We are all “Middle Way” Mormons, and none of us have completed the Covenant Path!

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We are all “Middle Way” Mormons, and none of us have completed the Covenant Path.

By RB Mac.

The Orthodox Mormons sure love this new term of “Middle Way Mormon” that is being used to identify someone that is not living every single rule or procedure or believes in every single doctrine. I have seen a few times recently where the orthodox Mormon puffs out his or her chest in declaring the perceived shortcoming of another member by identifying their shortcomings on the Covenant Path or bestowing on them the moniker of “Middle way Mormon.” In the words of the Texas Forefathers “that really gets my goat” …. It seems that nowadays the standards of the temple are being applied to the chapel.  Its almost like we are saying to everyone, “if you want to be welcomed at the church, you have to be progressing on the covenant path at a pace we like, or what’s the point of serving you or welcoming you as part of our community.”
So, let’s be clear about a few things.

Oozing Patriotism

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Oozing Patriotism

I am a true patriot. I always have been.

I am a red-blooded American! My patriotism doesn’t just tip-toe along as borderline corny; I am full-blown “I love America”, getting teary-eyed listening to patriotic music, standing at the position of attention during the Star-Spangled Banner, I-don’t-care-what-anyone-thinks patriotic. I don’t own t-shirts with eagles flying around carrying the American flag or anything; but if I did, I would totally rock them like every day!

My love for this country predates my time in the Marine Corps. I was raised from childhood to love and cherish the fact that I was born in such a great country. The freedoms I enjoy here--granted by the bloodshed of past military veterans and defended by current service members--are unparalleled throughout the world. I live not only in the greatest nation on Earth, but the greatest nation in Earth’s history.

I have skirted the bounds of blind devotion for just a moment to lay down for you the foundation upon which I have built my adoration for my country. Yet, I am not blindly naive to the point that I think my country is perfect. We struggle with poisonous politics, historical racism, institutionalized sexism, and other forms of bigotry being hurled from both sides of the aisle. And recently, we have seen what appears to be a move away from what I believe to be among the most important of the freedoms established by the Founding Fathers: religious freedom.

Just Be There (Happy Fathers Day!)

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Just Be There

James A. Robertson

Happy Father’s Day!

I have looked over what I am to say at least a dozen times; I do not believe there is a single Dad Joke in my talk. To all of the fathers out there: I am sorry… I have failed you. To everyone else in the congregation: I noticed the collective sigh of relief--you are welcome.

I am going to begin by telling you all something that most of the congregation may have trouble believing. As I began to prepare this talk, I was literally speechless--at a complete loss for words. The one person who seems to always have something to say… had NOTHING.

I sought inspiration through fasting, prayer, and temple worship. I sought inspiration by reading the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Of course, I sought inspiration by pondering the Articles of Faith--and could only come up with the first one: We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. That’s the only one that mentions fatherhood, right?

And then inspiration struck.

Serving a mission in the Church is about to change is a BIG way…. You might want to sit down.

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By RB Mac

I rarely play with predicting what is coming down the pipe from SLC. Except for general conference predictions, which are practically required in the Bloggernacle. But in this case, with the whispers in the crisp Salt Lake City air that has reached into Texas, and the fact that I have thought this was coming for a while now,  I am going to make a prediction:

Missionary calls are about to change, and the majority of Kids are not going to be serving proselyting missions, but service missions.

When I say service missions, I am talking about a whole new type of service mission.  I am talking digging water wells in Africa, Building schools in Asia and teaching in downtown Chicago.   Proselyting mission spaces will shrink for about 65k to about 20k, (I predict we will see no decrease in convert baptisms) I also predict you will not choose what kind of mission you go on.  Your stake president will write a recommendation as to what kind of service he feels you are best for, and the twelve will make the final decision. Terms of service will go from six months to a few years, but you will be able to select the maximum amount of time you can serve for.  Now the Big change, you will be able to go on more than one mission. For example, you could serve a six-month mission serving in Africa on college break, and another teaching for a year in Chicago after you finish college. And best of all I predict the cost of serving a mission will NOT go up.

That is my prediction, and I think we will see this announced before the end of the summer.

Why the change?  I think there are three reasons:

The Waiting Period to Get Married in The Temple is Over!

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by RB Mac

When I heard about the change in the temple sealing policy yesterday, I was a little frustrated.  Don’t get me wrong I was happy about it, it a long overdue change. If you haven’t heard: if you have a family that cant be in the temple for the wedding, you can get married outside the temple first, then get sealed without a waiting period.  In North America, there was a one-year waiting period couples would have the wait if they got marries civilly before they could be sealed.)

But I was a little afraid of telling my wife about it. No one from her family was able to be at our wedding in the Bountiful temple, and that was really hard on us.  We talked about doing it civilly, but to be 100% upfront and honest we did not because of the social pressure and stigma associated with anon temple wedding, that by having a civil ceremony we were somehow admitting that we were unworthy of a temple recommend.  And if we did that, it would be my half of the family that would have a hard time supporting us, rather then my wife’s half of the family.   So we had to choose, which half of the family got to be offended because of where we were going to get married?

If you don't follow us on twitter you should! Here is why

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by Mark G.

We have been gone for a while…  well we have actually been on twitter 😊

In the week leading up to Easter, MMM left the blog, and we hit twitter pretty hard. We enjoyed what we did, and I think it turned out really well.  In Holy week (the week before Easter) we posted the major events that happened that week on the day and time that they happened at.  There is actually a lot of data to give days and times to most of the events, and there were a few that we had to estimate.  But for me, it really bought Easter to life in a way that as a Mormon, I have never understood before. 

This was the Brainchild of RB Mac. He has been doing it at home for years. And being the old and grumpy guy that he is he snapped off how his church does not even understand or honor all the significance of Easter. I rolled my eyes at him, but after getting a flash on my phone at Wednesday at Midnight, for example, telling me that Judas just betrayed Christ, Or Thursday at three pm letting me know that Christ just died for me, really put the day of Easter into a perspective that I have never experienced. 

So thanks RB, you are old (he is actually only 43) and a bit grumpy but you hit the nail on the head most of the time, and you did for me this Easter, it was a special experience for me and a lot of our friends on Twitter. 

  

If you missed our Easter week, twitter posts go check them out.  ModerMormonMen@Twitter. 

2019 April General Conference Rumors.

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2019 General Conference rumors.

Ok here we go, the possible changes, rumors of changes and just plain old speculation on what’s coming up for conference this weekend. Enjoy Conference Weekend!

Women getting the priesthood.

We have no doubt this is in the works.  Changes in the temple are clear precursors to the change, just as changes in the temple were precursors to the changes in Blacks receiving the priesthood. Is it going to happen this conference…? I don’t think so but it’s coming for sure and I would not be surprised to see some changes in responsibilities of the Relief Society this weekend, such as seeing them make and extending their own callings. 

Changes in who and how you serve in a proselyting mission.

The rumors are that the selection process in regards to who can and maybe who is “asked” to serve in a proselyting mission.  With the changes in status and respect of those serving service missions. Look for an increase in breadth of service missions.  Rumors are that the church is going to shift to having fewer proselyting missionaries, and might even go back to the days where you are called to serve a mission before you even apply to serve one.  This would shift proselyting missions to by “call”, rather than by volunteering.  However, look for service missions being built up to handle those who are not called to proselyting missions.

Temple building is going to Slow down.

NOPE.  Nelson is on a big push on all fronts, he is not going to slow down on building temples especially since we now know the positive economic advantages to building temple.  Members that live within a few hours of a temple are much more likely to be full tithe payers. 

Youth programs to be announced. 

I think this is going to happen this weekend.  Look for YM and YW to achieve the same “Eagle” or “Duty to God/ YW Recognition” type award.  Also look for changes in the Faith in God award.  Also, a rumor that YM and YW will meet together more often for Sunday quorum and YW Classes. 

Formal Limits and Procedures for Church Discipline of LGBTQ members.

We know some formal guidelines are in the works for this.  I don’t think they will be released in conference but we might see them talk about it.  What to look for here are rules against trying members more than once for the same situation and official lines for what behavior constitutes church discipline.  The issue has been that action by members in one ward might warrant no discipline, but the same actions in another ward can get a member excommunicated. Don’t look for everything to be spelled out, but look for a new section in Handbook 1 with a few more guidelines. 

Got any good Conference gossip?  Put it in the comments!