John_Pack_Lambert

I'm surprised to not see any more comments. I hope some of the new submissions of hymns not yet written turn out to be really good. I think that is where some of the best chances of new and exciting developments are.

I submitted a hymn. I am not sure it is even quite up to being a hymn. I have another idea that I wrote down as a teenager, than I think I will run through my mind a bit longer before submission. It appears that they want some of the judging on the hymns to be done with generally no knowledge of the composer. The works I submitted are just texts. They have tunes in my mind, but I know not how to write them down.

This leads me to think all current hymns need to be considered for revisions to see if any of the texts are not in harmony with Church teaching. This is why the hymn that used to be called "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" needs to go.

I could pull statements by Phelps in regards to the treatment of African-Americans that a modern person would find troubling, but this is true of most 19th-century people who we have large number of their statements recorded. Even Joseph Smith who ran on a plank to abolish slavery had not always been keen toward the cause of abolitionists, and since he would have compensated slave owners for the value of their slaves, instead of paid the slaves reparations for being slaves, his policy would be disliked by many moderns, including BYU's leading expert on the history of slavery in America, Matthew Mason. However whatever Phelps meant by "There is no end to race", the way the term race is used today in America makes the line troubling. Of course if it is just the line, we could change it to "grace", and have a non-problematic song. No longer in "Praise to the Man" do we say Joseph Smith's blood will "stain Illinois".

You may be right. On the other hand in some wards they only sing about 10-15 songs. I like "I Believe in Christ", although have to say I am very glad that "Mormon Doctrine" is out of print, but it was a bit much when two weeks in a row my ward sang it as the closing hymn. I also want to see more Easter Hymns. We have 3 and one is in a hard to do minor tempo. We also should sing them more than just one Sunday a year, but that is an issue that is not directly connected to the hymnal. "Ring Out, Wild Bells" also gets a strong vote from me to be ousted.

Much of the particular complaints about how hymns are sung and played comes from people currently ignoring what the hymnbook at present says. There may be some room for revisions and simplifications that would make hymns more singable, but Now Let Us Rejoice is supposed to be sung at a tempo of 100-120, although 100 seems a bit low for that hymn. Many times hymns are sung below tempo in wards. A new hymnbook on its own will not fix these problems.

I have to admit I want to for sure see "If You Could Hie To Kolob" go, its line "There is no end to race", at least on its face is just so wrong. I also am not sure of the doctrinal soundness of the hymn overall. Another group of hymns I want gone most exemplified by "Our Mountain Home So Dear". These are hymns to Utah. I want us to introduce a few hymns that have as their cultural roots being African-American spirituals, although I know how that will lead to cries of cultural appropriation.

Entering into marriage with someone of the same sex is grounds for excommunication. Seking in any way to get a second spouse is also grounds. So in almost all cases is sex outside of marriage by a married man. Violating the law of chasity by an unmarried member is not often grounds for excommunication, unless the person seems to be truly non-repentant, does so in a way that is deemed predatory, or is just rebellious about it. To be baptized one must 1-committ to regulary attend Church, and have attended Church a few times, the exact number varies with location 2-declare a belief that Joseph Smith restored the same Church that existed anciently, and a belief that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer, 3-comitte to live the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. How long these principals should have been abided by is not fixed. Generally though the Word of Wisdom should have been lived at least a week, and wise missionaries will at least want those who have dealt with addictive behavior to have began a process of earnestly trying to quit. The law of chastity is general thought to have been needed to have lived a month, but if you married someone you had been cohabitating with, there is no time generally imposed. If you reside with a non-related adult of the opposite sex, you generally either have to move out or have them move out before baptism. If there was never a sexual relationship with that individual, the mission president or his counselor may make an exception, but that is very rare, and it has to be done at that level. If there was every a sexaul relationship, at all, ever, than you must either end the coresidence, or marry, before baptism. The Church will also not baptize anyone who is in jail, or currently on probation or parole. There are no exceptions to this rule, although wise missionaries will teach and fellowship a person on probation or parole until they get off it. I have sadly known some missionaries more obsessed with mission baptism statistics than bringing all unto Christ. 4-An individual committs to make themself a witness of Christ. While the exact perameters of this are less than clear, one should consider what this means before baptism and not rush into baptism without a firm witness from God that it is the right action.

I served in a ward on my mission where one member had had her husband leave her to run off with a woman who served as an assistant clerk while he was ward clerk. This makes me think that doing such is a very bad idea. This is also why I think the Church should close a lot of the samll family history centers that were set up in the days of Temple Ready. While official policies say that there should always be 2 staff members present, at least one of those should be a baptized Church member, and that if only two staff are present they must either both be of the same sex or spouses/immediate family members, I have seen every one of those rules broken and always in small family history centers. I have also seen non-mmeber FHC staff take way too condescending approaches to members starting family history with only a little knowledge to feel they should be used as staff at all. Since the main purpose of family history centers is to advance temple work, we should at least have staff who understand the importance of temple work.

But the boys program cost way more money without providing clearly greater benefits. It also involved way more unjustified shaming of those who had not achieved a rank that inehrently was set up so only a few boys could achieve it, and clearly not set up to allow those of us with Aspergers Syndrome to ever have a chance to get it.

I think Jane Doe is onto something when she says that Boy Scouts programs have different values in different places. There may also be an issue with the latitude various scout organizations give to sponsoring organizations in running the program per their values. There is also an issue of how much scouting promotes values of nationalism. While in the Church we teach to be good citizens, some argue that scouting in some ways teaches valuing the nation you live in too much. I think the inherent difficulty and oddity of the LDS Church sponsoring an organization not controlled by the LDS Church is in and of itself reason enough for the Church to leave scouting. This is the only non-LDS controlled outside organization that the Church sponsors in this way. While the Church does support and work with outside organizations in some other contexts, those do not invovle the Church giving people callings to work in those organizations.

To me, especially his secretive approach makes it sound very much like he is dealing with an addiction. I think the best thing for him is to get him into the Church's 12 step program.

I am so glad I do not live in Euope where it is part of their values to let the government regulate everything.

Clearly you do not know everything, because the camp I mention was a fully functional summer boy scout camp at the time, yet there was a full contingent of girls right by our camp site. Scouting is a lot bigger than what you know of.

One can also find links from either the Engisn or the Be One Page to stories of many of the Black pioneers of the LDS Church, those who so often waited long times for the realization of the blessings of the gospel. People like Victor Nugent in his family in Jamaica who for about two years after the American expatriate members who first tuaght them the gospel moved away, kept meeting each Sunday even though they could not even administer the sacrament. Or Joseph W. B. Johnson in Ghana who for years built up the Church, named his son Brigham, and waited on the Lord. He heard of the LDS Church coming to Liberia, but on going there realized it was the RLDS Church, and they did not have the true gospel. Brother Johnson lived in Accra, and occasionally members, such as Merril J. Bateman, visited. He one time when Brother Bateman was visiting told him that he was going to Cape Coast to prepare a people for the Lord. Brother Joshson had actively built up the Church for over 10 years by the time he was baptized in 1979. However that was not the end of the dark times. In 1989 the government of Ghana banned the Church. There is another story from a woman who had been part of one of the congregations started by Johnson. Her husband took a few years after 1979 and the arrival of missionaries in Ghana to join, he deeply distrusted white people. He was ordained to the priesthood by 1982. However she did not see her husband bless the sacrament until 1989. During the dark days of the freeze members were authorized to hold sacrament meetings in their homes. Most missionaries in Ghana when the freeze began were reeased. Many of these were Ghanaians, but any missionary activbity on the part of the Church was illegal. There was an exception. William B. J. Johnson and his wife served as missionaries. They went and met in the homes of members to strrengthen them thorugh the time of darkness. In late 1990 the ban on the Church was lifted by the government of Ghana. In June of 1991 in one day two stakes were organized in Ghana. One was in the capital and largest city of Accra. The other in Cape Coast, where Borther Johnson had prepared a people. Brother Johnson was the stake patriarch. When a temple was dedicated in Ghana by President Hinckley with Elder (now President) Nelson also participating in the ceremony in 2002, a temple the groundbreaking ceremony for which had been done by President Nelson, Brother Johnson was among those set apart as temple workers.