In my last post I wrote about how we are all forced to take a thought and translate it into words and that this is a sloppy and imperfect process. To make matters worse, the person that has to take those words and decode them back into a thought will fail to do so correctly in many cases because they’ll get stuck on the words used, either because they don’t realize words have many meanings or because they have incentive to misunderstand.
In this post, I want to apply what we’ve discussed to a real life situation: Bruce R. McConkie’s talk on worshipping Jesus.
Case Study 2: Do Mormons Worship Jesus?
The word-offense in question comes from Bruce R. McConkie’s now famous (infamous?) talk entitled “Our Relationship with the Lord” where McConkie states that Mormons do not worship Jesus. Continue reading…
I love words - I love to read, write, talk - but I think words leave out almost everything. That [is] frustrat[ing]… feeling that what we can share with other people is so much more limited than what we actually experience… (link)– Jaron Lanier
Oh, Lord, deliver us in due time from the little, narrow prison, almost as it were, total darkness of paper, pen, and ink; - and a crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language. — Joseph Smith (History of the Church 1:299)
I’ve thought a lot about the confines of language in the last several years. Having a thought and expressing that thought such that another person understands it perfectly are two very different things. Continue reading…
Only months into my mission we stopped to meet a man that had grown up Mormon but had left the Church and was now attending a Method Church with his wife and family. He was very interested in his forgotten Mormon heritage and enjoyed having us stop by to talk religion. Continue reading…
Clay Whipkey and I are in China — and visited the Great Wall 2 days ago. As we contemplated what to discuss on top of the wall — there was only one real option.
We hope you enjoy. All the best to our long lost friends. We miss you.
When I was a kid in Southern California, it was obvious to me that there were two kinds of people in the world: Mormons and the rest. As I got older, the rest became more differentiated; there were Catholics and Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Baptists, Syrian Orthodox, Church of Christers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and even some people who claimed to have no religion at all. I was puzzled at one family’s celebration of Christmas when they apparently didn’t really even belong to any particular religion that I could discern.
As I attended high school and early-morning seminary, I began to notice that there was more than one kind of Mormon in the world as well. Some Mormons had such different attitudes and beliefs from me that I sometimes felt like I had grown up in a different church. Also, some Mormons I knew made strange comments, like whites shouldn’t date those of other races because the prophets have counseled us not to, or Americans shouldn’t pay income taxes because the prophets said not to. To my horror, as one raised by a baby-boomer mom to respect Martin Luther King and John Kennedy, some even used statements of the BRETHREN to condemn the civil rights movement as communist-led and hence Satanic. Continue reading…
From p. 102 of An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown:
(Brown addressing a group of 75 LDS servicemen during World War II):
Upon assembling, I asked the men present how many of them had been on missions. Fully 50 percent of them raised their hands. I then designated six of them to come up and prepare and administer the sacrament. I appointed another six to sit on the opposite side of the stand and be prepared to speak. I looked at my minister friend, who was sitting on my right hand, and found he had his mouth open with surprise and amazement that I had the audacity to call young men out of a military unit to become suddenly ministers of the gospel.
I then asked what they would like to sing, and almost with one voice they replied, “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” I asked if anyone present had ever led the music, and again over 50 percent of them raised their hands. I selected one of them to take charge of the singing and asked if anyone could play a portable organ. A good percentage of them had had some experience in that field, and I appointed one to play the organ.
We had no books, we had no leaflets or anything else to refer to for the words of the hymn, but those young men sang the four verses of “Come, Come, Ye Saints” without a quiver. [Italics mine]
That said — in part 3 of this series, I’m going to make my argument that within this interview, we can see yet further signs that both Robert Millet, and the LDS Church, are becoming more and more open/liberal/progressive/tolerant in their willingness to allow for a “Sunstone” or even a “New Order Mormon“-like perspective when it comes to an LDS belief/testimony.
Here are the signs and tea leaves I’ve identified in my own personal Mormonism Rorscharch test…. Continue reading…
What do we NOT know about the story that the church is not able to tell us? (we should always remember that possibility)
What do you think about this statement, “They said he didn’t participate in the ward enough, hadn’t been to church enough and hadn’t gone in and asked for a calling,”
What do you think about this statement, “All the stake president would say was, ‘I hope you don’t hurt your son by making a big issue out of this.’ “
The more I listen to this interview — the more I enjoy and respect Dr. Millet. I have even listened to the extended interview now, which I definitely recommend. And while I have at least a few posts planned where I hope to express what I loved about this interview, as part 2 of this series, I want to highlight something that made me a bit uncomfortable.
Let me begin with my disclaimer — as some of you may have realized, I am struggling (as a member of the LDS church) with the way that church leaders (as of late) appear to be publicly distancing themselves from many of the tenets of the “gospel” that I grew up with. This is complicated by the fact that while I am happy to see many of these changes — I also am simultaneously fearful that as we “assimilate” into mainstream U.S. culture by playing up our commonalities with others — and distancing ourselves from the differences — we will ultimately weaken the church I love, by weakening the core beliefs/theology that once made us strong.
I really, really enjoyed Krista Tippett’s latest interview with (perhaps) the LDS Church’s arch-theologian: Dr. Robert Millet. I have about 4 or 5 posts in me (at least) about this interview — and here is the first.
Towards the beginning of the interview, the following conversation ensues about the nature of God:
Krista: And Elhohim (God the Father) you understand to be a corporeal being, who was once a man? Like us?
Evangelical Christians have been very vocal over the last century in denouncing Mormons as a “non-Christian” religion. Even the more moderate Catholic and Protestant sects have followed suit. Should I care if my Christian neighbors call me a non-Christian despite my belief in Jesus as Son of God, God the Son, and Savior of the world?
With the Mitt Romney’s presidential run I’ve seen much written on the subject of Mormons being “non-Christians.” While some reporting is better than others, the general consensus of the media seems to be that “Christians” don’t consider Mormons to be Christians, but Mormons want to be called Christians desperately and feel hurt or left out because their “neighbors” won’t call them “Christians” too. As of yet, I’ve never seen a single media article on the subject ask the most obvious questions of all:
How do you define “Christian?”
Is your definition of “Christian” the dictionary definition or a non-standard one?
What is it about Mormon teachings that falls outside of your definition of “Christian?”
I love Krista Tippett’s “Speaking of Faith”, and I love Mormonism — which makes this a must-listen. I hope it’s good. What did you think? Continue reading…
All the best to our long lost friends. We miss you.
