It's Time for Peace on Earth, Good Will to All

It's been a long, cold, lonely Winter. And it only started a couple of days ago!

The problem was that the Fall was pretty tough. The Malheur defendants were sent free (well, some went back to jail awaiting trial in Nevada); there was an active-shooter incident at the school where my wife teaches (the Science Teacher hero was in our home the other night as my wife is Science supervisor and we hosted the Holiday dinner); and, then there was that horrible man elected president. That caused some serious trauma for some.

So, I return to the events of summer to catch a bright light for Christmas.

In our wandering of the National Gallery in London, we came across the original of one of my favorite Nativities.

There it was in all its Glory! And I mean Glory! The Christ Child glows for all the world to behold, especially the poor shepherds.

I love this one as it is contemporary to my distant Cousin Poet, Henry Vaughan, and his twin, Thomas, the highly religious Alchemist married to Rebecca.

Here is my photo of the entire piece:

It is floor-to-ceiling huge, larger than life, as it should be.

May God bless us everyone!

And my wish to all is a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays for all who seek joy and peace!

And speaking of Peace, I leave you with another Christmas Poem of Henry Vaughan:

The Nativity

Peace? and to all the world? sure, One
And He the Prince of Peace, hath none.
He travels to be born, and then
Is born to travel more again.
Poor Galilee! thou canst not be
The place for His nativity.
His restless mother's called away,
And not delivered till she pay.
     A tax? 'tis so still! we can see
The church thrive in her misery;
And like her Head at Bethlem, rise
When she, oppressed with troubles, lies.
Rise? should all fall, we cannot be
In more extremities than He.
Great Type of passions! come what will,
Thy grief exceeds all copies still.
Thou cam'st from heaven to earth, that we
Might go from earth to heaven with Thee.
And though Thou foundest no welcome here,
Thou didst provide us mansions there.
A stable was Thy court, and when
Men turned to beasts, beasts would be men.
They were Thy courtiers, others none;
And their poor manger was Thy throne.
No swaddling silks Thy limbs did fold,
Though Thou couldst turn Thy rays to gold.
No rockers waited on Thy birth,
No cradles stirred, nor songs of mirth;
But her chaste lap and sacred breast
Which lodged Thee first did give Thee rest.
     But stay: what light is that doth stream,
And drop here in a gilded beam?
It is Thy star runs page, and brings
Thy tributary Eastern kings.
Lord! grant some light to us, that we
May with them find the way to Thee.
Behold what mists eclipse the day:
How dark it is! shed down one ray
To guide us out of this sad night,
And say once more, "Let there be light."

Universal Salvation by Christ's Grace After All We Can Do Together

LDS Temple Baptistry with Window "into the World of Light"

My eyes are opening to a new concept of religious faith that is wonderful!

I'm no theologian and certainly no official spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, my deep dives into family history work and temple ordinances and sealings for those beyond the grave who have gone into the world of light are opening my eyes to that light.

It is a unique form of Universalism that the Prophet Joseph Smith preached for it required hard work on our part, not for our own salvation so much as for the benefit of others and all of humanity as a family.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Romantic Sensuality

"Oh, Moon, grow bright! And make this endless day endless night!"
Courtesy NASA

Yeah, I'll probably get in trouble for this one.

Some of you may recall a couple of weeks ago when my wife left town for a few days and I made the lachrymose mistake of listening to the musicals Carousel and West Side Story. This morning I woke from a strange dream with both Shakespeare's Falstaff (Prince Hal's good friend) and Prospero (from The Tempest) quoting Stephen Sondheim with the line in the above NASA caption. It must mean something.

Last Sunday after church, my wife and I watched the recording from that day's Mo-Tab Choir broadcast in which they sang, you guessed it, Tonight from West Side Story. I found that a moving while somewhat odd choice for the Choir on Sunday morning. With the full romantic and rather sensual lines. I think it was the imagery of Sun, Moon, and Stars of Heavenly Glory that got it approved. Here's the full lyric from the duet, and later, Tony and Maria in the quintet:

Why I Cry

I don't know when doves cry, only when I do.

I would seriously buy this music video if it were available for purchase on iTunes. I'll put it in here so I know where to find it easily. Best.Music.Video.Ever:

The Swan of Usk

Photo taken by me August 20, 2010 in Gwent, Wales.*

Just finished a novel based on the life of Cousin Henry Vaughan, Silurist. It's long out of print but I got it fairly inexpensively through Abe Books, a wonderful resource for anything ever in print, especially from Britain. To be entirely proper here, I must cite it as: The Swan of Usk: A Historical Novel, by Helen Ashton (Collins, London 1940).

As I suspected while reading the book, Ashton was a nurse during the Great War and then, as I hadn't suspected, went on to become a medical doctor. This served her well in writing of Cousin Henry as he served as a surgeon/doctor with the King's forces during the English Civil War. He was a Healer and Poet in some contrast to his twin brother Tom, who was a more swashbuckling Cavalier and then an Alchemist in search of the Philosopher's Stone.

Ride Bull At Six

Yes, I am a bit enigmatic and philosophical today. A matching clue is in the title of a Cat Stevens Album cover I used to stare at as I tried to figure out what it meant. That was in caveman days before the internet.

We went with some friends to see the Scottish play last night. The Cedar City Shakespeare Festival had its school-touring group at the Cultural Center in West Valley with an abbreviated version of Macbeth. They didn't seem to have cut out any of the murders or blood. It was a bit odd with an abbreviated cast with some playing several different roles. "Is that Banquo's ghost again? No, he's just a door guard."

Lady Macbeth was played well but by a short, light-haired woman. No one will ever match the one and only Lady Macbeth, my 11th-grade English teacher. Tall, dark, beautiful, and scary. That's the play we studied with her as my friends and I memorized all the lines with swear words in them. "Lay on, MacDuff! And DAMNED be him who first cries, "Hold, enough!"

Superstar Faith Crises - 2014, 1972, and 33 or so A.D.

My first true twitterpation was with a dear girl a year older than me. That made her within the Mormon cultural expectation of no-dating-before-16, but I, alas, was only fifteen. Of course she was Lutheran so the whole thing didn't matter from her perspective.

She wore a red velvet cape in cooler weather. She was into Mary Stewart's Hollow Hills and Egyptian mummies, especially how they took the brains out with a hook through the nose. She loved the word "goodly." What was there not to like? And she was a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber's and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar (1970).

Well aware that many consider the Rock Opera heretical and spiritually offense, I have no problem if you skip this posting. I worried about it back then. There was guidance from my church that it was irreverent and offensive. A girl in my ward, also a year or two older than I, once gave a talk about how she stood for her religious principles and refused to sing "Hosanna" from Superstar with the school choir. I had seen her down at Juanita Beach attempting a tan on her back with the top of her two-piece untied, so I didn't give much heed to what she said (Yes, I was very judgmental in those days for which I repent).

Finding Our Cousins WITH Our Cousins

Happy Mothers Day, Elinor!

Her card was carefully placed on top so I could tell the Sealer at the Bountiful Temple that she was the Matriarch of the whole group of family names we took to be sealed.

It was a lot of fun with typical family confusion to meet up with three of my dad's cousins and one spouse at the Temple yesterday morning. We thought it would be good to get some sealings done together for our shared family. Several of us have been working on this even before the Church put out this great video with Elder Anderson:

Some Just Want Hell

Two things in Mormon History & Doctrine just struck me. I think they make a connection.

I'm still finishing up the really good history, Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations, by Mark Lyman Staker. The author makes a compelling case with contemporaneous sources and later reports from first-hand witnesses that the motivation for the mobbing, tar & feathering, and near murder of Joseph Smith in March 1832 had absolutely nothing to do with any form of polygamy or sexual impropriety of any kind. It seems Fawn Brodie carried over a mistake in history that the Eli Johnson involved was the son of John Johnson concerned about his sister's honor when he was actually John Johnson's brother, uncle to Marinda Johnson, who was opposed to Mormonism on doctrinal grounds. Several others in the mob were disaffected or former Mormons, even former leaders. The revenge motivation of speculative psychology dissipates and the only thing left may be religious persecution.

It's the chronology closely following The Vision, now known as Doctrine & Covenants, Section 76 that nails it. The mobbing in Hiram, Ohio happened just a week or so after The Vision became public. The controversy was the new doctrine with its near Universalism, dispensing with the either/or of heaven and hell in mainstream Christianity of that day. Well, just read The Vision and think about it for yourself. Some with interests in the Disciples of Christ, the Baptists, or having left Mormonism, took offense at the new doctrine and their religious fervor, resentment, and fury may have led them to violence.

Bandaging in Heaven & on Earth

Waking up yesterday, the theme of my Sacrament Talk today came to me. I've had it prepared for some time with the scriptures and quotes I want to use which are the only parts I type out to quote right. The rest is organized in my head and just seems to come out as the Spirit directs.

The thought that came to me was that the word "sealing" could easily be replaced by "healing" and the binding in Heaven and on earth could easily apply to the bandaging of wounds through the Atonement of Jesus Christ by the authority of the priesthood ordinances. This is made available to all, living and dead to seal or heal families to be together through the eternities.

Yeah, we've been on these themes before and I won't give up. Here are the scriptures:

The Gospel ≠ Politics

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, atoned for our sins and resurrected from the grave so that we all will rise in resurrection and stand before Him to be judged. We will inherit a kingdom of glory (with a few exceptions). Those who exercise Faith in Christ, Repent, are Baptized by His authority, Receive and live by the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end keeping the Commandments (Moses's 10 plus a few related others you'll find in your Temple Recommend interview or the Temple itself), will be joint heirs with Christ of all that the Father has. (See 3 Nephi 27:13-27; D&C 76; Romans 8:17) And this is available to all, living or dead. (See D&C 128).

Now, what the Gospel is not:

Power from on High

John Wheelwright - 1961?
About the time of the story

Being the oldest child of an oldest child up the paternal side, I was privileged to know three of those great-grandparents. John Hyrum Wheelwright was born in 1882 and died in 1963, so my overlap with him wasn't long and we didn't live nearby. There were visits and a story that was passed down about me and Grandpa.

We were at their home in Ogden and I was about three. My parents and great-grandparents suddenly noticed that I was no longer there. I had gone out the door, down the steps, and on down the sidewalk along Quincy Avenue. It was probably my dad who ran and scooped me up. My Great-Grandpa Wheelwright chuckling on the porch said, "Let 'im go! He seems to know where he's going!"

Yep. A great family story. Yet tonight sitting in the Temple as my daughter received her endowment of priesthood power from on high for her upcoming marriage sealing, I seemed to hear those actual words from Grandpa in dim folds of memory or maybe he was there whispering to my soul.

Satan Never Really Wanted to Make Us All "Good"

One of the prime examples of scripture taken out of context to score political points against any progressive idea (and of course, the evils of communist domination - pretty much the same thing for a lot of people) is the one about Satan robbing us of agency to force us all to be good, falsely interpreted as you can't do "good" with government.

And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.

But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me— Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.

Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. Moses 4:1-4.

Good Advice from Anonymous D on Blogging and Life

In some email exchanges about my new blogging opportunities at MormonDems.com, my good buddy offers me this:

I don’t worry about such things going to your head, or really anything about you. If I were in your place the only concern I would have would be maintaining my intellectual integrity. I guess that’s the soul of the artist, what little there is of it in me. The whole subject of draping your personal belief on the gospel has been a real bugaboo with me of late. I’m constantly reminded of the various tales of the counsel in heaven, how that has been co-opted to argue against communism, socialism, health care.

Recently, and you made a comment on this about rape, chastity, and virtue, but the thing is that Moroni 9:9 wasn't meant as a comment about sin. The Lamanite young women were not sinful, but the Nephite men robbed them in a very real way of something they can never get back - [their innocence]. Even with the healing of the Atonement and feeling perfectly clean, victims of such things go through the rest of their lives changed. I’m not saying that the object lessons we teach about the atonement, with the nail leaving a hole, or other craziness are true, they aren’t. But still in this life we live with the burden of things taken, the result of our own sins or others.

Religious Freedom (Diversity?) in America

My wife asked for my help as she is working on a national committee drafting new handbooks for a certain youth organization of boys that shall go nameless. (But if it still exists in a few months and the handbooks get published, I'll let you know what parts are mine.)

This specific assignment was to draft up a couple of lines about religious heroes in America. With my passionately moderate bias to be inclusive and diverse, I found that to be a rather difficult challenge. I mean, we didn't even let Hindus into this country until 1965! Sometimes the realization of how far we fall short of our ideals that are more often taken for granted than actually accomplished is staggering.

Taking A-5 to the Temple

My son, A-5 (fifth child) and I at the Bountiful Temple this afternoon

One of the requirements for a missionary once they have a call is to go to the House of the Lord to be endowed with power from on high. My second daughter, A-4, has to wait a few more weeks until just before her wedding in the Temple to receive the same endowment as she chose not to go on a mission (which is just fine by me and the Lord).

A Voice from the Dust

Salt Lake City Cemetery from Find a Grave

We talk a lot in the LDS Church about the Book of Mormon being the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 29 about a "voice from the dust." In fact, the Book of Mormon itself makes the claim. I believe it.

Yet there there are other voices related to these principles. One of them came to me today.

There Are No Words. . . .

So I'm going to leave it to the Majikat.

Yes, this is a Valentine's Day posting, so fair warning. But let me explain my heartache at first hearing the Foreigner Suite performed live on national TV. I was sixteen and longed so much for the kind of love the Cat was singing about - it physically hurt. I had no idea that I would find it, and only a short six years later, but that seemed like an eternity to me. Now my eternity of love has gone on some thirty plus years which is equally nothing to eternity. So my hope and prayer is that everyone will find love. "And maybe some day, we'll all die in love" and go on to the eternities in love.

Cat Stevens - Foreigner Suite - ABC In Concert, Nov. 10, 1973

The Purpose of Temples . . . and Libraries

My grandsons listening to me read from The Hobbit this morning

My Mom & Dad read to us to the extent that I seem to remember it vaguely. I don't recall either of my grandfathers ever reading to me. And good guys that they were in many ways, I don't see that as very likely for either of them. My kids will remember me reading to them when they were young. I read all of LOTR at least a couple of times, the Oz books, and all of Harry Potter out loud at least once. Well, maybe our youngest was old enough to read the last one or two on his own. I would love nothing more than to have those moments back or this scene above to continue forever.

This is the ideal. And I don't know how I even got here. Many people don't have these opportunities, not even all the faithful Saints. And even I would love to be able to sit with my two grandfathers, or my grandmothers even more, and have them read to me. There must be some hope that it will be made right in the eternities.

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

We had a wonderful evening last night with the future in-laws of my son who is engaged to be married in May. He and his fiancé are a great match for each other. Her parents and brother and sister are great people too. We felt an instant connection with many shared life experiences--even knowing some of the same people as the mom grew up just a few blocks from our present home.

Cultural Mormonism can be interesting because there are so many things in common with people you may have never met before. And while a clear sub-culture of its own, it is not homogeneous. There are many varieties of belief and practice and life-style. And there are a lot of Mormon families I wouldn't feel the same level of comfort with my son marrying one of their daughters.