Church and Authority
Church and Authority are tough topics for many Latter-day Saints. In our September/October fireside, we shared how we negotiate these tensions.
Blog
Responding to Authority
Sarah Kimball gives a remarkable response to Joseph Smith’s invitation into polygamy.
The Heart of Parents and Children
In reading Section 2 of the Doctrine and Covenants, I have discovered meaning for me, not so much in the 1838 text we read in the official version, but rather, the original Hebrew text from which it was taken, and how that changed over time. In my personal experience I feel that the turning of …
The Theological Content of the First Vision
I believe we should take the first vision, in both versions, as a personal call to holiness and a prophetic call toward open truth-seeking. Understood this way, the First Vision becomes accessible to us all, as we seek discernment in our spiritual experiences. It becomes a call to relationship with God as we seek truth in all things.
The Dark Night of the Soul
The Journey of Faith is often equated with the phrase “The Dark Night of the Soul.” It’s a time of struggle in order for us to rediscover our relationship with God. Yet the phrase itself refers to a poem by St. John of the Cross entitled “On a Dark Night,” and very much reflects the …
Feeling It
Things began to really hit home when I listened to and read the transcript of a recording of a phone call with a woman being held in the Otay Mesa Detention Center very close to the California-Mexico border. During my junior high and high school years in Chula Vista, California, I lived less than fifteen …
The Path is Not Always Easy
Sometimes the Path before us is harder than we expect. This morning, walking along a trail, I became stuck, and the Way became more clear as a result.
A God Has Died
Let the same mind be inthat was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God,did not regard equality with Godas something to be exploited but emptied himself,taking the form of a slave,being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, he humbled himselfand became obedientto the point of death—even death …
Relational Prayer: Falling in Love with God
Prayer can be difficult, especially when we pray transactionally and don’t get results. When we realize that God is here with us, suffering, and our friend, then prayer becomes relational, and we fall in love.
Reimagining Prayer
I’ve spent a lot of my life bouncing prayers off the ceiling. I’ve also had some good experiences with it—times when I felt uncannily heard, even if I wasn’t quite sure what I needed to say. As if sometimes the desires of my heart just managed to express themselves more effectively than I did. But …