The Holy Yew Becomes Holier

"That shady city of Palm Trees. . . ."

Palms don't grow in Britain. There are some surprising palmetto-types along the south and western coasts as the temperate climate is warmed by the Gulf Stream. And as Basil Fawlty explains, Torquay is the Riviera of Britain. . . .

So what do they use for Palm Sunday?

Yes, the Holy Yew!

My distant cousin, Henry Vaughan, knew this. And surprised I was to learn that when he wrote of the Palm Tree, it was the Yew! That poem makes so much more sense now so I share it here thinking of that peaceful resting place below the Yew in Llansantffraed Churchyard.

A Heart of Flesh

A-5, third from left.

One of my son's invited me down to Provo today as he was to speak in church and participate in a musical fireside this evening. The trumpet choir of the evening portion is above.

The remainder of this post will be the transcript that my son prepared to give his talk:

New Year’s is often associated with goal setting and resolutions. In Japan, people will choose a kanji, or Chinese character, as their theme for the year. In my Japanese class last January, my sensei asked us each what character we had chosen, and I responded that I chose “kokoro” (心) which translates best to English as the heart. This has become the theme of my scripture study throughout this year.

I’ve always found the heart to be a difficult matter to comprehend, being very analytical and a logic based thinker. I pray that the Spirit will be able to convey my feelings and thoughts to you and whatever inspirations from God that you need in your life right now.

Not Live-Blogging LDS General Conference, Sorry

I haven't left the church. I'll be watching conference to the extent I stay awake. But I'm still in recovery from walking pneumonia and tire easily. Also, I am working on a project of scanning family photos that I can work on at my own pace as I listen.

For real-time and post-time internet access, you can watch conference now from pretty much any where in the world at: LDS.org.

I will be blogging later on some themes. I expect we'll here more about aiding refugees as we've already heard in the first session last week, traditionally Women's Conference, and as recently as yesterday from Mormon Newsroom on refugees in Italy.

Thomas Vaughan and the "Magic" of Adam

You can find this online here.

We're going a little Nibleyesque here as I was startled by some passages I read in the writings of my distant cousin, Thomas Vaughan, the 17th Century Alchemist. The point is, Cousin Thomas draws some very interesting conjectures about the first man, Adam, and his knowledge of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.

First, I must explain that Thomas Vaughan was a very religious man and his study of Alchemy, while a bit unorthodox, fit within his religious faith as he defined Magic in this manner:

Magic is nothing else but the wisdom the the Creator revealed and planted in the creature. . . . Magicians were the first attendants our Savior met withal in this world, and the only philosophers who acknowledged him in the flesh before that he himself discovered it. I find God conversant with them, as he was formerly with the patriarchs; he directs them in their travels with a star, as did the Israelites with a a pillar of fire; he informs them of future dangers in their dreams, that having first seen his Son, they might in the next place see his salvation.*

What I Told BYU About Sex Crimes and the Honor Code

This is a hot topic in the news and bloggernacle these days, and rightfully so. Without dealing with the negatives of any particular situation you may read about on other sites, let me offer here the solution I proposed in response to the LDS Church and Brigham Young University soliciting comments on the bigger issues of sexual assault and the Honor Code.

As for my own bona fides, I am a graduate of BYU, B.A. '82, as is my wife. Four of our children have attended the Y with a fifth to follow (we have one wonderful, red sheep who graduated from the University of Utah which we also respect). I am currently a continuing-education, evening student for my Welsh language audits and am under a current ecclesiastical endorsement to attend the Y that I will have to renew some time this summer.

I wish I had remembered to cut and paste my comment before I clicked "send" and it disappeared into the ether of the interwebs. But here's the gist of it:

A Marvelous Book of Mormon Gift, and a Wonder

Our youngest, A-6, is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cleveland, Ohio. His mission covers the area of Kirtland, Ohio, one of the early centers of the Mormon Church (even though it is a separate, visitors center mission, the Cleveland Mission still holds meetings and visits there.)

He sent us a wonderful present for Christmas, a facsimile edition of the original publication of the Book of Mormon.

Published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now The Community of Christ

I've been meaning to buy one for some years now. I'm glad I didn't so that we could get this from our boy that we assume he purchased in Kirtland. We have early members of the Church on both sides of our family that were in the Kirtland area with the growth of the Church there.

Standing for Something In the Passionate Middle

From part of an email to Anonymous D last night:

this is a time more than ever where it takes courage to stand in the moderate middle. I feel a loyalty to the brethren without vindictive pride. I feel a loyalty to the humanity of gay families with only a broken heart and charity.

Three of my grandsons have a gay great-aunt on their dad's side. We've spent many family times together including when we first moved to Salt Lake and she and her partner had us over for dinner just down the street in Sugarhouse from where my mother-in-law grew up. The aunt's partner passed away from cancer some years ago and she was mourned by us all, especially my grandsons.

Weak as it is to defend myself by saying some of my best friends are Gay, the fact is that they are. One of my Scouts just married his male partner. I wasn't invited, but I would have gone. I saw his very conservative Mormon family do a 180 turn-around from shock and shame to full support in their attitude towards the marriage.

Basic Principles of the Gospel -- in Japan

My Son, A-5, gave a talk in another ward as a "traveling elder" with the Stake High Counselor last Sunday. He shared the text with me so I could post it here:

Minasan konnichiwa!

A-5 on the left

My name is Aaron Vaughn. Recently, I've returned from serving a mission in Nagoya Japan. I grew up down the street in the Centerville 3^rd Ward. This summer, I've just been working with the Bountiful City Parks and Rec, and I will be going down to BYU this next week to play trumpet in the marching band and to study Physics and Japanese.

 

I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak and share some of the experiences I had on my mission regarding how the gospel changes lives.

 

First, I want to ask, what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The first answer that often comes to mind is the 4^th Article of Faith. “The first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” While those are all very important parts of the Gospel, in True to the Faith, we can find a more compact definition. It reads, “The gospel is our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness. The central doctrine of the gospel is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” In Japanese, the word for Gospel, 福音, is made from two characters. “福”which means happiness, and “音”which means sound. So literally, the gospel is a sound of happiness.

Live-Blogging LDS General Conference - Saturday Afternoon - April 2015

We're back! You can watch this live and see past sessions at LDS.org.

Had a nap while one of my boys painted the bathroom. Did a good job too. We'll do another coat when that dries. I was going for the turquoise color of the Caribbean, but it came out more of an "easter-egg" pastel blue - which is cool.

President Uchtdorf reading the sustainings and releases. Primary Presidency and Young Mens Presidency changing. They kept Sister Wixom as President of the Primary and switched out counselors.

Some yahoo is yelling out "No's!!" to sustaining Pres. Monson. Not sure what that is about. Pres. Uchtdorf says the votes are noted. And at the end he asked them to talk to their Stake Presidents . . . .

My 18-year-old is there with friends who had tickets.

Smoothing the Blemishes of Life

My two eldest children, Fall 1985 (Thumb-sucking is no flaw. I did it too.)

It's a New Year, a time for looking forward and back. I've taken advantage of holiday and vacation leave from work to hang around home and spend it with family. I'm also working on a major family/personal history project to scan old photos and get them in digital files in the cloud to share with all my kids.

I've tried to hit the big years of each child's birth. I can't take the whole 30-some years chronologically as that just discourages me. So, the years of interest let me skip around and I get more variety and more done through the phases of our family life.

Brigham Young and a Letter on Apostasy

Some may be wondering with John Lewis lying dead on the floor of a gold-rush saloon. And we are not fully convinced yet, but are pursuing some pretty good leads that Jane (1827) remarried Abednego Johns in Jacks Valley, Nevada and joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And there is some indication that Elinor Jenkins Vaughan Hulet may have been with her, died between 1860-62, and was buried there. But the RLDS baptisms did not occur until at least 1865, after the Civil War.

1862 US Survey of Jacks Valley, Nevada. Courtesy of the Bureau of Land Managment, US Dept. of the Interior.
Abednego John's patent was for the S 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of Sec. 22, and the S 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Sec. 23.
The surveyor, while getting all the land features pretty well (doncha just love these old surveys?) marked A. Johns's house as "A. Johnson."

There were a lot worse things than the RLDS Church (now "The Community of Christ). They had the Book of Mormon, a good part of the Doctrine & Covenants, the Holy Bible and a commitment to the Prophet Joseph Smith (w/o plural marriage). If you had landed in Utah in the midst of the Mormon Reformation, a very bad winter, and the upcoming Utah War, Springville was about the second worse place to be. I don't blame anyone for leaving. It's not my responsibility to judge. And it's not like we've not ever had anyone else in the family choose less activity in the church.

Crime and Preachment

This is such a great newspaper find with Mormon Missionaries and possible family both referenced even if not directly connected.

Monmouthshire Merlin & Silurian, 21 June 1856

First the missionaries. There wasn't much information easily to find about Abednego Spencer Williams (1827-1896) born in Blaenau, Monmouthshire, except that he came to Utah in the 1880s, and is buried in Ogden City Cemetery.

There's a bit more for Israel Evans (1828-1896). His story reads like an overview of westward expansion. Born in Ohio, his parents joined the LDS Church and moved to Missouri when he was only five. They relocated to Nauvoo, Illinois after the expulsion from Missouri and then left Nauvoo ahead of the mobs to follow Brigham Young. Israel marched with the Mormon Battalion in the War with Mexico and was present for the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. Instead of becoming a rich Californian, he went to Utah. He served a four and a half year mission to Wales and led a successful handcart company (only two deaths) to the Valley in the turbulent year of 1857.

The year before, 1856, when Elinor, Jane, John and family left for Utah, Israel helped the Welsh Saints who took the train from Abergavenny and provided a moving account in his journal. He helped the Saints load onto the S. Curling at Liverpool. Elinor had gone a few weeks earlier and sailed on the Enoch Train. John and Jane Vaughan Lewis were likely on that train heading out from Abergavenny and who knows which Vaughans left behind were there to bid farewell:

Bastardy Re-Revisited

We're ready to call it. Rees Price, tailor of Glasbury, is the father of John the B born 1789. We have broken through the brick wall of illegitimate birth.

[Even thought we heard back from our researcher in Wales that the 5th piece is inoperable as a strange coincidence of names (it was a different village, different mother, and apparently a different "Rees Price"), we still think the first four are enough. We'll keep looking, but we may never find anything more solid.]

It's still only a circumstantial case, but all the pieces fit. Here are the parts. You can tell me if you think we got it wrong.

1.  6 March 1789, John, bastard son of Hannah Vaughan, christened in Hay, Breconshire.

The "Well-regulated Militia" IS the National Guard

While not at all the main point, that's my favorite line concept out of the new statement on violent acts in Mormon History from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are like much of the world, sadly, a "warlike people" (Pres. Spencer W. Kimball) and have need of repenting from following false gods. IMO, the militia movement is a "false god."

It is gratifying to see that the statement on our history is pretty much in line with themes I have been promoting since college. It is also in line with what I have been reading and thinking over the years from the Mormon Indian Wars to Mountain Meadows. I have even referenced the Mormon Reformation of 1856-57 and some inappropriately violent fall-out in doing my family history. My friend Ardis at Keepapitchinin.org gets cited in that one as well as in the new statement of history from the Church.

I'm not doing this to toot my own horn (or even Ardis's). My purpose is to promote truth until it has swept every continent and called all the Lord's children to come to Him and not rely on the arm (or arms) of flesh, even those generally good among us who make horrifying mistakes at times. Our role is to be better. To love one another as Jesus taught us - not to promote divisions and hatreds that lead to war and violence.

Live-Blogging LDS General Conference Spring 2014 - Priesthood Session

Hey, it's on TV. DirecTV, BYU TV Channel 374 in Davis Co. It's also live on LDS.org here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng&cid=HPTU040114644

I'm at home in my nice easy chair. Nobody is turning out the lights. My boy still isn't home from drumline competition so this should turn out well for him to meet me here. I'm recording it, too. And we'll probably still go out for ice cream.

Did I just hear Young Women's General Presidency announced? OK. Elder Ridd is in the Young Men's General Presidency. Must be my ears.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve:
Religious Freedom [oops, jumping the gun? . . . yep]
Callings in the church - no up or down. Only forward or backward. [hmm.]
Sister Burton said we need a better understanding of the Priesthood.

Live-Blogging LDS General Conference Spring 2014 - Saturday AM

Here we go! We're just about through all the Mormon movie and book ads.

Watch it LIVE here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng&cid=HPTU040114644

Pres. Uchtdorf conducting. We have a "Firm Foundation" singing in the choir.

Of course I could always get called away to Saturday chores. I did spend 3 hours in the garden last evening when I got home so I wouldn't feel so guilty sitting here today. I decommissioned the snow blower for the season first trying to drain out the gasoline. Then, reading the instructions "Don't drain the gasoline - Let it run until it stops with all the gas burned out" OK, a little eco-unfriendly, but we killed it off in a bout an hour while I did other Spring gardening chores. I just had this brilliant flash with our fence still down since the great East Wind blow down of a while back that maybe I could plant a hedge of lilacs. The wind can't blow them down! We could have a trestle gate with roses over it. Yeah! OK, prayer . . . .

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.

The Doctrine of the Temple

Vaughn Family about 1895. Thomas died in 1894 leaving a widow and 8 children.
My Great-Grandfather is at right front with half a smile.

In Stake Conference a few weeks ago, I was startled to attention when a speaker referenced "the Doctrine of the Temple." I have been looking for a straightforward way to explain it for some time. The speaker went on without such a definition, so maybe it isn't so simple.

Why I'm Not Leaving the Church

This is my manifesto so my friends and family can understand and come to accept my decision. I would hope my numerous blog pieces here exposing my poor soul would have been enough. But I am still caught by surprise now and then by some who declare their intentions towards the Church.

When I was young, I went to church happily, most of the time. (I really did hate that song, "Oh What Do You Do in the Sumertime?" I never did any of those things. It rained all the time. But I was a good frog-catcher.) I was raised by parents who believed and practiced Faith. They certainly had their problems. But one thing they did right was to love us. My mom is always best when she has a project to concentrate on and the three of us kids turned out pretty well, all things considered.

I was of a curious mind. My wife notes about some of my stories from when I was very young how extraordinarily attentive to adults I must have been. And I think that's a good assessment. There was a driving compulsion to figure them out - and myself. I'm still working on that.

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: