Mormonism Blog

JetBlue Airways Corp. has a new CEO, David Barger. David Neeleman, founder of the company is now the chairman.

Neeleman started JetBlue in 1998. His new role will free him up to spend more time on strategic issues that had been neglected amid the carrier’s rapid growth.

“When you’re a founder and an entrepreneur and you get mired in the operation, it’s not good for anybody,” Neeleman said in an interview.

“This is a much better structure for us going forward,” he said. “That was the board’s recommendation, and I said ‘Great, let’s do it.”‘

The industry pioneer said the new role will give him more time to focus on issues like JetBlue’s Live TV unit, alternative sources of jet fuel, new forms of electronic ticketing, and opportunities afforded by the open skies agreement between the United States and Europe.

Barger, who has worked alongside Neeleman since 1998, said he did not expect significant changes to the company’s strategy.

Neeleman, a Mormon, and a father of nine, was a successful pioneer in the airline industry, shaking up U.S. air travel. In JetBlue, he created a low-fare carrier that offered customer service perks such as live television and leather seats. The airline took its first flight in 2000.

A statue of the angel Moroni was added atop the single spire of the Panamá City Panamá Temple last week, May 4, 2007. Members report that the Moroni setting was a glorious moment for all the Saints of Panamá. To view photographs, see Panamá Mormon Temple.

The Mormon Church teaches that the eternal plans and purposes of God the Father become accomplished through Jesus Christ, “the living embodiment of the Father’s will”. Jesus Christ is also called the “word of my power” (Book of Mormon, Mosiah, 1:32, 35) meaning that the Father conferred his spiritual power upon his Son, so that he might be capacitated to fulfill those vital missions which lie at the very heart of the plan of salvation.

All Mormons also know that the unending work and ever-increasing glory of the Father is centered in the immortality and eternal life of man (Pearl of Great Price, Moses, 1:39).

According to Rodney Turner (an LDS scholar), “the atonement and resurrection wrought by Jesus Christ…is indispensable to the Father, who is added upon in glory by and through his Son. HOWEVER, each need the other: as the Father is glorified through the Son, so is the Son glorified through the father (Bible, John, 17:1). In like manner worthy Saints (members of the Mormon Church) will be glorified through their children and their children through their parents (D&C, 88:60)”.

The above paragraphs are obviously incomprehensible to those Christians who still can’t make sense of the concept that God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings. They are united in purpose, but not physically, as a confuse Christianity insists to believe. However, for those who understand the beauty of these simple truths, it adds a deeper meaning to family relationships, especially between parents and children.

Perhaps many people already know these topics better than I do, but yesterday I was reading from an essay by Charles R. Harrell and I learned a few interesting things about the Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

For example, did you know that there are no first-hand accounts of this event and nobody knows for sure the date of such restoration? However, it happened in a time of great distress. This second-hand description comes from Mr. Everett, who overheard a conversation between Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith, a few days before their martyrdom.

Joseph and Oliver at the time of the restoration were held at the home of the Justice of Peace of Colesville because of their preaching. They were helped to escape by their attorney and it was night and they traveled through brush and water and mud, felled over logs, etc. until Oliver was exhausted; then Joseph Smith helped him along through the brush and water, almost carrying him. They traveled all night, and just at the break of day Oliver gave out entirely and exclaimed, “O Lord! Brother Joseph, how long have we got to endure this thing?” They sat down on a log to rest and Joseph said that at that very time Peter, James, and John came to them and ordained them to the Apostleship. They had 16 or 17 miles to get back to Mr. Hales, but Oliver did not complain any molre of fatigue.

I have taken this title from a great blog on Mormon Inquiry

I am particularly interested in the fact that in countries were the language is not English very little is available about the History of the Mormon Church. Dave reported an article about the Japanese experience:

[There was] a minor crisis that developed for Japanese Mormons because of the Internet. The Internet is an increasingly important source of information in Japan. The Japanese surfer will find that a majority of websites and bulletin boards on Mormonism are either critical or antagonistic toward the Church, giving historical information on Mormonism unfamiliar to most members.

Then Dave continues:

Once again, the Church really shot itself in the foot a few years ago when it made every ward and stake shut down their nascent websites in favor of LDS.org and its numerous subdomains. I call this the “One True Website” model. The flaw is that you end up with One True Hit on a Google search page, along with nine antagonistic sites. If every ward had been allowed to set up and run its own website five years ago, a search for “LDS Church” or “Mormon missionary” or even “Mormon polygamy” might have brought up a cascade of LDS ward sites. With the sudden appearance of several pseudo-official weblogs by COB staffers (such as here, here, and here), I’m guessing they’ve finally realized that what they need is a thousand good LDS sites, not one great one.

Later Dave wrote as an exhortation to all Mormon Bloggers:

Your Mission, Jim

…The message in this analysis to all LDS bloggers should be clear: Your mission is to create searchable, linkable LDS content that comes up on Google searches using LDS search terms…

Considering the news about Jim Engebretsen, see the article Foundation explaining polygamy via the Net… I think that Dave choose the right generic name… “Jim”. So Jim and More Good Foundation move forward and do it!

Escreveu a jornalista Adriana Dias Lopes no Estado de S. Paolo em dezembro de 2006:

“Eles são os fiéis que toda religião procura ter. Os mórmons têm a doutrina na ponta da língua, se dedicam a programas missionários e pagam o dízimo em dia. E, o oposto do que vem ocorrendo com outras religiões na última década, o número de membros da Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias – Igreja Mórmon – cresce cada vez mais.”

A reportagem continua dandno boas informações sobre a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias (os Mormons).

Fico feliz que bons jornalistas procurem ser honestos e claros sobre a Igreja Mórmon. Mais precisaria ser feito mas este é um bom sinal.

Para ver a reportagem online: País tem quase 1 milhão de mórmons e Igreja não pára de crescer

Para ler o texto em formado pdf: A Igreja Mórmon não para de crescer no Brasil

I have found an interesting article by President Spencer W. Kimball, former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). The title is: The False Gods We Worship.

The articles is very long but it is worth of a careful reading, especially in light of the happenings of the last few years and considering that it was written in 1976.

The articles is mainly about two false gods: materialism and military might. Here I just want to comment on the second one, trust in military might as opposite to faith.

President Spencer W. Kimball wrote:

“We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching:

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:44–45.)

‘We forget that if we are righteous the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us—and this is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas (see 2 Ne. 1:7)—or he will fight our battles for us (Ex. 14:14; D&C 98:37). This he is able to do, for as he said at the time of his betrayal, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53.) We can imagine what fearsome soldiers they would be. King Jehoshaphat and his people were delivered by such a troop (see 2 Chr. 20), and when Elisha’s life was threatened, he comforted his servant by saying, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kgs. 6:16). The Lord then opened the eyes of the servant, “And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kgs. 6:17.)

In light of what happened on September 11 and later in the US this really seems to be an inspired advise. it is a question of where we put our trust, it is a question of faith.

“Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things. Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under the power of Satan and lost the faith, they have put in its place a hope in the “arm of flesh” and in “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know” (Dan. 5:23)—that is, in idols. This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry.”

I think that there is a lot to think about…