Free-Will Families

One of the things I did right when I was a Bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 20 years ago, was to have some really good talks with the combined youth of the ward. One of my favorites was to talk about the joy there is in proper intimate expression between husband and wife and in creating families.

Not everyone has this opportunity due to circumstances of life - and we talked about that. We also talked about how rare it is in the world for a lot of reasons - mostly the unwillingness of males, mainly, to be responsible for sexual expression and the fact of much sexual activity outside of a godly marriage. Even in marriages supposedly done right, there is still a lot of abuse, hurt, and shame. Strangely, while all can sin, most of these are still male-caused problems.

To celebrate the positives and to try and promote agency, responsibility, and the male and female positives in life, I would have a young man stand up and read what Adam said after leaving the Garden and being instructed by the Angel of the Lord:

My Double-Date As a Missionary

It's time to tell this story. . . .

My missionary companion and friend gave me his permission some time ago. My policy remains to avoid naming names to preserve some privacy, at least to avoid my friends' names turning up on an internet search linked to my blog. And it does protect the innocent as we all were in this unusual circumstance.

Mormon Missionaries are supposed to be celibate for their missionary terms of service which is nearly always successful. We aren't even supposed to date or socialize with romantic intentions as our time is totally dedicated to the Lord's work. This is quite an amazing accomplishment for young men and women in their late teens and early twenties as they learn that the spiritual aspects of life can be more powerful than natural, human behavior.

Language Training Mission (LTM) and Provo Temple, Fall 1976

In the preparatory Language Training Mission ("LTM" now, Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, they drilled into us how we needed to be cautious because young women in Brazil could be very, uhm, tempting and some would be interested in snatching up a young North-American if they could. My companion friend was "snatched."

Still, it was all innocent if some of it slightly outside of regular missionary rules of decorum.

A Glimpse of my 2nd-Great Grandmother Vaughn

They must have liked the hymn "How Firm a Foundation" in the Ogden Third Ward Relief Society. They appear to have sung it at least every other meeting.

My 2nd-Great Grandmother, "Sr. Isabella Baun was sustained into [their] society" on 1 August 1888, a year after her arrival from England. In those days, it wasn't automatic that LDS ladies would be members of the Relief Society. You had to join and apparently be "sustained" regardless of whether the secretary could spell your name.

The Ogden Third Ward had a meeting house on the Tabernacle square, but the Relief Society often met in the "vestry of the tabernacle." That was a grand building indeed!

Ogden Tabernacle, on the block where the Temple is today.

Nearly Dying by Lightning, Falling, or Exposure - A Typical Scout Adventure

Lightning would have been the quickest. Falling most painful. And exposure takes a while but you usually fall asleep first which I didn't that night as I kept arranging my heat-reflective space blanket to alternate sweating and freezing. And we somehow survived.

My Facebook Scout Challenge led me to seek out the Scouts from when I was an Assistant Scoutmaster in Bountiful, Utah, Stone Creek District, Great Salt Lake Council in the late 1980s. We worked with our boys on hiking and camping and did a pretty good preparation for a 50-mile hike across the Uintah Mountains, North to South, Wyoming to Utah.

Day 3 of the 50-miler. Two passes and a day of high altitude adventure. "Nephite Altar" circled in red upper right.

A feeling of dread woke with me on Day 3. We were camped above 11,000 feet on the slopes of Mt. Lovenia. I had discovered "the Nephite Altar" as we called it the bright and sunny evening before. You need to see it yourself to understand. That block of rock will not be going anywhere as it hasn't for a few thousand years. But that next morning, the pass above us was fogged in.

The "Nephite Altar" from Camp No. 2 facing East, of course.

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.

To Us, the Bloggernacle Is a Mass of Confusion

In a recent email exchange, Anonymous D expressed some frustrations with a couple of posts and endless comments on some "other" blogs of a "different" disposition. In expressing his general contempt for the Bloggernacle he goes on:

We seem, in our modern Mormon intellectual smugness, to be doing the same thing that was done in the 1930's, and which is fashionable every once in a while, which is de-mystifying the scriptures, removing any trace of the supernatural.  (Think Thomas Jefferson's Bible).  It's a nice easy way to have it both ways, to say, well, I like the Book of Mormon I think it teaches great things, but all that nonsense about the angel and golden plates?  If the origin stories are not true, especially of the Book of Mormon, why bother with it at all? There are plenty of nice moralistic stories you can use to lead a better, happier life. I wouldn't bother with the Book of Mormon or the Church if I didn't actually believe it, or Jesus for that matter if I thought He was just a great moral instructor.    

 

So with that, I wave goodbye to the Bloggernacle forever.  I'm sure I'll be missed what with my zero comments and postings.

 

 Then, me, and so forth: 

The Audacity of Mormonism

Do you think I don't see it? I do! 

And I'm not afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing to get thrown out. Still, the whole thing remains absolutely crazy! A teenage boy seeing God, angelic visitors, "translations" of golden plates by looking through rocks (with or without hat or breastplate), ancient Christians in America, polygamy, inexplicable polyandry, militia violence, over-zealous preachings and mass migrations to a desert, priesthood initiatory ceremonies for men and women, living and dead. It's absurd!

Why do I stay? Confirmation bias? Maybe to some extent we all have it about some things. (If you don't believe me just check out FOX News for five minutes). Family or societal pressure? Ask my family how that plan's going to make me conservative politically. Dysfunction and mental illness? Same thing.

Here's the deal. I didn't just fall out of bed one day and start believing this stuff. And it hasn't been brainwashed into me. I've visited other churches. I've read all the controversies. Sometimes I'm surprised, but what I don't do is fall out of bed and stop believing all this stuff.

Mechanism and Meaning - Book Report

Usually I would wait until I finished reading before recommending. No wait necessary with the kindred spirit I've found with Dr. Sam Brown's new book, First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple (Maxwell Institute, Provo, Utah 2014). I just read a paragraph that I have to share:

. . . . Mechanism is not meaning.

To Whom Shall We Go?

Anonymous D and I have been exchanging a lot of emails on the latest issues tearing up the Bloggernacle. Also inspired by the post on these themes at another friend's Keepapitchinin, Mormon History blog, I share some excerpts from Anonymous D's thoughts with regard to the sound and the fury:

None of them mean anything. Not one addresses the central issues we deal with. They are all momentary distractions from the central questions and facts. We are all going to die, then what? Do you have an answer supposedly-LDS-blogger? Do the things you are ever so concerned about answer those questions? If I (which I am not in the slightest, tempted to do) follow them, am I happier? No. In the end, I've had experiences I can't deny: experiences about Jesus; experiences about the Book of Mormon, multiple times; experiences and testimonies about the Temple; experiences about my family in the Temple; These weren't imaginary things.

Four Things I Will Never Do

1. Answer the question: "Is my wife perfect?"

2. Answer the question: "Is my church perfect?"

3. Make a list of what is possibly wrong with my wife.

4. Make a list of what is possibly wrong with my church.

I love my wife and my church. I have committed and covenanted to be with them for my whole life and even beyond. The four things listed above are entirely irrelevant to the love, commitments, and covenants that sustain me.

Live-Blogging LDS General Conference April 2014 - Sunday PM

So I had about a 20 minute nap frequently interrupted by a grandson asking which of two different colors of pencils he should use for conference bingo. And who taught my nearly 2-year-old grandson to call me "Grampy" because when he says it, it sounds like "Grumpy."

President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of Twelve:
War brings things to [was it focus or clarity or what? He's not looking at all well]
When he went off to WWII he wanted to know testimony.
Things of great worth can't be taught -can only be learned.

Preacher of the Gospel

The extraordinary thing is that this is not extraordinary. It is so simple and familiar that it could have happened yesterday.

LDS missionaries were taught by the time of my mission not to engage in "Bible-bashing" with ministers of other faiths but simply to bear testimony and depart if the minister was unwilling to participate in a calm discussion. I did that a few times.

A missionary in 1841 England, a new convert himself, and only 20-years of age, recorded this exchange in his missionary journal after meeting with some ministers, one of whom he knew from before his Mormon baptism:

To Weigh a Man's Soul

Dan Jones - Welsh Missionary

Long ago when my Portuguese Professor at the Y inquired about my Welsh surname, he also shared with me an excerpt from the diary of his ancestor, the famous riverboat captain and Welsh missionary, Dan Jones. At the time and with my limited knowledge of my family history, I didn't connect to the Welsh stories. All I know is that my family with the Welsh surname had come to the US from northern England and arrived too late on faster steamship and train to be considered pioneers (they would have had to arrive in Utah between 1847 and 1869 before the railroad was completed).

The story was still a powerful one. It helped form the basis of my commitment to follow those ordained of God even with faults - theirs and mine. The story follows, "hics" and all:

Universal At Onement

Whether it's some unified field theory in Physics, Zion of one heart and mind in a religious context, or the constitutional ideal of a more perfect Union, we seem to have an innate human need to find unifying answers. I suppose the philosophical Darwinists of human behavior call this one of those traits generations bred into our genes for species survival. But it sure seems that we, like the poet Yeats, want a power to unite what may be whirling out from a center that cannot hold.

Stop. Hold on. That's what I choose to do. The alternatives only lead me to despair.

Faith & Evidence

The Coma Galaxy Cluster , NASA photo

Without coming to any definitive resolution, I engaged in an interesting discussion of Faith & Evidence with a good friend and my oldest daughter. The friend is close in age to my daughter and they are mutual friends. I'm glad I can call my daughter my friend as well - and my friend is like a son. That's what happens when you're bishop.

The discussion resulted from the last post on the Book of  Mormon and a book that may or may not have influenced Joseph. The participants have granted me permission to share the dialogue here:

Daniel's Stone

The Book of Mormon in many languages

The Book of Mormon has been translated from English into 106 languages! Nobody's seen the original Reformed Egyptian for a while, but at least twelve did (one + three + eight = 12. An interesting number).

This struck me yesterday when I went to the local Distribution Center, blessedly, just a couple of blocks away right here in Centerville. My wife asked me to pick up a paperback, standard blue copy of the Book of Mormon for my grandson's baptism. In the old days (about 3 years ago), it was traditional to buy a nice set of scriptures for an eight-year-old being baptized. But now in this digital age, my wife was trying to make a point about marking scriptures by having me show them on my smartphone while our grandson marked them in a more traditional way in the blue paperback.

“Extra” Pre-1978 Missionary Lesson: Blacks & the Priesthood

[This was cross-posted on Keepapitchinin.org this morning. And I refer you to this link for some interesting comments there including my responses to some of the comments. A palestra original em português, se acha aqui. For my historical and current views on the removal of the Priesthood ban, see my page to the right.]

This is my translation of the “extra” discussion we taught to prospective members of African ancestry in the Brazil Porto Alegre Mission 1976-1978. It was referred to as the “Eighth Discussion” or “Discussion K,” the Baptismal Challenge, the short Discussion H, not being counted in the numbering system. (The lettering started with “C” for some reason). It was not an official church missionary discussion. And I certainly understood it that way at the time. It was shared around the mission in an informal way - never having any direct instruction from our Mission President to teach it. I seem to recall the copy I had was on a mimeographed sheet.

The principal false doctrines included are the interpretations from Abraham 1 and 3:22-23, and Moses 7:22 about Cain, a priesthood curse, blackness, etc. These scriptures are subject to many interpretations and do not compel the conclusions of this “extra” discussion or a priesthood ban by revelation. The other, and maybe even more troubling false doctrine, is a rather broad extrapolation from Abraham 3:22-23 that we are all born in this life according to what we deserved in the pre-existence. I don’t think the scripture leads to that interpretation at all. The idea does appear in Mormon folklore, but is not official doctrine of the LDS Church. I remember a World Religion class taught by Spencer J. Palmer at BYU in about 1980 where that idea was shot down pretty clearly.

Encontro de Ex-Missionários - Mission Reunion

An emotionally and spiritually exhausting day. [Oh, and physically] We started with the ward clean-up where we went around to various widows in the ward and did yard work in the rain. Then I went with my friend in the ward from my mission to another mission friend's house near Foothill Village to participate in a video simulcast of a conference in Brasil that my wife and I figured we could neither schedule nor afford in person. After that, I came home to find my parents here - a surprise to me (except for a couple of texts that they had arrived). My wife knew they were coming, but didn't tell me which works well in helping to avoid anxiety issues (and we'll leave that right there.)

But the important thing was the mission reunion of the Brazil, Porto Alegre Mission (Missão do Brasil, Porto Alegre) 1976-1979.. It was scheduled to correspond with our President's 80th birthday a few days ago. The few of us meeting here in town had a great time just with ourselves. This was good because the connection to Brasil was not that great. Especially the audio, especially when they neglected to place the mike next to the camera so when we saw particular old companions waiving at us, we couldn't always hear them!

Watching ourselves watch ourselves (upper right) and a few others

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.

"Social Justice" at Church

Yes, I rabble-roused again in High Priests Group yesterday. I was not teaching, but listening patiently to the lesson on life-long conversion (Lesson 3 in Lorenzo Snow, Presidents of the Church Manual) and the discussion was on being responsible for your own testimony. Which was fine. But then one of my buddies pipes up with "So, no 'Social Justice' here with equal results for everybody."

It required response. As diplomatically and soft-spoken as I could, I said, "I detect a slight political message in my friend ____'s comment. Can I just say that "Social Justice" does not mean equal results, it means EQUAL OPPORTUNITY!" (I didn't use caps or yell in the class, that's just for the benefit of the readers here. I went on using my Jedi lawyer tricks (and hoping for the Spirit) to work this back into the lesson and on subject with a discussion of how we of course had to be responsible for our own testimony, but we can't do it alone. We are a community of believers to support each other and we need this community to take the message out to those who have never had an opportunity to hear the message to have their own testimony.