Approaches to the scriptures seem to fluctuate between two extremes. One extreme views the scriptures as the complete, inviolable word of God, without error and unchallengeable, the interpretation thereof not open to debate and the meaning thereof set in proverbial stone. The other extreme views the scriptures as folk tales and pseudo-historical mumbo jumbo that […]
I have heard throughout my life at different times people say, in essence, “I believe in God, but not organized religion.” “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” Or some variant thereof. There is a natural inclination of people to seek for a higher purpose in life, to seek for some meaning in this life beyond accumulating […]
When Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior, was walking the earth in this mortal existence, He had a mission to fulfill, a task set before Him by Our Heavenly Father. To help fulfill His purpose He called certain men, Apostles, to assist Him. These Apostles were not men of stature in their communities, and were not […]
Scientifically speaking, sex has two main purposes: procreation and the bonding of parents for the care of children. If people do not reproduce in their lifetimes, it is a truism that upon their death there will be no more people. If once a child is born, the child’s parents or another caregiver do not care […]
My children’s ancestors came to the New World over a period of almost 300 years, the first that I know of for certain arriving on the Mayflower in 1620 and the last being Poles arriving from the border region between Russia and Poland around 1915. In between their ancestors were primarily English, Dutch, and German […]
During the Christmas break when I was in the first grade our family moved to Bratenahl Village in Ohio. Bratenahl’s main street, Lake Shore Boulevard, snakes along Lake Erie on a little sliver of land about 4 miles long north of Cleveland’s Collinwood and Glenville neighborhoods. Bratenahl is best known for the mansions along Lake […]
We can think of fools as those who are ignorant. People who lack wisdom and understanding. Few, very few, people like to be called a fool. Just as few like to think of themselves a fool. But we all act foolishly at times, whether we realize it or not. No one can be wise in […]
A narrative about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exists, among its critics and among those with only a casual acquaintance, that it is a rich white man’s religion from Utah. The Church has been working hard to counter that narrative for a number of years. Church produced videos with a target audience […]
John the Baptist, a messenger sent from Our Heavenly Father, eating locusts and wild honey, wearing camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his waist, cried out in the wilderness, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” John preached the baptism […]
I work as a family services attorney in a county juvenile court. There are two basic kinds of cases I deal with, those where the caregivers are not appropriately caring for the children and those where the children are behaving inappropriately. I use the work “appropriately” and “inappropriately” because of the wide range of circumstances […]