Feb

26

According to  Elder Dallin H. Oaks, colleges and universities have largely abandoned teaching religion and are actively pushing religious belief to the margins of society.

During his speech at Harvard Law School Elder Oaks remembered that most colleges’ and universities’ founding purpose was that of producing clergymen and to educate in the truths taught in their chapels. However, currently

“With but few exceptions, colleges and universities have become value-free places where attitudes toward religion are neutral at best. Some faculty and administrators are powerful contributors to the forces that are driving religion to the margins of American society. Students and other religious people who believe in the living reality of God and moral absolutes are being marginalized.”

In his talk, Elder Oaks also addressed basic Mormon beliefs such as the purpose of life and personal revelation.

See the full article at Deseret News.

Feb

21

After Torah Bright won the Gold medal in Vancouver The Australian titled its article

Clean-living  Mormon star Torah Bright is a sponsor’s dream.

But Why? According to the article,

As well as her good looks and obvious talent, Bright’s Mormon upbringing and clean-living ways — she does not drink alcohol and has no drug, tobacco or even caffeine habit — will make her highly sought-after, particularly in the wake of the scandal over Tiger Woods’s secret infidelities. Now more than ever, advertisers are looking for sponsorship cleanskins following the biggest sponsorship fall from grace in recent memory.

In speaking about the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) on her personal life, Bright has said, “I have strong beliefs and they never waver. (The gospel) keeps me grounded and gives me purpose to what I am doing. I think the way we believe as Latter-day Saints is amazing, especially in the world today.”

Bright is one of several Latter-day Saint athletes competing in the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Follow a couple of videos of Torah Bright.

Torah Bright on video.msn.com

Torah Bright on nbcolympics.com

Feb

18

The Mormon Church is creating new missions in several areas of the world.

Africa Southeast

My impression is that the Church is focusing its more traditional missionary efforts (deployment of missionaries in flesh and bones) in area of the world where people are more open and interested in the message of salvation.

Places like Europe or North America seem to be losing missions through combining of them, as it is happening in Italy, where the Italy Catania Mission will be absorbed by the Italy Rome Mission.

However, this does not mean necessarily a reduction in missionary work in Europe or North America, since those are also countries where the Internet is used by most people, and where the message of the restoration can move forward through electronic means, such as the Internet, saving the missionaries some of the effort of finding people interested in their message.

Since the number of Mormon missionaries is naturally declining, more and more people in the world will have to learn about the message of the restoration through their friends, in person or by electronic means, or they will hear from church members who they do not know.

This may seem like a problem, but ultimately, nobody in his sane mind and who understand the mandate to the Church of preaching the Gospel to each creature before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ – and who believe that the Second Coming is not 300 hundred years away, could honestly believe that we will ever have enough missionaries in flesh and bones to knock on the doors of 6 billions people.

Therefore this is one more confirmation (if we ever needed one at this point), that modern technology, including the Internet, and perhaps future inventions we still do not know about, are key to the progress of this work and to the fulfillment of the mandate of the Lord to his apostle to go and preach the gospel to all creatures.

For the full article about where the new missions will be located go to ldschurchnews.com