Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Newsroom on the Sidebar

While poking around the LDS Newsroom yesterday I discovered they now have an RSS feed, which I promptly loaded into my right sidebar (and anyone else can easily do so too). Any other nifty features that any readers have stumbled on lately at LDS.org or at the Newsroom? And as long as I'm being experimental, I'm going to try embedding (love that term) one of the Newsroom videos, an excerpt from Elder Ballard's "New Media" talk at BYU-H a few months ago:

Intelligent Design: Coming to a Theater Near You

Get Religion has a nice post on the new documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It stars Ben Stein, the face you instantly associate with the following phrase: "Bueller? Bueller?" The point of GR's post is that the media is largely ignoring the documentary despite a strong showing at the box office — apparently because the message of the documentary doesn't resonate with the left-leaning media, whereas any stupid thing Michael Moore or Al Gore puts out gets instant coverage and even critical acclaim. I'm no fan of ID, but I think rabid evolutionists that want to shut down discussion of alternative ideas don't deserve the deference they get from the media. Anyone seen this movie yet?

Charlton Heston Slips Away

While everyone was watching and blogging General Conference over the weekend, Charlton Heston quietly slipped away on Saturday. Seems like someone around here ought to put up a post about it. Get Religion has some nice thoughts with reflections on the religious aspects of Charlton Heston's public persona. Many will remember him as Moses, but I'll stick with his role as Henry Hooker, taking over the screen for five minutes toward the end of Tombstone. The bad guys were happy to shoot up the Earp brothers, but they wouldn't mess with the big guy. We're in debt to you, Mr. Heston.

Mormonism in the Media

If you've been at sea in a lifeboat (with no radio) for the last six months, here's an important piece of news: They're talking about us in the newspapers. This isn't lost on senior LDS leaders, as shown by Elders Ballard and Cook in a recent interview posted at the LDS Newsroom, "Church Will Work to Increase Understanding, Apostles Say." The key passage: "Elder Ballard said that much of the publicity the Church has received over the past few months has been fair and balanced, but there is still much misunderstanding to be cleared up."

Deseret News Blog Feature

The Deseret News posted "Today on the Bloggernacle" at its online site, with links to five LDS weblogs. It looks like this may be a recurring feature at the DN website -- just another incentive for bloggers to put up quality material and be recognized with a link or two. It's not the cover of Rolling Stone, but it's something.

Anyone with more information on this feature is welcome to post it in the comments. New visitors who followed the link from the Deseret News to this weblog (or other weblogs) are welcome to say hello and share comments. By the way, I'm Dave and this is my weblog.

The Poetic Gospel of the Newsroom

The LDS Newsroom just posted a remarkable new commentary piece, The Mormon Worldview. In church it would be called "the plan of salvation," but the PR team has upgraded the lingo to make the message understandable for the rest of the world, and even for journalists. The PR department isn't Correlation — they don't actually change the doctrine — they just use different words and images to convey the message. And they have produced a truly admirable verbal upgrade in this latest post.

New Look at Deseret News

The online site got a makeover. Here's the new home page -- in bluish tones rather than red, and every story has comments attached. Eerily blog-like. The LDS Newsline page now uses the same template and sidebars as the home page, just a different set of center columns. I'm wondering how the comment feature is going to work out -cough- On Faith -cough-. Here's a blurb explaining some of the goals of the new site. DN at least deserves kudos for trying to package LDS news for its online readers. I almost think the SL Trib hides its LDS stories.

Deseret News Plans Online Site

They just posted plans to upgrade the LDS Newsline site. Sounds like it will be something like an LDS version of Beliefnet (but more newsy) or a mainstream media version of Meridian Magazine (but, uh, more newsy). The post includes an editor's name with a request for feedback, so feel free to offer your suggestions there. Or maybe he'll read the comments here.

Reflections on Hollywood

Meridian Magazine posted Kieth Merrill's short commencement address to the graduates of the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications. It's a nice point of departure to ruminate a bit on Hollywood and the movies. If video killed the radio star, what killed the movie star? Hollywood, maybe.

Who Are These Guys?

That seems to be a popular question for magazines and newspapers looking at "the Mormons" these days. The latest entry: A modern prophet goes global, in the Economist (and thanks to a reader who sent me the link). The accompanying pic shows a blond missionary in white shirt and tie walking past a third-world hovel. Understandably, the piece highlights events in England: "Also dear to Mormon hearts are parts of northern and central England where, soon after Smith had his visions, the faith won many converts." After touching on 19th-century emigration to Utah, it notes that now "the Mormons want their converts to stay put and use their spanking new meeting-house and temple; and their keen young missionaries are as likely to be British or Danish (even, in one case, from Greenland) as American."