Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

Today, I got to take my family to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. That was a very special occasion, and very spiritual. I found it very interesting, however to notice what touched me the most.

There were probably five speakers before the dedicatory prayer, and even though they were excellent speakers, I honestly don't remember a thing any of them said. I do know that they all talked about the temple.

What got to me was the music. There was a small choir (they couldn't fit many people into the temple chapel), but they sang well, and with real enthusiasm as well as reverence. And, at the end, after the Hosanna Shout, when we sang "The Spirit of God", I choked up a couple of times, and couldn't go on singing. It's a powerful hymn, for a powerful setting.



Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: Dutch Oven Mushrooms Bellagio at my Birthday DOG, Riffz iz cool,

Socialism? Mormonism?

I'm getting bombarded by lots of emails, facebook postings, etc. decrying the evils of socialism. They are warning me of the downfall of this great nation and end of the constitution.

That may well be. I'm not fully convinced, but I'm not decided yet, either.

What worries me is some of the rhetoric being thrown around by a lot of the church members I'm hearing. They're all supported by this quote, or that wise and pithy saying.

I know I'm going to catch &@%$ for saying this, but I think that every Mormon should take a moment, open up their Book of Mormon, and their other scriptures, and read these verses:

Alma 30:17 The gospel of Self-Sufficiency, as taught by Korihor. That's right. The BAD guy.

Moses 7:18 In Zion, there are no poor.

And here's the really scary one: How about reading the entire book of 4th Nephi? I put particular emphasis on verses 3, and 25 (well, really 24-26).

Now, if you want to, you can all post angry comments, and tell me how that's not what those verses mean, and that's not what's happening in today's world, and you may even be right. Honestly, I think there are serious problems with socialism, capitalism, and communism. All I'm asking is that before you scream about welfare states, and before you vote to cut funding for the poor and the disabled and the elderly (they don't really need it anyway), read those verses. And then read them again.

Then you can come back and flame me.


Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: New Song! "The Third Time"

The Best of Mo' Boy: Music, Arts

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm pretty passionate about music, and LDS music (and other arts) in particular. I love to follow LDS popular culture and see what we can create. Sometimes it's great, other times, not so much. But I don't even mind. We need it all, and we all need to participate to the extent that we can.

• Some reminiscences and comments on my musical influences.
• Why we Mormons should sing our hymns.
• Should I sing to Mormons or sing to the world?
• And should artists sing for their audience or for themselves?
• My thoughts on Spencer W Kimball's Gospel Vision for the Arts.
• "Come. Come Ye Saints" is one of the greatest Mormon hymns of all time!
• "The Sun Shone Through the Windows" is one of my more haunting songs.

The Songs of Zion: Reviews of some of my favorites

• Matt Whitney
• Mormon Tabernacle Choir on MP3
• LDS Rapper TJ Fredette
• Sam Payne "Live"
• Clayton Pixton's "Hymns Anew"
• Doug Erekson "Backporch Believer"

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.


Mark's Other Blog Posts: Blogging Ideas, Dutch Oven Chile Verde, Mixing "The Third Time"

Family and Priesthood

So, ever since I wrote that song, I've been thinking a lot about martyrs. I finally got my copy of "The Zeezrom Syndrome", and I've started reading it. I've noticed that there are a lot of other Book of Mormon stories of martyrdom, like Abinadi.

I don't know what's driving me to be thinking about these things at this stage in my life.

Then, I pick up the Ensign this month, and there's a whole article on martyrs.

One thing in the article struck me as really interesting. It wasn't about martyrs or the Book of Mormon, though, but about the Priesthood and about family. The article was talking about how in most cases the martyrs of scripture aren't killed until after they've completed the tasks that God has in mind for them to do. In some cases, their lives are constantly threatened, but they are protected. Then when the task is done, and the Lord is ready to bring them home, he allows them to be killed.

That brings in a whole bunch of questions about the nature of freewill and things, but that's not what I wanted to go into today.

In any case, in this article it said:

"The Prophet’s father, Joseph Smith Sr., gave his son a blessing in September 1840, telling him, “‘You shall live to finish your work.’

“At this Joseph cried out, ‘Oh! Father, shall I?’

“‘Yes’ said his father, ‘you shall. You shall live to lay out all the plan of all the work that God requires at your hand.’” (Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother)

For me, it was one of those moments when I take it off on a tangent. Instead of thinking of the message at the moment, it occurred to me that it was interesting that Joseph Smith, Sr, would be giving his son a blessing. I mean, here is the founder of the church, and the one that restored the Melchezedek Priesthood to the earth, and he's receiving a blessing at the hand of his father. That shouldn't be interesting. It just occurred to me that it's very likely that Joseph, Jr, may well have been the one to give the priesthood to Joseph, Sr. Joseph, Jr, talked with God Himself, and angels. And yet, he also asked his earthly father for priesthood blessings and guidance.

And that's totally normal. I've done it myself many times. I've also given blessings of comfort and guidance to my own children.

It just struck me as interesting.

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.


Mark's Other Blog Posts: Getting Ready for the Birthday Dutch Oven Gathering

Mo' Boy on Mormon Church & Church Culture

The Mormon Church definitely has a culture all of its own. We are, as the scriptures declare, "a peculiar people", to be sure.

Since my blog here has been in the fringes of the bloggernacle a long time, I've recently been going through old posts and I thought it would be cool to share some of those again. One of the things I like to do here in my blog is to comment on our Mormon Church popular culture. Often that includes commenting on popular arts, like music and movies. I'll save those for another post, because they're sort of in a category of their own.

So, I got to thinking about the social aspects of church service, church attendance, and overall membership in the Mormon Church. Here are some of the gems I came up with.

• How the Church's food welfare program works from a personal perspective.
• A start of a series of posts on Service.
• A "Day Without a Gay" or a "Day without Mormons"?
• The top ten reasons why we don't do our genealogy!
• Thoughts on Famous Mormons.
• In which everyone should not get so bent out of shape - the Mo' Boy Doctrine.
• Who takes care of Daddy?

Feel free to let me know if you think I'm way off base on any of these. Sometimes I'm so far off base, I've been mistaken for an outfielder...



Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.


Mark's Other Blog Posts: Dutch Oven Beef Ribs, Humor: How High School Sports Prepare You for the Workplace,