A Prayer of Faith

Do you ever feel like your body isn’t really yours? Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite Valentine’s Day gift was the flury of publicity around a study suggesting Mormons are pigs.

A BYU professor who looked at data from the Utah Health Status Survey found that members of the Church weigh, on average, 4.6 pounds more than other Utahns.

The bias of this study, of course, is that weighing five pounds more than your neighbor means you’re portly.

It ignores a wealth of other possibilities, which (Thank you, Elder David R. Stone, my new favorite General Authority, for your brilliant conference talk on susceptibility to Zeitgeist) were we not so obsessed with body image, might have occurred to reporters.

Before we list those possibilities, note the results of a newly released study out of Israel which has the same findings about the weight of religiously devout people, but casts those findings in an entirely different light.

Study: Religious Girls More Comfortable With Their Bodies
As long as a young girl is religious, the likelihood that she will have an eating disorder is lower, asserts Prof. Yael Latzer of the School of Social Work at the University of Haifa. 
In a unique, first of its kind study, Latzer looks at the connection between levels of religiosity, self-esteem, self-image, and eating disorders.

The study findings showed that as long as the level of religiosity is unified and high, the desire to be thin is lower. On the positive side, self-esteem and body image are higher, as is the extent of satisfaction with one’s body. The result, the researcher states, is that there is less preoccupation with food and weight.

Contrast that with the way the BYU study was reported:

BYU study finds Mormons weigh more
Eating may substitute for other forbidden indulgences
OREM, Utah - Mormons on average weigh 4.6 pounds more than other Utahans, a study by a Brigham Young University professor concluded. The study also found that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were 14 percent more likely than nonmembers to be obese. That was 18 percent for men, and 9 percent for women.

The study was made by BYU health science professor Ray Merrill from data obtained in 1996, 2001 and 2003-2004 by the Utah Health Status Survey.

The most recent numbers, while still high, showed there has been some improvement since 1996, when Mormon adults were found to be 5.7 pounds heavier on average and 34 percent more likely to be obese.

Merrill’s study suggests Mormons may be using excessive eating as a substitute for prohibited indulgences such as smoking and drinking.

Let us then look at some reasons Latter-day Saints might weigh, on average, 4.6 pounds more than other Utahns:

1. We eat healthier in childhood, and so become taller — and therefore heavier — adults.
2. We are largely descended from big freakin’ Vikings. We are bigger because, in Utah at least, we’re Scandanavians, rather than Hispanics.
3. We live longer. At a pound or two a year, it adds up.
4. Unlike our irreligious counterparts, we don’t tend to be crackheads or coke whores.
5. Unlike our irreligious counterparts, we don’t hang out in vomitoriums for messed-up anorexic girls.
6. When we get pregnant, we actually keep our babies instead of vacuuming them out before they cause stretch marks. 
7. Raising kids seems to us like a higher priority than self-absorption over weight.

So are we heavier? Sure thing! That’s what happens when you’re not a nutcase.

–The Editrix

In every class I’ve had where the teacher covers ‘The Big Bang’ theory one student inevitably raises their hand and asks the followup question, “But what happened before the Big Bang?” or some variation thereof. Every teacher has their own way of handling it, some answering, “I don’t know,” some venturing into theology and others saying “there was simply nothing.” With the student’s minds sufficiently blown the teacher then moves on to other topics.

The classic human question is “Why are we here?” Our church has a pretty good answer to that; to gain a body and to “prove [our]selves herewith…”(exactly what that means may be up for debate). Some people ask the followup question, “Where were we before?” Very few, however ask this question, “Why did God do it at all?” I’ve found an answer to that question, “A continuing association in this life, as well as in the next, with those we love, should be the great desire of every person. It is the ulitmate. It is the great purpose of mortality. (Elder Elray L. Christiansen, Three Important Questions, Ensign, May 1974, 25)” We exist to build relationships, to learn to love people, and live so we can be with the ones we love. Read the rest of this entry »

We just got back from visiting Rome and my parents joined us. (Insert comment here about having no sympathy for the Italian traveler no matter how sick she is…) I spent my fair share of time with a barf bag in hand in anticipation for our next food pit stop. I enjoyed a few moments of relief only to be overwhelmed with exhaustion. From what I gather there are those of you who have had a much harder time with morning sickness than I could even imagine. I seek your stories of how you coped and how you kept from feeling resentful. Comments from the dads would be helpful too, as I know you experience the backlash of it all and you are not to be forgotten.

My daughter is five and my son is almost two. I was pregnant with my daughter while living in Germany. This proved to be difficult as we found out the very shocking pregnancy news late the night before we left the States. I bought a pregnancy book in the airport during a layover. I had to discover new comfort foods and they were few and far between. As a long-time vegetarian, I was surprised at my cravings for meat. Germany was accommodating in that sense, but lacked the other staple morning sick foods such as Lucky Charms and Taco Bell.

I was pregnant with my son during a time when my newly employed husband was largely absent physically and mentally. He admits hardly remembering my waking up at 2 and 3 in the morning to puke up nothing but yellowy-green stuff, my inability to eat anything but Top Ramen, of my suffering complaints of throwing up on the side of the road while traveling home from work. I was also new in my ward and didn’t have any ladies to talk to, since my normally outgoing nature was replaced by lethargy and borderline depression.

This time I am again outside the States and there are no Lucky Charms on the store shelves, nor are there Taco Bells. I’m anxious about feeling this way for weeks on end and dealing with the guilt of running on only two cylinders with my husband making up for my slack. In the expatriate world of government employees and international NGO’s, I’m a freak for having a third kid. Everyone in my social circle has their one or two kids and has been finished for years. Even the members of my branch (typical Albanian) have no more than two kids and my two year old is by far the youngest member in the branch.

So how did you do it? Any ancient Chinese secret remedies? Suggestions for keeping up moral—me, dad, kids?

(a somewhat lengthy account of my journey to the waters of baptism)

I’m not sure when exactly I first realized that there existed such an organization as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can look back now and see that I had childhood friends who were members of the Church, at the time I recall thinking that they were Catholic and that the people they greeted as “Brother Jones” or “Sister Smith” were nuns and monks, without the distinctive robes and habits.

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