Elaborate Missionary Farewells

I've heard of the Church saying we shouldn't have missionary farewell open houses. Do you think renting a room at a local hotel to hold the reception is the reason why?

Off-Limit Careers for Mormons

Julie M. Smith posted a question over at T&S asking if there are any profession members of the Church just can’t do. It has garnered a number of responses thus far, most of which I disagree with. For example, the ones I disagree with include:

• Brewer
• Tobacconist
• Evolutionary scientist
• Gay-wedding planner

I'm not so sure that members of the Church can't work in industries that promote breaking of the Word of Wisdom. So long as the individual is not drinking beer, why can s/he not work in a brewery? So long as the individual does not smoke the tobacco, why couldn't s/he harvest it for the tobacco company. For that matter, what of the trucker who ships the products, the grocer who sells them or the manufacturer who creates their packaging?

So long as the person does not violate the Word of Wisdom, I see no reason for them not being able to hold jobs with such companies.

I, too, see no reason for a member of the Church not to be an evolutionary scientist since evolution is not against church teachings.

Nor do I see why a member of the Church cannot plan gay weddings.

More Lethbridge Transit Changes

LA Transit is making some changes over the next year. Most of them are route/structural changes, but there are some fare increases as well. Some of the route changes include:

• Smaller, community buses on smaller routes with lower ridership
• An express route to the Lethbridge Community College
• More cross-town routes replacing all downtown routes
• Only one bus to the Westside starting in the fall
• Change to 30-minute service from 20-minute service during daytime

Some of these changes I have been supporting and advocating for years. Lethbridge Transit had been stuck in the archaic form of thinking that every route needed to come downtown despite the fact that the vast majority of riders ended up transferring to another bus instead of staying downtown. Until this past fall, there was no cross-town service. In addition, too many routes were coming downtown from West Lethbridge. This was far too inefficient of transit resources. Finally, there was no direct link between the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Community College. The proposed changes will address all of these concerns.

I do not automatically support a reduction in service times, but considering the size of Lethbridge’s population base, a 20-minute service is not realistically feasible. Much larger urban centres do not have a base service time of less than 30-minute services. Anything less than 30-minutes is usually on very high-traffic routes.

Regarding the fare increase, one of the most popular arguments against it has been the reported 200,000$+ surplus of LA Transit. Opponents of the fare increases have stated that if there is a surplus, it is evidence that riders are being charged too much. I’m not a proponent of absolutely increasing fares for increasing fares’ sake. However, I also did not hear these same opponents claiming riders were not being charged enough when Lethbridge Transit was running a deficit.

Adam and Eve's Transgression

In a message board I frequent, some discussion came up about Adam and Eve and their transgression. After some study, I came upon the following thoughts:

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat" (Gen 3:6)

What is interesting here is that it doesn't say that she partook of the fruit because she wanted to disobey God. Rather she saw that the fruit would make her wise—or as the footnote suggests—give her insight.

Naturally, gaining further insight or wisdom is not inherently bad; our church encourages us to gain further knowledge.

I wonder then if the transgression Eve committed was less the partaking of the fruit. I wonder if her transgression was more relying on her own faculties to gain further light and knowledge rather than waiting for God to give them to her.

I wonder of the parallel with her son Cain. We all know Cain gave a sacrifice to the Lord. I do not think the Lord rejected the sacrifice because it was a sacrifice. After all, his brother Abel offered a sacrifice often that was always accepted. I wonder if what the Lord rejected was the fact that Cain offered a sacrifice only because Satan commanded him too (Moses 5:18).

Missionary Open House

I have heard of open house, but this tops the lot.

Joshua and Kimberly Colton of Amesbury, Massachusetts, organised a number of speakers in the summer of 2002 to speak on various gospel topics in their home. They provided an open invitation to the public through newspaper and television ads.

Their website does not say how successful it is, but the local paper—Merrimack River Current—specifies that they are holding the lectures every Thursday.

When I was a ward mission leader—and when I later served in the stake mission presidency—I helped convince the stake mission president and the stake president that we needed to hold an open house. The first year saw over 100 people attend in three meetinghouses. Every year since then, it has been dramatically more successful.

Sex, Pornography and Reverence

John Hesch posted about a substitute teacher who viewed porn in class that some students inadvertently saw after coming to his desk.

The students apparently went to the principal’s office and reported that the teacher “"was looking at bad things on the computer”.

I’m not saying the children did anything wrong in reporting the teacher, but I have to wonder about the use of the term “bad things”. It seems in religious society, sex and the naked body are viewed as “bad”. I’m not so sure they are absolutely. In certain contexts, the naked body is very beautiful and even minimalistic. In certain contexts, the act of sex is an intimate and sacred event.

I have met a number of people who teach their children about chastity with blanket statements like “sex is bad. I think that is wrong. I think parents have a responsibility to teach their children that it isn’t the act of sex or nudity itself that are wrong; it is their existence outside of certain contexts that is wrong.

Believe or not, I have met a few people who felt a pang of uneasiness, shame or even guilt when they encountered sex for the first time, after marriage.

That being said, I also know some people who looked so forward to having sex after they were married for sex's sake that their reverence for the event was almost nonexistent.

So on one hand there’s so much innocence, shame and naivety, yet on the other had there is so much baseness, carnality and irreverence. How do we come to the middle?

Blacks and the Priesthood

Twenty-four years ago yesterday, the priesthood was provided to all male members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “without regard to race or [colour]”.

It was this decision that has made Brazil and many parts of Africa such hotspots for Church growth. Without this revelation, the temples in Accra and Aba would ever be a dream.