Just another Jess

"To you who are worthy and able to attend the temple, I would admonish you to go often. The temple is a place where we can find peace. There we receive a renewed dedication to the gospel and a strengthened resolve to keep the commandments."  - President Thomas S. Monson  I'm not always one for New Year's resolutions, but as the year draws to a close, it's natural to reflect on the accomplishments and happenings of this year and years' past. At the end of 2012, I made a New Year's resolution to attend the temple once a week, every week, for an entire year. I did well for the first little while, until four months in when it was geographically impossible for me to attend a temple in a seven-day span, so I went an additional time the next week to make up for it. By the time 2013 came to a close, with the exception of that one week in April, I had successfully attended the temple once a week every week for the entire year. This week, I had the opp

...at least, not yet. I work for a holistic health company that recently released several new products to their product line. One of those new products is in the cannabinoid family, which has led to me think a lot over the last couple days about the medical marijuana battle. In January of this year, the Utah Medical Association made a statement claiming that "there is no such thing as medical marijuana" because it has not been studied and approved by science or government. For this reason, the Utah Medical Association believes that until such studies are completed, marijuana should stay illegal with penalties (read about that announcement here ). This is a responsible approach to the legalization of marijuana. Just because a substance is presumably helpful doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. I’m not adamantly opposed to medical marijuana – but there is a lot that we don’t understand about marijuana, and a lot that we do understand about physiology, pharmaceuticals, a

We need to talk. Let me start by reminding you that I am a daughter of God. And just like fathers are often protective of their daughters, particularly when it comes to dating, God wants to protect me from men that may potentially treat me poorly. "I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people...shall come up unto me against the men of my people." (Jacob 2:32) God will not tolerate the men of His church treating His daughters with less respect than He expects. Especially when that lack of respect comes from the young men that hold His priesthood, and that preach of their personal devotion to His church. Men, if you don’t treat women with the respect that God expects, you aren’t as righteous as you feign. And I’m tired of being treated with less respect than I deserve. Until a few years ago, I had never identified with the feminist agenda. Being a woman in today’s world had never seemed unfair to me. I ha

Should the LDS Church lose its tax-exempt status because of its involvement in government? Has the LDS Church overstepped its bounds with its involvement in politics? As controversial as it is, the short answer to these questions is "no." For the sake of understanding, however, let’s also discuss the long answer. I frequently come across these arguments against the LDS Church that go something like, “If the LDS Church is going to act like a business, it should be taxed like a business,” or, “If the LDS Church is going to get involved in politics and influence legislation, then it should lose its tax-exempt status – separation of church and state!” These arguments are non sequitur, and mostly come from a lack of understanding about the LDS Church, the U.S. government, and the relationship that is allowed between them. So let’s explore this relationship a little bit and clear up some of these commonly used misconceptions. “Separation of Church and State