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…

Tim Townsend’s article on Monday touched on a topic close to my heart, that is: the experience of black members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To read his story, Black Mormons straddle two worlds on 30th anniversary – click here.

I have to admit, Tim’s story, while balanced and refreshing, was also hard to read. Especially hard for me to read was a comment made by my friend, Latter-day Saint (Mormon) convert, Nekisha Rhodes who says she is “comfortable being uncomfortable” as she struggles to learn more about the heritage of her new-found faith, a heritage that includes a church policy, lifted 30 years ago, prohibiting black male members from the priesthood.

Nekisha sounds much like many African American Latter-day Saints when they candidly express their faith and experience in the church. Catherine Stokes, Latter-day Saint and former assistant director, Office of Health Care Regulation,…

Wow! There is a lot of buzz in the “religion & politics” news this week regarding Barack Obama and his pastor former pastor Jeremiah Wright

I understand that a pastor feels a burden to show courage and boldness in the face of hostility towards personally-held beliefs, but you’ve got to be amazed at his absolute inconsideration to his friend Barack, knowing the impact his statements might have on Obama’s campaign.

Ok, that ends my armchair-politics talk (an area I know little of, and care even less about).

Now, onto what I find even more interesting about all this – the theological element.

Liberation theology is getting a lot of air time these days (see here for today’s Google news search of the term). I’m not so sure all the pundits know what they are talking about when they use the term.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of talk about Wright’s own liberation theology. As I’ve read some of the…

I really liked Pamela’s last post. Not only do I love to hear a story like that about tolerance and commitment, but what great parenting! At 33, with 2 young children, a lot of my thoughts about religion, or life in general, have to do with being a good mother.

And I have an opinion on how to breed tolerance or better yet, acceptance.

When my nephew was 3, my niece was born. My sister-in-law had our Rabbi come out to their house for a baby naming. While he was there, he also hung a mezuzah for them. Later that night, while my sister-in-law was putting my nephew to bed he says, “Mommy, God was here today.” Well then. So of course she asks him what he is referring to and he replies, “You know, God? The guy who put the mezuzah up”.

Cute story, right? That’s been told a few dozen times – always…