Find out the truth....Search it out

If there is one thing that I like it is being right. Now you can't always be right. But when I am wrong I love that my lovely wife is able to correct me. For us it is like a little competition, who can be right and who can prove the other wrong. To me this is particularly important as there is much disinformation about the LDS church out there. As a member of the LDS faith I feel that it is important that when there is incorrect or false information that I correct the error.

Well, throughout the election cycle there has been a lot of disinformation and outright lies spread about the candidates. Many of these come through emails from good-intentioned people that don't bother to check the facts. (That is why I like Factcheck.org). My lovely wife gets emails like this from time to time and this past week she shared her love of snopes.com as a place to de-bunk rumors. On that note of setting people straight I wanted to share a video I found when a person who was on a local TV news report and shared incorrect information was later corrected and how it can be a friendly exchange not confrontational and that people having the facts is important. How can someone make a decision without all the facts.

Enjoy!
source: Fight the Smears.com

Historical Day...19 June 1978

From Newsroom.LDS.org
It will be 30 years this June, 2008, since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began ordaining its members of African descent to the priesthood.

It was a pivotal moment in Church history, with implications not only for members in the United States but for the Church worldwide.
The enthusiasm with which the change in practice was greeted by Church members everywhere was widely noted at the time. Ken Woodward, religion writer for Newsweek, wrote in the magazine’s 19 June 1978 edition:

“The revelation caught noontime pedestrians in Salt Lake City by surprise. One man who had turned his portable radio to a church-owned station, called excitedly to knots of workers from the church headquarters: ‘They’ve just announced blacks can get the priesthood!’ James Dawson, one of two black members of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir, told fellow Saints: ‘My faith is strengthened, I am very happy.’”

Elsewhere, excited white and black Church members called each other, honked car horns in the street and gathered in groups to discuss the announcement that came so suddenly following a profoundly significant spiritual experience for then-Church President Spencer W. Kimball and his fellow apostles in the Church.

Newsweek’s Woodward went on to predict that the next steps were likely to be the creation of black congregations under the direction of black elders.

Woodward’s prediction is telling. Even in 1978, a decade after the civil rights movement changed the face of America, worshipers in many churches across the land remained, in effect, segregated. Most blacks still worshipped with blacks, and most whites with whites. Few ordained black ministers preached to white congregations and discrimination in other forms still existed years later.

In fact, nothing like that happened in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There was never any policy of segregated congregations. Where Mormons of various racial or ethnic backgrounds have lived as neighbors, they have always worshiped together throughout Church history. Blacks had long before 1978 been baptized as members, preached from the pulpit and offered prayers in largely white congregations — none of which required the member to hold priesthood office.

After announcing the change in June 1978, the Church immediately began ordaining active black male members to priesthood office wherever they attended throughout the world. The first temple in Africa was built in South Africa in 1981 and two more — in Ghana and Nigeria — were dedicated more recently.

The increase in ethnic diversity and international Church growth has been widely commented upon over the years since then. The Washington Post referred in a November 2007 headline to “the new face of global Mormonism.” The New York Times noted in a 2005 article that a new Church building in the city was “one of the most racially integrated congregations in Harlem, with about equal numbers of white and black worshippers.”

Amid the generally favorable media reports, there have been a few exceptions, especially in the heated atmosphere of an election campaign.

Ahmad Corbitt, an African-American who is president of a stake (equivalent to a diocese) in New Jersey, said that occasional charges of racism leveled at the Church should be “seen for what they are.”

“I think everyone understands that people say things for political reasons that just don’t square with the facts,” Corbitt said.

Corbitt leads one of the more diverse stakes in the Church. While membership is largely white, his twelve congregations each embrace people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Three of his congregations are Spanish speaking, and Corbitt’s own three-member presidency consists of a white counselor and a Tongan counselor.

“Anyone who says the Church is racist isn’t speaking from experience and has no idea of the racial harmony we enjoy as a Church family,” Corbitt said. “Perhaps some members of color have had a negative experience here or there in our 13-million-member church. But in numerous meetings with members and leaders of the Church at every level over the years I have never experienced anything remotely resembling racism.”

Tony Parker, another African-American stake president, oversees nine congregations in the Atlanta area, including one headed by a black bishop. Parker has been a member of the Mormon faith for 25 years.

“I’m a better person now than I was back then,” Parker says. “I feel better about myself. They have been years of personal growth and enrichment.”

Parker says he has a simple answer to critics outside of the Church. “Anyone who thinks the Church is racist just needs to come and see. They can sit in our church on the sidelines and watch, or talk to members.”

Asked if he had ever encountered a prejudicial comment from a fellow Latter-day Saint, Parker said: “My experience has been almost universally positive. Sure, there have been occasional bumps in the road, but nothing to damage my personal convictions.”

Fact Check Friday

Fact Check Friday.....Enjoy

Harriet Peterson 8/25/25 - 06/08/08 Obituary

Harriet E. Peterson
1925 - 2008
Harriet Elizabeth Peterson, 82, of Nampa, died at home on Sunday, June 8, 2008. Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Friday, June 13, at the Nampa 12th LDS Ward building, 1500 Smith Ave., Nampa. Family will greet relatives and friends at a viewing from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12, at the Zeyer Funeral Chapel, 83 N. Midland Blvd., Nampa, or in the Relief Society Room at the church one hour prior to the funeral services. Harriet was born on Aug. 25, 1925, in Bismarck, North Dakota, to Willard Ransom Porter and Gretta Helena Lindblad. She lived in Peirre, ND, until the age of 13 when the family of three children moved to Nampa. She attended school in Nampa and graduated in 1942 from Nampa High School. After high school she entered nurse's training in Spokane and finished at Mercy Hospital in Nampa. She married Keith Peterson on Oct. 8, 1946, in Twin Falls. In 1948 their oldest son, O'Dell was born. At first she worked for private practice physicians and then went to work at Caldwell Memorial Hospital for about five years. In 1952 a daughter, Gretta Ellen was born and died the next day. Randy was born on July 4, 1954, and Danny on Nov. 2, 1956. Then she worked at Mercy Hospital and continued working in the Recovery Room for the remainder of the time until retirement at the new hospital. Her husband, Keith died in 1987. After retiring from the hospital, she then worked at Nampa Care Center for two years and then substituted as a school nurse for the Nampa School District for three or four years. She continued during retirement to volunteer at Silvercrest I, where she lived, taking blood pressures. She was an active member of the Nampa LDS 12th Ward where she served in the visiting teaching program. When her boys were younger, she was involved in the Cub Scout program, mainly as a Den Mother. She also worked for some time in the Genealogy Library, learning more about her "Family Tree." She kept in contact with many of her relatives over the past 10 to 15 years. She was actively involved in ceramics through Brenda Freeman along with several close friends. Many of her items were entered in the local Fair for which she would bring home ribbons. Much of her work can be found in the homes of her children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Willard in 2002, her husband Keith in 1987, a daughter Gretta Ellen in 1952, a son Danny in 1995, and a granddaughter Catherine in 1985. She is survived by two sons, O'Dell and his family, Clark and Carley, Chris and his wife Tammy and their children Gabe, Selah and Reece; Cort and his wife Emily and their children Gavin and Noah, all of Nampa; son, Randy and his sons; Keith and his wife Alex and their children Bradley and Ethan of Caldwell; Jason and his wife Beth and their sons Nikki and Daniel of Eugene, Ore. She is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Lucile Pate of Lewiston. Published in the Idaho Press Tribune from 6/11/2008 - 6/12/2008. Grandma we'll miss you. Here is a great post Tammy wrote about Grandma Peterson