Saturday, March 7, 2009

Mormons in the News

First up is a great video of Harvard Junior Rachel Esplin participating in a Day of Faith program, in which students of several faiths discuss their beliefs. This is making the rounds because of her incredible poise and presentation, even getting a mention in the Boston Herald.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Chad Hardy, the creator of the Men on a Mission calendar, met with BYU to discuss getting his degree - Denied! I guess Chad finished school in 2002 and left, but unfortunately he was still a few religion class credits short of a degree. Away from campus he also left the church and everything went quiet out there, until he came up with the concept of a Mormon missionary calendar. So he rushed to get the religion class done through Independent study. The calendar came out and he was consequently excommunicated. Then BYU got involved and denied him his degree for behaviour unbecoming a student or something close. So the question is can a private university deny a degree to a student they do not want to be associated with even though he has completed the coursework? Well I predict we will find out as this is probably heading to court. Example news article from The Houston ChronicleFull disclosure, I totally looked like this off of my mission.

On the more fun side, Reed Harris decided to propose to his girlfriend Kaitlin after Institute class at the local Wendy's - totally romantic I know. So he invites their friends and then gets everyone Frosty's (ummmm - frosty!!). Then he hides the ring in hers and they hold an eating contest. Bottom of the cup and no ring - that's right, she swallowed it and never noticed. Off to the ER for X-rays to verify she "had" the ring and the engagement was on, and so was the worldwide publicity. This site even has the phone cam video of the swallowing.

McKay Hatch, and can I say that is almost the perfect Mormon name; to be a winner his middle name needs to be Orson or something similar. Anyways he started a No Cussing club which got a lot bigger notice than it probably should have. Now his local city council has implemented a citywide no cussing week. Cute, but do not read the comments to any of the hundreds of stories out there, unless you want to learn some really creative profanity - Lord bless the anonymity of the internet. Please visit the website to become one of the 20,000 bloody members worldwide!

Last and least is the Illinois member and Bishop in the Nauvoo Stake who took it upon themselves to write a very charged email to the general area membership stating that a gay civil unions bill in the state congress would destroy life as we know it. Of course this got out and the kid hit the fan. Why do extremely political people believe we all feel the exact same way they do about the issues, and thus they feel it okay to share there views whenever they want? Just stop annoying us with your emails, start a blog and then everyone can ignore it and not think you a total tool.

To be fair to the men, Chad Hardy is also releasing his Hot Mormon Muffins calendar this year, featuring LDS mothers.

5 comments:

Annie Anderson said...

I wonder how people would have reacted to a Sister Returned Missionary calendar? I wonder if the creator of that would have been kicked out of church for that.
I guess I really don't see an issue for the men calendar. I think there are worse people in the church that are abusive to children and to others that maybe some should focus on that...I don't know. I think it is an extreme to let someone lose their church membership over that, espcially when there are members that are doing worse things than a calendar. I know they are selling the calendars on ebay...I should go and buy one...as a single gal who don't have any single mormon men to date, this calendar could be the only thing I could have to getting close to a returned missionary.... Mmmm -

Ann

Annie Anderson said...

I saw the boyfriend and girlfriend who swollowed the ring on Ellen. How funny!! Ellen did give them a free cruise for their honeymoon...maybe swollowing the ring is actually a payoff...a criuse, given by Ellen...I would be willing to swollow a ring to get that!
Ann

TStevens said...

The reason for his excommunication has not been released - the church never divulges such information. To guess is just speculation.

The free honeymoon would be worth swallowing the ring,

Annie Anderson said...

That is true...assumtion is never good. Maybe the calendar was the tip of the iceburg. Oh well... We probably will never know the facts..

WonderKitty said...

I want to be part of that Muffins calendar.