I apologize, I've been finishing up some school projects and have finally got them all wrapped up. So here is the latest news from the last little bit.
The Modesto Bee (a city just outside of Fresno, California) has an interesting article written comparing Mormon culture, the Salt Lake bar scene, and the natural beauty of Utah. The descriptions of Mormons at the beginning is not wonderful, but at least the author explains some of the beliefs.
Roger Cutler, the Attorney that engineered the sale of a portion of Salt Lake City Main Street to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is set to retire after a long and distinguished career. The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The guy deserves a pat on the back.
The Daily Herald has an interesting story about Edwina Booth, a 1930's movie star and a Utah native. She stayed in the London Mission Home on her way to Germany in 1935. Josephine Constance Woodruff Fehlburg, once widely famous worldwide as Edwina Booth, died May 18, 1991, in the Medallion Convalescent Hospital in Long Beach, California, at age 86.
The Deseret Morning News reports on the "Escape Polygamy" project in Utah.
The Northwest Arkansas' News Source (NWAnews.com) reports the first Mormon chapel site in Centerton, Arkansas is dedicated by "nonChristians", at least in their words, "there were no Christians there, at least in the traditional sense of the word." I couldn't help but chuckle at that because if you look in any dictionary Mormons fit the definition of Christian. I think what Tom Treweek meant to say is "there were no Christians there, at least in the traditional sense of the word [as defined, not by a dictionary, but by the Benton County Daily Record]." An additional funny piece is the claim that Wal-Mart hires excessive numbers of Mormon returned missionaries from Brigham Young University to work in Bentonville, Arkansas. Sometimes gossip is fun to write about.
I found a list published by the Associated Press that one might call, "the dirt" on religious behavior. It lists a bunch of negative things that religious people have done. Oregan City Follower's of Christ group may be complicit in the death of a 15 month old, Saudi's behead citizen for shooting a neighbor, Zion Lutheran Church offers free tuition to members and nonmembers, Mormon missionaries may have defaced a Catholic shrine in Colorado, oh, and a convicted ex-Connecticut governor spoke on Easter Sunday. My question is why does the Associated Press title the section Religion News in Brief? What a sorry bunch of reporting.
The Milford Daily News (that is Milford, Massachusetts, not Milford, Utah) has a great article about Family History - "Yesterday's [Family History Conference], believed to be the only free one of its kind, drew out genealogical researchers including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's granddaughter, Alexis." Now if only we can get Danielle Ameden to spell Mormon correctly: "Many of the people who flocked to workshops like 'Finding Descendants with Online Sources', 'Colonial Immigration', and 'Italian Genealogy: As East As Uno, Due, Tre' don't belong to the Morman church."
The Acorn serving Aguora Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Oak Park, and Westlake Village in California reports the Mormon Relief Society (one of the largest Womans organizations in the world) of those cities gathered blankets, clothing, and toys for the Lighthouse Women's and Children's Shelter in Oxnard, California.
An interesting article in the Times Online , a UK publication, about Katherine Heigl from Grey's Anatomy and 27 dresses. The article quite a ways down talks about how her parents converted to Mormonism when she was 7. When she was dating, she didn't end up sleeping with her fiance because of some of the things she believes. The article says, "Her parents converted to Mormonism when she was seven – more of that later – and although she is no longer a fully practising Mormon, “there is something of that still in me. I wanted to keep a bit sacred”. They moved house to the same area in the Hollywood Hills. He would come and stay with her while they were dating, but he had also been touring for a lot of that time, so until now they had no experience of even a joint washing cycle. She says she thought about just staying in that house and redecorating “to make it feel like ours, but I also felt it would be easier and more exciting to start afresh”... She was only seven, out shopping with her mother, when her 15-year-old brother, Jason, was involved in a fatal road accident. He was in the back of a pick-up truck. A girl who hadn’t had her licence for long was driving. It was raining. The car spun out of control. The accident happened 40ft away from their front door. Upon arrival at the hospital, Jason was braindead. His family donated his organs, and Heigl is still a passionate supporter of organ donation. At that time, Katherine’s mother was Lutheran and her father Catholic. The tragedy led to their conversion to Mormonism because a couple of Mormon families were a great comfort to them. “I give the Mormon church a lot of credit for helping them,” says Heigl." Best of luck to Heigl in her career.
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3 comments:
Very informative! Thank you for pointing these stories out! I like the part about the Actress that still wants to keep part of her experience in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Sacred. It is so nice to see that she holds no bitterness even though she does not consider herself a part of the Church anymore.
In reference to the Centerton Arkansas meeting house groundbreaking and in specific reference to the comment about Wal-Mart hiring lots of folks from BYI, BYU-I and some being returned missionaries.
It is true not gossip. As someone who is LDS and just moved here from Salt Lake City (no, I do not work for Wal-Mart) there is a large population here that works for Wal-Mart and happens to be LDS. I think they like the multilingual skills and the stereotypical honesty that the LDS folks seem to practice, although I have not spoken to any HR folks at Wal-Mart.
The comment came from Bishop Matt Isabel, not the Benton County Daily Record. He does work for Wal-Mart. Our whole bishopric works for Wal-Mart, many folks in the Ward and the surround Rogers Arkansas Stake work for Wal-Mart...I am guessing off the top of my head...about 1/3 work for Wal-Mart. I am sure the southerly neighboring Stake (Springdale Arkansas Stake) has a few as well, alhtough not as many as they are further away.
That is interesting. Thank you for the update tim. I had no idea Wal-Mart supplied so many jobs in the area.
Kind of funny that Centerville, UT fought Wal-Mart tooth and nail to keep them from building a box store there. Wal-Mart got it done anyway. If you can, keep us updated on your service activities there in Arkansas and we will add it to our news.
Have a great day.
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