If you sense that I take great care when it comes to definitions, it is not a coincidence. Terms like sexual orientation, gay, straight, and same-sex attracted are socio-political constructs that seek to simplify what I view to be something for too complex to deserve simplification and relegation to categories or camps.

Do we really believe that the love of God will not only help us find eternal life, but will also shield us from the natural consequences of our choices? Is the result of faith a wall of protection that keeps us untouched by the things that happen when we make choices?

In times past, however, a lot of things have been said about me and to me. Sadly, the things that have been said to me are worse than the things said about me. Well, that’s life among the imperfect.

I was one of the oldest 12-year-olds you would have ever met. When they talk about people who have been “around the block a time or two,” I had been around the whole city, almost literally.

On 7/21/2017, I had come home early from work because Barbara told me that our daughter Melissa and the triplets were coming over and I wanted to help make dinner for them. I baked some biscuits and then kept part of the dough to make wiener wraps for them. I got the biscuits done and […]

Art and creation is a process and nearly always an opportunity for growth and development. Quite often, creating anything though is bound to get messy. 45 people like this post. Like Unlike

This hymn has been on my mind a lot lately. Somewhat intentionally to be sure. It’s a hymn that’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and was one of my father’s favorite hymns. I’m at a point in my life where it’s become even more meaningful; especially the last […]

Right at a critical time when being close to my family would’ve helped the most, I had the choice of losing my job or traveling away from home to work. I was only going to be home on the weekends. It was good work and I couldn’t afford to give it up. At the same time, I was racked with the fear of being in a strange town where nobody knew me, where I could do things nobody would know about, and where that temptation might be more than I could resist.

In 1947, the song writing team of Lerner and Loewe created a musical called “Brigadoon.” It’s a fantasy that takes place in the highlands of Scotland in a village that only appears once every 100 years. One of the songs that I’ve always loved and always brings tears to my eyes is called “There But […]

If you knew me 22 years ago, you would have not really have known me. Who I was on the inside and who I was on the outside were two different men. There’s an old Freudian-type of idea that men with facial hair are symbolically hiding something. I don’t really buy that idea, but for […]

I grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and knew that genealogy was an important thing. When I was very little, I didn’t know why, but my mother was into it, my aunts were into it, and my grandmother was really into it. She lived in a trailer behind my […]

The First Vision isn’t just a piece of history for us. It is a pattern for how we learn truth. Yes, we believe that The Bible is the word of God. We also believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We have other scriptures too, but we do not use them as the sole guides for the decisions of our daily lives. For the more personal things, our spiritual practice is to pray about them and ask God what we should do.

Self-honesty requires that I examine myself carefully enough to know all the reasons I’m doing something. If there isn’t at least some admission of selfishness in my pondering, I’m rationalizing.

The reason wrong is wrong is because it hurts people including yourself.

Somehow, I think that everything God asks me to do is supposed to somehow be comfortable. If there’s hardship, I start thinking I made a mistake. I’m stubborn about it, because I always find that there was a greater purpose in choosing the uncomfortable ways.