Category Archives: LDS Organization

A people set apart: Mormons and Prop 8

There has, of course, been much discourse on the bloggernacle about Proposition 8 in California and the Church’s involvement in it. Leaving aside the various arguments on the merits of gay marriage itself, the merits of the arguments on both … Continue reading

Posted in Current events, LDS Doctrine, LDS History, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Legal, Main, Media, Politics | 4 Comments

Post-Rapture “friends and family” notification service

No, really. Courtesy of Dave Barry (yes, that Dave Barry) comes this link to a website that promises — for a fee — to send e-mails and do electronic delivery of documents to a list of people once the Rapture … Continue reading

Posted in Belief systems, LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, Main, Preparedness, Technology, The Last Days | Leave a comment

Church Handbook of Instruction posted online

…but not legally. Wikileaks, a website devoted to publishing confidential materials, has posted the 1968 and 1999 versions of the LDS Church Handbook of Instructions. The Church has responded by sending Wikimedia a takedown notice for copyright infringement. On the … Continue reading

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Managing Mormon meetings

“Brethren, there is no meeting in the Church so unimportant that it cannot begin on time, and there is no meeting in the Church so important that it cannot end on time.” – J. Reuben Clark III, a counselor in … Continue reading

Posted in LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main | 4 Comments

Dwellings of prophets

Outside (and some inside) observers of the LDS Church sometimes hint darkly at the Church’s great wealth, directly stating or leaving others to infer that this somehow reflects greed, corruption, or insensitivity on the part of LDS Church leaders. Peggy … Continue reading

Posted in LDS Organization, Main | 1 Comment

Relief Society Magazine: January 1951

And now for something completely different. One of my treasured books — which I begged of my mother-in-law, and which she generously gave to me — is a bound volume of all 1951 issues of The Relief Society Magazine (Vol. … Continue reading

Posted in LDS History, LDS Organization, Main, Media | 2 Comments

Succession in LDS Leadership (part IV)

As expected, President Thomas S. Monson has been set apart as the 16th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has retained President Henry B. Eyring as First Counselor, also no surprise. Most interestingly, he selected … Continue reading

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Succession in LDS Leadership (part III)

Last August, after the death of Pres. James E. Faust, I wrote about the standard approach to succession for the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and noted at the time: The infographic that accompanies Stack’s … Continue reading

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Gordon B. Hinckley (1910 – 2008)

[For details on succession in LDS leadership, see this post.] Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), passed away earlier today, at age 97. No man ever came to office of LDS … Continue reading

Posted in LDS History, LDS Organization, Main, News, Succession | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Stewardship, accountability, and community response

[NOTE: I originally wrote this essay back in 1994 for Vigor, an LDS samizdat put out for several years in the 90s by Orson Scott Card. Given some of the discussions making the rounds in LDS blogs, I felt it's … Continue reading

Posted in LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main | 1 Comment