new CD, Staring Down the Sun.
Maybe he’ll talk about religion. Maybe not. He did in a recent phone interview. Bachman says he’d devoted his entire life to Mormonism (he’s 34 years old and has seven children, if that’s proof enough) – but not any more.
I don’t begrudge him leaving the Church for his personal beliefs. That must have been a very hard and personal decision. But because I would think it was a hard and personal decision I don’t understand why it is the main angle on stories where he is publicizing his latest effort. One of the stories in August (can’t find it right now) had him saying that he was relieved that since he was no longer bound by Mormon principles, he could dance now! Who cares about Church history when you need to get the facts about the present straight.
As I write this I realize I shouldn’t judge, but I put this out for anyone to set me straight if this is something more than just a publicity vehicle.
The Salt Lake Tribune has a nice profile on Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. While it starts out out discussing his new friendship with University of Utah football coach Urban Meyer, the article goes on to give a nice biographical sketch on one of the lesser known(at least for me) apostles .
In his sermons, Wirthlin returns again and again to the lessons of football.
His coach, Ike Armstrong, believed the game required “not only football prowess, but also courage, duty, dependability, perseverance, integrity and enthusiasm, which resulted in physical, emotional, and even spiritual conditioning at the highest level,” Wirthlin said in a 1978 speech. “The end product was to be nothing less than character of the most solid kind.”
These are the feelings Wirthlin now shares with his friends, Urban and Shelley Meyer, and the young Ute players.
“He obviously has a passion for his Mormon beliefs,” Meyer says, “but he also has a passion for Utah football. He knows it and I know it and the players know it.”
http://www.ldstoday.com/home/
http://mormonwasp.blogspot.com/2004/10/mormons-are-booming-in-northeast.html
http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-479,00.html
http://www.theomahachannel.com/money/3783755/detail.html
http://motleyvision.blogspot.com/2004/10/pop-mormons-are-trs-canadian.html
http://www.ldsscripturemastery.net/scriptures.html
LDS and Mormon Blogs
