Wednesday, September 24, 2008

What does "Keep the Commandments" mean?

If Christ "fulfilled the law," and Christians no longer follow the law of Moses (e.g., circumcision is no longer necessary for membership in the kingdom, we eat pork, we pick up sticks on the sabbath, we don't raise up seed unto our brother, etc.), why do we still keep the Ten Commandments?

When we speak of keeping the commandments, why do we often cite the Ten, rather than the Two?

Or why don't we recite the Sermon on the Mount, for that matter?

(Side Note: I memorized the Sermon on the Mount when I was a teen-ager. I didn't stop to think that I couldn't do it because it was too long. I just memorized one verse at a time until I was done.)

Friday, September 19, 2008

What ever happened to the Perpetual Education Fund?



Why is it that all the information put out about the perpetual education fund seems to be between 3 years and 7 years old?

I think it's an exciting program, and would love to read stories of those who have benefitted from it, but the PEF website has stories from 2001 (when the program started).

From what I can find, there were a couple stories in a recent Church News.
Wikipedia has some potential statistics, but citations to the Deseret News are not archived, so you get today's stories, rather than PEF statistics.
A 2004 pdf sheet based on a meeting with Elder Richard Cook is informative.

Comments on a blog posted December 31, 2007 cite trouble with PEF in Peru.

Elder Carmack gave a speech at the BYU Kennedy Center that cites some success stories (see from 27:20 on).

And in the Deseret News, some goofball indignantly proclaims, "My wife and I agree: No more settlement meetings until we see some figures." I think he's trying to pass himself off as a Mormon. (The story he is commenting on is the one from the Church News, above.)

I'd love more information about the program. I'd love to hear of its successes and failures. I'd love to hear about trouble in Peru, success in Guatemala, entry into new countries, etc. I'd love to hear stories from participants, Bishops, and General Authorities. But mostly, I hear nothing. If I cannot get daily updates, how about monthly, or even yearly? Biannually?

At the very least, couldn't some intern just update the website with stories that are less than seven years old?!