Glenn Beck Tribute to President Hinckley

Posted on January 29th, 2008 by Ty Ray

I’m a huge Glenn Beck fan, and last night as I was watching, he gave what I felt was a touching tribute to President Hinckley. For those of you not familiar with Glenn, he has a nationally-syndicated radio show, The Glenn Beck Program, and a self-titled television program that debuted in 2006 on CNN’s Headline News–now one of the highest-rated programs in the nation. He’s also a relatively recent (2000, I think?) convert to the Church. He’s a pretty raw personality, and an ardent conservative. Later this year Deseret Book will be releasing a DVD entitled, iirc, “An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck.”

His tribute to Pres. Hinckley:

Spouses’ Retreat

Posted on January 28th, 2008 by Ty Ray

I want to preface this by saying that I consider this one of the success stories of North Star. North Star was founded with the hope of connecting people with people within an LDS-supportive environment, so that individuals dealing with issues around same-sex attraction—including family members and friends—could help and support one another in living true to their faith and value systems as Latter-day Saints. One of the means created to accomplish this is the online discussion groups.

Women in the Spouses group, one of the most active groups, have organized a retreat that all spouses are welcome to attend. For those interested, we invite you to join the Spouses group. Details on the retreat will be made available as they become available, but here’s the current status:

Apostle Urges Students to Use New Media

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Ty Ray

Yes, I know this is old news, but I’ve been out of the Bloggernacle loop for a while, and wanted to say something about this. For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, Elder Ballard encouraged graduates of BYU-Hawaii in December to engage with “new media”—including blogs—in conversation about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

From the Church Newsroom statement:

Dr. Warren Throckmorton Calls for Research Participants

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Ty Ray

Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist who runs the counseling center at Grove City College, and who has been actively involved in discussions on homosexuality on various sides of the discussion, is looking for homosexually-attracted men and women who are or have been married for a study. From his blog:

If you identify as gay, ex-gay, or ex-ex-gay and are heterosexually married or have ever been, please contact me via email at warrenthrockmorton@gmail.com. Just put ‘research study’ in the subject line. You do not need to identify yourself by name at this time, just simply email to indicate your possible interest and I will provide details.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley passes away

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Ty Ray

KSL-TV is reporting that President Hinckley passed away this evening.

He will be missed.

UPDATE - Additional Full Stories:

Straight Spouse Interview: FoxyJ

Posted on January 10th, 2008 by Ben

The charmingly beautiful and strikingly intelligent Jessie Christensen has been married for the past six years to the dashingly charismatic and objectively humble Ben Christensen. Jessie has a master’s degree in Spanish from BYU, two children (also from BYU), and a wealth of trivia knowledge that once got her into Jeopardy!’s contestant pool and will hopefully get her on the show one day. Jessie blogs as FoxyJ at http://foxyj.blogspot.com; her husband blogs as Mr. Fob at http://www.fobcave.com.

Prayer journal

Posted on January 10th, 2008 by -L-

I had a really good prayer this morning.  It was so good that I was tempted to take notes.  This reminded me of a lady I met on my mission who keeps a prayer journal–basically she writes down all of her prayers so that she won’t forget what she said and what God said to her.

Still privately gay

Posted on January 7th, 2008 by -L-

Over Christmas we were chatting with my wife’s sister and her husband when the topic of GLBT rights came up. My brother-in-law, considered it scandalous that a particular conservative business had contributed to a GLBT special interest charity. I offered my opinion that it was important for such groups to defend the rights of GLBT people so that they would not be discriminated against in society. I don’t think he expected anyone to challenge his opinion on the matter, so the ensuing discussion was an interesting one.

My political diversion

Posted on January 7th, 2008 by -L-

So, a little update on yours truly.  I’ve become totally wrapped up in the presidential primaries.  I’m an independent (voted both parties in the election last year), but I’m pulling for Romney this time.