Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
History and Religion
Unruly Sunbeams

Unruly Sunbeams

Last updated on: March 18, 2026 at 9:04 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

Unruly Sunbeams 2026-03-18T21:04:20-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A view of the Grand Canyon (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

It’s spiritually beneficial to see the Grand Canyon from time to time. I just saw it again two or three hour ago, albeit from at least 30,000 feet. Even at that altitude, though, it’s still pretty impressive.

And, from the Deseret News, this is pretty impressive, too: “The strong message AJ Dybantsa and Bear Bachmeier sent while attending this BYU class: The innovative class helps bridge the gap between newcomers to BYU and the culture on campus. The results have been eye-opening” I think that the class is a brilliant idea, and it seems to be doing some good. Otherwise, I really can imagine a new non-LDS arrival on campus might find a great deal about the experience rather baffling and, perhaps, quite unwelcoming. There is so much cultural understanding and in-group jargon that we take for granted and don’t really explain.

You’re probably familiar with this story, but I love it. I would give credit for it to somebody, but I have no idea who that somebody might be:

A professional therapist moves to a mostly Latter-day Saint community and opens his practice there. Eventually, a woman goes to see the therapist and he asks her what’s wrong. The woman replies, “It’s the sunbeams. They’re driving me crazy.”

“Oh?” replies the therapist, a bit puzzled.

“Yeah, they keep running everywhere, they won’t stay still, they’re too loud, and they won’t listen to me when I tell them to stop.”

The therapist is getting confused, thinking that he has a real case on his hands.

“Have you tried talking to somebody about this?”

“Yes, I talked to the president about it but she couldn’t help.”

Now the therapist is very concerned and is eyeing the door, wondering if he should call for assistance.

“Can anyone else see and hear these sunbeams?” the therapist asks.

The woman looks at him and says, “I’m guessing that you’re not LDS. Right?”

Young women dressed in pioneer clothing participate in a reenactment of the Latter-day Saint handcart experience of the 1850s. (LDS Media Library)

While serving on a stake high council, I also served at least once as a stake Sunday School president. And I’ve served in at least one other Sunday School presidency, as well. For the life of me, I honestly couldn’t see much real point in the position of Sunday School president, whether at the stake level or at the ward level; I didn’t feel that I was contributing anything of value to the Kingdom. (But then, perhaps that merely reveals my own lack of vision. And it raises another topic: Have I ever contributed much of value to the Kingdom? Views on that question might disagree rather dramatically, I suspect.)

I think that Sunday School presidencies can add value if they are always there to substitute when a teacher is ill or must be absent for some other reason — although, when I’ve served as a teacher and needed a substitute, I’ve generally asked somebody to fill in for me, directly, without involving the presidency. Often, I haven’t even known who the Sunday School presidency were.

Once, a stranger came up to me at the end of a Gospel Doctrine class that I had taught. He identified himself as the stake Sunday School president and observed that I clearly hadn’t based my lesson on the official course manual. I conceded that that was so. “Are you unaware,” he said, “that the Church’s official Sunday School is given by revelation?” I responded, rather gently, that I was serving at that time on the Church’s Gospel Doctrine writing committee, and that I knew pretty well how the manuals were produced because our committee was responsible for producing their first drafts (before they went, among other things, through correlation).

At the time that I was called to serve on that Gospel Doctrine writing committee (on which I eventually served for about eight years or so), I told the General Authority who extended the call to me that I wasn’t sure that I was the person they wanted for the position. I thoroughly disliked the Sunday School manuals, I said to him, and found them impossible to teach from. My mind simply doesn’t work that way. He replied that I was exactly the kind of person they wanted. But I never really felt that my preferred approach had much of an impact on the final product, after it had gone through various curriculum committees and, in the end, through the Correlation Committee.

Despite all of my grousing here, I’m pleased to see a small policy change that has just been officially announced by the Church:

I’m happy to see women being given more leadership and service opportunities across the Church, and I’m very pleased to see their talents and abilities given more scope within the Kingdom — however limited, in my experience, the scope of Sunday School presidencies turns out to be. I could never see any reason why members of a Sunday School presidency needed to be male or to hold the priesthood. So this is a welcome change.

I recall very well the first time that I saw several women — and only women — “manning” the recommend desk in a temple; I was delighted. Women can now serve as witnesses for ordinances in and out of the temples, and young women regularly serve as “greeters” at the doors of my home ward (and, I presume, of other wards beyond mine). Small things, perhaps. But welcome changes.

The baptism of Miriam Works Young in 1832, as depicted in a scene from the Interpreter Foundation’s 2024 theatrical film Six Days in August.

Eight episodes of Becoming Brigham — eight of what we project to end up at approximately seventy or seventy-five — are now available online for you to watch. The eighth of them was posted on Monday, and, with one or two planned exceptions, new installments will be posted every Monday until roughly the middle of next year.

The Cody Wyoming Temple (aka Barad-dûr), more or less as represented by its fiercest opponents. (Provenance of image unknown. If there is an objection to its use here, please contact me at [email protected].)

The latest photographs from the construction site of the Cody Wyoming Temple illustrate once again, with tragic and undeniable clarity, how very right the critics of the temple were to oppose it: The Cody Wyoming Horror: Photographic Documentation from the Front Lines.

Just as these heroic citizens said, the sheer daunting vastness of the massive 9,950-square-foot temple does completely block views of the Wyoming sky. It does conceal the mountains that surround Cody. It does tower threateningly over the humble buildings of the town that cluster closely around its base. If only people had listened! If only the government had intervened to stop this crime against both suffering humanity and the fragile Western ecosystem!

History and Religion

Travel and Religion

Previous Post

March 17, 2026

I was delighted by this morning's class

Next Post

March 19, 2026 At least you can SPRAY for COCKROACHES . . .

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"PL: "Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."I have to frankly confess that a few ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."

Phil Leaning

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"PL: "The layers are peeling back."He appears to be suffering under an odd but powerful ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many stones did David take to fight Goliath?

Select your answer to see how you score.

7 5 4 3