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The new head of my church body instituted a new emphasis for us around the concepts of “Witness, Mercy and Life Together.” As part of this approach, my congregation just went through a Bible Class at church learning about how the church lives and works together to proclaim the Gospel and to provide for our brothers and sisters in our congregations, communities and throughout the world.
Harold Bloom, America’s Greatest Living Literary Scholarâ¢, wrote an essay for the New York Times over the weekend titled “Will This Election Be the Mormon Breakthrough?” The title doesn’t seem terribly ominous, Bloom has famously written a book on American religion, and he’s known for having a fascination with Mormons. What could go wrong?
I never suffered too terribly from bullying but I had friends and family members who certainly had it worse. My brother was my hero for how he took on bullies who were several years older — and much bigger — than him. He had been assaulted for weeks by this gang of yahoos who made fun of my brother for how smart he was. They kept threatening to beat him up and, in fact, had shoved him around a bit. The school was of absolutely no help in the matter, which infuriated my public school teacher mother. My dad and a few other men gave my brother the news: he’d have to stand up to the bullies. And that is how my bro went from being being bullied to not having to worry about being bullied. He took on four dudes by himself and won. He earned the nickname Rocky. Oh, and he — not the bullies — got suspended.
On multiple occasions in recent days, I’ve spoken to young journalists about becoming a reporter. As I’ve reflected on my decision to change careers and enter journalism, it makes me smile. It says something about how awesome journalism is that I chose to do it at a significant cut in pay. In my mind, the fun of finding new topics to write about and craft a story more than makes up for the fact that I can’t afford anything.
I haven’t really followed much of the news from election day, but one of the more intriguing stories was the first recall election ever mounted against a state legislator in Arizona. What’s more is that it was successful. Here’s the Christian Science Monitor:
I’m not sure what to think of a front-page New York Times story Monday that tried to connect the deaths of three children with a self-published book by Tennessee preacher Michael Pearl and his wife, Debi.
This has certainly been an interesting year for quarterbacks in the National Football League. Trust me, I know that journalists always pay close attention to quarterbacks (I worked in Denver during most of the John Elway era), but it seems to me that news people have been dissecting these guys to an unusual degree, as of late.
The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story yesterday about an interesting seminar exploring gay Mormon issues. But the write-up of at least one speech had some rather serious problems with accuracy. Here are the first five paragraphs of the story:
