Heavenly Father

I was reading in Psalms the other night, and came across this in number 127, starting in verse 3:

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

I've read this one before, and even heard it quoted from the pulpit.  Usually, I've heard it in reference to earthly fatherhood.  It's all about a man looking back on his posterity and finding "joy and rejoicing".  It's a cool feeling.  I've been there.

That night, however, I got to thinking about it from God's perspective.  And suddenly, I thought about this also-famous verse in the Book of Moses:

"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

We are his children, and we are his heritage.  We are also his work and his glory.  It's a cool feeling.




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.

Proposition 8: The Fallout

There has been a lot of fuss on the 'net, and in the bloggosphere about the Church's efforts in the defeat of California's Proposition 8, a proposal to allow same-gender marriages.  The Church is really taking a lot of heat in the popular press and culture.  The documentary movie: "8: The Mormon Proposition" is the focal point of a lot of the buzz.  The most recent bit is the legal actions against the Church, including some relatively nominal fines for supposedly not reporting the money trail correctly.

A lot of people not in the Church seem to be wondering why so much effort and fuss and money was put into the defeat of the proposition.  Why does it hurt us if some others want to marry how they will?  Just because Mormons disagree with them, does that give them the right to tell people how to live their lives? 

Really, I think the Church Leaders have a lot in common with those promoting the agenda for gay marriage.  I think they're feeling the exact same thing.  They don't want someone else telling them how to live, either.  And that's what they're afraid of.

In a recent talk to a group of young LDS members, Elder Russell M Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve said,
"If civil law were altered to recognize so-called 'same-gender' marriage, you as believers in God and as keepers of His commandments would be regarded as exceptions to the rule," Elder Nelson said. "Your conscientious convictions would be regarded as discriminatory. For example, if you were a Christian schoolteacher, you could be charged with bigotry for upholding the Lord's law of chastity. In truth, dear brothers and sisters, if you lose marriage, you also lose freedom of religion."

A while ago, here in MoBoy, I wrote about my view of the "slippery slope".  It seems that I'm thinking in a similar vein to Elder Nelson.

What I'm afraid of at this point, is that Proposition 8 and all of the fallout may well be growing beyond the "Live and Let Live" point.  We'll just have to see.


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: A Dutch Oven Father's Day Feast, Making LDS Music: Affliction and Comfort,

Stake Dances, Revisited

Several years ago, I was on an LDS message board/forum, and someone posted a question asking about a mythical list of "approved songs" that BYU had supposedly compiled for church dances.  At the time, I mentioned that I was bummed that we, as a culture, couldn't produce our own music for our own dances.  Not necessarily to the exclusion of the music of the world, but mixed in with it.
I was shocked at the response I got.  It was not overwhelming in terms of numbers, but it was all negative.  The overall sense was that it was evil to put "church themes" to a danceable beat.  So, somehow, it was better to dredge through the muck that the world puts out to find a few innocuous tunes that are at least inoffensive rather than write our own positive songs.

I'm not saying we should necessarily set sacred themes to bouncy beats.  But we could write our own pop tunes about living the gospel in our lives.

Well, years later, we've got someone taking up this challenge.  Rachelle Call and Janine Laskey have written and recorded a great start.  Five tunes, available for listening at mystakedance.com. 

The two writers/producers are also featured in interview at yourldsradio.com, in the new music segment, hosted by Cherie Call.

I'm very excited by the project.  They're also looking for submissions from other artists as well, so if you make LDS music, please drop in and submit!





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: 2010 IDOS Convention, Making LDS Music