Keepapitchinin looks at the history of the three-fold mission of the Church. It goes back much longer than I thought.
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A little late in getting to this, but Michael Otterson’s response to the perennial complaints about LDS Church involvement with the Utah legislature can’t go by unnoticed. Particularly since the SL Trib’s archives of death will swallow up the article soon (but good for them for publishing this response to their Rebecca Walsh’s claims of theocracy).
Here’s how the meetings go down if you’re interested.
Lunches both for Democratic and Republican legislators follow exactly the same pattern:
An expression of appreciation to those who work long hours and devote a good slice of their lives to serving our communities.
A reminder that we meet with both parties, and that the church maintains its position of partisan neutrality.
Much more listening on the part of church representatives than speaking. Legislators are much more prone to express a variety of views on issues than are church leaders.
As any legislator who has ever attended these lunches will tell you, the LDS Church’s central message is to encourage legislators to be wise, thoughtful and compassionate as they go about the people’s business. It is not prescriptive. The church takes a position on very few bills anyway, but when it does that position is made public.
Funny how there weren’t complaints last year when the Church was encouraging compassion for immigrants.
BCC has a preview on next month’s Ensign and it sounds interesting.
“The human mind has presumed to determine when “meaningful life” begins. In the course of my studies as a medical doctor, I learned that a new life begins when two special cells unite to become one cell, bringing together 23 chromosomes from the father and 23 from the mother. . . To legislate when a developing life is considered “meaningful” is presumptive and quite arbitrary, in my opinion.”
Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless,” October 2008 Ensign (not yet available online).
The creator of the Mormons Exposed calendar is the latest aggrieved member facing church discipline to run to the media and announce his victimhood.
Despite his earlier claims that he was trying to promote religious understanding by looking “beyond stereotypes” it sounds by his own admission that he needs to understand his own religion a little better [link to the skanky TMZ].
Hardy tells TMZ he believes he’s being targeted for the 12-monther — but admits he doesn’t attend church meetings or pay his tithing. He also believes his repentance will include closing up shop on the calendar, which he ain’t ready to do.
Perhaps he can milk his fifteenth minute to sell a few more calendars but it’s a shame his grandstanding subjects the Church to even more ridicule and it can’t respond.
How are “law and order” conservatives to make sense of the Church’s recent statements on illegal immigrants? The Church’s call last month for “compassion” has been understood as a call for leniency on illegal immigrants, at least in Utah.
This has confused some members. (Some of our brothers and sisters who are accustomed to being on the other side of the Church on politically social issues are probably entitled to feeling a little schadenfreude right now).
Most questions about the Church’s position center on the need to uphold the laws of the land. However, Elder Marlin K. Jensen has explained that the Church’s attitude towards immigrants is not a matter of legality.
“The church’s view of someone in undocumented status is akin, in a way, to a civil trespass,” said Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, relating it to coming onto someone’s property uninvited. “There is nothing inherent or wrong about that status.”
Regardless of criminal status, the established presence of some 12 – 20 million people make the issue of simple law enforcement quite complicated. With so many illegal immigrants joining the Church (a stake leader in the DC area estimated that more than 70% of members in our local Spanish-speaking units are undocumented – and that’s not mentioning non-Hispanic immigrants in our English units), what is the Church to do?
Adventures in Mormonism: Managing Mormon meetings:
“Brethren, there is no meeting in the Church so unimportant that it cannot begin on time, and there is no meeting in the Church so important that it cannot end on time.”
Kathleen Flake on Mormons and Free Speech
In short, among the Mormons, one is not free to promote disbelief in the church and remain a member of the church. Again, obviously, this has a chilling effect on free speech, but who says speech within religious communities is necessarily or even properly free? Freedom of speech is highly valued in democracies because they depend upon the free flow of information and ideas. But most churches are not democracies. And, no church that depends upon the free flow of right ideas — doctrine and theology — values the free of wrong ideas.
Shifting the Church’s focus to retention:
In the early days, the church had to keep moving or die. The Saints kept an eye single to Zion as they trudged across the plains. If they stopped to mourn or weep, the weather and wilderness would do them in. Dozens were buried in shallow graves. . .
The dangers are different now. Mortal lives are no longer so much at risk, but spiritual lives are. And that means less “pushing” and more “lifting.” The word “active” today is not so much about “action” — teaching, attending, contributing. It’s more about being “active” the way electric wires are active. It’s about the spark, the current within. It’s about the inner — not outer — life. It’s about what’s in the heart, not what’s on the list of things to do today. It’s how we should look at all people.
As the Utah state legislature considers reforming immigration policy with regards to illgeal imigrants (specifically, drivers licenses and in-state college tuition), Elder Marlin K. Jensen repeated the Church’s call for compassion when dealing with reforming immigrant policies:
An LDS Church leader on Wednesday urged Utah’s lawmakers to “take a step back” and hold a “spirit of compassion” as they consider a slate of bills aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.
“Immigration questions are questions dealing with God’s children,” said Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I believe a more thoughtful and factual, not to mention humane approach is warranted, and urge those responsible for enactment of Utah’s immigration policy to measure twice before they cut.” . . .“This is a human issue; it is a moral issue,” Wester said. “We must be involved.” . . .
Jensen said the LDS church has taken no position on any particular measure on the federal or state level.
“The current debate in our state Legislature is evidence of the very strong feelings that surround this issue,” Jensen said. He noted that LDS leaders had recently issued a “very sincere plea” to lawmakers to consider the issue with humanity and compassion. . .
“If there is a church that owes debt to the immigrant and the principal of immigration it is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” he said.
The Salt Lake Tribune adds that Elder Jensen spoke on assignment from the Church:
“I was assigned to come here by the First Presidency of the church,” he said, referring to the church’s three most senior leaders, including LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson.
For an idea of what probably happened yesterday in the meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve, read this first-hand story of the” ‘Blessing, Ordaining, and Setting Apart’ of Spencer W. Kimball.”
LDS Newsroom: Succession in the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
When the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passes away, the following events take place:
1. The First Presidency is automatically dissolved.
2. The two counselors in the First Presidency revert to their places of seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Seniority is determined by the date on which a person was ordained to the Twelve, not by age.
3. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now numbering 14 and headed by the senior apostle, assumes Church leadership.
4. The senior apostle presides at a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve to consider two alternative propositions:
i. Should the First Presidency be reorganized at this time?
ii. Should the Church continue to function with the Quorum of the Twelve presiding?5. After discussion, a formal motion is made and accepted by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
6. If a motion to reorganize the First Presidency is passed, the Quorum of the Twelve unanimously selects the new president of the Church. The new president chooses two counselors from among the Quorum of the Twelve and the three of them become the new First Presidency. Throughout the history of the Church, the longest-serving apostle has always become the president of the Church when the First Presidency has been reorganized.
7. Following the reorganization of the First Presidency, the apostle who has served the second longest is sustained as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. The only exception is when the second-longest-serving apostle has also been called into the First Presidency as a counselor, in which case the third-longest-serving apostle becomes acting president of the Twelve.
8. The president of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with the rest of the apostles, sets apart the new president of the Church through a formal laying on of hands.
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