January « 2009 « News for Mormons

When choosing where to play, Mormon recruits face unique issues

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

From Sports Illustrated:

Five-star linebacker Manti Te’o has only considered programs that will permit him to go on a two-year Mormon mission after his freshman season. (Chris Livingston/Icon SMI)

Manti Te’o refrained from mincing words each time he met a college coach. Te’o, one of the nation’s highest ranked linebacker prospects, told every coach who recruited him that, after his freshman season, he might leave the country for two years.

“I basically told them, ‘This is me,’” said Te’o, from Laie, Hawaii. “I’m LDS. I’m thinking of serving a mission, and I want that to be available to me. If that’s not in the cards for your university, I have to respect that, but I have to consider others.”

Te’o is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — more commonly referred to as the Mormon church. When male members of the church turn 19, they are encouraged to embark on a two-year mission to proselytize in parts of the world that may not have been exposed to the 189-year-old faith. Te’o would like to serve that mission, even if it means leaving college for two years. A pronouncement like Te’o’s might end most players’ recruitments, but Rivals.com ranks Te’o as the nation’s No. 12 overall prospect. Because Te’o has so much potential, almost every coach who recruited him consented to the mission.

The mission question is just one of a set of issues LDS players face when they look outside the small group of schools that are accustomed to signing Mormons. LDS players also must consider how their faith will mesh with the campus environment at either a secular school or one run by a different faith, and they must prepare for a backlash from some in the LDS community should they choose a school other than Brigham Young, the Provo, Utah, university run by the Mormon church. Te’o and Provo offensive lineman Xavier Su’a Filo (No. 63 by Rivals) each have faced these issues during the past few months, and each will weigh them carefully in the next few days as they decide which school they’ll sign with on Wednesday.

Te’o will sign either with a state university (UCLA), a secular private university (USC) or the nation’s most prominent Catholic university (Notre Dame). While starring at Punahou — President Barack Obama’s alma mater and SI’s No. 1 high school athletic program in 2008 — Te’o piqued dozens of schools’ interests. He had 29 scholarship offers before he stopped counting them. His sideline-to-sideline speed and penchant for gut-rattling hits brought recruiters in droves, and, somewhat to Te’o’s surprise, his request that he be allowed to go on a mission didn’t drive them all away.

Te’o worried especially about USC, which had a reputation for discouraging players from going on missions. He had good reason. DeAnn Longshore, whose son, Nate, just finished his career as a quarterback at Cal, said that when her son was being recruited for the class of 2004, USC coaches told Nate, an LDS member, that they would offer a scholarship only if he promised he wouldn’t leave for a mission. So, in a phone conversation about a year ago, Te’o asked Trojans coach Pete Carroll pointblank if his scholarship would be waiting for him when he returned from his mission. Te’o’s father, Brian, said Carroll explained how his opinion of mission trips has changed in recent years. Brian Te’o said Carroll answered all questions when he said, “Once a Trojan, always a Trojan.”

Su’a Filo, who narrowed his finalists last week to BYU, LSU, UCLA, USC and Utah, also met with less resistance than he anticipated when he brought up the mission. “The coaches have been really good at understanding,” he said. Two of Su’a Filo’s finalists, BYU and Utah, are accustomed to signing future missionaries. BYU encourages the mission trip for all its students, so the coaching staff is adept at juggling scholarships and the depth chart as players depart and return. Ditto for Utah, a state school only a few miles from LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City. Utes coach Kyle Whittingham is an LDS member and BYU alumnus so familiar with the Book of Mormon that he has a standby passage to fire up Utes fans (”And the Lord shall be red in his apparel”). “See,” Whittingham told Yahoo! Sports last month. “It was right there in the Doctrine and Covenants the whole time.” (cont.)

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Posted in BYU, Missionary, Sports | No Comments »

American Idol 8: Salt Lake City Auditions, Live Thoughts

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

From BuddyTV.com:

Salt Lake City, land of 3% beer, the Mormon religion, Jerry Sloan, David Archuleta and the Osmonds. American Idol brings its madness to Utah tonight in an episode that promises to be an interesting one. The word on the street is that Salt Lake City provided an ample amount of talent this season, which kind of makes sense - it’s the first time American Idol has come to the Great Salt Lake, and those Utahans are known for their singing. OK, maybe not, but at least we’ll get to see on of the Osmond clan perform tonight. That’s right, a real, live Osmond will be taking the audition stage. Are you as excited as I am? I own every Osmond record ever made, have been to over a dozen of their concerts and own black market DVDs of their syndicated talk show. As always, I’ll be here throughout the evening, watching and typing, perusing and thoughting, observing and reporting. Such is the life an American Idol expert.

Almost had some computer issues there, but my co-worker Kim came through. Kim will be getting liquored up on my dime in the near future. As inherently wary of Salt Lake City as I am, I am legitimately excited for tonight’s episode. Idol comes up and says the obvious right away - SLC is the home of Little David Archuleta. Hooray, Archie!

Contestants began congregating in the dark, at 5am, for the auditions. The sun rises, and it’s time to begin. “Shiny Happy People” by REM (and the silly chick from The B-52’s!) plays in the background. I guess people are really happy in Utah. Apparently, High School Musical was set in Utah.

David Osmond, who is the son of Allen Osmond, an original Osmond, is the first audition. He introduces us to his family - good god. There are so, so many of them. Do you really need that many kids? Geez. And, this is sad. Allen Osmond has had Multiple Sclerosis for 21 years. And, then David got MS in 2006. He was in a wheelchair six months ago, but now he’s better. He sings some Take 6. He’s got good control, kind of a blah voice, some small annoying tendencies, but he’s all right. His voice doesn’t have much strength or depth. Paula is insightful, says he should pick a song by a solo artist. He’s going to Hollywood, nonetheless. His wife (we have to assume they’re already married) is quite the looker.

I just found myself chuckling at a Denny’s commercial. Who roofied my Gatorade?

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Glenn Beck airing out his frustrations

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From The Houston Chronicle:

Glenn Beck, the former Houston radio disc jockey whose weekday TV and radio talk shows are moving to new outlets over the next two weeks, hasn’t lived in the state for almost two decades. He cringes anytime anyone brings up his stint on Houston drive-time radio in the late 1980s.

But Texas, and what he views as the traditional attitude of Texans, plays a significant role in the vision of apocalyptic gloom that he carries into his new show at 4 p.m. weekdays on Fox News.

Beck, who was a morning-drive host on KRBE (104.1 FM) from 1988 through 1990 before moving into national syndication, sees disaster and mayhem in the making because of what he views as the government’s incursions into personal freedoms and its recent moves to bolster the flagging economy.

“For the last four years, and for the last two years really seriously, I have seen trouble on the horizon,” he said. “And a lot of it stems from a trip I took to Texas two years ago that convinced me that if we don’t wake up, we’re going to lose our freedoms in this republic and everything we thought we were.”

Beck said he was in Dallas for less than a day during the eye-opening trip in question before he began picking up warning signs from practically everyone he met about the road ahead.

“People think Texans are arrogant and want to kick everyone’s butt, but Texans love America,” he said. “They don’t have a problem with other states, but they see Texas as a republic that happens to be better. It’s not ‘you suck,’ it’s ‘man, we’re great.’

“Texans are keepers of the republic flame on two fronts, Texas and the United States, and they instinctively know that our republic is in danger, that our government has real corruption, that they are stomping on our rights and destroying our monetary system in the name of saving it. It’s a dangerous game.”

While Beck espouses an affinity for what he views as the Texas mindset, he has unhappy memories of his stint in Houston at KRBE when it was known as Power 104. He worked morning drive at the station , doing the voiceover for a character he called “Clydie Clyde.”

“It was the worst time in my broadcasting career, and I wish people would stop bringing it up,” he said. “It’s the most embarrassing thing I ever did on radio. If I could make everybody forget about my time in Houston, it would be good.

“I was probably at my most arrogant. I thought I could do no wrong. It was tough to beat my arrogance and lack of intelligence and talent at the time. ‘I’m invincible. Look at me.’ It was garbage.”

Beck said he rebuilt his life through Alcoholics Anonymous, a remarriage and membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His career blossomed, too, when he launched a talk show in Tampa, Fla., in 2000. The show moved to national syndication in 2002, and he began his stint on Headline News in 2006.

Beck equates alcoholism with egomania and describes himself, as well as a recovering alcoholic, as a “recovering egomaniac,” which can be a tricky affliction for someone in such a personality-driven business as talk radio. Perhaps as an antidote for an out-of-control ego, he tends toward a gloomy take on the world and, he says, looks for people to tell him he’s wrong.

“I see my job as a war gamer,” he said. “Let’s play these stories out. Where does this end? How does this end? You have to have a decent respect for your ability to reason, but there’s a difference between saying I’m right and doing what I’m doing.

“It may not come off this way, but you’ve never met a host who wants to be wrong more than me. I pray, literally pray, each day, ‘Dear Lord, show me where I’m wrong.’” (cont.)

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Posted in Economics, Member News | 2 Comments »

19 Year-old Lodi (CA) Man Makes Miraculous Recovery

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From lodinews.com:

Adam Meyers, 19, left UC Davis Medical Center on Jan. 17 after being treated for a month at the hospital. Meyers was hit by a utility truck while riding his bicycle east on Kettleman Lane on Dec. 17 and sustained arm and brain injuries. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

To look at Adam Meyers, you wouldn’t think he’d just spent a month in a hospital after being hit by a truck while riding his bicycle.

Even though he has to see four therapists to help him make a full recovery from arm and brain injuries, he makes jokes like any other 19-year-old. The Lodi High School graduate is also a bit in awe of the community response to his accident.

“People I don’t even know are asking about me,” he said.

An optimist to the core, Meyers is now back at his Lodi home, where he is once again making plans to go on a Mormon mission. He might even be ready to go by this summer, he said Monday.

Meyers has no memory of the afternoon of Dec. 17, when he went out for a bicycle ride in preparation for a two-year mission during which a bicycle is the mode of transportation.

“I remember my little brother’s birthday party was the night before. That’s all I remember,” Meyers said. He doesn’t remember riding east on Kettleman Lane, past Highway 99. Witnesses told California Highway Patrol officers that a white utility truck hit Meyers. The truck never stopped, and officers haven’t found it.

Meyers had severe enough injuries that paramedics at the scene immediately asked for a helicopter to take him to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

He spent the next four weeks there, and at first the head injuries were severe enough that doctors didn’t want to operate on his broken arm.

But Meyers began to improve. Though his right eye looked like he’d been in a horrendous fight, due to broken orbital bones, that began to heal. A little more than a month later, it’s barely noticeable.

“He’s a walking miracle. If you saw him a month ago, and the shape he was in,” his father, Nolan Meyers, said before pulling out his cell phone to reveal the “before” pictures.

Doctors put a metal plate in Meyers’ left arm, which also began to heal. He has nerve damage so his fingers are limp and cannot yet move on their own. But just one week ago he couldn’t move his wrist and now he can, so he’s quite sure everything else will soon work, too.

Four therapists — occupational, physical, speech and neurological — come to his Lodi home to help get Meyers back to normal. The other night he was able to make macaroni and cheese, said his mother, Kris Meyers.

For his parents, life might finally be getting back to normal now that Meyers is home. They still haven’t really celebrated Christmas, since they were in the hospital during the holidays.

Both are very grateful for community support; Kris Meyers wants to send thank you notes to everyone who helped, but the list is incredibly long — and some of them are strangers whose names she doesn’t know.

“The response is just overwhelming,” she said. “(We) realize what this community is capable of doing.”

She was told that a fund-raiser at Rick’s Pizza, which often offers fund-raisers for local causes, was perhaps the best-attended ever on a weekday night. A family friend set up a trust fund at Umpqua Bank, and another replaced Meyers’ broken iPod.

As for her son, Kris Meyers credits the doctors among other factors, including his youth, healthy eating and regular exercise.

Meyers quietly and quickly interrupted his mother.

“And the prayers,” he said. “I think that’s a lot of what helped me.”

Along with his unshaken faith, Meyers remains a big brother. He’s actually grateful that the accident happened to him, rather than his two younger brothers.

“I’m glad I went through this, and not them,” he said.

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Posted in Member News, Missionary | No Comments »

American Idol: David Archuleta On Tour

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From Realitytvmagazine.com:

Season 7 American Idol runner-up, David Archuleta, is ready to launch his first solo tour next month and although the 18 year-old teen star has had lots of experience in the past few months singing on both American Idol and the American Idol tour, he admits that he is still nervous about going it alone.

“Hopefully, I’ll be ready, but I can’t help being nervous about it. It’s a really big step, and you wonder whether anyone will come out to see the shows, what songs to perform and all,” he said in an interview with The National Ledger.

David Archuleta can breathe easy, he has developed a huge fan base since placing second on American Idol and even has some crazy fans to prove he has made it to the big time. During the interview with The National Ledger, he told them of one such crazy fan run-in…literally! “I was running on an indoor track and this girls’ sports team spotted me, and they started running with me and screaming. About 20 girls,” he said adding that he tried to tune them out, “I had my headphones on.”

After his second-place finish to David Cook on season 7 of American Idol, David Archuleta released his first single, Crush, in August 2008. His self-titled debut album, released in November, debuted at the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 chart and as of January 2009 it had sold more than 580,000 copies in the United States.

If you want a chance to see David Archuleta before his concert appearances, you can watch him as he makes his television debut on February 7, as a guest on the hit Nickelodeon show iCarly. David Archuleta will play himself as he co-hosts the channel’s romance themed night with the star of the show, Miranda Cosgrove. David Archuleta says about playing the role, “That was fun. I don’t usually get to do work things with kids around my age, and that was great.”

There is no word whether David Archulata has any more television appearances in the works at present, but when David Archuleta was asked if he would try acting again in the future he responded, “This wasn’t really acting, but it did give me a little taste of how it would be. I was surprised by how much I liked it and how much fun I had.” (cont.)

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Tom Hanks Apologizes for Calling Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 ‘Un-American’

Monday, January 26th, 2009

From FOXNEWS.com:

Tom Hanks says he’s sorry he told FOXNews.com that Mormons who supported California’s constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage were “un-American.”

“Last week, I labeled members of the Mormon church who supported California’s Proposition 8 as ‘un-American,’” the actor said in a statement through his publicist. “I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination.”

“But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American,” the statement continues. “To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are ‘un-American’ creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use ‘un- American’ lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have.”

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Food Storage Customers Explain the Need for Emergency Food Storage

Monday, January 26th, 2009

From Aim 168 Real Estate:

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, - Sales of food storage supplies have never been higher at Blue Chip Group, Inc. and customers at the outlet store were happy to explain why they are stocking up. The Red Cross, FEMA and other federal and state agencies have been encouraging individuals and families to prepare for disasters, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies, and it appears that many are taking that advice seriously. Crowds of people were seen throughout the day at the outlet store at Blue Chip Group, Inc., 432 West 3440 South in Salt Lake. Business is so brisk that the company will soon begin construction to expand the current warehouse.

Get started today. Buy what you are going to eat in your normal diet,” advised Eleonore McLain of Eagle Mountain. She said she just discovered the outlet store and the Morning Moos milk alternative that has made the company famous for over 30 years.

She said she is a Mormon and has been following the advice of church leaders to store a year’s supply of food and other necessities. She said storing food for emergencies is good advice for people of all faiths.

Diane Newren said she learned about the outlet store at Blue Chip Group from a news story on the Internet, and was returning after making her first purchases a week earlier. She drove from her home in Bountiful to load up on supplies for her storage room, and to get more of the Morning Moos.

“We love the Morning Moos. It is much better than store milk or other powdered milk,” said Newren. She said she likes the low prices she gets when she buys in bulk, and the convenience of having the food she needs stored in her home without having to run to the store to get something.

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Australia's Torah Bright wins women's superpipe

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

From The Los Angeles Times:

If the X Games’ women’s superpipe competition was a barometer for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, put Australia’s Torah Bright atop the podium.

And place a large order of painkillers for a powerful U.S. contingent, which has been favored to claim at least two medals at the Vancouver Games but took some lumps Friday.

Bright was brilliant and smooth in posting a winning run that included a backside 360, a switch-backside 720, a 540 McTwist, or back-flip, and a Cab 720. Her winning score: 91.33.

Among the top three U.S. riders, only Hannah Teter, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist, didn’t have a run end with a wicked spill. She ended up in third place with an 83.00. Hometown favorite Gretchen Bleiler, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, endured a wipeout for the ages after clipping the lip while attempting a 900.

The defending event champion somersaulted backward down the wall of the 22-foot pipe, slammed her head into its icy bottom and lay motionless for several seconds.

She rose and smiled amid cheers beneath the bright lights of Buttermilk Mountain but could not make a third and final run. Her crash was shown repeatedly on the big screen, unnerving some of the greener competitors.

“We’ve all taken our share of beatings this week,” said Bright, who revealed she had suffered a shoulder injury during practice earlier in the day. “But that’s just because everybody wants to ride their best and to push the sport.”

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Early LDS Church apostle’s journal bought by Provo collector

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

From The Provo Herald:

William E. McLellin was one of the first men called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later became one of the faith’s most strident detractors. Provo resident Brent Ashworth, 60, acquired a notebook last summer that could soften the image of a hardened apostate, which image has followed McLellin through the pages of history.

Ashworth, an attorney and collector of rare LDS texts and other historically significant items, announced his acquisition of the notebook, which bears McLellin’s signature and the date Jan. 4, 1871 on its title page, at a media event in Salt Lake City on Thursday. At a meeting with the Daily Herald in Provo, he said the notebook is a long-lost McLellin text that was photographed in 1929, but hasn’t been seen since — until now.Ashworth said that the notebook, which he has carefully studied since purchasing it from a family in the eastern United States, may originally have been intended by McLellin as the manuscript for a book about his experiences in the LDS Church. And not everything that McLellin has to say about his former religion is negative.

Despite McLellin’s reputation, Ashworth said, “he had one of the most powerful witnesses of the Book of Mormon you could ever read.”

Acquiring the notebook is not the first time that McLellin and Ashworth have been linked. Ashworth spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early 1980s purchasing supposed rare LDS documents from forger Mark Hofmann. A prominent factor in Hofmann’s downfall was his claim of possessing a collection of texts by McLellin that would reveal damaging secrets about early LDS history.

Spurred by pressure to deliver on his McLellin claims, Hofmann used homemade bombs to kill Steven F. Christensen and Kathleen B. Sheets in an elaborate attempt to hide his crimes. But his schemes literally blew up in his face when he accidentally set off a third bomb — one that many people associated with the case believe was intended for Ashworth.

“I haven’t been able to rule myself out,” said Ashworth, who remembers that he had planned, following a long-established pattern, to meet Hofmann at the now-vanished Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake City on the day that Hofmann inadvertently bombed himself. He skipped the rendezvous at the urging of his wife, who’d been spooked by the just-reported deaths, not yet attributed to Hofmann at the time, of Sheets and Christensen.

“I listened to her and we stayed home and ate pizza,” Ashworth said.

Author and former Deseret News reporter Linda Sillitoe, who wrote the book “Salamander” with Allen Roberts about the Hofmann case, said that nobody knows for sure whether Ashworth was a target. The explosion happened in the right place and at the right time for Ashworth to have been involved, however, she said, and “obviously [Hofmann] didn’t intend to blow himself up.”

Sillitoe also said she thinks there’s a measure of “poetic justice” in Ashworth’s having discovered a verifiable McLellin document.

LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said that the church has no plans regarding Ashworth’s manuscript. “In recent years, a number of historical documents have been found that have added to our understanding of Joseph Smith, the time in which he lived, and the challenges he faced,” Trotter said. “The church has welcomed and encouraged this process. While the church is not pursuing the acquisition of the McLellin manuscript, we are pleased the long-lost document has been found.”

The notebook isn’t the first actual McLellin document to come to light. The LDS Church discovered a collection of McLellin’s journals covering the years 1831-1836 in its archives not long after Hofmann’s arrest and subsequent conviction and imprisonment. The McLellin journals, edited by noted historian Jan Shipps (who is not LDS) and BYU law professor John W. Welch, were published in 1994.

In 2007, University of Utah librarians Stan Larson and Samuel J. Passey published a collection of McLellin’s writings spanning the final decades of his life. “The William E. McLellin Papers: 1854-1880″ does not include the contents of the notebook, although it was known to exist at the time from photos included in a document of The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ) reportedly written by Paul M. Hanson.

As Ashworth put it, “Stan Larson said that it wasn’t extant. That was just two years ago. Well, it’s extant now.”

Ashworth said the notebook is inscribed by Hanson, an RLDS apostle, and was handed down to his descendants. Following the death of its most recent owner, the family wanted to sell it. “It kind of walked in the door” at his Provo store, B. Ashworth’s, Ashworth said. A friend who’d helped him locate rare items in the past tipped him off, and Ashworth paid what he said was a substantial sum to acquire it.

Ashworth, a former LDS bishop who recently completed a church service mission, said the handwriting in the notebook matches other samples of McLellin’s writing. And the family who sold the notebook can trace it back to Hanson. The real smoking gun, however, Ashworth said, is the two pages photographed in 1929. Those pages are in the notebook.

For Ashworth, the most fascinating section of the notebook describes a conversation McLellin had with fellow Latter-day Saints Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer at a time that all three were endangered by mobbers in Missouri. McLellin writes that he asked the other two men about their deeply personal witness of the Book of Mormon, famously included in its introductory material. Both men told him their words were true.

McLellin then writes that, “I said, ‘Boys, I believe you. I can see no object for you to tell me falsehood now when our lives are in danger.’ ”

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Posted in Church History, LDS Church | No Comments »

Hanks’ hipocrisy

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

From The Indiana Daily Student:

Forrest Gump? Classic.

Woody? A childhood icon for many of us.

Chuck Noland? Almost as great of a character as Wilson was.

Tom Hanks? An idiot.

Last Wednesday, Mr. Hanks made a bold yet ridiculous proclamation proving this correct. He declared those members of the Mormon Church who support California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage to be “un-American.”

Shut up, Forrest.

This statement was so inherently hypocritical I had to laugh. A representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints responded to it by saying, “Expressing an opinion in a free and democratic society is as American as it gets.”

I couldn’t say it better myself.

As we witness the transition of power to President Obama, our country must not forget the ideals for which we stand. Perhaps the most important of these ideals are our freedoms of speech and beliefs. An American should be able to think and express anything he wants without fearing persecution. However, as Mr. Hanks has displayed, any beliefs not coinciding with liberal philosophies have somehow become taboo.

I’ve been called close-minded numerous times, yet never truly understood why. I try to approach every issue from numerous angles, as I’m sure many other young Americans do. But regardless of my understanding of an issue, a conservative, even moderate, stance automatically earns me this insult.

Does no one see the hypocrisy here?

When an opinion must align with a liberal belief in order to be deemed open-minded, the freedoms that we as Americans are blessed enough to own are being ridiculed.

Having an open mind has nothing to do with supporting controversial social issues such as gay marriage. The majority of Americans who do not support this idea don’t simply plug their ears when they hear about it. They don’t shut their eyes every time they’re presented with an image of homosexuality.

Though of course there are exceptions, most of us make our decision on this and other such issues based on a number of factors.

Yet those who disagree with us somehow feel justified in assuming our way of thinking is nowhere near as sophisticated as their own. Because we reject an idea, we must therefore be incapable of stretching our minds.

The millions of Americans who don’t support gay marriage must have some sort of thought-process malfunction that prevents them from supporting the socially acceptable answer.

What could be more close-minded than this approach?

Being an American doesn’t mean you have to swallow a personal belief in order to refrain from offending someone of an alternate lifestyle. Those Mormons who financially supported Proposition 8 did far more in exercising their American rights than many citizens will ever do.

Mr. Hanks displayed his own narrow-mindedness by labeling a viewpoint he did not personally agree with as un-American. In doing so, he insulted the very freedoms the Constitution defends.

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Posted in Entertainment, LDS Church, Politics | No Comments »

Jeff Kent walks away after 17 seasons

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

From MLB.com:

LOS ANGELES — Jeff Kent, the premier slugging second baseman of his generation and arguably of all-time, will announce his retirement at a Dodger Stadium news conference Thursday.

The 40-year-old Kent will retire with a resume worthy of Hall of Fame consideration. The all-time leading home-run hitter at his position, he played the last four seasons of a 17-year MLB career with the Dodgers, hitting a combined .291 with 75 home runs.

He will retire with a .290 career batting average, 377 home runs, 1,518 RBIs and a .500 slugging percentage. His 351 home runs hit as a second baseman are 74 more than the next closest second baseman, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg.

The 2000 National League MVP, Kent was a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger. He drove in more than 100 runs eight times (a record at the position), scored at least 100 runs three times and had at least 20 home runs 12 times. In 2008, he passed Ralph Kiner, Gil Hodges and Carlton Fisk on the all-time home-run list and passed Billy Williams, Dave Parker and Mickey Mantle on the all-time RBIs list. He’s tied with Eddie Murray for 20th on the all-time doubles list with 560.

Last year, Kent became the first 40-year-old in Dodgers history to go into a season as a starting position player. After batting .253 during the first half of the season with little protection in the lineup, he enjoyed a resurgence when Manny Ramirez was added to the lineup. Kent caught fire to hit .353 in August, only to injure his knee Aug. 29 and undergo surgery Sept. 2.

While the Dodgers were overtaking the Diamondbacks to win the NL West, Kent rushed back in time to make the postseason roster and let it be known he felt ready to play. But he was relegated to a bench role during both playoff series and went 0-for-9 with four strikeouts. He finished the regular season hitting .280 with 12 homers and 59 RBIs in 121 games.

Following the 2008 season, Kent was eligible for free agency and Dodgers management, anticipating his retirement, moved Blake DeWitt to second base after re-signing Casey Blake. DeWitt had replaced Kent at the position after the surgery.

Kent’s best season with the Dodgers was 2005, when he hit 29 homers with 105 RBIs and 100 runs scored and made his only All-Star appearance for the club, the first Dodger to start an All-Star game at second base since Steve Sax in 1983.

The son of a policeman, Kent grew up in Southern California, was a walk-on shortstop at the University of California at Berkeley and began his professional career after being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1989.

He also played for the Mets, Indians, Giants and Astros, enjoying his greatest success when matched with antagonist Barry Bonds in the Giants’ lineup. With San Francisco in 2002, Kent made his only World Series appearance, hitting three home runs while the Giants lost to the Angels in seven games.

Early in his career, Kent developed a reputation for his work ethic and no-nonsense commitment to winning, although he received at least as much media attention for his intolerance of teammates who didn’t share his intense approach. He had run-ins with Bonds, as well as Dodgers teammate Milton Bradley.

In 2007, he aired his frustration to reporters after the Dodgers had fallen out of the division race and the resulting dust-up fueled stories about a clubhouse divide between old and young players that hastened the departure of manager Grady Little.

In recent years, Kent has been critical of players who used performance-enchancing drugs, while advocating more widespread testing to ensure a level playing field.

Kent, who makes his offseason home in Austin, Tex., is married with four children, the oldest age 12 and the youngest 5. He has increasingly expressed interest in spending more time at home with his family. He also runs Kent Powersports, owner of Yamaha of San Antonio.

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HATCH HEADED TO HARVARD

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

From Realfootball365.com:

Call it a no-brainer.

It certainly didn’t take a Harvard education to determine that former LSU quarterback Andrew Hatch made a good move in announcing his decision to return to Harvard. Not only does a degree from Harvard usually carry more weight than one from LSU, but it was obvious that the NFL wasn’t in Hatch’s future plans.

In fact, Hatch’s playing days at LSU likely were numbered. He opened 2008 as the starting quarterback, but a concussion preceded a season-ending broken leg. That thrust redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee into a starting role, but an ankle injury forced him out as well.

True freshman Jordan Jefferson started the last two games and led LSU to a 38-3 upset of Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Jefferson is the odds-on favorite to become LSU’s third consecutive new starting quarterback to begin the season and the fourth in five years.

Hatch appeared in six games last season and completed 26 of 47 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns.

Hatch played on Harvard’s junior varsity as a freshman before going on a Mormon mission to Chile and then eventually transferring to LSU.

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Former BYU Cougar Vai Sikahema Sets the Record Straight

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

From KFYI.com (Phoenix):

Sikahema, joined JD Hayworth today to talk about the NFC Championship game, and to dispute the recent claim on who he is going to cheer for during the game!

Listen to the entire interview

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Mormon witness quietly grows in Jamaica

Monday, January 19th, 2009

From The Gleaner (Jamaica):

Patrick Medley (left), first counsellor in the Mission Presidency and overseer for all financial matters concerning the Mormon Church in Cayman, Jamaica and The Bahamas, and Kevin Brown, executive secretary with responsibility for all Mormon educational services in Jamaica and The Bahamas. - Photos by Colin Hamilton/freelance photographer

Since it established itself here in Jamaica during the 1980s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has seen its witness expand across the island. currently, it has 5,000 members and 21 congregations in the nation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is also known as the Mormon Church, has congregations in every parish in Jamaica, and there is the prospect that two more congregations will be established by 2010 - one in Port Antonio and the other in Old Harbour.

This year marks a milestone in Mormon witness in Jamaica as the church will play host to top ranking officials of the global church who will be coming to the island later this month for a satellite broadcast from Jamaica, which will be beamed throughout the Caribbean and South and Central America. The two officials are Henry B. Eyring, whose title is first counsellor of the first presidency; and David A. Bednar, who the church describes as a prophet, seer, revelator and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles - the second-highest presiding body in the world council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormonism is an international religious movement with 13 million members.

The conference is being held January 24-25 at the Spanish Town branch of the church which is located at 3 Newton Drive (off Brunswick Avenue). Earlier this week, The Gleaner spoke with some of the leaders of Mormon movement in Jamaica at its 36 Red Hills Road head office in St Andrew.

David Gingery, an expatriate who heads the Mormon Church in Jamaica, said the broadcast is slated to be viewed by the 150,000 Mormons who reside in the Caribbean.

Asked what his high-profile visitors will talk about, Gingery pleaded ignorance except to say: “They get to choose what they will speak to us about … it is always going to be Christ-centred. Everything that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says and does is going to be centred on Jesus Christ and how we can emulate him and be more like him.” On Saturday (January 24) evening at 5, there will be a broadcast for the priesthood - the men of the church. Also during that time, there will be a meeting for the women leaders of the church. This women’s meeting will not be broadcast. The women will be addressed by Sylvia Allred, first counsellor in the general relief society presidency of our church. On Sunday (January 25), there will be the general meeting at 9 a.m. - this is for all men, women and children. And the satellite broadcast will happen at 5 p.m. and this will be for everyone.

The local Mormon leaders are hoping the broadcasts will encourage and energise their members to be more faithful to the standards and creeds of the church and also influence non-Mormons to consider joining their way of life.

Mormonism is a proselytising movement. In perhaps much the same way Muslims are encouraged to make at least one trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Mormons are encouraged to devote up to two years of their lives in missionary work on behalf the church.

The Mormon church in Jamaica has 80 persons serving as missionaries - nearly half of whom are Jamaicans and the rest are drawn mainly from the United States. (cont.)

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News for Mormons

Archive for January, 2009

When choosing where to play, Mormon recruits face unique issues

American Idol 8: Salt Lake City Auditions, Live Thoughts

Glenn Beck airing out his frustrations

19 Year-old Lodi (CA) Man Makes Miraculous Recovery

American Idol: David Archuleta On Tour

Tom Hanks Apologizes for Calling Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 ‘Un-American’

Food Storage Customers Explain the Need for Emergency Food Storage

Australia's Torah Bright wins women's superpipe

Early LDS Church apostle’s journal bought by Provo collector

Hanks’ hipocrisy

Jeff Kent walks away after 17 seasons

HATCH HEADED TO HARVARD

Former BYU Cougar Vai Sikahema Sets the Record Straight

Mormon witness quietly grows in Jamaica

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