MeIRL

Now there is the "heirarchy"-bashing I was expecting! Just didn't know who was going to start it out. You usually can't spot Salt Lake Tribune readers from usernames alone.

Moosen.

One man's view of Avatar.

Then allow me to recast my response slightly: "Practise" is merely a variant spelling of "practice", used primarily by speakers of British English to denote the verb form of the word. In standard American English, "practice" is perfectly acceptable for both the noun and verb forms. That is to say, anyone who claims that Americans are "wrong" to use the spelling of "practice" as a noun are no more authoritative than those who claim Brits are "wrong" to spell "colour" with that extraneous "u".

I doubt any of us can speak for "LDS" as a group. In any case, I see no reason to interpret this verse as you have apparently done, where "contend for the faith" means "fight for Christianity". "The faith" is a private thing nurtured in one's soul. Alma 32 makes it clear that we need to nurture our understanding of the word with faith, so that it grows up to a tree of life. This seems to me to be what Jude is saying: Fight to gain and then to keep your testimony of truth.

Wingnut beat me to "loose vs lose". It's vs its: The apostrophe means either contraction ("there's" = "there is" or "there has") or possessiveness ("man's" = "of or belonging to the man"). "Its" is a special case, and is always the possessive ("I called the dog, but it didn't know its own name"). "It's" is always a contraction meaning "it is", "it has", or "it was" ("It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood"). PS "Practise" is merely the British variant spelling of "practice".

From what I have read of your posts, Snow, you would appear to be describing yourself.

Is this also your response to the women who whine and moan about how badly the Church "patriarchy" treats them? Or is your condescension reserved solely for the men?

Sacrilege. Making merchandise of the gospel is never good sense (even if it is good cents).

How funny! That's exactly how we Americans feel.

I am deeply concerned about the high cost of books. I am inspired to great heights by receiving free books from novelists.

If you like novels, that is probably because you like following a story line. Which scriptures have a story line you can follow? Old Testament: Sort of. Certainly Genesis does, Exodus and Leviticus, too, and other books like Judges, Ruth, and the books of the kings (I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles). But there is no cohesive story line running through it.New Testament: Most Christians enjoy reading the New Testament because they find it inspirational, but it does not really have a "story line" as such.Book of Mormon: Yes. This book has a strong story line involving the history of the Nephite nation, from its birth to its death.Doctrine & Covenants: Nope. It's a list of revelations about related, tangentially related, and unrelated topics.Pearl of Great Price: Sort of. See "Old Testament" above. No real story line running through it.So my opinion is: Start with the Book of Mormon. Read one chapter every day. Some days, that might take as much as 30 minutes (depending on how fast you read), but most days it's a 5- to 10-minute job. When you get done, read it again. After a few times, branch out and give the New Testament a try. Then reread the Book of Mormon. Then try reading the Doctrine and Covenants; with your newly established scriptural foundation, you will find it quite interesting. Take a couple of weeks at some point to read the Pearl of Great Price, and you will find it is well-named. Save the Old Testament until you have read the other scriptures and have some foundation in scripture study. After a while (a few months, maybe a few years), you will find that scripture study is not a chore. It's very enjoyable! You might even find that your scripture study time is a highlight of your day, something not to be missed.