March 2006 @ 1:58 pm

It seems that the Church Newsroom feeds were made by some fellow bloggers and they have a few more for Lds.org at ldsrss.org. Thank you!

Newswires have gone loco this afternoon with an AP report that a LDS man face church disciplibe because he and another man were married in Canada in 2004.

It is believed that if Jeppson is excommunicated, it would be the first time a Mormon in a legal, same-sex marriage was punished by the church, said Olin Thomas, executive director of Affirmation, an advocacy and education group for gay Mormons.

Jeppson said that over the past five months Nolan Archibald, the senior leader – or president – of a group of Mormon congregations in the Washington area, has encouraged Jeppson to resign his church membership, which would avoid disciplinary action.

Jeppson is unwilling to do that.

“It’s not going to be my choice to deny my heritage and my faith,” Jeppson said in a telephone interview from his home.

Contacted by The Associated Press, Archibald declined specific comment, saying he has a sacred duty to keep matters involving church members confidential. “I would like to say, it’s a total misrepresentation of the conversation we had,” Archibald said.

President Archibald is president of Washington, D.C. Stake which actually covers mostly suburban Maryland including the Washington, D.C. temple, and just recently part of the District as well.

It’s must be a difficult situation for a lifelong member but a Church spokeswoman explains that the Church also is in hard position if it wants to true to its beliefs:

Baptized church members promise to live the principles of the Gospel, Farah said.

“If the person later decides to reject these core principles, they have the right and freedom to do so,” she said. “However, they cannot reasonably expect to reject the most fundamental teachings of the church and still wrap themselves in the cloak of church membership. Of course, they would be welcome to continue to attend church services.”

Brother Jeppson and his partner have a website where he details his personal history.

Towards the end of the AP report, Brother Jeppson says he just wishes he could be left alone.

Jeppson does not expect to prevail in any disciplinary action, nor does he expect the church to accept same-sex marriage. Given the choice, Jeppson said his preference would be for the church to ignore him.

“I’m not attending in a dress or wearing a boa or anything,” Jeppson said. “I show up in my suit and white shirt and split after sacrament meeting. I just want to participate and I want to worship quietly in a safe place.”

It’s hard to see how he can expect this when he is quite public with his situation and goes to the AP with his story.

This is a welcome and I believe new addition. The Church’s “Newsroom” site aimed primarily for media and professional journalists (not amatuer bloggers mind you – back in my ambitious days I tried to get on their press release email list but no luck) now has three RSS feeds for the main Newsroom site, Press Releases, and the Comments on the News feature.

Now it would be great if RSS could be implemented on the more member-centric parts of lds.org

On the Drudge Report

Human Services Michael Leavitt recommends Americans start storing canned tuna, powdered milk under their beds…

A popular quote from the Prophet sent by the Church’s LDS-GEMS email service last week. I had only heard about priestcrafts and had never noticed the part about lawyers and doctors until now. I guess with a little more experience under my belt I now have reason to.

Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Illinois , May 21, 1843

“I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women–all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty, who will give me dominion over all and every one of them, when their refuge of lies shall fail, and their hiding place shall be destroyed, while these smooth-polished stones with which I come in contact become marred.”

( History of the Church, 5:401)

LDS Businessman Eric Roach is one of 16 Republicans vying for the GOP nomination to replace former U.S. Representative Randall Cunningham. Cunnigham was the Republican congressman who resigned last November after pleading guilty to charges involivng bribery and fraud. I can’t find a web site yet for Mr. Roach.

From a press release by Human Rights Watch criticizing the arbitrariness of religious restrictions in China.

Human Rights Watch pointed out that China continues to allow only five belief systems – Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism – to qualify as lawful religions. This is a severe infringement on the right to freedom of religion. Chinese officials are reportedly considering whether to expand the list to include Judaism, the Orthodox Church, the Baha’i Faith, and the Mormon Church. Although a credible report says that a panel has been empowered to consider appropriate policies, reasonable criteria, and a rational bureaucracy, the issue of “new” religions is apparently too contentious to hope for a rapid resolution.

Tessa Hafen, a former congressional staffer for Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, has announced her intentions to run as a Democrat for Nevada’s 3rd District seat. Hafen is LDS. Thanks The World According To Marc.

Mitch Kapor, spoke a the Open Source Business Conference about Wikipedia and its strength as an open-source, publicly edited encyclopedia.

The coverage included this interesting tidbit:

After his keynote, attendees from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked Mitch about creating a Wikipedia-like service using its the massive geneology databases. 

Could the Church be considering a family history wiki that anyone could contribute to?