Fighting False Beliefs

In my area we are experiencing a phenomenon that I don’t think is isolated.  It is that young people find facts out about Church history and such that catch them off guard and they feel “betrayed” and start to question their beliefs and then delve into a lot of misinformation or incorrectly portrayed facts about the Church…mostly published by people opposed to the LDS Faith…and these kids slowly and quietly slip away from faith and fall into apostasy.

There are tons of examples…here are a few:

• Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, even with married women
• There never was a revelation that Black people could not hold the priesthood
• Women used to be able to pass the sacrament
• Joseph Smith used a seer stone to aid in translating a large portion of the Book of Mormon
• There are many, many others...

Kids hear about this stuff for the first time from sources other than Church and when they bring it up in a Church setting, they are shot down by adults who don’t know how to deal with the questions…and these kids feel lied too.

The "Low-Testosterone" Debate

We are hammered by it on a daily basis!  Testosterone therapy is the new miracle fountain of youth for middle aged men.  Feel fatigued, unhealthy, low sex-drive? Take a pill, use a gel, get a shot…and you will feel young again, heal faster and have more energy! It’s amazing! Right?!?

But should you really do it?  If you are like me, you are cautious about using a substance to fix something that may or may not be broken.  I don’t like to take medication that I really don’t know much about.  Well, never fear!  I did the work for you and am going to report on it here. (I mentioned this briefly in a previous post, but felt like it deserved a bit more room.)

Men's Fashion (snicker)

I saw a piece the other day about Men’s Fashion and fall trends.  It kind of made me laugh.  The ‘trends’ that they were showing caused me to say “What kind of man would wear that?”.

To be frank the term “men’s fashion” makes me sort of chuckle.  Not that I don’t think that a guy should care about how he dresses and looks, because I do. I think it is very important.  I also think that if you were to ask a guy what designer suit he is wearing, the correct answer should be “I don’t know”. Because that should not matter to a guy.

All decisions I make regarding the clothes I wear follow these basic five rules:

1. Dress Right for the occasion
2. Look your best for that occasion
3. Your clothes should fit
4. Clothes should match
5. Your attire should present the best possible YOU that it can.

People vs. Programs

Lately I’ve had time to consider the various programs of the church and to, quite honestly, evaluate their worth and value to the members.   The conclusions that I’ve come to have surprised me.

It all started with a meeting that I had regarding the status of our YM. To be brutally honest, our ward has not had a good track record of cranking out worthy, temple bound young men who are ready to serve in the Melchizedek Priesthood, go on missions and marry in the temple.  I’d quote you the statistics, but they are too depressing.

So we held this discussion as to what to do about it.  After discussing all the programs we have available to the YM and what we might be able to do…we didn’t come up with any good ideas.  One comment that was made really struck me to the core though…it was made by our Bishop when he stated “When I’m sitting in the front of the chapel and I look over the congregation, I don’t see happy people. Living the gospel should make us happy, shouldn’t it?”

Of course the reply to that is YES! We should be the happiest people on the earth.  We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ…we should be ecstatic!

So what’s the deal?