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Youth

Come, Follow Me Week 22 – Joshua 1–8; 23–24

May 23, 2022 by Trevor Holyoak Leave a Comment

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/p/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/RiseUp-Trying-to-Serve-the-Lord-Without-Offending-the-Devil.mp3

Podcast: Download (30.4MB)

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Trying to Serve the Lord Without Offending the Devil

By Nick Galieti

(Originally published on February 11, 2015 as part of our “Rise Up” podcast for youth)

When it comes to living our lives, we have a lot of choices placed before us. We have our choice of schools to attend after high school, or even a choice of career path. Spiritually speaking, we have a choice to make. When viewing the world around him, even Joshua in the Old Testament dealt with this same question. In Joshua 24:14-15 he was speaking prior to his death and reflecting on the different choices that he made in his life when he recorded this often quoted passage: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 22 – Joshua 1–8; 23–24

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Bible, Book of Mormon, Chastity, Come Follow Me, Conversion, Homosexuality, Jesus Christ, Marriage, New Testament, Nick Galieti, Old Testament, Podcast, Priesthood, Prophets, Temples, Testimonies, Youth

The Church Of Jesus Christ and the BSA Bankruptcy Case

September 18, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

By Cassandra Hedelius

Crossposted from Public Square Magazine

A few days ago, many saw the arresting headlines that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay an enormous amount of money—a quarter of a billion dollars—to survivors of sexual abuse by Boy Scouts of America leaders. It’s a complicated legal situation, and an impossibly sad one, and I’ll do my best to make it clear what’s happening and why. (I’m a lawyer, but not a bankruptcy lawyer, and bankruptcy law is quite complicated, so I’m going to leave out a lot of legal nuances.)

I’m a parent of young children, and I can hardly fathom the horror I’d feel if one of them was abused. I can hardly fathom the pain, despair, and confusion abused children feel. I do know, from some personal experience with loved ones, how the effects of childhood abuse can persist all life long in depression, anxiety, difficulty forming loving relationships, problems in school and employment, and worse. At the end of the world, I expect the Lord will dispense mighty judgment against abusers and also merciful understanding to the many abusers who were themselves abused. [Read more…] about The Church Of Jesus Christ and the BSA Bankruptcy Case

Filed Under: News stories, Perspective, Youth

Come, Follow Me Week 37 – Doctrine and Covenants 98–101

September 6, 2021 by Trevor Holyoak

A Letter to my Seminary and Institute Students

by Louis Herrey

My dear young friends,

This week I had the chance to meet with several of you. As always, it is a joy to be around you. I deeply appreciate not only your attendance, but also your participation. You might not think your comments matter that much, but believe me, your words are a strength to me and to your classmates. I feel like I want to become a better person because of you.

I see the goodness in your faces; you have an honest desire to come closer to Jesus and grow in truth and light. All I want to say to that is: continue. Continue to walk in the light of your Savior, trusting Him with every step you take, showing gratitude each day for the grace that He gives you.

My heart is full, and there are many things I want to tell you. For starters, even if you might be facing more complex challenges in your live than I did in my youth, I still understand what you’re going through. I know that although you are filled with dreams and ambitions, it’s hard sometimes to know if you’re on the right path to fulfilling those. I know that although you have faith, sometimes you wonder if it’s strong enough – or even there at all. Some of you struggle with finding your identity, fighting off addictions, and suffering injustices caused by others. And on top of it all, you may ask, why is it such a struggle finding true love? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 37 – Doctrine and Covenants 98–101

Filed Under: Come Follow Me, Conversion, Doctrine and Covenants, Gospel Doctrine: D&C, Questions, Testimonies, Youth

Defending Agency

May 21, 2021 by Andrew I. Miller

Every church leader or parent has been confronted with the same basic argument—

“You can’t make me put my phone away! What ever happened to agency?”

“I can date before I’m 16 if I want to because I have agency!”

“You can’t tell me to wear a mask at church. I have my agency!”

“The Church’s stance on abortion is inconsistent with agency.”

“Why is the Church opposed to same sex marriage? Don’t we believe in agency?”

Partly because we place such a high doctrinal value on agency, Latter-day Saints are often poorly equipped to deal with these criticisms.

Before the world began, Lucifer “rebelled against [God], and sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3).  Satan and his followers lost the ensuing war and were cast out, but they continue to “rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up in anger against that which is good” (2 Nephi 28:20). Satan has never conceded his loss; He persists in trying to “destroy the agency of man.”

[Read more…] about Defending Agency

Filed Under: Doctrine, Perspective, Questions, Youth

FairMormon Conference Podcast #34 – Jeffrey Bradshaw, “Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo”

July 29, 2019 by Trevor Holyoak

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/p/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jeffrey-Bradshaw.mp3

Podcast: Download (49.2MB)

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This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. Please join us for the 2019 FairMormon Conference coming up August 7-9! You can attend in person or purchase the video streaming.

Jeffrey Bradshaw, Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo

Transcript available here.

Dr. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida. His professional writings have explored a wide range of topics in human and machine intelligence (www.jeffreymbradshaw.net). Jeff has been the recipient of several awards and patents and has been an adviser for initiatives in science, defense, space, industry, and academia worldwide. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Council for the Nissan Research Center—Silicon Valley and is a former co-editor of the Human-Centered Computing Department for IEEE Intelligent Systems. He was a member of the Defense Science Board 2015 Study on Autonomy, the Board on Global Science and Technology for the National Academies of Science, and the National Research Council Committee on Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience Research.

Jeff serves as a vice president for The Interpreter Foundation and is on the Advisory Board for the Academy for Temple Studies. His articles on temple studies and the ancient Near East have appeared in Studies in the Bible and Antiquity, Element: A Journal of Mormon Philosophy and Theology, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Meridian Magazine, and BYU Studies. Jeff has written detailed commentaries on the book of Moses and Genesis 1-11 and on temple themes in the scriptures. For LDS-related publications, see www.TempleThemes.net.

Jeff was a missionary in France and Belgium from 1975–1977, and his family has returned twice to live in France: once from 1993–1994 as a Fulbright Scholar and a second time from 2005–2006 as an unexpected “sabbatical” in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan. Jeff has served twice as a bishop and twice as a counselor in the stake presidency of the Pensacola Florida Stake. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of four children and twelve grandchildren. In June 2018, they finished two years of service in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa Mission.

Audio Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

Filed Under: FAIR Conference, FairMormon Conference, LDS Culture, Marriage, Missionary Work', Perspective, Podcast, Power of Testimony, Temples, Women, Youth

Happy Easter from the DR Congo (The Kinshasa DR Congo Temple: A Personal Perspective, Part 3)

April 15, 2019 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Rodrigue Kabuya Kabamba

Description of the Series

Over the next several weeks, we will trace the temple’s history from its announcement to the completion of the temple building. And from its completion as a sacred building to its dedication and use as a House of the Lord by the Latter-day Saints in this choice part of the world.

Those interested in a more details about the Church in the DR Congo and its new temple may consult or download an in-depth history that is posted at the Southeast Africa Area website:

  • English Version
  • French Version

Many of the video supplements in this series will complement and personalize the written history: early members will tell fascinating stories of the challenges and blessings of the coming of the Church to the country, some will talk about their roles in temple construction and operation, and others will describe how having a temple in Kinshasa will bless their lives.

This Episode

While working on a recent project, I asked Rodrigue Kabuya Kabamba, a member of the Church in Kinshasa, DR Congo, to help me on some graphic designs. This isn’t the first time he has bailed me and others out — his work has been an important part of several other Church projects during the last few years, including his handsome designs for several visual concepts — large and small — that were needed for the open house and dedication events of the new Kinshasa DR Congo Temple. Nearly all of this time-consuming work has been done cheerfully at no cost as part of Church assignments.

Recently, as he copied the graphics he created for me from his laptop to mine, he included some of his video projects, including a short video he had created for Africa Southeast Area Public Affairs in 2017. It contained a delightful montage of Congolese children describing what Easter meant to them. After seeing it, I asked if he would mind if I asked permission from the Area Public Affairs to add English subtitles, a new and include it as part of a blog post.

With the kind permission of the Africa Southeast Area Public Affairs team, I am posting Rodrigue’s touching video, along with another short extracted from an oral history where he explains his perspective on visual communication and shares his testimony.

Main Feature

Happy Easter from the DR Congo! (French with English subtitles)

Video Supplements

03A: Testimony of Visual Artist from the DR Congo (French with English subtitles)

Filed Under: Media, Youth Tagged With: Church in Africa, DR Congo, DR Congo Kinshasa Temple, Easter, Jesus Christ

FairMormon Questions: Having unsettling feelings before receiving my endowment

March 12, 2019 by Keller

FairMormon has a service where questions can be submitted and they are answered by volunteers. If you have a question, you can submit it at http://www.fairmormon.org/contact. We will occasionally publish answers here for questions that are commonly asked, or are on topics that are receiving a lot of attention. This particular question has three answers below.

QUESTION:

I’m not endowed, but I hear details about  special clothing and secretiveness that I am unsettled by. If something is so holy, then why does it feel wrong?

ANSWER FROM FAIRMORMON VOLUNTEER RENE KRYWULT:

I am Rene Krywult from Vienna, Austria, Europe, and I am one of those at FairMormon who answer questions. I am not a spokesperson for Fairmormon, and also not for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thus, I only speak for myself. What I say should not be misunderstood as being authoritative doctrine of the Church. My mother tongue is German, not English.

Dear Brother, I can certainly understand your unease. In Christianity, the way sacred ordinances and church services are done are called “liturgies.” So, sacrament meeting is a liturgy, baptism is a liturgy, anointing and blessing is a liturgy and so on. [Read more…] about FairMormon Questions: Having unsettling feelings before receiving my endowment

Filed Under: Temples, Youth

The Temple 1: “Turning the Hearts of the Children” (The Church in the DR Congo: A Personal Perspective, Part 8)

December 18, 2018 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Primary children from the Buima branch in the city of Matadi, DR Congo

In a presentation at the 2018 FairMormon Conference,[1]I shared stories of some of the faithful Saints in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa). In this new series of presentations, I would like to speak from a more personal perspective, reflecting on the meaning of that experience for Kathleen and me, and pondering some of the dynamics of numerical and spiritual growth of the Church in that country.

The series is organized into eleven parts:

  1. Prologue: What brought us to Africa?
  2. Snapshot of the Church in the DR Congo
  3. The missionaries
  4. What attracts people to the Church?
  5. Building from centers of strength 1 — Kisangani
  6. Building from centers of strength 2 — Wagenya
  7. Taking the Gospel to the “ends of the earth”
  8. The temple 1: “Turning the hearts of the children”
  9. The temple 2: “Holiness to the Lord”
  10. The temple 3: A light to the world
  11. “The labourers are few”

In this episode, we touch on the excitement that is running high in the DR Congo this week in view of the elections scheduled for December 23rd. Since its independence in 1960, the country has never known a peaceful transition of power through elections. Last week, an arsonist set fire to 8,000 of the 10,000 voting machines that had been stored in Kinshasa. We contrast this disaster to the positive influence of the local “Light the World” campaign of the Church that kicked off a few weeks ago.

The story will be told of the unfolding of an inspired project that was close to the heart of Sister Kriss Gates. With her husband Ed, she had been called as a temple construction missionary. Sister Gates wanted all Primary children and their families to not only know about the temple but also to feel that they were a personal part of it. At the heart of her plan was the Congo River, the vast artery that runs between the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[1]The video version of the entire FairMormon presentation is available on the FairMormon YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJl9FvLKmjw. The seven segments of this presentation, in an edited and somewhat expanded form, are available for reading at Meridian Magazine(www.ldsmag.com) and the website of The Interpreter Foundation(https://interpreterfoundation.org). For more articles and videos by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, see www.templethemes.org.

Filed Under: Temples, Youth Tagged With: Church in Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, DR Congo Kinshasa Temple, Ed Gates, Kriss Gates, Light the World

Jaxon Washburn – Interfaith Work, and Being called on a Mission

September 21, 2018 by NickGalieti

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/p/www.ldsmissioncast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LMC-Jaxon-Washburn.mp3

Podcast: Download (49.6MB)

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Jaxon Washburn is a remarkable young man that has done a great deal of outreach work as part of being on interfaith councils, and other organizations that support religious practice. His story is unusual in that, while Jaxon was raised for the first 12 years in what he describes as a traditional Latter-day Saint household, following his mother’s decision to leave the Church, he began to live a sort of double religious life studying and experiencing two different faith traditions on a regular basis.

Jaxon also shares how previous FairMormon Podcasts were instrumental in helping him to navigate his faith crisis and come to a testimony of the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Having faithful and scholarly answers to critical questions provided him with a path through his questions, and have answers where anti-mormon literature was suffocating and depressing.

This unique experience led Jaxon to study many of the worlds religions, and, like Joseph Smith, found himself with the designs of finding out which of all the sects was the one God wanted him to align himself. Through considerable study, including listening to some past podcasts by host Nick Galieti for the FairMormon organization, Jaxon felt that he had gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel, of its claims to prophetic leadership and the validity of the Book of Mormon as Scripture.

Arizona Interfaith Council - Jaxon Washburn
Some members of the Arizona Interfaith Council – including Jaxon Washburn

Jaxon came to the decision to place on hold his religious studies path in the halls of higher learning to serve a mission. In this episode he announces where he has been called, as well as some of the pilot program that he is involved with regarding language learning through the MTC. This episode features an powerful story of love, the importance of study in coming to a conversion, as well as the remarkable ways that life experience can guide us in the path that leads us back to our Heavenly Father.

Jaxon on the World Religion and Tolerance Club
Jaxon (and other students) in the World Religion and Tolerance Club

To learn more about the mission where Jaxon will be serving his mission – click here.

Filed Under: Apologetics, Conversion, Faith Crisis, Interfaith Dialogue, Nick Galieti, Podcast, Youth Tagged With: missionary work

Charity: “The Greatest of All” (Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo Part 2)

September 11, 2018 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

This series shares six stories about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each story is framed in the context of a Christlike attribute. This article with examples of charity is an adapted and expanded from part 2 of a presentation given at the FairMormon 2018 Conference.

The video version of the entire FairMormon presentation is available on the FairMormon YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJl9FvLKmjw

The article relating to this story can be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: Charity: “The Greatest of All” — Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo, Part 2

If you would like to watch the other presentations from the 2018 FairMormon Conference, you can still purchase video streaming.

Filed Under: Conversion, LDS History, Power of Testimony, Youth Tagged With: Bernard and Yaya Balibuno, Charity, DR Congo, Vincent Sakala

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