Promised land temporary closure (due to flooding)

I have a confession.

I'm an habitual over-committer. This month I have 3 birthdays, a wedding, my son's surgery, a family reunion, a (small) vacation, 3 interviews, a proposal to write, and somewhere in there I have to fit my family, work, and sleep. I'm mid-flood, and I'm blowing up the kiddie pool in the backyard to use as a raft so I can make it out alive.

Because I am completely stressed and overwhelmed, so I'm pushing off Judaism for a couple of weeks. ((Hang in there, I know you're all on the edge of your seat waiting for my next installment of religion!))

In the meantime, check out Andrew's blog, Project Conversion (although I hear he's taking the month of June off too!) He's taking on 12 religions in 12 months, one per month (except June, which is "fringe religion month").

Please don't forget about me...the Promised Land is only closed temporarily!

A Mormon Perspective on saying NO to more children

Last Sunday I spent 3 hours finishing off Mormonism in an LDS Church with a sweet friend I met online, Janie. She has her own blog here. She kindly met me here in North Richland Hills so we could go to the ward near my home. As I have been reading her blog, I asked her to share her unique perspective and the LDS perspective on contraception and sterilization. Here are her thoughts:

A Mormon Perspective on Pregnancy, Family Planning, and Sterilization

After During my pregnancy with my fourth child, I was SURE we were done. I told everyone my husband was getting the big snip and I reminded him frequently. I got a card for an urologist from my OB and I carried that card in my wallet. I was considering permanent measures so that I would never EVER have to experience morning sickness again. Add to that: we already had four children (a bigger family than many), my husband had recently been laid off his job, and our house was already bursting at the seams. Four was enough, we were done.

weeping in a chapel... just another one of [those] days.

Today I walk into a Catholic church, straight to the prayer chapel, kneel by the altar, light a candle... and I don’t pray. I weep.

For some reason, on this day, I need to go there. Drawn like a magnet to the tiny chapel.

On this day, I realize, once again, how little control I have over my world. And again, the fear and uncertainty rear their heads and glare at me with eyes glowing like red embers.

what REALLY matters?

Edited to update: I am collecting donations for the folks in Joplin MO, so if you would like to make a donation, I'll make sure it gets in the right hands. You can paypal it to jonikmartin@yahoo.com

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End of the world at 6pm (local) Saturday? Epic fail.
The end of the world as they knew it for those in Joplin Missouri yesterday when a tornado tore a path of destruction 4 miles wide through the town? Well, that's closer.

They say you have two families in this life: The one you're born with and the one you choose. The one I chose had a chunk of damage from the storm yesterday that left 79 people dead. My company owns 5 restaurants in Joplin Missouri. Two of my friends live there, a co-worker and his wife, who I have become very close to. They are safe. Our stores are safe and their crews. But things like this make you think about what matters.

[Repost] Submission is NOT a dirty word.

I will be posting a story of a Jehovah's witness in the next couple days, but this weather, and me being under it, has taken a toll on my energy level, so I'm reposting an article from October on submission. :) Enjoy, and sorry for the repeat!


Most names of religions are derived from the name of the founder of that religion, or something related: Christianity is obviously derived from Christ. Judaism from the tribe of Judah and the region of Judea. Buddhism from the teacher, Buddha. Hinduism from the region in which it was founded, Hind. Confucianism was named after Confucius, Zoroastrianism after Zoroaster, and the list goes on.

Islam is one of the only world religions not named for someone or somewhere. The word Islam, in fact, is an Arabic word that means simply “submission” [to God]. It comes from the root Salema, which means “peace, submission and obedience."

The main foundational action in Islam is submission to God: being in a state of purposeful surrender to God’s laws and directives. And one of the things Islam emphasizes is the choice; embracing Islam means to embrace submission. It means to make a choice to submit to God.

Day 3 of Mormon 21 Questions!

Oh, look at this! Blogger restored Day 3 five days later!! LOL! Its sort of a repeat of the *other* day 3, but I'm posting it anyway :)


These are the continued questions from the article FOX News ran in December 2007. The portions in blue were part of the original .



Q: Does the Mormon Church believe Jesus appeared in North America after his crucifixion and resurrection? If so, when did this happen? And under what circumstances?

A: The appearance of Jesus in the Western Hemisphere shortly after his resurrection is described in the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe that when Christ told his disciples in the Bible He had other 'sheep' who should receive his message he was referring to those people in the Western Hemisphere.

Joni’s addition:

Man! They leave out so much here! It was a very important part where Jesus ditched the Jews after his crucifixion and went to North America to reveal himself to the Native Americans (who were actually descendents of a lost tribe or Israel that came over to America in a boat in 600 BC). I am disappointed that the Church didn’t give the full story to Fox.

Jehovah's Witness

Disclaimer: Since Jehovah's Witness falls under mainstream Christianity, I am not going to spend very much time at this point, but I reserve the right to return to the Witnesses at a later date.

Witnesses are much like Christians in many aspects of their beliefs. They believe, as Christians, that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. They worship only one God, and they believe that Jesus Christ came to die to atone for our sins. They believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and logically approach its teachings, investigating in depth each portion of the Bible. I admire the willingness to read, study and learn that the Witnesses encourage. They do have their own translation of the Bible, the New World Translation, but it is not much different from the regular Bible so far as I can tell. They believe the Bible has the answers to problems, direction for life, etc, much like mainstream Christians.