May
25
2011
Poor Wayfaring Man
In the previous post, I focused on the fact that 12 year-old young women in the Church are taught, in YW Lesson Manual 1, Lesson 5, to find joy in their mysterious “divine potential”. It is mysterious because Lesson 5, despite using the term repeatedly, never reveals exactly what that “divine potential” is. The mystery is rendered non-mysterious and solved, however, by reading through the group of lessons in the manual that follow Lesson 5. Lessons 6 – 8 seem to flesh out the concept that Lesson 5 merely hints about. Here is the whole group of lessons, in summary form: Continue reading
4 comments | tags: Conformity, General Conference, LDS Church Sunday curriculum, LDS morals and ethics, LDS Social Circles, LDS social pressure, obedience, orthodoxy enforcement, Quentin L. Cook, sexism, Young Women organization, youth in the Church | posted in List Item 03, List Item 04, List Item 10, List Item 12, List Item 13, List Item 16, List Item 22, List Item 24, Mormon Culture, Mormon Stories
Mar
10
2010
Poor Wayfaring Man
As noted in a previous post, Church leaders often struggle to control how the lifeblood of the Church (i.e., personal reassurance that one is on the path to salvation in the Celestial Kingdom–a concept I’ve termed “Hope”) is distributed to, and apportioned among, the members of the Church. Below are two examples of such battles.
Example 1: Elder Poelman’s View of Divine Love:
About a month after McConkie’s speech excoriating George Pace for promoting the concept of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Elder Ronald E. Poelman, a fairly new member of the First Quorum of the Seventy (one level below the apostles in the Church hierarchy) gave an address in General Conference which appears to have been carefully worded to imply the existence of a personal relationship with the Lord, without crossing any of the lines that McConkie had drawn. Elder Poelman’s talk included the following statement: Continue reading
no comments | tags: Apostasy, Bruce R. McConkie, BYU, censorship, Conformity, criticism, divine love, Ensign Magazine, general authorities, General Conference, George Orwell, George Pace, heresy, LDS legalism, LDS spirituality, lifeblood, Living Systems, Mormon History, Nineteen Eighty-Four, obedience, orthodoxy enforcement, priesthood authority, Ronald E. Poelman, Russell M. Nelson, Sunstone Magazine | posted in List Item 02, List Item 03, List Item 04, List Item 08, List Item 09, List Item 21, List Item 22, List Item 23, List Item 24, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Mar
9
2010
Poor Wayfaring Man
As noted in a previous post, Church leaders often struggle to control how the lifeblood of the Church (i.e., personal reassurance that one is on the path to salvation in the Celestial Kingdom–a concept I’ve termed “Hope”) is distributed to, and apportioned among, the members of the Church. Below is an example of one such battle.
In the early 1980’s, a BYU professor named George Pace had previously given speeches and written a book promoting the idea that people should “center their lives on Christ and…develop their own personal relationship with Him.” Even though Pace was simply echoing ideas recently taught in General Conference by then-apostle (and future First Presidency Counselor) James E. Faust, his “taking out the middle man” approach to interacting with the Savior prompted a humiliating public rebuke from Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, which included the following counsel: Continue reading
3 comments | tags: Apostasy, Bruce R. McConkie, BYU, Conformity, general authorities, General Conference, George Pace, heresy, hope for salvation, James E. Faust, LDS morals and ethics, LDS social pressure, LDS spirituality, lifeblood, Living Systems, obedience, orthodoxy enforcement, populism, priesthood authority, prophets | posted in List Item 03, List Item 04, List Item 08, List Item 09, List Item 22, List Item 24, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Feb
18
2010
Poor Wayfaring Man
Here is another post inspired, in part, by a reader’s comment. Deep Throat in the Deep South, in a comment rich with interesting Mormon cultural material, wrote the following:
Every blessing we have is predicated upon a law. You break the law, the blessing is gone.
There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130: 20-21)
One must be intelligent not to confuse administrative actions with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (i.e. truth) in its purest mode. There is a different between administration of earthly issues, the Truth of the Gospel, and, and what I call the “Doctrine of the Culture,” that some people cling to instead of the doctrine.
As a Mormon, I struggled with the legalistic LDS belief that all blessings a person receives from God are actually dependent upon his or her obedience to a specific Law (or body of Laws) of Heaven. The reason I struggled is that I could never pin down exactly what the Law was, despite the fact that I was desperate to follow it. (That seems to be a common theme in the LDS Church.) Continue reading
no comments | tags: Apostasy, Book of Mormon historicity, Boyd K. Packer, Brigham Young, doctrine & covenants, general authorities, Gordon B. Hinckley, heresy, LDS apologetics, LDS legalism, LDS spirituality, Leaving the Church, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon fundamentalism, Mormon History, obedience, polygamy, priesthood ordinances, prophets, skepticism, testimony, Truth | posted in List Item 01, List Item 19, List Item 20, List Item 23, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Feb
13
2010
Poor Wayfaring Man
A reader posted a comment recently, asking two questions. Good ones. I answered the first one in my previous post, and the second one here.
Mormon Woman Wondering asked:
Please help me understand how you…speak with your children, with integrity to your beliefs and with sensitivity to their need for something to hold onto in this world.
This is a tough question, particularly for somebody like me, with a spouse who is active in the Church, and who wants our kids to be active too. Obviously, my solution is a compromise, and could possibly have been different if she felt differently. But I think this solution does take into account the potential need for kids to have something to hold onto as they develop their own worldview. Continue reading
4 comments | tags: inactivity, LDS Church Sunday curriculum, LDS morals and ethics, LDS social pressure, Leaving the Church, mixed-faith marriage, orthodoxy enforcement, raising kids | posted in List Item 05, List Item 08, List Item 22, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Feb
12
2010
Poor Wayfaring Man
A reader posted a comment recently, asking two questions. Good ones. I will answer one of them here, and the other one in my next post.
Mormon Woman Wondering asked:
Please help me understand how you bore the gut-hole created by losing your faith.
I am not sure I understand what “gut-hole” means in this context. I have some guesses: Is it the psychological turmoil a person goes through when the philosophical basis for her lifestyle and choices is revealed to be deeply flawed and unreliable, and needs to be replaced? Is it the anxiety that accompanies the realization that she doesn’t know what to replace it with? Is it the nagging worry that she has set her children up to fail–to trust people and ideas that are not trustworthy? Is it the disappointment at finding that so much of her life has been spent earnestly pursuing and investing in what is ultimately a high-stakes fantasy? Continue reading
1 comment | tags: angst, Apostasy, Buddhism, doctrine & covenants, experience and understanding, inactivity, LDS Social Circles, Leaving the Church, parenting, Siddhartha | posted in List Item 22, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Nov
12
2009
Poor Wayfaring Man
My mom and dad married in the Salt Lake Temple at the ages of 18 and 19, respectively. They were civilly divorced when I was still a little kid.
By “civilly divorced”, I don’t mean to say that the divorce process was completed in a civil manner, without petty bickering (though I believe that is true). I mean they were legally divorced. Free, in the eyes of the state, to remarry and move on with their lives.
This is an important point, because their divorce was not fully recognized by the LDS Church. Continue reading
3 comments | tags: Catholicism, divorce, general authorities, Gordon B. Hinckley, Larry King, LDS morals and ethics, local authorities, Marriage, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon fundamentalism, polygamy, separation of church and state | posted in List Item 03, List Item 13, List Item 16, List Item 17, List Item 19, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories
Nov
11
2009
Poor Wayfaring Man
Like every other Mormon missionary, my mission started with a stay in the Missionary Training Center (the “MTC”). I will probably have more to say about this topic in the future, but for my purposes today, I will just say that the MTC fills the same role as boot camp does for the military–it is meant to break down the new recruits and re-mold them into homogeneous parts of a mighty army. In the MTC, part of that process involves convincing the new recruits that they are sinners, and in need of repentance and reconciliation with God in order to avoid being a complete failures as missionaries.
As a new missionary, I was in the (common?) position of having never really leveled with my local bishop back home about grave sins like masturbation and/or looking at pornography. Continue reading
no comments | tags: Authority, confession, Conformity, Covenants, Holy Ghost, LDS missionary work, LDS morals and ethics, LDS spirituality, MTC, orthodoxy enforcement, pornography, repentance, sexuality, sin, worthiness | posted in List Item 06, List Item 17, Mormon Culture, Mormon Stories
Nov
1
2009
Poor Wayfaring Man
My professor at BYU once asked us to read the first couple of chapters of the Book of Mormon–the First Book of Nephi. The book starts with a story about Nephi’s father, a well-heeled man named Lehi, who has a vision from God, in which the Lord tells him to pack up his things, leave his home in Jerusalem, and depart with his family into the wilderness. Lehi obeys, but some of his sons are harder to convince than others that Jerusalem is to be destroyed and that wandering in the wilderness is the will of God for them. The skeptical sons in the family are Laman and Lemuel, and the believers are Nephi and Sam. My professor asked us, as devout Mormons, which of the brothers we were like.
In case you are wondering, the right answer is always “Nephi”. Continue reading
1 comment | tags: Book of Mormon stories, BYU, Conformity, Mormon fundamentalism, obedience, prophets, revelation, skepticism | posted in List Item 23, List Item 24, Mormon Culture, Mormon Stories
Oct
26
2009
Poor Wayfaring Man
The “Covenanting with the Lord” program, discussed in the previous post, is interesting to me because it puts to the test the promises of the Lord found in LDS scripture, and the beliefs of the mainstream LDS Church regarding those promises. It is anchored in the concept of testimony, relying on a person’s ability to discern the promptings of the Holy Ghost to come up with solutions to a given problem. Once a solution is found, especially if it requires divine intervention, it is presented to the Lord for ratification (and miracles).
Continue reading
no comments | tags: Covenanting with the Lord, Covenants, criticism, general authorities, Holy Ghost, LDS missionary work, LDS spirituality, Mormon Doctrine, obedience, spiritual discernment, testimony | posted in List Item 01, List Item 06, List Item 10, Mormon Culture, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Stories