Author: Kim Siever

Queer Mormon poet with radical political views. I have been married 27 years, and we have 6 children. Sunday school president. Served in the Utah Provo Mission.
27 things in the Mormon Church’s new articles I never learned growing up
Blacks, Book of Mormon, First Vision, Joseph Smith, Murder, Polygamy, Priesthood, Race, Scriptures

27 things in the Mormon Church’s new articles I never learned growing up

Over the past year or so, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been releasing articles on particular topics through their website.

I have personally found several of the articles encouraging because they cover things I never learned growing up: things I learned only as an adult and only through blogs, podcasts, and anti-Mormon websites.

I don’t know why I never learned these things. What I do know is that I never learned them in Primary, Sunday School, Aaronic Priesthood classes, Seminary, or Institute, or even on my mission. I never read them in a church magazine (although recently a handful of them have appeared in Ensign issues) or lesson manuals.

I present below several recent articles and direct quote from each showing facts and ideas I had to learn through non-official channels. Continue reading “27 things in the Mormon Church’s new articles I never learned growing up”

The Lord healed the people
Church, Worship

The Lord healed the people

In our Gospel Doctrine class today, we were discussing the story of Hezekiah. I won’t get into all the details of his story here, but there is one aspect I felt impressed to write about here.

When Hezekiah started his reign, he inherited a kingdom from his father and grandfather, who each had reigned in unrighteousness. They had disrespected the temple and let it get to a state disuse and misuse.

His first order of business was to gather the Levites together to sanctify the temple. Once the temple was back to working order, he invited all of Israel to come together to celebrate the Passover, something they hadn’t done for a long time.

This brings us to 2 Chr. 30:17–20: Continue reading “The Lord healed the people”

You’ll never view the strait and narrow path the same again
Book of Mormon

You’ll never view the strait and narrow path the same again

I gave the lesson in Family Home Evening tonight. I decided to use the opportunity to show our children how they had been looking at the strait and narrow path from the wrong perspective.

It’s not their fault. After all, they view it the same way as most everyone does and how it is portrayed in popular LDS art. A careful reading of the scriptures, however, shows us that the most popular conception of the strait and narrow path is an assumption we have made, which has no scriptural support.

To see the strait and narrow path from a new perspective, we must use a scripture chain.  Continue reading “You’ll never view the strait and narrow path the same again”