Our Thoughts

In my experience, there are different levels of acceptance regarding sports on Sunday in the LDS church. 

Growing up in my family, we weren’t allowed in the back yard to play on the swings or jump on the trampoline if it was Sunday.  No play dates with friends either.  BYU teams do not play or practice on Sunday.  Using examples like those, it would seem to be pretty clear that honoring the sabbath day means no sports or anything like unto it.

That is, unless you get paid millions of dollars for playing a sport, or coaching a professional sport, or perhaps you are competing at the olympic level.  In that case, you may get talked about in General Conference.  The Ensign and New Era will do articles on you.  You will be asked by Stake Presidents and bishops around the world to give firesides on your experiences. 

Thing is, you don’t get to compete at that level unless you spend some serious time practicing and playing your sport.  And most of the time that means practicing or playing on Sunday.  On the official church web site, the newsroom routinely showcases LDS olympians and other professional athletes who have spent much of their life tuning their craft at many a Sunday tournament or practice. 

Sure, playing sports is one thing, but how about watching?  My experience teaches me that it’s frowned upon to actually attend a sporting event on Sunday, but watching on T.V. seems to be acceptable.  That is, unless the olympics are being held in Salt Lake City.  Then you need to go volunteer and help run the event so things go smoothly.  Regardless, would sporting events even be held on Sunday if there was no audience to watch?  I’m sure some would, but I also bet that many wouldn’t.  Even still, our sacrament meeting attendance seems to be a little thinner on Superbowl Sunday.

So, dear readers, what is it we should tell our young members of the church when they ask if it’s OK to play sports on Sunday?  Does the answer change if they have potential as a future olympian or NFL quarterback?

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A new temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to be built in Payson, Utah, it was announced today by Church President Thomas S. Monson.

The new temple will help meet the needs of a growing Church membership in the area and will ease the heavy use of the Provo temple, which is one of the busiest in the Church. The Payson temple will bring to 15 the number of operating and announced temples in Utah.

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Recently, Church News staff writer, R. Scott Lloyd, wrote an article about correcting some inaccuracies in the gospel vernacular. Here are a couple of examples that stuck out to me:

Incorrect: high councilman, high counselor
Correct: high councilor

Incorrect: bishop’s councilor
Correct: bishop’s counselor

I’m not going to say he was incorrect in his corrections, but they are both American English. For example, in Canada (and presumable many other Commonwealth nations), they would be high councillor and bishop’s counsellor.

Like I said, I’m not going to go so far as to say he was wrong, but would it hurt to at least have a disclaimer stating what follows is based on American English usage?

After all, Americans are in the minority in the Church now.

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I was wondering what the general consensus is with everyone on which sex is more likely to move on after the death of a spouse? Do you think that men are less “emotional” and therefore are able to move on more quickly with life… starting to date quicker, get remarried faster etc  regardless of age or do you think that women do? Do women think with their hearts more making them cling to the memories of their husband and not wanting to let go enough to move on and being with another husband?

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In Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the main character, Tess, gave birth to a baby boy, who then grew sick only days later. Tess is young, still in her mid teens. She was also brought up Christian.

When she realized her son was going to die, she grew worried because he had never been baptized. She ended up baptizing him herself, using passages from the Bible as her text.

After I read it, I wondered if this had been an actual event, I wonder what God’s reaction would have been.

Would he view it as a gross error (Moro. 8:6)? Would he have seen her action as a mockery toward him (Moro 8:9)? Would he have viewed her as being “in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity” (Moro. 8:14)? Would he remove her faith and charity and cut her off (Moro. 8:14)? Would he consider her to be awfully wicked (Moro. 8:15)?

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My father-in-law bought Sinéad and Regan MP3 players for Christmas this year, and they came preloaded with songs. Last week, Regan, our eight-year-old, came to us to tell us that one of his songs had a swear word in it, so he deleted it.

A few months ago, our children were talking about something around the supper table, when Regan said, ”Aisling said the F-word”. We asked him what the F-word was, and he said “fart”. Then Sinéad, our 11-year-old, that there was another F-word, a swear word. We asked how she knew this. She said she read it in a book she had borrowed from the library. She also said once she read the word, she stopped reading the book, and returned it to the library.

So why am I telling you this? Because despite our not explaining what bad words are in advance and not discouraging them from consuming media with them, they decided on their own to put away such material.

I am glad they made those decisions. Not because swearing is morally wrong, but because they believe it is. As a result, they are making decisions that help them build integrity, which will help them when much greyer issues encroach them later in life.

I just wish they would do the same when it comes to yelling at one another.

That all being said, it leaves me with one question. Would any of this be different had we screened the material they consumed? We didn’t listen to Regan’s music first and didn’t read Sinéad’s book first. Did our inadvertently entrusting them with this responsibility have an effect on their eventual decision? Had we prescreened these media, making them forbidden, would they have wanted to read them more?

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In Matt 5:28 and D&C 63:16, we read that if we look a woman to lust after her, we have committed adultery in principle, if not in deed.

Now, I get the idea that if I look at a woman to lust after a woman who isn’t my wife, it could potentially lead to thoughts or attraction, which itself could lead to more serious and complex issues.

That being said, both passages do not say “look on another woman to lust after her”. They specifically state “look on a woman to lust after her”.

Assuming this indefinite article is used on purpose, does that mean if I lust after my wife, that I commit adultery in my heart? Is this scripture more about respecting women and relationships than it is about warning against infidelity?

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Well now that I have edited this I will repost ;)

On Sunday in our Gospel Doctrine class, we discussed the laws of the land versus the laws of God. I asked the question “If the laws of the land go against what you know to be the laws of God, and He requires you to follow the laws of the land, which do you follow? Answers were given about Egypt, slavery, days of Joseph Smith etc. I kept saying that the days of Joseph Smith pertained to trying to write the constitution and give religious and personal freedom to all. None of the examples that were given (IMHO) had anything to do with us as Canadians living today.

As there are always such great answers here I thought I would post my question here and see if I can get an answer that would satisfy me. Thanks

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I had an experience today in elders quorum that confirmed not only was it right for me to no longer be elders quorum president, but that the person who replaced me was the right person for the job.

We meet for elders quorum on the stage. In December, this means a week or two when decorations for the ward parties remain on the stage because no one wants to put them away. This used to frustrate me every year. Mostly because I was the one who had to move them out of the way to make room for the chairs, table, and chalkboard.

Sure enough, when we walked on the stage for our quorum meeting this afternoon, there was the Christmas tree and rocking chair. Again, I rolled my eyes in exasperation, but I was glad it wasn’t me who had to move everything.

But our quorum president surprised me.

He plugged in the tree, and turned on the lights. He had arranged the chairs in a semi-cirlce (there were only 6 of us; many stayed home because of this weekend’s blizzard) around the tree, and pulled up the rocking chair to the front of the class and beside the tree.

It was a really festive, cozy touch, and I think it really made a difference. It certainly was a participative class.

Some people complain and grumble; others make lemonade.

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I was set apart as the newest executive secretary in our ward today. I was called last Sunday, but have yet to be released as gospel doctrine instructor. Hopefully I won’t have to do both.

The previous executive secretary phoned me about a week and a half ago to ask me to pray in priesthood opening exercises, and he said we needed to get together since I was taking over from him. That was the first I had heard of this. As a result, it was hardly a surprise when the first counsellor in the stake presidency phoned asking me to meet with him

Secretly, I was hoping to be the new ward clerk, the current one was called to the high council. I had been ward clerk previously, and it was my most favourite calling. Unfortunately, I served for only 8 months.

Coincidently, I was gospel doctrine instructor for only eight months. The part I am going to miss the most is not teaching Old Testament next year. I was really looking forward to that.

I guess my reprieve from meetings was meant to be short.

If anyone is interested, here are the callings I have had since I was married in 1995:

• elders quorum second counsellor
• elders quorum president
• ward mission leader
• stake mission secretary
• young men president
• ward clerk
• elders quorum president
• Gospel Doctrine instructor
• executive secretary

Nope. No ward bulletin editor.

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