Should We Dramatize Jesus’ Life for Television? + Today’s Digest

Our daily rundown of the articles from around the web that we feel our readers would enjoy and appreciate. We hope to highlight the best of what’s around. Public Square Bulletin recommends: Should We Dramatize Jesus’s Life for Television? John Piper – Desiring God This interview posits an interesting question. I think the obvious answer is yes, but I find it significant that the Church’s Bible videos stick strictly with the existing language adding as little as possible to the accounts. What do you think? Most Christian parents are worried about their kids’ spiritual health Ryan Foley – Christian Post As the debate continues to rage around elementary education on sexuality and gender, this poll provides useful context to where Christian parents are coming from. The Antisocial Strain of Sincere Religious Beliefs Is on the Rise Charles McCrary – The New Republic The left-leaning New Republic with a good-faith, but nevertheless troubling approach to religious freedom that frames the free exercise of religion as harmful. But never tries to define this harm, or seek to balance competing harms. This mimics this recent Twitter thread where many of the respondents equated religious freedom with the freedom to discriminate. An Orthodox Theory of Brainworms Lucian Staiano-Daniels – Mere Orthodoxy It’s long been popular to call political extremism a “form of religion,” but these analyses have usually come from Protestant perspectives. Staiano-Daniels explores the idea from an explicitly Orthodox lens. Honoring and Renewing Dr. King’s Other, More Challenging, Dream— 55 Years Later Peter Laarman – Religion Dispatches On the 54th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, a look back at his Riverside address denouncing the Vietnam war, recognizing the value of each individual person, and decrying the “spiritual death” he saw around him.  

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Conference Run Down

Lots of coverage of General Conference for you to take a look at. The Associated Press had two articles: The first highlighted many positives of the event but mentioned the reduced attendance numbers while leaving out that the Church limited attendance because of parking concerns. But perhaps more problematically it mentioned Elder Neil Andersen’s remarks about being peacemakers, and talked about a Salt Lake Tribune op-ed he mentioned as a “dart,” but failed to mention that he only mentioned this in the context of the peacemaking efforts of Amos Brown in responding to that. And while the piece links to the first critical op-ed, it doesn’t mention or link to Reverend Brown’s response. The second AP article follows the most popular pattern of conference coverage, focusing singularly on LGBT+ or other issues that can be politicized in their piece titled, “Mormon Leader Reaffirms Faith’s Stance on Same-Sex Marriage.” On the news front, you can find the list of the newly called leaders including the new Primary and Relief Society General Presidencies at the Church Newsroom. The blog LDS Church Growth has a great conversation about the list of 17 newly announced temples. If you want some great quotes to remember and share, Meridian has you covered: General Conference Memes to Share with Your Friends   There are a number of great recaps to check out. Ours here at Public Square Magazine has our writers and editors identifying what themes stuck out to them. The Millennial Star talks about how President Nelson’s remarks touched them. While Junior Ganymede looks at stories of people not being where they were supposed to be and having it all work out anyway. If you’re more interested in the light side, This Week in Mormons has a fun and informative look at the ties worn during conference: April 2022 General Conference Tie Tracker On the detractor side Jana Riess questions, “It’s General Conference time. Remind me why we do this?” She largely complains that the Church hasn’t been as aggressive in making changes in line with what she’s published in the past. But to answer her question. We do this because me and millions like me believe that the Church is led by prophets, and that the words they choose to emphasize our of urgent importance and can help us better access and understand the divine.

European Refugee Crisis

As mentioned in this weekend’s General Conference, the Church is focusing on helping with the refugee crisis in Europe. The Church Newsroom has a great article detailing some of the current efforts and how you can help. As we work on putting the principles of Christian living into practice, this represents a useful opportunity.    

General Conference Love

I hope everyone had a chance to watch General Conference! What a wonderful event with so many important new things to focus on in improving my own life. I wanted to highlight a video that was shown between sessions, but was first released in January: If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s about a teenage professional soccer player. She is a great example of faith, and I recommend the video to everyone!

Gospel Fare

Prophetic Priorities and Personal Impressions

Some highlights from our weekend participating in the semiannual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ—listening to 10 hours of counsel, teaching, and witness.

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