My name is common enough that I receive several emails a week from people intending to reach someone else with a similar name.  I make it a point to respond, point out that their email is incorrectly addressed, and try to be helpful.

Yesterday I was perhaps too helpful. A transcript prepared for your enjoyment follows. Names have been redacted to protect the innocent.
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Full disclosure (to prevent threats of lawsuits): I used to deliver the Deseret News as a child.

Rumors have been swirling for a while now about big changes at the Deseret News. If you are interested in a thorough discussion of the possibilities I suggest listening to last Monday’s episode of RadioWest. Possible changes include laying off a third to half of the staff, cutting the number of days that the print edition is published, moving into KSL’s building and sharing more operations with KSL, and making an effort to reach out to Mormons outside of the Wasatch Front.

Much of what is discussed there hasn’t happened yet, but some big announcements have happened this week. On Tuesday a new editorial advisory board was announced. Included are familiar LDS names such as Sheri Dew, Clayton Christensen, Jane Clayson, and Matthew Holland.

Thursday the “New Media Leadership Team” was introduced.

So what does this mean for the future of the paper and Mormon media?
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In the wake of Old Spice Man’s explosion on YouTube and Twitter last week the following video out of BYU has become popular as well. It is too well done to not share.

Today our ward did the relaunch of the Duty to God program for the Young Men.  I think the changes to the program itself merit some discussion and might post on the program itself in the future.  But something else struck me as we went through the materials for the new program.

The Church has produced a DVD to explain the new program.  It has two sections.  One for the boys and another for leadership, aimed at both the adult leaders and the boys that are in leadership roles.  I watched both sections today.  I am not sure that the videos did a great job of explaining the new program (it is a bit hard to explain) but they did do something very interesting.  They showed vignettes with young men taken part in the program.  This starts off very normally and then suddenly they switch contexts from a US ward to one in Latin America and the kids are speaking Spanish.  These kids are shown living in conditions that are pretty common in Latin America but would be shocking to many LDS kids in the USA.

The translation is by way of subtitles and there is no voice-over.  My impression was that about half of the dramatizations were done in Spanish, making for about a third of the total video.  The same pattern was repeated in both sections of the video.

It seemed that part of the point of including these segments was to show that the program is applicable regardless of the situation of the local unit.  It works well because for the most part it is self-directed.  But I thought this was an interesting way of implying that and an encouraging acknowledgment of the fact that we belong to a worldwide church.  I wonder if the same video is shown in Latin America.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune the Ogden temple is getting a major makeover.

So here are some questions for you Mormon Mentality readers:

How lonely will the Provo temple feel after this?

Nothing against the new temples that have been built recently, but do all the Utah temples really need to look the same?

Finally, if it is going to cost the same as it would to tear it down and build a new one, is there a reason why that isn’t happening? The article indicates that the original building was something of an experiment in terms of lower quality construction. My understanding is that we’ve given up on that experiment. Why not just build a completely new building?

Those who are sensitive on this issue might not want to read any further…

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I was shocked a little over two weeks ago to find that the 9/12 Project (Glenn Beck’s way of using the emotions of 9/11 to fight political battles that have nothing to do with it) was hijacking a religious holiday in order to “fast and pray for our country”.

Less than two weeks after this fast, something amazing, wonderful, and in fact miraculous has happened to our country.  The President of the United States of America was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Now the very people that prayed for a miracle are upset over this.  The moral of the story?  Perhaps it is to be careful what you pray for because the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Shamelessly filched from SoulPancake.com.

The debate over health care reform in our country has been nothing if not entertaining. Each side has created an exaggerated cast of demons which they nobly oppose. Depending on your political leanings you probably find the demons of one side or the other to be the more real threats. Unfortunately neither side has decided to seriously target the one demon that we can all agree is real, but choose to ignore.
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Yesterday we found my daughter’s bedroom floor covered in glittery threads. “What happened here?”
“Oh, my ponies asked me to cut their hair!” came the guileless response.
“If your ponies asked you to jump off a bridge, would you?” was the predictable parental retort.
“They jumped off a bridge last year, but I didn’t go with them.”
At least she is showing some judgment in which of her imaginary friends’ commands she obeys.

When traveling or on vacation my family rarely attends Church. Frankly, it is enough of a pain to get everyone ready, attend meetings, and wrestle the monkeys when we’re operating out of our home. While on vacation all of this becomes both harder and less worthwhile. There are no callings to fulfill, so we’re not of service to anyone. Participation in classes is fraught with peril, as you don’t want to appear to be the jerk Utah Mormon spreading the one true gospel. Not knowing anyone makes the entire experience a bit distant and alien.

It hasn’t always been this way. I used to relish attending in other places, seeing firsthand the universality of the gospel, and finding instant friends. Now though I find a certain joy and renewal in a break from the Sunday routine. Perhaps when my children are old enough for the ordinance of the sacrament to once again be more than an especially quiet portion of the hour long wrestling match I’ll feel differently but for now I rather enjoy our “religious holidays.”

After the morning session, Brigham Young University student Keith Kelly said he would take Hales’ message to heart.

“Do I really need a shotgun right now?” Kelly asked. “I could buy it and put it on a credit card, but if I wait, I can pay cash for it.”

What do you think? Should Kelly buy his shotgun now on credit or wait to pay cash? Remember that if he buys it now he could re-sell it for a profit in Mexico. So really, that gun is like money in the bank. Also, Obama is going to take away all of our shotguns, so I think he’d better get while the getting is good (and legal.)

When looking at depictions of the temple ceremony we should probably consider the context.  On Sunday Big Love aired scenes depicting ceremonies that faithful Latter-day Saints consider sacred and secret.  I am not aware of a previous depiction of the ceremonies of the temple that isn’t firmly in the genre of anti-Mormon film.  Given that fact, one could classify Big Love as anti-Mormon simply by creating a depiction that only anti-Mormon works have done in the past.
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I’ve seen this sign placed at parking lot exit locations for two of the three parking lots used by those attending the Draper Temple dedication.  Personally I find them to be as tasteless as the food at Guadalahonky’s.  Of course this is the establishment that for years put up “I get gas at Guad’s” billboards on I-15, so it isn’t as if they have a track record of tastefulness.

Today, without trying, I became a better person.
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We went out to dinner tonight. Before getting out of the car we gave the kids (the 5 and the 3 year old anyhow) the standard lecture about what to do and not to do in a public place.

Once we entering to my surprise (and delight) the place was completely empty. Had this been our first trip there I would have taken this as a bad sign and we’d have turned around and left. We’d been there before though (without the kids) and had no worries. So we went to our table and then I went in search of a highchair for our 12 month old.
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The Deseret News interviewed Elder L. Whitney Clayton regarding the passage of Proposition 8 in California.  In page 2 of the article there are a series of interesting tidbits, including what strikes me as an unfortunate statement on ecclesiastical retribution for opposition to the Church’s political position.  But there are other interesting statements as well:

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John Hamer recently published an excellent post at BCC on the plans for the Strangite temple that was never completed.  It even includes his rendering of what the temple might have looked like and a woodcut of the original plans.

One of the unique aspects of this temple was the outer wall.  It was incorporated into the design of the temple and the wall housed 12 buildings which were for the offices and meetings of various church organizations.  This got me thinking about our own temples and the literal barriers around them.

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I promised earlier to report on the inevitable demise of my Obama sign.  It happened Monday afternoon.  I heard noise in the yard and looked outside.  The sign was missing.  I wondered if it had just blown down so I opened the front door and walked outside.  A car stopped in the middle of the street suddenly sped away.  I found part of the sign in the street, but the stakes were nowhere to be found.  I’m thinking of making my own “That one ’08″ sign…

It seems that the key to the current financial crisis is that we’ve misplaced the invisible hand.  I certainly can’t see it.  My understanding is that because nobody wants to buy any more mortgage backed securities at the moment they are worthless.  But of course in another aren’t worthless because they represent loans, many of which are getting repaid and others that have gone into foreclosure.  Since these loans and properties are clearly worth something the securities must be worth something, but nobody wants to buy them at the moment.  Possibly because they are so complicated that they are difficult to price in a rapidly declining housing market.

Enter the US government.  Soon to be given $700 billion (that’s nearly $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country) to buy (and then sell and then buy some more) these securities that nobody wants.  Oddly the government could come out smelling like a rose if they manage to buy them for less than they are worth.  Or they could lose quite a bit of money if they price them poorly, though it seems unlikely that the whole $700 billion would evaporate.

In either case it seems that in a sense the next administration is being set up to fail given that we’ve just tied up an enormous amount of money for the foreseeable future.  If nothing else this will be interesting.