My wife and I have been married since 1985, and we have ten wonderful and amazing children. How does such a thing happen? Simple. It’s the water and air in Utah. This is the last bastion of large families just about anywhere I know. Only in Utah would four children be considered “a starter family.” Only in Utah can you find 15-passenger vans on the car lots that aren’t being sold to community church groups. (Yes, we do have a Chevy Express 15-passenger van parked in our driveway.)
I am an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as “the Mormons”). Despite the fact that we now live in the 21st century, I’m surprised at the amount and level of misinformation and bias that exists concerning us “Mormons.” Faith in Jesus Christ and in His atonement is absolutely fundamental to us, as is faith in and relationship with God, who is our Heavenly Father. We believe The Bible (Old and New Testaments) to be the word of God. We also believe The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to be the word of God. Of course, that’s where much of the trouble starts with our Christian brothers and sisters who believe that the heavens are closed and that revelation ceased 2,000 years ago with the apostles. The principle of revelation-free heavens renders the idea of a living prophet an illogical proposition. Under that presumption, any modern prophet must, by definition, be false, and his followers, by definition, deceived. Fair enough. But what if the heavens aren’t closed? And what if the prophet in question is actually called of God to this generation? That’s a question that demands an honest, non-reactionary, response. And it’s a difficult one, because it’s orders of magnitude easier to believe in a dead prophet than a living one, and that’s been true since the days of Adam.
I served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Italy from 1980 to 1982 and fell in love with a) the Italian people, b) Italian culture, c) the Italian language, and d) Italian food. Dang, I wish I was Italian!!
I grew up in Jesup, Iowa, a town of about 1,800 people at the time, and lived on Main St., which was a dirt road until 1978. Across the road from our house was a field with either soy beans or corn, depending on the crop rotation that year.
I was born in the Los Angeles area, at the end of the baby boom. We moved to Iowa in 1970, when I was 10 years old. This is what we call culture shock. All things considered, I’d make the trade again in a heartbeat.
When I’m not wrestling with kids and grappling with responsible stuff, I really dig golfing, playing racquetball, getting beat by my boys in ping pong, playing guitar and electric bass, and achieving maximal harmonic blend with other motivated vocalists. I’ve been known to write poetry and I always sing in the shower.