Wouldn’t it be nice?

Wouldn’t it be nice if an LDS Canadian could walk through his meetinghouse and see room labels in Canadian English?

Wouldn’t it be nice if an LDS Canadian could flip to the back of a hymnal and not see the Star Spangled Banner, and “O, Canada” wasn’t a photocopied paper taped in its place?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a new hymnal released and hymns from outside of Utah were included in it?

Wouldn’t it be nice if speakers at conference could speak in their native tongue?

Wouldn’t it be nice if non-American anglophones could get a Book of Mormon in the English they speak?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find pictures of interracial relationships in the Ensign?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Pioneer Day started evolving in a way that incorporates the pioneers of the last 50 years (e.g. Africa, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe)?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the “Places to Visit” page on LDS.ORG had more non-American sites (e.g. Charles Ora Card’s home in Cardston, Black Creek Monument in Ontario)?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Pageants page on LDS.ORG listed non-American pageants (e.g. Lethbridge’s Nativity Pageant)?

Wouldn’t it be nice if Ensign articles that mention a US city and state (e.g. Billings, Montana) included USA after them (e.g. Billings, Montana, USA)?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Device to Root Out Evil

Device to Root Out Evil
Photo by Flickr user tripleman.
CC (some rights reserved)

The Canadian Press is reporting that the controversial sculpture, Device to Root Out Evil, located for the last 2?ヌャ? years in downtown Vancouver in a prominent location near Stanley Park, will be coming down.

From the Globe and Mail:

The decision to remove the sculpture, approved unanimously by Vancouver Park Board commissioners this week, has dismayed those who wanted to keep the piece’s topsy-turvy church spire where it is, firmly planted in the grass of Harbour Green Park.

And it has rekindled debate on the role of public art in a city that yearns for world-class status but often succumbs, in the eyes of critics, to small-town thinking.

“The Park Board couldn’t find a way to rise above the history and controversy of this sculpture,” George Wagner, an associate professor at the University of B.C. school of architecture, said yesterday.

The sculpture of an upside-down chapel has had a controversial life. First, it was rejected by the director of New York City’s public art fund when he cited fears that religious leaders would be offended.

A few years later, Standford University in California backed out of a deal to buy the sculpture after extensive complaints by churchgoers.

Now that the Vancouver Parks Board have voted to remove this artwork citing, “community pressure”, they are taking public opinions on the decision at the next board meeting.

The artist, Dennis Oppenheim, denies any anti-religious design to the piece.

Personally, I don’t readily grasp the offensive nature of an upside-down-church. What is it that makes this artwork offensive and should it go?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Choices and Consequences

My mind has been somewhat taken up with the news of the deaths of these poor baby girls in Saskatchewan, left to freeze and die in the cold snow, in -50 degree weather, this week. My heart breaks for them, for their loved ones, including the young father who left them (and again we don’t know all the details) because in spite of the mistakes he made, in taking them out without proper clothes, and leaving them, because he wasn’t aware of all he was doing, he is suffering for the choices he made. It looks as though something precipitated this, which caused a string of ill advised choices, fueled by alcohol and stress. I am not judging either, but just feeling pain for this family and these poor babies.The comfort is that I know Heavenly Father sent his angels to hold these innocents, to bring them home and maybe maybe to take away the suffering from the cold. Maybe the cold didn’t cause them too much physical anguish? I don’t know much of what freezing to death is like, and I don’t want to find out that they suffered excruciating pain, so young as they are. Children, especially the smallest ones need and are to be protected. So many children for many different reasons are not, and I know this hurts the Lord, I don’t question why He doesn’t always interfere, because He is wiser than I am.

What I feel, as a mother (and even just as a human being) is this urgency, to protect and save the suffering babies. Right now, this is the current one in my mind, these little girls who had little protection from the elements.

I am not thinking (as I know some are) that it is just more evidence of problems on the reserves. No, it is a human problem. The choices made by the father he will regret for the rest of his life. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and sorrow he is experiencing, and their mother as well, that because of a fight, she was not there to watch over and keep her girls safe. The tragedy just transcends all blame at that end.

I do think there is some responsibility for a government that does not regulate the sale of alcohol better. Yes, this father (and so many other alcoholics) made his own choice to purchase and consume alcohol, but evidence shows that First Nations people are genetically more prevalent to substance addiction. The government makes too much money, though to not control the purchase of alcohol or the accessibility of it, better. Do they think of the victims of alcoholism? The innocents, who because of this freedom to drink yourself into a stupor, suffer, and sometimes pay, as in this case, with their lives.

See, children have a right to be protected, to be cared for. They cannot care for themselves. If a puppy or a kitten had been left out there, that animal may have had a better chance of survival. But if an adult is at risk, then how much more are a 3 year old and a baby barely over the age of a year unable to look after themselves? Especially in the debilitating cold.

But the government does not want to lose the revenue they gain through the suffering of others. Our governments (provincial and federal) who are supposed to do their best for the citizens make poor decisions that affect the lives and well being of those who do not choose to even participate in that. These little girls were not a part of the decision their father made to drink, nor a part of the decision to sell the alcohol, to create easy access to it’s sale, to make it in the first place. Adults, people who are supposed to have the intelligence to make responsible choices designed to promote the well being and safety of those they have stewardship over, were the ones who made the decision that resulted in the suffering and death of two little girls.

All I know is that a loving Saviour held them in His arms, this I know, brought them home and ended their suffering and kept them safe and I am sure, wept tears because of His great love, not only for them, but for all involved.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I love the church youth program

I love how the church’s youth program prepares our children for real life by teaching them that:

  • There exists a social order based on popularity, physical appearance, and wealth
  • People love to talk behind your back
  • Leaders cater to the needs of the “in-crowd”
  • Token lip service to God is only required for 50 minutes on Sunday
  • The standards of the clique outweigh gospel standards
  • Rather than deal with problems, it’s best to just ignore the other person and leave them in the dark
  • Friendships change more frequently than you change your underwear
  • If your parents are in a church leadership position, you can get away with pretty much anything
  • If it appears to the leaders that there is nothing wrong, then dismiss anyone who says otherwise
  • Nice guys finish last

Funny how it really hasn’t changed that much since I was in the program 20+ years ago.

Popularity: 2% [?]

What Kind of Mormon Are You?

Over on the Sunstone Blog, Stephen Carter writes, “Right now we have four kinds of Mormons: active, inactive, jack, and ex.” He goes on to say that he would like to see two new kinds of Mormons:

New Mormon #1: Emeritus Mormon. We have general authority emeriti right? Why can?「どィび「t we have Mormon emeriti? Why can?「どィび「t someone come through, serve us as brilliantly as Richard [Dutcher] did, and then move on?

and new mormon #2:

New Mormon #2: (Sorry, I can?「どィび「t think of a name for them yet.) These Mormons take their religion seriously. It gives their life meaning and purpose. They believe that it will perpetuate itself into eternity. They have faith in their fellow Mormons. So much so, that when a fellow Mormon leaves, New Mormon #2s treat it as a farewell to a friend who is about to tour the world.

Can you think of any others that should be added to the list? Here, along with the basic four, are a few off the top of my head. Some are more serious than others, and there is some crossover between items but I’m hoping they will get you thinking.

  • Active-Mormon
  • Inactive-Mormon
  • Jack-Mormon
  • Ex-Mormon
  • Less-active-Mormon*
  • Feminist-Mormon
  • Intellectual-Mormon
  • Anti-Mormon
  • Molly-Mormon / Peter Priesthood
  • Apathetic Mormon
  • Post-Mormon
  • Dry-Mormon
  • Catholic-Mormon
  • Fundamentalist-Mormon
  • Black-Mormon
  • Gay-Mormon
  • Social-Mormon
  • Genetic-Mormon (Mormon by family or birth)
  • New convert-Mormon
  • Disillusioned-Mormon
  • Married to a Mormon
  • Non-Mormon

*in case there is some difference between less-active and inactive.

Do you know any of these Mormons? What kind of Mormon are you?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Pride

On my way to catch the bus this morning, I passed a man. He was pushing an old shopping cart. In the car was a large black garbage bag. By the sounds I heard, I assume the bag was filled with empty pop bottles and cans. The man was unkempt. If not homeless, he definitely seemed poor. At least downtrodden.

Every once in a while, I’ll come across someone like this, particularly since we live in midtown. I don’t often think much about it; I’ve seen homeless/poor people a lot in my life. After all, there’s not a lot I can do to help them all.
Anyhow, this time, I noticed something I hadn’t seen on anyone else I had come across in similar situations.

He wore cap with the words “Native Pride”.

It made me wonder. What made him proud? Certainly, his economic situation didn’t seem like a source of pride. I know it’s a cultural thing for aboriginal persons in Canada to avoid eye contact when meeting someone of authority (not that I am any sort of authority). I wonder, however, if having his eyes averted to the ground the entire time we encountered each other in the crosswalk was more than culture.

The entire experience made me wish I could do something. Something to encourage real cultural pride. Something to help my own people. Sometimes I feel a kinship with my aboriginal brothers and sisters. At times like this, however, I can really feel the separation generations of European genetic dilution has caused.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Trim American parts of church

In a Deseret News article today, Elder John K. Carmack, an emeritus general authority and managing director of the Perpetual Education Fund, was quoted as having said the following at yesterday’s 18th annual conference of the LDS International Society.

>The church is at a stage . . . where it is time to trim the parts that are peculiar to the United States and not relevant to the international church.

What parts need trimming?

Popularity: 3% [?]

This Lawsuit is so Gay

A friend of mine is a Young Men leader and has invited me to a couple of Xbox LAN parties which exposes me, on a limited level, to the current trends in Mormon teen slang (at least for males in Southern Alberta). The winner for the most used politically incorrect statement is, “That’s so gay”.

Does this shock you, gentle reader? Should it? Come to think of it, it probably wasn’t a lot different than what my friends said as teens.

Apparently LDS teens in southern Alberta aren’t the only ones that consider it acceptable to throw the phrase around. Back in 2002, at a California high school, when freshman Rebekah Rice was teased about her LDS upbringing by the question, “Do you have 10 moms”, she quipped back, “That’s so gay”.

She found herself in the principal’s office with a warning and a notation in her file and as a result of her punishment, her parents have filed suit.

The MSN news article brings up a good question, “When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?”

I never mentioned my annoyance at the young men’s continuing use of the phrase, but it did make my skin crawl. I am not the Young Men leader, so I didn’t feel like stepping on anyone’s toes to give them moral guidance, and if no malice is meant by the phrase, does that make it OK?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Culture of a Mutt

How does a third generation German-Canadian celebrate culture? What sort of culture does a non-Francophone, non-Catholic umpteen generation French-Canadian have? How does a Canadian with Dutch and English new-world lines dating back centuries recognise his culture? How does a Canadian with Cree ancestry that has been hidden for decades find culture? How does a Canadian with a Scottish heritage diluted by generations of French ancestry give allegiance to the Highlands? What of the same Canadian who has a diluted Spanish ancestry; how does he nod to the Basque? Does a third generation Czech-Canadian have a culture?

What if one Canadian was all of that? What sort of culture does a Cree-Czech-Dutch-English-French-German-Spanish-Canadian have? And how does he find it?

How do you instill the importance of tradition and culture to your children when you have no inkling regarding what is your own culture?

Popularity: 6% [?]