Month: October 2009

Attaining the Resurrection in Mortality

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Margaret Barker

Margaret Barker

The use of those two words together, resurrection in mortality, appears to be perfectly incongruous at first glance.  In our common parlance in the Church we understand resurrection to be something that can only happen after mortality.  The resurrection “consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided” ((“Resurrection.” LDS Bible Dictionary. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bd/r/28)).  This is an event which happens only after there has been a separation of the spirit body from the mortal body through the process called death.  In my reading over the weekend, however, I came across a fascinating perspective from Margaret Barker which gives added meaning to the word resurrection, and our understanding of it, a meaning which can apply to us while still in our mortal estate. [Read more…]

Temple Construction Costs vs. Humanitarian Aid?

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LDS Humanitarian Services

LDS Humanitarian Services

I received a comment this evening from YouTube user JAMaddict, which stands for Jim and Pam Addict, on my video Inside the LDS (Mormon) Twin Falls Temple.  This is what they said:

It makes me physically ill to think about the “hand selected” granite flooring. What a waste, when so many millions of people need various types of aid.

Before you start going on and on about LDS’s humanitarian efforts, don’t bother! Since LDS refuses to release their financial records, no one knows for sure, but the best guess is that they give 2% of their total income to aid. That’s sickening. ((I’ve removed the moderated comment from the video page.))

This was my reply message back to them:

The LDS Church has given over $1.1158 billion dollars in humanitarian aid in 167 countries worldwide since 1985. You can see the breakdown per year here:
http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,4606-1-2329-1,00.html

If you want to get more specific, you can see the 2008 Welfare Services Fact Sheet here:
http://www.providentliving.org/welfare/pdf/WelfareFactSheet.pdf

$282.2 million in cash donations
$833.6 million in material assistance

That includes:

  • 61,308 tons of Food
  • 12,829 tons of Medical supplies
  • 84,681 tons of Clothing
  • 5,965 tons of Educational supplies
  • 8.6 million of Hygiene, newborn, and school kits
  • 1,100,059 days of labor donated to welfare facilities

What is sick about that? ((Direct message to JAMaddict YouTube user, also known as Jim and Pam Addict.))

I might have also mentioned that anciently only the very finest materials were used to construct the House of the Lord, including gold, silver, iron, copper, timber, and stone (see this description of Solomon’s temple), and the Lord has revealed that they are to be built to the same standards today.  It is God’s House, not ours, and He will have it built the way He reveals to His prophets.

If we had spent the humanitarian aid money we have since 1985 instead on temple construction, we could easily have over 100-200+ more temples throughout the world than we have now, essentially doubling the number we have taken 179 years to build, and providing the blessings of temple worship to many more of our members ((Estimate based on Suva Fiji Temple cost, approx. $5 million U.S. dollars (http://www.fletcherconstruction.co.nz/project.php?project_id=66&archived=yes), and Brisbane Australian Temple cost, $11.5 million (http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=4d3619f1707cd010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=7cecc8fe9c88d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD ) )).  But our goal is not to just build temples, but to do what the Lord has commanded, “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all” ((The Prophet Joseph Smith, Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, page 732)).

Living the Law of Consecration – Part 3: All Things are the Lord’s

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All Things on Earth are the Lord's

All Things on Earth are the Lord’s

(Continued from Part 2)

In order to properly understand the law of consecration, we must first keep in mind two foundational gospel principles:

  1. All things are ultimately the Lord’s
  2. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, might, mind, and strength

Once we understand these two principles we will be prepared to understand how the law of consecration works, and how we are able to live it today.  Hopefully some of my thoughts here will help us in that effort.  We will begin with the first principle.

All Things are the Lord’s

Nothing that we have is our own.  Just because we have something in our possession does not mean that we have true ownership of it, and this is particularly the case when we view our “things” through a gospel lens.  The Lord has declared:  [Read more…]

Using Google Wave in the LDS Church

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Google Wave

Google Wave

Anyone who has been following this blog for some time knows that I love new technologies, and most particularly how those new technologies might be used to benefit the Church and the work of the kingdom of God on the earth.  Last week I received a nomination to the “preview” of the new Google Wave service from a friend on Twitter (thank you!).  Last night I finally received my invitation to join the service and test it out.  I quickly hopped on board and began exploring.

I’ve only used the tool for a few hours, and its only available in a very limited preview release at the moment, but I’m already wondering how this cool new technology could be used in the Church to help the work roll on.  For those who are not familiar with the service, it is being touted as the ultimate collaboration tool, an amalgam of email, instant messaging, wikis, social networking, document collaboration, picture/video sharing, and much more.  Many are still not sure what exactly its potential is, or if it will even catch on.  But from my limited encounter so far, it does seem like a powerful tool for working on things together, and I think it will be of use to many.

So the question that’s been rolling around in my head then is, how can we use Google Wave in the Church?  How could it facilitate those things we already do in the Church to make them better?  How can we harness its power to help the threefold mission of the Church accomplish its ends in a quicker, easier, or simpler way?  [Read more…]

Elder Holland Testifies Boldly of the Truth of The Book of Mormon!

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I loved General Conference.  My absolute favorite talk was by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He bore testimony of The Book of Mormon like I have never heard before.  Who can doubt, after hearing his address of that book of scripture, that he knows with absolute certainty that it is true, and that it is another testament of the Savior Jesus Christ?  Elder Holland bore solemn and soul-stirring witness of The Book of Mormon that was tangibly powerful in the declaration of its veracity.  His words will reverberate through eternity!

You can watch Elder Holland’s talk in the video embedded below.