Earlier this year I was reading John Winthrop’s famous 1630 sermon, A Modell of Christian Charity which is more popularly known as “The City on A Hill” sermon.

According to tradition the sermon was given aboard the Pilgrim ship Arbella before landing at what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but recent scholarship suggests that it was more likely given in England before the pilgrims set sail.

The image of the City on a Hill that Winthrop envisioned has become a common American theme.

I am pleased to announce a new LDS Blog Portal focusing on mainstream and orthodox LDS blogs and bloggers:

www.NothingWavering.org

I will now conclude my critical look at LDS Blog Portals (see Parts 1 , 2 , 3 ).

The most popular of LDS Blog Portals, LDSBLogs.org, is primarily an exercise in self-promotion. In my opinion its claims to promote the church are trumped by its desire to promote itself. This orientation is reflected in the technology itself. It favors blogs by those who are friends or who promote ideas friendly to the fringe mormonism of Dialogue and Sunstone magazines. While they try to walk a line, the conversations featured are often overly and publicly critical of the church and her divinely appointed authorities. While they may lay claim to the name “faithful,” the kind of murmuring that often goes on is not good.

Continuing my series on LDS Blog Portals from Part 1 and Part 2 .

In the previous post I discussed some of the history of LDS Blog portals and how the motivations of those creating the portals played into their design and discussed to some extent how those motivation ultimately affected how the portals are run. Be sure to check out the clarifying comments by the creators of LDSblogs.org on the previous two posts.

Now I would like to look a little at how the self-promotion marketing objective of the portal design has affected usability and technology.

Continued from Part 1: Never Show Your Face Anywhere in the Bloggernacle Ever Again

Blogging itself is still a new technology, and many people are only now becoming aware of LDS Blogs. By its nature, blogging is focused on the present. Things that were posted two or three years ago are ancient history in blog-time. So it is not surprising that the origin of LDS Blog portals is not well known.

The first LDS Blog portal that I remember was Planet LDS. Created by John Hesch and hosted by KZION Radio, originally, Planet LDS ran on the popular python blog aggregation software Planet from which its name was derived. It has since been migrated to run on the popular PHP blog platform Wordpress . I remember visiting Planet LDS as early as 2004 when I first became involved with LDS Blogging and it has been in continual operation since then. While it gets little attention these days when people speak of LDS Blogs, Planet LDS Pioneered the LDS Blog portal concept, paving the way for what was to come.

Last week, after some unfortunately contentious conversations related to my previous blog post, I was unexpectedly delisted from the largest LDS blog portal there is.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has released the results of a new Survey on Religious Belief and Politics in America (pdf).

More than three-quarters of American adults (78%) believe there are absolute standards of right and wrong, with a majority (52%) saying they rely primarily on practical experience and common sense for guidance regarding right and wrong. Far fewer say they rely mainly on their religious beliefs (29%), and fewer still say they rely on philosophy and reason (9%) or scientific information (5%). Only among Jehovah’s Witnesses (73%), Mormons (58%) and members of evangelical churches (52%) do majorities say they rely primarily on their religion for guidance about right and wrong.

Some of the interesting findings:

• 39% of Mormons surveyed agreed to the statement that “Many religions can lead to eternal life” (Compare: Protestant 66%, Catholic 79%, JW 16%, Muslim 56%, Jewish 82%)
• 100% of Mormons Surveyed believe in God in some form (Compare: Protestant 98%, Catholic 97%, JW 98%, Muslim 92%, Jewish 83%, Atheist 21% ??)

The Prophets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have repeatedly emphasized the importance of Motherhood to both the stability and happiness of our earthly society as well as its central importance in the eternal plan for our salvation.

This month, Elder Henry B. Eyring reminds us again of the importance of motherhood in his message from the First Presidency of the Church :

In our own time we have been warned with counsel on where to find safety from sin and from sorrow. One of the keys to recognizing those warnings is that they are repeated. For instance, more than once in general conferences, you have heard our prophet say that he would quote a preceding prophet and would therefore be a second witness and sometimes even a third. Each of us old enough to listen heard President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) give counsel on the importance of a mother in the home and then heard President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) quote him, and we have heard President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) quote them both.

Following this counsel from the prophets represents a great sacrifice for many women and men. My own mother made that sacrifice, despite her disinclination toward those things often associated with motherhood, and endured the scorn of her own feminist generation for choosing to stay at home and be a mother. She has since testified that it was the right decision and she has been blessed for her humility.

There is a heartbreaking article by Rebecca Walker , who is the daughter of famed feminist icon and author of “The Color Purple” Alice Walker, where she discusses the damage caused by her mothers fanatical feminism. She says:

A few month’s ago, I arrived late to church and as I scurried across the parking lot with three small children to try to make it in time to take the sacrament, I noticed something so awesome that I just had to stop. Despite our tardiness, the freezing cold, and the fact that we were probably going to miss the central purpose of attending church every Sunday (again!), I fumbled around in my pocket for my phone to snap a picture, trying to ignore the children’s whining remonstrations and arm tugging.

I think that this photo is nicely symbolic. Or it at least implies a story. What it symbolizes, however, or what the story is, is up to you. Submit your photo caption suggestions in the comments or by email.

The winner will be announced next Week.

“The face of sin today often wears the Halloween mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived. Behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. You know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that truth. The character of transgression remains the same. If your so called friends urge you to do anything you know to be wrong, you be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow. There’s no friendship more valuable than your own clear conscience, your own moral cleanliness…”

President Thomas S. Monson
Priesthood Session, April 2008 Conference
In his first address as President of the LDS Church

This weekend we are holding the annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every year I try to post links to MP3 audio and other Internet resources as they become available. This conference will include the sustaining of Thomas S. Monson as the President of the High Priesthood and Prophet.

MP3 Audio
These are links to the earliest available audio I can find. They will be replaced by links to the MP3s at the church website as they are posted.

Saturday Morning Session
Entire Session
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Elder Russell M. Nelson
Elder Ronald A. Rasband
Sister Cheryl C. Lant
Elder Kenneth Johnson
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
President Henry B. Eyring

Saturday Afternoon Session

Sunday Morning Session

Sunday Afternoon Session

Streaming Video
Live Video, streamed over the Internet, as well as archived recordings of completed sessions is available on demand through BYU and KSL. We have been watching conference through BYU.tv for several years now and love it. The video player only works on Windows or Mac OS X (Sorry Linux Users!). This year KSL appears to be using the same player as BYU.tv, so they may be actually the same source. Also, the church is officially providing a Video Podcast for the first time this year (see the podcast section below).

Over the last few years in both public and private discussions about apostasy from the church, I have encountered an increasingly frequent complaint. It goes something like this:

“Practicing Mormons incorrectly attribute all apostasy to sin. There are many, many sinners in the church who do not leave. People leave the church for a variety of reasons, but it is not because they are sinners.”

In their own minds, they leave the church because they have discovered apparent incongruities that lead them to believe the Church is not true.

Of course everyone within and without the church sins. But when members say that people “leave the church because of sin” it is an idiomatic shorthand. What they mean is that people leave the church because they are unrepentant for their sin. We are all sinners, but we are not all penitent. Justification of sin eventually leads the unrepentant to leave the church.

The notion that those who reject the Gospel do so because of sin is not a just a cultural invention, it comes from the scriptures.

Transcripts, mp3 audio, and video of the World Wide Leadership Training Meeting originally held on February 9th, 2008 by the LDS Church on the topic of “Building Up a Righteous Posterity” are now available online at the official church website:

Building Up a Righteous Posterity

All adult members of the church were encouraged to attend. If you weren’t able to do so, find some time to watch it online, or download the mp3 audio to listen to at your leisure on your iPod or other portable mp3 player.

The past Sunday, our Bishopric decided that instead of following the Sacrament ceremony with prepared talks by three or four members of the congregation, or with a testimony meeting like we normally do, they would try something new: A Hymn Testimony Meeting.

The Bishop’s Councilor read the First Presidency’s preface to the LDS Hymnal:

Music in Our Church Meetings

Inspirational music is an essential part of our church meetings. The hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord.
...

In a fascinating interview with Time Magazine , the Anglican Bishop of Durham, N.T. “Tom” Wright, who is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England, says that most Christians misunderstand the Biblical teaching of the the afterlife. The view he advocates bears a striking similarity to the Mormon teachings of Joseph Smith.

Here are excerpts:

Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I’ve called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will “awake,” be embodied and participate in the renewal.

There is Luke 23, where Jesus says to the good thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” But in Luke, we know first of all that Christ himself will not be resurrected for three days, so “paradise” cannot be a resurrection. It has to be an intermediate state.