Hello again, everyone! Though the big news for today was the temple updates which I provided in the last post, I wanted to pass along some additional Church news stories which have been reported within the last 12 hours. Let's dive right into those.
First and foremost (in indirect relation to the six-part series of articles the Church News published covering the ministry of our apostles), the Church News shared these quotes from each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about the prophetic calling and ministry of Church President Russell M. Nelson.
Second, although the Church maintains political neutrality in terms of candidates running for office, Church leaders continue to monitor issues facing the Saints around the world, and often contribute support, thoughts, and perspective about such issues. Because Utah is facing an issue on the ballot this November that would legalize the use of medical marijuana, the Church has joined a coalition which has among its' members leaders of other faiths, prominent politicians, and doctors.
The coalition, which (in my opinion) correctly observes that legalizing marijuana for medical use is not the problem, but the wording of the ballot initiative as it now stands is (as there is nothing which would prevent people from using it as a loophole to use the substance in a non-legal recreational way), has three Church leaders on it: Elder Craig C. Christensen (who serves as president of the Utah Area (which is, as I previously noted, a singular term, though the state has previously been three separate areas)), Elder Jack N. Gerard (who was sustained as a General Authority Seventy last April and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Church Public Affairs Department), and Sister Lisa L. Harkness (who was sustained First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency last April).
The three leaders recently participated on a radio show to more fully illuminate the reasons the Church has weighed in on this issue, and to explain why the initiative as it now stands would prove problematic to the citizens of Utah. They also reiterated the fact that, if the problems with the current wording of the initiative were resolved, the Church could (and probably would) get on board to support such a measure. You can read more about that here.
And finally, Elder Kevin J. Worthen, an area seventy here in the Utah Area who also serves currently as president of BYU-Provo, offered some thoughts in the first devotional held by the school this semester, in which he explained 3 ways each of us can more fully recognize that we are not spiritually tone-deaf, and may be receiving more revelation than we might realize and recognize at times.
I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such updates. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Additional Church News Reported
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
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