Messenger and Advocate

What follows are my very rough Priesthood Session notes, which I will try to clean up as time permits. See also Brian D’s notes over at M* (more…)

The Saturday afternoon session of conference is now underway. Saturday morning’s session was filled with excellent practical and spiritual advice from inspired prophets, seers and revelators. I was certainly uplifted and know others were as well. I hope to post some follow up analysis after the day’s sessions are over. The bloggernacle links that I referenced in the morning session post are still open and active for comments and analysis. Once this session is over I will clean up the horrible misspellings and other errors. So, if you catch this in mid stream as it were, please bear with me.  Also, for an excellent post on the Tabernacle’s history, please check out Justin’s post over at the Mormon Wasp.  As usual, he has some really great stuff! (more…)

It is that time of year, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convenes their annual general conference in Salt Lake City. As is traditional, in the Bloggernacle, there are open threads on various LDS Blogs. I know of three at the moment. If others arise, I will try and link them as well. Of course, the venerable Times and Seasons has their open thread (in fact T&S has already started commenting before conference begins.) BCC, in its own inimitable, yet humble way has T.O.T.A.L.G.C.T. Not to be outdone, DKL over at Mormon Mentality is also running an open thread.  Another thread is over at Spinozist Mormon.  There should be some great insights on all of these great LDS blogs about the counsel of living Prophets, Seers & Revelators. I urge you all to partake. Over here, I’ll try my hand at taking a few notes as things progress and post them as I can. Hope you all enjoy conference where ever you might be, and what ever you might be doing. (more…)

This is already a topic, about which several blogs in the bloggernacle have already had in depth discussions. See FAIR’s point by point rebuttal; Artemis’ post at fMh; Tanya’s post at Millennial Star; Jeff Lindsay’s post at Mormanity; and, PDOE’s post at Mormon Mentality; I simply add one more voice in opposition to this type of bigoted anti-Mormon behavior by some of these our “Christian” brothers and sisters (so-called). (more…)

(Update II ) For an updated post on the coverage and photos of the BYU Cheney Protest, see here. (Update I) The Deseret News reports on the Church’s announcement here. The Salt Lake Tribune was on the defensive here. The Church has issued a formal statement on the Dick Cheney invitation to speak at BYU’s commencement in April. The Church’s official statement is on its website here. The subject of Mr. Cheney’s invitation has been discussed at length in the Bloggernacle. I started this discussion over at Bloggernacle Times, just after the story first broke in the Salt Lake Tribune. You can find links to the rest of the Bloggernacle discussions at this prior post here. (more…)

Kyle Sampson, who recently resigned as chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). CNN is reporting that Mr. Sampson is a key witness in the ongoing U.S. Attorneys firing scandal that continues to plague the Bush Administration. He testifies before Congress today. (more…)

Most now know that Dick Cheney has been invited by the Church to attend and speak at the BYU commencement in April. I previously posted on that topic over at Bloggernacle Times. I have now located (hat tip to A Soft Answer) an online petition for the BYU community, both past and present, to sign in opposition to this appearance, if you are so inclined. You can view and sign the petition here. You do not need to have attended or currently attend BYU to sign the petition. I also encourage you to visit and read Ronan’s post at BCC, as well as Connor’s post over at Conundrums. Finally, Julie M. Smith has weighed in over at T & S as well. All are well done. A late entry into the Cheney marketplace of ideas is Jim Cobabe’s post over at Snail Hollow Gazette.

(Update: Welcome Tribune readers. If you found your way here from Matthew LaPlante’s article, have a look around, feel free to leave any thoughts you have, and thanks for stopping by). Today’s Salt Lake Tribune, as an excellent article by Matthew LaPlante about Utah’s Mormon population souring on the Iraq War. (more…)

Today’s Deseret News has one of those stories just too good to pass up, and it’s a fun, positive story. The International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS) had its World Championship Cook-off over the weekend in Sandy, UT. If you’re not familiar with Dutch Oven cooking, you should really check out this story and also browse around the IDOS web site (link above). (more…)

Today’s Deseret News has an interesting story about Soulforce, a gay rights activist group that had plans to visit, and likely protest on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT. (more…)