Latest Mormon News and Events 2/23/2008

Here is some neat news from the past few days.

Arizona Easter Pageant on the Mesa Temple Grounds continues.
The Pageant began in 1928 and is considered the largest outdoor Easter Pageant. Read more at the EVLiving website. And note: metal chairs are strictly first-come, first-served.


Original Book of Mormon sold at auction for $103,500. The auction was held on Oct 11, 2007.


I had no idea the New York Times posted wedding announcements for Latter-day Saints. Congratulations Rachel and David. Although they did get two things wrong:
first "an elder serving in the Manhattan New York Temple" wouldn't be performing a marriage that would be a sealer,
and second, David didn't go on his mission to work "with the Creole-speaking community at a Latter-day Saints temple in Fort Lauderdale, Fla." He served in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla mission.


Thoughts on DNA evidence
Jason in DNA and the Family Tree: Some genetic testing companies are promising more than they can deliver


Pearl Awards and Music about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Quint Randle of Joshua Creek talks about Mormon Pop: What is 'Mormon Music' Did you know the Pearl Awards added five new catagories as a hat tip to Mormon Music?


New Mormon blog about Music
A new blog by Greg Hansen about Mormon Music just started. Check it out: He calls it Positive Music and Arts.


The San Francisco Chronical posted this article: POLITICS WITH A DOSE OF GOD
DEVELOPMENT: Hard-line Utah immigration reformers get a dose of religion (and mellow a bit).
WHAT IT MEANS: Congress is doing nothing to address immigration issues, so the states are breaking out on their own, often with a nativist, some might say racist, approach. Utah lawmakers are debating proposals that will be among the harshest in the nation, even making it a crime to transport or shelter illegal immigrants. But when a leader from the Mormon church stepped in and urged the mostly Mormon members of the state Legislature to take a more "thoughtful" and "humane" approach, the rhetoric and the bill were toned down somewhat. A similar dynamic is playing out in Colorado, where religious leaders have asked lawmakers to debate immigration with respect for "each other and all of God's children."


The Chicago Tribune has an article by Ron Grossman titled Cuts Both Ways
With all the campaign chatter about religion in politics, it's useful to recall that sometimes the reverse is true: History is full of occasions in which politics have trespassed upon theology...
More recently, the Mormons made a theological turnaround inspired more by something like Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code than by any chapter from the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once declared that an angel had approved of polygamy. But in the 1880s, the U.S. government confiscated the church's property over the illegal practice of multiple marriages. Whereupon a new Mormon leader announced that he had had a divine vision too: Polygamy, the word came down, was not worth the cost.These bits of realpolitik show that religion is sometimes suspended between two worlds: It's a search for things unseen; it speaks of a higher existence. Yet its prophets, preachers and priests, even if questing for ultimate truth, are not immune to human nature and the vagaries of earthly motivation—ambition, jealousy, shortsightedness and the instinct for self-preservation... Think of that when next in the church, synagogue or mosque of your choice. Even if you prefer to watch football on Sunday, you might want to offer prayerful thanks to our founding fathers for drawing a constitutional line between political power and religious commitment.