This is different
Times have changed a little. Back in my day we were counseled as missionaries to stay out of the water, so no swimming at all. I remember being at the beach, the Welsh coast, and feeling somewhat guilty about wading up to our knees. Anyways the Salt Lake Tribune has a great column called Hello, My Name Is; and the recently featured Vaun Williams. Vaun is a 90 year old and wheelchair bound former flight control engineer and pilot. In his biography he shares this little gem:
While serving an LDS mission in Hawaii, he got permission from his church leaders to swim 12 miles from Maui to Lanai.
We went from 12 miles of open water swimming in shark infested waters to feeling guilty about wading in the Irish Sea. That is not a good thing.
The San Francisco Chronicle had a great little article about a Bishop’s Storehouse and the basics of the church welfare system. I highly recommend skimming the story and get to the comments section. The real education here is to get an uncensored coverage of what is really being said and thought about Proposition 8. The rudeness, ignorance, and misinformation knows no bounds, and that is just from the members of the church. The stuff from the nonmembers is much worse. Through the several 100 comments you can truly grasp what we as individual members are up against on BOTH sides of the argument.
Of course the big story of the week seems to be HBO’s series Big Love. Don’t get me wrong, the dynamic of 4 people in a fully committed, religion based, polygamous marriage is endlessly fascinating. As it focuses on relationships and what it takes to make the marriage work, I think the show has its place. Unfortunately they have now decided to focus on the religion aspect, including the Temple ceremony. That is too bad and smacks a little of desperation. For me the most perfect TV show with religion as a main character was The Vicar of Dibley. The program was funny without being sensationalist or disrespectful. At no time do you feel like being religious is a bad thing, or you are ignorant for having faith.
The New York Times does a summary of events, including HBO’s pre-apology. What is a pre-apology anyways? I know it’s wrong, but since we really don’t care we are going to do it anyways. And please remember the Church does not endorse any boycotting, so anything you hear towards that end is just some regular Joe Mo’s opinion, and not doctrinal truth. Since I discussed it before I won’t go beyond saying boycotts are pointless and ineffective.
Times have changed a little. Back in my day we were counseled as missionaries to stay out of the water, so no swimming at all. I remember being at the beach, the Welsh coast, and feeling somewhat guilty about wading up to our knees. Anyways the Salt Lake Tribune has a great column called Hello, My Name Is; and the recently featured Vaun Williams. Vaun is a 90 year old and wheelchair bound former flight control engineer and pilot. In his biography he shares this little gem:
While serving an LDS mission in Hawaii, he got permission from his church leaders to swim 12 miles from Maui to Lanai.
We went from 12 miles of open water swimming in shark infested waters to feeling guilty about wading in the Irish Sea. That is not a good thing.
The San Francisco Chronicle had a great little article about a Bishop’s Storehouse and the basics of the church welfare system. I highly recommend skimming the story and get to the comments section. The real education here is to get an uncensored coverage of what is really being said and thought about Proposition 8. The rudeness, ignorance, and misinformation knows no bounds, and that is just from the members of the church. The stuff from the nonmembers is much worse. Through the several 100 comments you can truly grasp what we as individual members are up against on BOTH sides of the argument.
Of course the big story of the week seems to be HBO’s series Big Love. Don’t get me wrong, the dynamic of 4 people in a fully committed, religion based, polygamous marriage is endlessly fascinating. As it focuses on relationships and what it takes to make the marriage work, I think the show has its place. Unfortunately they have now decided to focus on the religion aspect, including the Temple ceremony. That is too bad and smacks a little of desperation. For me the most perfect TV show with religion as a main character was The Vicar of Dibley. The program was funny without being sensationalist or disrespectful. At no time do you feel like being religious is a bad thing, or you are ignorant for having faith.
The New York Times does a summary of events, including HBO’s pre-apology. What is a pre-apology anyways? I know it’s wrong, but since we really don’t care we are going to do it anyways. And please remember the Church does not endorse any boycotting, so anything you hear towards that end is just some regular Joe Mo’s opinion, and not doctrinal truth. Since I discussed it before I won’t go beyond saying boycotts are pointless and ineffective.
3 comments:
Tom Hanks puts this brouhaha into perspective (and waxes prophetic) at the 3rd season premiere of Big Love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7JgK_mmEBk
"There's gonna be lies, and secrets, and discoveries, and problems. Television!"
To be fair, have never seen Big Love, but as I said I believe it to be a subject for good television. For me it would depend on how everything was presented on whether I thought it was appropriate. For example, the season finale of Curb You Enthusiasm when Larry and everyone in the restaurant swore their heads off. Normally I would shy away from that profanity, but in context of the season it was brilliant and appropriate. But everyone should remember, it is always about ratings. You may make a crap movie to make a point, but TV lives and dies with ratings. As Tom Hanks says, it is Television.
Thank you for posting this. I have spent days trying to convince my co-workers that the Church does not want us to speak out like that. And I love Big Love, and I am kind of sad that we don't have HBO anymore, but I don't think I would watch this episode anyway. It would make me uncomfortable.
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