Seven-year-old Joseph Hofheins reacts to eating matzah with horseradish during the bitter herbs part of the Passover ceremony, which also included music and dancing. (Stuart Johnson, Deseret News)

Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS) have long felt a kinship with Jewish brothers and sisters. It’s becoming popular in recent years for Latter-day Saints (LDS) to take their feelings of kinship to a more active level. Some are participating in a Seder in addition to the traditional Easter services and remembrance observed this time of year.

I remember a few years ago a women’s activity at our local unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make Seder plates. We spent the evening decorating the plates and learning the traditions of the Seder. I really enjoyed the activity. It gave me a great appreciation for the common heritage Christians and Jews share.

Latter-day Saints in areas of Utah are developing large activities for this special time of year. The following news-story is from Deseret…

From the lds newsroom:

SALT LAKE CITY 16 January 2009 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be represented at inaugural events for President-elect Barack Obama by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Continued

The two leaders, who have been asked to represent the Church by Church President Thomas S. Monson, are scheduled to attend the swearing-in ceremony on January 20 and the National Prayer Service at Washington’s National Cathedral on January 21.

“It is always an honor for the Church to be represented at the inauguration of a new president,” said President Monson. “We send our best wishes to President-elect Obama and pray for the blessings of a loving Father in Heaven to be upon him and his administration.”

I just got back from vacation and found Tim Townsend’s article about Chatfields Boutique in Des Peres, Missouri – click here – specializing in bridal and formal gowns that are modest.

What a concept!

This is an idea that has caught hold in Utah, where Latter-day Saint clothing entrepreneurs have, in recent years, been helping young teens and adults dress up without dressing down, way down to cleavage baring styles reminiscent of Hollywood’s Night at the Oscars.

Learn of one such clothing entrepreneur in the Meridian Magazine article: Keith Hall takes on Fashion Industry with Beautifully Modest Clothing.

For years Latter-day Saints and people of many faiths have been imploring clothing manufacturers to provide clothing with more cloth. But the response was always the same: modesty does not sell. 

When I went shopping in St. Louis a couple years ago to buy my daughter a prom dress there were none that didn’t show a whole lot of shoulder and revealing necklines. We had to…

I have enjoyed reading the comments that have been made to my last post — Latter-day Saints examine racial history. I especially enjoyed the expressions of faith in the grace of God.

To clarify, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built on the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe in a restored, not reformed gospel. We believe in living prophets and apostles and our doctrines are derived from an open cannon of continuing revelation from God. Our roots are in Christian teachings, but our doctrine is distinct relative to other Christian traditions because of our open cannon. If there are errors in our practice, those errors are of man.

Our open cannon makes us open for correction or clarifying revelations. It makes our church vibrant and responsive to challenges in our times. We often refer to the church as a “living church”.

We rejoiced in the clarifying revelation in 1978 that extended the…

David Archuleta sings for his hometown crowd. Photo from the newsrooom of lds.org

Tonight’s the night “the two Davids” compete to be crowned the next American Idol.

One, I recently learned, David Archuleta, is a Latter-day Saint (Mormon). I don’t watch T.V. much and I am not up on popular ure, but I hear Mormons are now populating the reality television shows and drawing interest. I learned this from Newsweek.

My first reaction was: “where have I been?” I am missing all the excitement. There are members of my faith who are losing weight (the Biggest Loser), surviving (Survivor) and dancing (Dancing with the Stars and So You Think you can Dance). Who knew?

My second reaction was: “why all the fuss?” Why aren’t the faiths of others mentioned?

I guess it is because people still hold on to the notion that Mormons are not likely to be found doing normal things. If you call eating…

I work in a furniture store. This past weekend we were giving mothers flowers in celebration of Mother’s Day. I am sure our approach would make Anna Jarvis spin in her grave, as Khaled Hamid pointed out in his post.

Our sales team discussed how we might present these flowers. The question was asked: “How do we know who is a mother?”

My first thought was “every woman is a mother“, so naturally every female customer should get a flower.

But the consensus of the sales team was that a mother is someone who has children and therefore we needed to delicately determine what female customers were eligible for our flowers.

While the sales team defined mothers as those women with children, I saw a larger vision of motherhood as informed by my faith. Maybe a vision that goes beyond the definition as presented by the founder of Mother’s Day. And one that escaped a customer in my store who refused my offer…