By Jerome L. McElroy No one knew how the two leagues apart in distance and ambition became so tightly bound in flesh death could not shear asunder. Perhaps a childhood misadventure or adolescent fantasy sewed their souls together so there was no crease between them. Lazarus the confidant was the one who …
Category: Issue 168
Lessons in Mormon Modernism: Or, How I Learned to Love the Provo and Ogden Temples
By Alan Barnett Or, right-click here to download the audio file: Lessons in Mormon Modernism: Or, How I Learned to Love the Ogden and Provo Temples In 1892, the long task of completing the exterior of the Salt Lake Temple culminated as workmen placed the round capstone on the central east tower …
Hindering the Saints: Taking Away the Key of Knowledge–Part II
By Philip G. McLemore Continued from Part I The #1 LDS mantra is, “I know The Church is true.” It gets branded on the souls of our children and they grow up learning that if it is “the Church” that is true, then the thing they need to be concerned about is their status with …
Hindering the Saints: Taking Away the Key of Knowledge–Part I
By Philip G. McLemore “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering.” Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not …
The Roots of My Faith–Part II
By Eric Samuelsen Continued from Part I My high school experiences taught me two lessons that I’ve clung to my whole life. First, the Book of Mormon invites the Spirit. That is to say, reading it engenders feelings that seem to me to have been externally generated. Though I still had doubts and questions, I …
The Roots of My Faith–Part I
By Eric Samuelsen Or right-click here to download the audio file: The Roots of My Faith I grew up Bloomington, Indiana, a college town some fifty miles south of Indianapolis. Bloomington was torn between town and gown, between blue-collar locals and academics. From my house, we could hear stock car racing …
Discerning a Spirit
By James P. Harris Elder James E. Talmage was cautious when writing about spiritual experiences in his journal. For instance, when he would refer to something profoundly moving that had happened during a meeting of the Twelve and First Presidency, he would typically write something like, “This was a day long to be remembered by …
The BYU Meme-ery
Every college and university has its quirks and inside jokes. BYU, with its mix of super smart, Intenet-savvy students immersed in both campus and very visible LDS culture, is perhaps among the quirkiest/insideriest. It is no surprise, then, to find that one of the biggest campus hits (both in terms of phenomena and Facebook page …
“Thy Virgin Paths”
By Curt Bench Mormon bookselling provides many fun moments that provide my staff and me with life-long smiles. Whereas my June 2012 column might very well have been titled “People in LDS Bookstores Say the Darndest Things,” this one could easily be called, “Mormons Ask for the Darndest Titles.” Over the years, often by phone …
Korihor and the Struggle with a Lost Testimony
By Michael Vinson The devil hath deceived me. And he said unto me: There is no God. —Alma 30:53 One of the greatest personal crises we as Latter-day Saints can face is the loss of testimony. One Sunday we find ourselves sitting in sacrament meeting and thinking, “What am I doing …