In one of the last Mormon General Conferences Elder Ballard during the priesthood session talked about the relationship that should exist between fathers and sons.

Tonight I want to talk to you fathers and sons about how you talk to each other. There is no other relationship quite like that which can and should exist between a boy and his dad. It can be one of the most nurturing, joyful relationships in life, one that can have a profound impact on who boys become and also on who dads become. Now, I understand that some of you young men do not have fathers with whom you can have these kinds of conversations. And some of you men do not have sons or have lost your sons to accident or illness. But much of what I say tonight will apply to uncles and grandfathers and priesthood leaders and other mentors who sometimes fill the gaps for these significant father-son relationships. You see, we’re all on a journey. Dads are a little further down the road, but none of us has yet arrived at our final destination. We are all in the process of becoming who we will one day be. Fathers and sons can play a critical role in helping each other become the best that they can be. (Fathers and Sons: A Remarkable Relationship)

More recently Mormon Messages launched this video about how a father and a son were able to improve their relationship. In this case the story is about a step son and a step father, and those relationships are usually fraught with more challenges, but the principles taught by Elder Ballard apply to every father and son relationship.

My last blog was about the great talk by Elder Oaks. As suspected, I received right away a comment that was a simple insult directed to me and Elder Oaks. Obviously this guy missed completely the point of Elder Oaks’ talk. But if people do not want to see, they will never see, if they do not want to hear, they will not.

Thinking of the situation created by this debate about same-sex marriage and the non democratic actions of many, I could not avoid thinking about a few comment made by Elder Bruce McConkie:

Persecution is an essential part of the creeds of all false religions. There is an eternal law…. that truth will prevail. Left to itself true religion – though it may be delayed or hindered in its progress – must and will prevail. The only effective weapon of false religions – and it yields only momentary success – is to persecute true believers (The Mortal Messiah, 2:317).

Now, a religion does not necessarily needs to include the worship of a God. Many dictatorial political systems are very similar to false religions. But not only that, any group of beliefs organized can become a religion, even atheism is a religion, since it implies a strong belief that there is no God.

Therefore, it is unfortunate, but I am not surprised that some (or many people) are attacking the Mormons and other good people because they try to stand for what is right. Over time, if those who attack what is right and sacred prevail, we will probably see the calamities predicted by the scriptures to come on this country and many others.

I need to be honest and say that when I first heard a talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley about pornography in a Mormon General Conference, A Tragic Evil among US,  I thought, “doesn’t he have anything more interesting or uplifting to talk about?” However, I noticed in the following months and years that he and other general authorities kept talking about this topic.

The first time I considered pursuing a PhD in Marriage, Family, and Human Development at BYU, Truman Madsen, the man who first suggested the idea to me, among other things said something like this: “the institution of the family and families in our society are not just having more troubles than in the past, they are in free fall”. It was a shocking idea to me at that time, especially because I had been in the US for only a couple of years, and too busy with school, to realize how bad the situation was in this country. Not that in other countries were a lot better, but as a non-American non-Utah Mormon, I still was under the illusion that here people knew better….

Now, a few more years have passed, and I am realizing every day more that our beloved Prophet was – and how could he not be? – very inspired in talking about this sad topic, and I am beginning to realize that pornography is one of the main reasons of this free fall. Truly, addiction to pornography is more of a symptom than the cause of the problem, but in this case one strengthen the other, especially in the case of young people.

Adults may have a hard time to protect themselves from this addiction, but children and teenagers are really too vulnerable to fight the war alone.

I was reading yesterday a book by Mark B. Kastleman, The drug of the new millennium. It is a very eye opening books, in spite of being sad at times to know more about the current situation. Among other very useful information, I was struck by this passage, about certain organizations that promote free access to pornography for children:

Organizations such as the ACLU and the American Libray Association propose that children ought to have the same rights of unrestricted access to Internet pornography that adults have. Are they serious? If they are, then they either do not understand the devastation pornography wreaks on a child’s or teen’s brain, or they do understand the impact and are completely, and irresponsibly, hardened and aloof to it. They are so narrowly focused on total unrestricted freedom that they cannot see the forest for the tree, and our children will suffer greatly as a result. (It is interesting to note in John Harmer’s book, A War We Must Win, that the ACLU receives substantial funding from the pornography promoters and producers in Hollywood).

It’s all about money. I can’t believe that these people do not understand the problem, but money speaks  louder and they sell thelmselves and an entire generation for money. We really need to listen to the prophets and work hard to protect ourselves and our families, but we need to recognize that there are powerful forces, coming straight from hell, that work in the opposite direction, and that will not stop pursuing their goals. Really we are in the last days, and we need to be prepared and fight the war.

A few weeks ago I went to the Draper temple open house with my three kids (those who still live at home, since the oldest is now serving a mission). It was a very nice experience to go through those rooms with them. I have been in many Mormon temples already, and therefore, in spite of the small differences found in each temple, nothing was particularly new to me.

However, it was different for my kids, who had only been inside a temple to perform baptisms for the dead, and therefore they were only familiar with the area of the temple where those baptisms are done.

I noticed how curious they were, and how that visit helped them to feel, at least in part, the great spirit of a Mormon temple, where ordinances for the living and the dead are performed daily, after the temple is dedicated.

It is really a good opportunity for us to take our children, or our friends of other faiths, to see those temples, before they are dedicated, so that they too can feel that great spirit and become a little more familiar with this most important aspect of Mormonism.

The general public is invited to tour the new Draper Utah Temple during the open house, which will be held Mondays through Saturdays from January 15 to March 14. Reservations are required and are available free of charge.

Mormon LDS Leader, M Russell Ballard spoke about the limited practice of polygamy some 117 years ago in the Mormon Church.
He then speaks about Mormon families and how important the family unit is to Mormons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5cbxMoHHro

How important is the family unit? Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that families are the most important and foundational unit of our lives. In fact, as one modern-day apostle aptly declared, “No success can ever compensate for failure in the home.”

Perhaps you’ve wondered how you can improve the quality of life in your family. Perhaps you’ve wondered if the God-given roles of the family are still alive and well. With conflicting voices about the value of the traditional family, where can you turn for guidance about strengthening the bonds between parents and children or about the nature and purpose of the family, motherhood, fatherhood, parenting, and gender roles?

God has not left us directionless. He has answered your questions about the nature of families in ancient and modern scripture. He has made clear the eternal nature of gender and sexuality and instructed us on the complimentary roles of men and women.

Today, a living prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, and his twelve apostles–oracles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the world–have spelled out in a compelling Proclamation to the World the significance and eternal nature of the family.

There is always a lot of confusion about who are the Mormons. A few years ago I noticed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started putting more emphasis on the official name of the Church by asking more clearly that members and not members use the full name of the Church, instead than saying “Mormon Church.”

However, in this video, Mormon spokesman Michael Otterson clearly says that the media should not call those little poligamyst sects ”Mormons” because there is really almost nothing in common between those groups and the Church. I like the idea of defending the nickname “Mormons” since it is widely used and recognized, and there is nothing to be ashamed of.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not allow its members to practice poligamy since the end of the 19th century. Moreover, the way poligamy was practiced more than a century ago was very different from the way it is practiced today by these groups, and the social environment is completely different.  

Finally, many other aspects of the way these people live or believe are different from what is taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Watch the Video:

 

The Fall of Adam is one of those doctrines that really differentiate the Mormon Church from almost any other Christian Church. The main consequence is to see Adam’s Fall as a blessing and not only as a step back, in fact, it was a step forward that brought positive and negative consequences on the human race.

An important related issue, however, is that Mormons do not believe that Adam’s transgression was a breach of the law of chastity. According to Mormon doctrine, Adam and Eve were already married before partaking of fruit and therefore they could not sin in the sense most Christians believe. Adam’s transgression included partaking of a food that would make Adam and Eve mortals. They choose to do so to be able to have children.

These concepts may help to understand the following quote:

The Fall was not a disaster. It wasn’t a mistake or an accident. It was a deliberate part of the plan of salvation. We are God’s spirit ‘offspring,’ sent to earth ‘innocent’ of Adam’s transgression. Yet our Father’s plan subjects us to temptation and misery in this fallen world as the price to comprehend authentic joy. Without tasting the bitter, we actually cannot understand the sweet. We require mortality’s discipline and refinement as the ‘next step in [our] development’ toward becoming like our Father. But growth means growing pains. It also means learning from our mistakes in a continual process made possible by the Savior’s grace, which He extends both during and ‘after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23).”

Bruce C. Hafen, “The Atonement: All for All,” Ensign, May 2004, 97

A week or so ago I had the opportunity to watch the worldwide leadership training of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It focused on families, how to build up a righteous posterity.

Now the training is available on the internet for all those who may want to watch it for the first time or watch it again. Archives are available in text, audio, and video formats at:

LDS Library

or you can find the video of the RoundTable at:

GoogleVideos

As a parent of a few male teenagers and a Mormon, I was hoping that sending them on a mission would be the last big effort before they would finally become adults.

However, a few months ago someone had told me that children between the ages of 18 and 25 or even 30 may still need a lot of help and require a lot of work. I had hoped that it was not true… but I was doubting…

Now I am sure that my hopes were in vain. A new study by BYU professors seem to indicate that in fact, children between the ages of 18 and 25 are not yet really adults.

The findings strengthen the idea that a distinct life stage has emerged between adolescence and adulthood, consequently extending parents’ period of responsibility for their children. The study, which will be published in the new issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, offers a new look at parents’ expectations when children reach their 20s.

“The message parents are sending to their kids is “You may be 18 but that doesn’t magically make you an adult. There are things you first need to develop and that hasn’t happened yet,” said Larry Nelson, associate professor in the School of Family Life at BYU and lead author on the study. “It’s not that their kids refuse to grow up, it’s that they are still in the process of doing that.”

BYU study: Parents don’t view their college students as adults

In short, it look like I have many years in front of me before I can say… it is done!

The Family: A Proclamation to The World was issued by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 23, 1995.

This is a quote from that document:

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose”

What do we learn from this? That we have “heavenly parents”, not just a heavenly father. This makes sense. How can we have a father without a mother? But I know that this is hard doctrine for most of the Christian world; however, it is still true.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:

“Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them”.

Just to make things even harder this is another quote from Elder Melvin J. Ballard about eternal marriage and eternal increase:

“What do we mean by endless or eternal increase? We mean that through the righteousness and faithfulness of men and women who keep the commandments of God they will come forth [in the Resurrection] with celestial bodies,… and unto them, through their preparation, there will come children, who will be spirit children.”

And this is the most interesting part:

“The nature of the offspring is determined by the nature of the substance that flows in the veins of the being. When blood flows in the veins of the being, the offspring will be what blood produces, which is tangible flesh and bone; but when that which flows in the veins is spirit matter [as in resurrected beings], a substance which is more refined and pure and glorious than blood, the offspring of such beings will be spirit children.”

This is great doctrine. This is meat and not milk, but it is true and wonderful. I am glad that the Mormon Church teaches what really is and not the fables of the world.