I just finished reading The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan Haidt, published in 2012. I bought this book on a whim while browsing at Powell’s Books in Portland – mostly because I’ve lost several friendships with people in the past few years whom I used to respect (but now we cannot understand each other). This book is…
Last Friday (August 16th) my daughter Madeline and I attended a Robert Plant & Allison Krause concert at Chateau Michelle Winery in Woodinville. The show was sold out long before I heard about it, but luckily my son Wyatt’s college roommate works at the venue and was able to get us in for free. This is the third time that I have seen Robert Plant…
Last year I teamed up Christopher Carter to help build a portable shower for Camp United We Stand (a county sanctioned homeless camp that moves between church parking lots in the Shoreline area). Christopher is a member of the camp. We designed it ourselves using mostly resin, corrugated plastic, and FRP paneling and built it in my garage. Today I was talking with Christopher and…
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…
