For the past several years, my wife and I have been volunteering at the First United Methodist Church (aka First Church as it is literally the first church in Seattle) in downtown Seattle (right next to the Pacific Science Center) where they host a homeless breakfast on Sunday mornings for the past 20 years. There are roughly 10 volunteers each week helping cook and serve…
Luke 11:39-44 (King James Version): 39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. 40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? 41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have;…
On July 17th I attended my fourth In the Valley Below concert at Madam Lou’s with my wife, daughter, and her partner. Most people have no idea who this band is, but they were pretty big in 2015. Their album The Belt is awesome – my favorite songs off that album are Stand Up and Searching for a Devil. This is the first band that…
The good news is that I am not the only person on a faith journey – many people are on their own journeys, and while everybody’s journey is unique, it still provides a sense of community. There are many podcasts that touch upon these subjects. A few years ago, I happened upon a Faith Matters podcast where the guest was Brian McLaren, who is a…
What makes a church great? What would make you proud of your church? And what would make you ashamed of your church? Churches are great when they help people. My wife is currently the stake communication director and she’s the person of contact on some public websites. She often receives calls from non-members of the church who are in dire need. She used to forward…
So far most everything that I have mentioned could be dismissed by saying “people are imperfect, and a prophet is no exception.” This is a valid argument – after all, if a prophet really is called of God and occasionally receives instructions from God, who am I to criticize or to dismiss the instructions? This requires me to look carefully at some of the directions…
The pandemic was a crazy time – one day I went to work at an office that I loved with co-workers that I enjoyed, never realizing that it would be the last time that I ever did so. But the politization of Covid19 was even crazier. What should have been a unifying event was instead used to further divide us. The LDS church culture is…
As my Facebook feed filled with church members extolling the virtues of President Trump (apparently the Godliest president ever) and as members of the church started embracing the prosperity gospel, I realized that our church’s beliefs are not nearly as unified as I originally thought. We might agree on big doctrinal points like God is three people instead of one person, or that there are…
Three things happened between late 2015 and late 2016 that accelerated my faith journey. In late 2015, an official church policy regarding married gay members and the children of gay parents (that was meant only for church leaders) was leaked to the news. The policy stated two things that I found shocking: The policy was later retracted in 2019, but I found the policy very…
In 2014, my daughter started attending BYU Provo. She loved it at first, but then she noticed that many girls in her dorm would tell racial jokes and hate on transgendered people. Having been raised in the Seattle area and having worked in her HS theater department, she took great offence to this and wondered how people that seemed so nice could behave so mean….
