Sorry about that getting struck by lightning . . . hope this makes up for it.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009 @ 12:03 pm.
The perfect way to cap off iPhone week. The LDS Radio app is now available for the iPhone/iPod Touch [iTunes link]. The app looks very nice and is not just for listening to the recently launched Mormon Channel internet radio station.
The Mormon Channel is the official radio station of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The channel originates from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah and broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The LDS Radio application allows you to listen to the Mormon Channel using your iPhone or iTouch device [sic ed.- how did Apple let that slide?].
Using the LDS Radio iPhone application, you can tune into content being broadcast on the Mormon Channel as well as listen to audio recordings of General Conference addresses, magazine articles, and listen to audio recordings of the Church’s standard works.
The English language now has one million words (maybe) and why it’s so pervasive. Hint: The Bible helped.
DesNews: PBS lets KBYU keep affiliation and religious programming:
PBS voted Tuesday in Arlington, Va., not to punish stations that air religious shows. As a result, there should be no changes in KBYU programming or content.
“KBYU is pleased with the final recommendations from the PBS Station Services Committee and the vote of the PBS board regarding the local programming autonomy of PBS member stations,” said Derek Marquis, BYU Broadcasting managing director.
Fortunately yesterday’s hand-wringing was for naught. Too bad it was an issue at all.
UPDATE: Turns out PBS just grandfathered KBYU and other stations which broadcasted religious programming, but still seeks to phase out all sectarian braodcasts.
But no new religious shows can be offered, and none of the 350 other stations may air any purely spiritual content, a move some groups say is a quiet means of phasing out religion from their airwaves. . .
Federal law does not bar showing the services on public television, but PBS worries that the broadcasts have the appearance of an official endorsement from the network.
On that last point, isn’t that the inherent problem with anything PBS broadcasts?
MORE: Get Religion asks how will PBS treat Deepak Chopra and similar New Age gurus who regularly air specials during those obnoxious telethons?
Whaa?!?!?! Millenial Star: “Some scientists doubt moderate drinking is good for you”
There goes my faith in scientific consensus.
Resuscitating with some history blogs.
Warfare and the Book of Mormon
A spot for civilians, military historians, and members of the LDS church to study the military aspects of the Book of Mormon and its impact on the LDS Church and society.
Amateur Mormon Historian
An exploration of Mormon history from my vantage point in rural Tennessee.
Mormon Church History
A Tour through Mormon Church History, from the beginning to the end, covering a little bit each day, through the the entire history of the church. About a dozen chronological entries will be posted each day, gradually covering the history. This should appeal to those interested in a comprehensive look at Mormon history.
Archaiologia
Hopefully we will be posting articles, opinions and links to articles that relate to the ancient world especially the Middle East, the Americas, Asia as well as other locales of ancient note. The scope will be anything ancient with particular emphasis on religious material and specifically the LDS view.
Mt. Pleasant Pioneer Relic Home and Blacksmith Shop
We feature a Pioneer of the Month, Pioneer Recipes, Grave Markers, Related Poetry, Historical Photos, Genealogy and more.
Nauvoo History and Other Things
A blog about Nauvoo and Carthage area, its history, and culture
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LDS Church to shut down Beneficial Life and get out of the life insurance business, eventually.
Mark Willes, president and CEO of Deseret Management Corp., said, “It’s completely tied to the meltdown in the financial markets which we face just like everybody else does.”
The Church’s business managers do plan to shut down Beneficial Life, eventually, but it will take more than a half-century to pull it off. That’s because the insurance company, with a skyscraper named after it in downtown Salt Lake, will stop selling new policies October 31. But they’re making a commitment to service existing policies, until the last beneficiary is gone.
Unfortunately, the layoffs start today.
For those of you who have problems with some of the LDS-owned radio stations airing conservative talk shows, take heart: The Church’s communications company Bonneville Communications will be launching the “progressive radio” network Air America in the DC area soon.
Progressive radio returns to Washington this month as Air America takes over 1050 AM, which had been Federal News Radio, under a deal with Bonneville International. The station, which plans to add local programming, launches months after Redskins owner Dan Snyder pulled the plug on ratings-challenged OBAMA 1260.
As the blurb states, AA has tried D.C. a few times already and has never caught on (of all places!).
UPDATE: DCRTV clarifies that Bonneville is leasing the signal to Air America. So Bonneville won’t be operating the station.
The DesNews has some photos of the scorched Angel Moroni at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. KSL has video too (but not of the actual strike).
Tomorrow, the PBS Board of Directors is expected to decide whether PBS affiliates will be allowed to continue broadcasting religious content given its policy “the Three Nons,” requiring content be noncommercial, nonpartisan and nonsectarian. For stations like KBYU, which airs about two hours of religious devotionals and other content a day, this could mean losing their PBS affiliation or be forced to drop airing such shows.
Not only would this affect KBYU, but it would also stop Howard University’s D.C. affiliate from airing its Mass for Shut-ins, and other stations that broadcast Mass.
A PBS statement explained that the service:
“places a high value on presenting diverse perspectives, as opposed to rigidly adhering to any single political or religious point of view.”
Allowing such programming “would cause the public’s trust in PBS to erode, along with the value of the brand.”
Why single out sectarian broadcasting on PBS? From what I’ve seen of PBS, the shows my children watch are riddled with commercial promotions and its current affairs programming is hardly nonpartisan. It’s also interesting that the FCC only requires PBS to be noncommercial and nonpartisan, while PBS has created the nonsectarian requirement as a self-imposed restriction.
And does eliminating all sectarian programming seem like a very persuasive way to be “presenting diverse perspectives”?
While I like some of what PBS has to offer, in the age of cable TV I don’t see it’s reason to exist. There is definitely worthwhile programming (hello, Masterpiece Theater and America’s Test Kitchen) but nothing that couldn’t easily find a home on cable (or perhaps lift the struggling broadcast networks). Furthermore, PBS apparently struggles so much to support itself that it needs to resort to ever more frequent telethons that seem nothing more than upper-middle class baby boomer infomercials.
Just like with other PBS shows, KBYU programming does have other options, such as BYU Television. But I hope it puts up a fight to keep PBS honest and from becoming even more bland and needlessly secular. However, if KBYU will only be able to broadcast BYU devotionals and Little House on the Prairie reruns, so be it.
Times and Seasons first brought this up.
The PBS Ombudsman presents the PBS perspective with some sample letters for and against sectarian programming.
The Obama administration defends DOMA! And who’s fault is that? Why a sneaky Mormon of course.
Keepapitchinin gives us another reason to like Churchill. Whether he liked Mormons or just didn’t care, he refused to join the anti-Mormonism of his day.
It’s been linked to lot already but it deserves another. Sixteen Small Stones “”A simple proposal to completely revolutionize the lds missionary effort.” Not only will help with the missionary effort but I can see sacrament meeting invitations as a great motivation for people to prepare great talks.
It won’t help for the 2010 census but Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) has passed a House amendment ordering the State Department and Census Bureau to conduct a study on how to best count overseas citizens, inlcuding LDS missionaries.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, persuaded the House on Wednesday to order the State Department and the Census Bureau to begin working together on ways to count Americans living abroad during the once-a-decade Census.
“It is unfair to Utah that the Census Bureau does not count (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) missionaries living overseas,” Matheson said.
He added, “After the 2000 Census, Utah narrowly missed getting a fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because many LDS missionaries living abroad were not counted.” Final audits showed the state missed that seat by about 80 people.
The bill now awaits Senate consideration. Another attempt to get Utah a fourth seat via a compromise givinge D.C. its own congressional seat has apparently stalled permanently. My understanding is that Utah’s growth this last decade will garner it a new seat in the new census so this all may be for naught.
Ross Douthat: “Not All Abortions Are Equal”
Yes, many pregnancies are terminated in dire medical circumstances. But these represent a tiny fraction of the million-plus abortions that take place in this country every year. (Almost half of that number are repeat abortions; around a quarter are third or fourth procedures.) The same is true of the more than 100,000 abortions that are performed after the first trimester: Very few involve medical complications of any kind. Even the now-outlawed “partial-birth” procedure, which abortion-rights supporters initially argued was only employed in the direst of dire situations, turned out to be used primarily for purely elective abortions.
Salt Lake Architecture looks at Brigham Young’s farm chapel. Fascinating and shocking story behind its construction. It was my chapel during law school and a great building.
Time Magazine: “The Storm Over the Mormons.” Very fair overview of the LDS CHurch and look at the aftermath of Proposition 8.
But as a Mormon concern, it long predates Prop 8. For a century, the Mormon church had a rocky and sometimes bloody relationship with American culture at large; persecution by “gentiles” became key to LDS self-understanding. But thanks to their industry, optimism and civic-mindedness, many Mormons have found their place in the American fabric. Ballard says, “We’d like to be seen as mainstream–if that means being part of the national conversation about issues of morality and having our members respected as contributing members of society. But we have to hang on to what’s true, regardless of where society goes.” He adds, “We’ve never felt that we were being more understood or more appreciated, at least in my 30 years as a general authority.” Ballard helped supervise an outreach program during the heightened “Mormon Moment” of the Romney campaign as apostles fanned out to visit media editorial boards. However, he contends that the “real power” determining public perception of his faith is “when a member of the church meets his neighbor, and the neighbor sees that he has objectives to his life and is finding happiness in his field. That’s starting to happen all over” . . .
The Church has not decided on its future role in the gay-marriage debate. The heat surrounding Prop 8 may die down by next year. “Talking about what may or may not happen in 2010 would be speculation, and I wouldn’t want to do that,” says Apostle Quentin Cook. The LDS abstained from same-sex-marriage battles in Iowa and New England. But avoiding a California rematch may be tougher. Notre Dame’s Campbell says, “If it appeared that the church sat out next time because it was criticized this time, there might be a credibility question.” But given a national trend toward supporting gay marriage, he asks, “Does the church want the public to identify it primarily as a political body opposing an issue that comes back again and again?”
BCC interviews Michael Otterson of LDS Public Affairs. With some excellent questions.
Do you cringe when you see a top Google search on a Church issue is not at LDS.org, but some rank amateur blogging from his basement?
As many who followed @LDSChurchNews on Twitter have come to find out over the past few days, Anti-Mormons hackers seized the Church News twitter account, which has now been suspended.
The initial problem the Deseret News faced was contacting Twitter’s administrators. Conde said once contact was made, Twitter agreed the hijacked account was an urgent matter.
The Church News Twitter site was suspended by about 10 a.m. Thursday.
“Twitter is anxious to get this resolved,” Conde said, indicating the focus now is trying to find out who the hackers were and deal with them.
There’s no indication yet when the feed will be up again, but Twitter administrators said they would be contacting the Deseret News later today about restoring the Church News account.
Like others, I got some anti-Mormon direct messages from the account on Sunday and similar tweets this week. It’s strange it took Twitter so long to suspend the account. I know others like myself, informed Church and Des News officials of the situation. Hopefully the account can be restored soon.
BTW, how can a Twitter account be hacked other than breaking into the administrator’s email account?
Yay! Sixteen Small Stones: General Conference Priesthood sessions now available audio and video.
I guess it was inevitable and the political climate is just about right. But it looks like it’s been in production since 2007 so I doubt there is any political motivation behind it.
The Book of Zombie appears to be just another dumb gore movie using Mormons as its zombies. At least it’s a joke and not seriously making missionaries out to be sinister. Perhaps its flattery, elevating us to the same level of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
NOTE: The trailer is not for those offended by a few “H-E-double hockey sticks,” cheap gore, gratuitous violence, or lots of red food coloring splattering everywhere.
I did like “The Congregation is hungry.”
Another missed chance to capture the top spot of some obscure demographic classification, or are we just too modest to be number one? Like opposing abortion or praying daily, Mormons appear to be the second most likely denomination to marry within their church.
According to the survey, Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to have a spouse or partner with a different religious background, while Mormons and Hindus are the least likely to marry or live with a partner outside their own faith.
Not necessarily new as this comes from Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey but Pew occasionally highlights interesting tidbits like this as they did last week.
Also interesting to me as an ignoramous who sometimes confuses Buddhism and Hindusim is that they are at the opposite ends of the survey.
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