Focusing on the Problems May be the Problem
by H. Wallace Goddard

The Balm of Gilead is closer than you might think.

We are all injured. Every mortal carries an assortment of chafes, bruises, and malfunctions. Some people’s disorders are more debilitating or apparent, but no mortal is spared.

The worst injuries are spiritual. There are those who are paralyzed by remembrances of betrayal, cruelty, and neglect. There are those held hostage to guilt or anger.

In my work for Auburn University I met a prominent, mid-life woman who was energetic, personable, and bright. We worked together on several projects. After our first planning meeting, several of us went to lunch. As we began the first steps toward getting acquainted, she put a frame around her life by saying that she was in recovery. She had had bad relationships as a child, substance abuse as an adult, and now she

Merrill Jensen’s Book of Mormon Oratorio
by Steven Kapp Perry

Singing the Song of Redeeming Love
With the release of Come Unto Christ, the Conversion of Alma the Younger, LDS composer Merrill Jenson becomes only the 5th composer to receive Ricks College’s prestigious biennial commission for a new scripturally-based work for their Symphony Orchestra and Chorus–the “Sacred Music Series.”

The Composer
Born and raised in Richfield, Utah, Merrill Jenson played trumpet and graduated in music composition from BYU where he got his first break scoring The First Vision, the film every returned missionary can quote by heart. In the twenty years since, Jenson has scored 19 feature-length scores, several IMAX films (including Legacy, seen by thousands each year in the Joseph Smith Building’s Legacy Theater), over 50 television and videotape productions, and produced over 60 record albums including two for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So what does

Movie Ratings not Reliable
by Kieth Merrill

Holding Ourselves to a Higher Standard

Last week I screened my short, 70mm film, The Witness, at the classic old Royal Theater in Santa Monica. It showed twice a day for three days, and thus was qualified for consideration by the Motion Picture Academy in the “live action short” category.

The film tells the story of a young man who witnessed and survived the massacre of Mystic Fort by the English under command of John Mason. It accurately depicts the well-documented tragedies in the so-called “Pequot War” of 1636-38.

Produced as a permanent exhibit for the Mashentucket Pequot Museum, the film was meticulously authentic. The costumes in the film–or lack thereof–are likewise accurate. In short, the film is violent and contains scenes with partial nudity.

After the screening, an LDS friend praised the movie then pointed out that if the film was

Is it Life or Death Insurance?
by Richard P. Halverson

How to figure your optimum coverage.

A few weeks ago I attended the funeral of a colleague who quite unexpectedly dropped dead on a treadmill. He was way too young. His wife and four pre-teen children were bricks during the ordeal. The problem is now. He didn’t leave a penny of life insurance. Professionally, he invested money for other people, and he had done a little for himself. Unfortunately, he was not old enough to have accumulated much. The family’s situation is going to be very difficult.

I have another friend whose funeral I have not attended. He is in his late 60’s. He is suffering from arthritis and some other annoying ailments. He is retired from his first job due to age, but he is still working. He doesn’t want to work, but he can’t afford to quit. The

Marriage Myth: I’m Just Being Honest
by H. Wallace Goddard

Perhaps the most pernicious sins are those that make us feel virtuous.

Perhaps the most pernicious sins are those that make us feel virtuous while we devastate our fundamental Christian professions. For instance, the Pharisees were famous for painstakingly observing the law while failing at basic compassion.

There is a modern and proximate sequel to that hypocrisy. It is very common for a marriage partner to vent his or her spleen at the spouse’s expense and justify it under the banner of honesty. “I have to be honest, dear. I just don’t find you to be attractive as a woman or a human.”

That particular cruelty has a close cousin: “If I can clearly paint a picture of my partner’s faults for her, then she can overcome them.” The idea that we continue to be foolish and sinful because no

Too Many Words
by Kieth Merrill

Kieth Merrill on hurling text into the mysterious black hole of the World Wide Web.

You really read this stuff! Some of you found me in cyberspace and told me so. It makes writing this column much more exhausting. In fact, if you are really going to read it, I find it down right intimidating.

If Meridian Magazine didn’t entice my ego with the title of “Film Editor”–which no one ever sees of course–or I didn’t love movies so much, confidence would wain, courage would falter, words would fail, and I would be paralyzed by the terrifying reality that someone out there actually reads these words that expose my soul like a naked statue spouting water in a Greek fountain.

Writing a thousand words once a month–even about movies–and hurling them into the mysterious black hole of //www.–seemed so infinitesimally insignificant, it was almost

Getting the Best Deal on Insurance
by Richard P. Halverson

What is too much to pay?

(In If You’re a Mormon Do You Still Need Insurance? I tried to make several key points about insurance. First, insurance is simply a matter of exchanging losses. You exchange an uncertain loss, like having your car stolen, to an insurance company for a certain loss called a premium. If the car gets stolen it is the company’s loss. Next, I emphasized that you should exchange only those losses you can not afford to risk have to pay. If you can not afford to lay out $20,000 on short notice to replace a stolen car, then exchange that loss by buying insurance. If you can afford $500 to repair a dented fender do not insure for that. The mechanism for retaining small losses, while exchanging for large losses, is through deductibles. Over your life

If You’re a Mormon, Do You Still Need Insurance?
by Richard P. Halverson

The battle is spiritual, but temporal issues count.

Latter-day Saints understand we are here in mortality to experience opposition. We know experiencing problems is part of the plan. Some of the opposition is spiritual and some of it is temporal. On the spiritual side, there is an ever-present risk we will encounter some temptation and give into it. The result is a potentially devastating spiritual loss. On the temporal, side there is an ever-present risk we will encounter some hazard and sustain damage. The result can be a potentially devastating temporal loss.

We know that by following proper steps of repentance, our spiritual losses will be completely paid for through the atonement of Jesus Christ. There is also a mechanism where many of our temporal losses can be paid for. The temporal mechanism I refer to is