Opening sentence = role of religion

This is the part I was not seeing as connected (even though it is in bold print ). Without reading the entire lesson, however, it is difficult to say whether Bro. Bennion meant for that statement to be tied directly to the last sentence of THAT paragraph. As a bold print heading, it could have been tied to a conclusion a few paragraphs down–AFTER the college student exercise. As to looking for God in Bennion’s quote, I would also assume that somewhere in his lesson there is a tie to God and religion, although it is not mentioned in THIS paragraph. If ONE paragraph out of a LESSON on religion indicates that one may find that living a religion plays a constructive role in achieving happiness, it doesn’t seem out of place to me. My patriarchal blessing essentially tells me the same thing.

Is it the job of the correlation committee to take each paragraph and read critically as if it would be used as an independent quote? Thanks for the quote and discussion. It does seem like the phrase “my religion” used to be thrown around more before the days of emphasis of the church’s Christian commonalities.

Hawk–the three hymns I would miss least if we never sang them again: I Believe in Christ, How Great Thou Art, and Scatter Sunshine. (And if “A Child’s Prayer” was in the hymn book, I would put that on my list too).

Hymns are fine, they’re poetry. The assumption is blessings come from God, so that’s cool. Where is God in Bennion’s quote? Look carefully…

I also made 5,000 a week two years ago and I was miserable. The only difference was following the will of God. Go figure.

I now make $7.50 an hour and I am pretty happy again. I have a job where I can study the scriptures 6-7 hours a day, I make my house payment and I have enough to eat and a loving wife. What else do you need?

Would that hymn no longer pass correlation?

This is by far the funniest reply I’ve ever seen in a comment on MormonMatters. Ever.

(I hope it was intentionally funny)

“After all, if the Church isn’t helping you become a better person, you really do need to do an evaluation of the central issue and change something – either your actions / expectations or your church attendance.”

Is it always your fault if you’re not becoming a better person and never the church’s? That certainly simplifies things when it comes to deciding about guilt, failure, etc.. Of course deciding who or what is the church and how it or they have influenced a person might be another matter.

The quote is from Lowell Bennion’s 1940 Institute of Religion manual, The Religion of the Latter-day Saints. It’s a student-centered text which starts with the assumption that the college environment challenges religious faith and spends time dealing with the proper place of religion in a well-rounded student’s life. It gets more interesting from there.

I think this quote would resonate with many members (including in correlation), since I believe there are many people who think like this already.

Bill’s comment is in line with my thoughts on the matter entirely. The human-centered religion isn’t one that I see much in evidence in manuals today, although it is the predominant approach in the life of many Mormons.

This quote is not from an apostle, but he should have been

I think you mailed one of the big reasons this would correlated out of today’s lesson manuals. There are so many. The biggest reason I think this would not make it in today’s curriculum is religion is here presented as a means, not an end. How dare we puny mortals presume to judge the works of God from our miniscule vantage point?

There are more reasons this quote is problematic. Anyone?

My guess: N. Eldon Tanner (If that’s correct, I can claim divine intervention, since I have no idea.)