One Way to Read It

I make one comment in church: "We are sinners, too." I have never said it in those exact words, but that is the general idea. We find it hard to admit that we are sinners. When we read about Lamanites, or Judas, or King David, we think : Those are the bad guys. I usually don't hear people in Sunday school say, "This story teaches us that we should repent." The closest the conversation usually come is "we should avoid people like that." People like that are us. I may not be the king of Jerusalem, but I might commit adultery in my heart . I may not betray Christ for 30 pieces of silver, but I might figuratively trample him under my feet by not obeying his commandments. So when, in Sunday School, I feel the spirit of self-righteousness beginning to stifle out the spirit of God, I raise my hand and say: "We are sinners too." picture's source This isn't Sunday school, but I want to raise my hand, here in America, and remind us that ...

I'm reading Robin Meyer's book . I recommend you read this entire speech. Read some of the bullets if you're in a hurry. There's a video below where he covers some of the same stuff. "As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor. Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having ...

Crystal commented , "I don't know where the line is between being a Proud American and being a Prideful American. Maybe you could write me an essay on that ;)" I've taken my time to think about this before I answered it, and I think it comes down to this: It is good to love your country—unless that love causes you to think, feel, or act out of harmony with the Gospel.

This month's Ensign magazine correlates exactly with what's going on today. It's as if the leaders of the church are inspired or something. Elder Romney's (not Mitt) talk correlates more closely to my opinion of the Stimulus Package than any other earwash opinion I've heard yet. (Open his talk by clicking on the link to understand the next reference) Firstly, I don't believe the seagull story. It's a good parable, with truthful application, but I don't believe it really happened. Who pays that much attention to gulls? But the interpretation of the loss of independence is true: " Our efforts [helping the poor] must always be directed toward making able-bodied people self-reliant. " Which is " tied very closely to freedom itself ." Republicans currently wag their tongues at spending. Spending, spending, spending is the new catchphrase of the Republican Party. The problem is not that we spend money, but how we spend money. Poor...

People with influence propagate this kind of garbage. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Unusual Suspect Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things With Demetri Martin Funny Political News Joke of the Day This goes along well with the Voltaire comment above. We shouldn't use fear to push our ideologies, nor make decisions out of fear. The Democrats may have used some doom and gloom predictions to get the stimulus bill passed, but their predictions at least followed reason, i.e., this action or inaction will result in this terrible outcome. Even prophets make such predictions. But this kind of fear-mongering is on a whole new level. Using this Biblical imagery of the beast creates a fanatical fear devoid of reason. The Dems' doom and gloom prediction was at least based in reality. Our actual actions can result in actual consequences. But broadcasting fearful scriptural interpretations is not honest journalism, it is fear-mongering. It twists Americans' reve...

In response to an article in BYU's Political Review quite a discussion started: Javier wrote: "I would hope at a place like BYU, where the gospel of Jesus Christ is taught, that we would not get advice from Jimmy Carter, the AP, and CNN, but from what know is true… The truth is that Israel and Jerusalem belong to the Jewish people, not the Palestinians. At the Second Coming, Jesus Christ will defend Israel against all of her enemies when all hope is lost and destruction seems eminent. I side with the Gospel and Jesus Christ." My wife wrote: "Wow. It’s really nice to simplify things to the point of ridiculousness, Javier. I would hope at a place like BYU, where the gospel of Jesus Christ is taught, that we would follow the words of the Savior to love everyone, including our so-called enemies." Then Javier wrote: "To: BYU Liberals From: Javier I truly believe many of you liberals should be ashamed of yourselves on this. It is time for you to set aside your i...

A seminary teacher told me that this scripture on using animals for food— "And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be a used , only in times of winter, or of cold, or b famine ." —had a misplaced comma, and should read: "And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used only in times of winter, or of cold, or of famine." This minor change kind of undermines the need for having that scripture. And also conflicts with the previous verse which dictates that meats are to be "used sparingly." Other teachers have said that this verse says this because that's how people ate meat in Joseph Smith's day, but that advances in refrigeration and processing have made this obsolete. These men are taking great authority unto themselves by voiding scripture. Not only people in Joseph Smith's day, but our own ancestors stretching back through the millennia have eaten this way. Which means we, too, are genetically adapted to eat this way. That w...

A thought I had, made on Illustrator.

I supported my church's decision to fight against Prop. 8? Why? Because I believe that our church is led by a prophet. If the prophet's decisions are unpopular, they are even more likely to be from God. However, many others supported Prop. 8 because they were homophobic. It is easy to hate homosexuality if you do not struggle with it. We are prone to preach against the wicked motes in other peoples' eyes without seeing your own beams. "The devil flatters us that we are very righteous, when we are feeding on the faults of others." - Joseph Smith. So if you take up a crusade against sin, let it begin in your own heart. This is in response to my cousin, who wrote the following: "The only reason for global warming is all you queers and queer lovers. Get back in your damn closet. If we are so concerned about the planet lets take all the queers and make fertilizer out of them and put them under a tree. How's that for an idea for getting rid of your carbon...

Giuliani and Palin made fun of Obama for being a community organizer. I thought this was an apt rebuttal: I know this is old news, but Palin and Giuliani will surely rear their heads again (2012). It's good to remember that they think Jesus is a loser. In other news: Kathy's friend, a BYU fan, described BYU's loss to the U. of. U. in football to "how we felt on November 4th." Perhaps she forgot that Kathy didn't feel a terrible sense of loss and dread on the 4th. And I have a friend who is just rubbing her hands together in anticipation of Obama screwing up. If I could say a prayer at the inauguration it would include: "We ask that Thou wilt remove ignorance and blind partisanship from our hearts, that we may preserve the Democracy which Thou gave us through our inspired fore-fathers."

ProjectCensored.org came up with a list of 25 news stories that didn't make the news: #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation # 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA # 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business # 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America? # 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets # 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act # 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking # 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly # 9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify # 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture # 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror # 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind # 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq # 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste # 15 Worldwide Slavery # 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights # 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights # 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers # 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extincti...

Look at your spouse, or significant other. Now imagine you were told that what you felt for them was wrong. That it was a sin to be attracted to them. That you could never be with them, or you would burn in hell. That is one reason people protested prop. 8. The LA temple closed yesterday because of the protests. A coworker said, "That stinks for people who planned on getting married." She meant the Mormon couples who might have scheduled a wedding inside the temple on that day. They will have the inconvenience of getting married somewhere else or waiting until the next day. She didn't think of those in-love couples who now can never get married. Period. Gay and lesbian couples, who love each other, will have to wait indefinitely. Gay marriage may be a moral issue for those who struggle with same-gender attraction. But a lack of charity is the sin many of us commit by our opposition of their choices. Their choices may be immoral, and it may be correct for us to oppo...

A man protesting at a Mormon temple gave me a good idea. Another reason to love our enemies, we could learn from them. My friend Steve, my cousin Mike , and a bazillion other people voted McCain because of gay marriage. They want to protect the family. I told Steve that McCain had disqualified himself as "protector of the family" because he destroyed his own family by committing adultery . More LDS men are at risk of ruining their families by committing adultery than they are by . . . what is the other risk? The gay one? Am I at risk for suddenly going gay and leaving my wife? Not likely. On the other hand, infidelity and divorce are rampant. At the Republican National Convention this year many Republican officials stopped by the local nudie bar. I'm sure these same men are rampant marriage protectionists. The Daily Show was there to make fun of them. Homosexual intercourse is a sin. Why? Because it will keep you from obtaining the highest level of the celestial ...

Was President Monson wrong on Prop 8? Such a thought is immediately deemed a heresy by most members of the church. But other faithful members disagree with the prophet, while still believing that he is the only man alive who can receive revelation for the entire earth. Some of my Mormon friends have said, "I cannot understand someone who could disagree with the prophet." I do not understand either, but I want to, even if I disagree with them. When most people say they do not understand something, they leave it at that. Such a lack of the want to learn will surely lead to damnation just as well as any other heresy. For we cannot be saved in ignorance . Prophets have never been popular. The Bible, if anything, is a history of the rejection of the prophets. Those who grasp most closely to the Bible now days scoff at the idea of another prophet coming, and so the cycle of rejection continues. Those of us who believe in a living prophet fear rejecting him and then being coun...

An earlier post mentioned Jehovah's Witnesses incidentally and I was unfair. I merely mentioned them to describe how my system of taking ideas to the extreme worked. I thought of the Jehovah's Witnesses example years ago, and posted it again without giving it another thought. Of the responses I've received, one said that they would be able to subdue a violent man with peaceful means, or at least without weapons of murder. The other said that my point was flawed because if everyone was a Jehovah's Witness there wouldn't be violence at all. So let's put it this way. Let's say an entire nation converts to their church, and that other nations turn against them in war. Or, if perhaps the nations within which they live decided to wipe them out on a mass scale, what would happen? The Savior taught us to turn the other cheek when attacked. So-called Christian nations have reverently set that aside as unrealistic. But what really happens if a people follows thi...

Ignorant of the scriptures, many Christians have mingled their current lifestyle and political opinions with tidbits of the Gospel and thought it the order of heaven. They despise the poor as lazy and honor the rich as hardworking. They have replaced the glory of heaven with the glimmer of gold. And though they profess to worship the living God their hearts are upon their treasures and their money is their god. I would like to remind them of the rich man and Lazarus . I'm sure the rich man worked very hard and deserved every penny he owned. And yet he lifts his eyes up in hell. No mention is made of the poor man's life choices. He could have been as lazy as the curs with whom he associated. Because he had not much to give, much was not required. The rich have worked hard for what they have, and feel they deserve it. But they base their sense of justice on a twisted worldview, forgetting that the social systems under which we currently live were formed by the god of this ...

No one can hurt the U.S. but us. 2 Nephi 1 31 . . . Nothing, save it shall be iniquity among them, shall harm or disturb their prosperity upon the face of this land forever. 32 Wherefore, if ye shall keep the commandments of the Lord, the Lord hath consecrated this land for the security of thy seed . . . I've repeated this a lot. We do not need our military to be so big. We do not need troops permanently stationed in over 100 countries. We do not need army troops on the ground inside the U.S. We do not needs stockpiles of nuclear weapons. If we are righteous, God will protect us. If not . . . Majority Rule on Abortion and Gay Marriage Mosiah 29 26 Now it is not common that the a voice of the people desireth anything b contrary to that whichis right ; but it is common for the lesser part of the c people to desire that which is not right ; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people. 27 And ...

Kathy here: today's guest blogger. While Christopher posts most everything on this blog, I figure it's about time for me to weigh in again. Last night, I watched the movie Why We Fight. I recommend it. I am sickened at how many boys and girls we've poured into our wars: for what? For money. Yes, there's a time to stand up and fight for what we believe in, but the way we've gone about it is so greedy and inflammatory that we can't say we're good, fighting against evil. We've complicated the issue with dollar bills. We can't take down the military-industrial complex overnight. It's entrenched in our government, in our money, in our very way of life. But we CAN resist the fighting mindset as individuals. Think about it; we fight and fight and fight. Not only do we send bombs and tanks and guns and troops to other countries, but we fight amongst ourselves. Some McCain supporters shout horrifying epithets during rallies , while some Obama sup...

Satan does not smoke or drink. He has no tattoos. He's never committed adultery, or any other sexual sin. He's never stolen. He's never murdered. He's never done any of the things we usually think of as sin, because he does not have a body capable of such sins. What has he done that makes him the worst of the worst? He's a self-righteous prick. Click here for more .

Someone anonymously posted: "What is the liberal point of view toward Jeremiah Wright? I'm curious as to what someone that is for Obama thinks about that? Personally it makes me nervous." Stephen Colbert proves that black people aren't scary McCain/Palin have tried to taint Obama's reputation through the logical fallacy of guilt by association. (See this attempt at character assassination .) To show you how ridiculous guilt by association is, I'll apply it to myself. My father was an adulterer and is an atheist. My mother fornicated with her live in boyfriend for years. I lived with an uncle who viewed pornography. I have a cousin who smokes weed and is in prison for rape. I consider two gay men, Dennis and Randy, as uncles. I often visited their house, sometimes alone, while growing up. One of my dearest childhood friends is homosexual. One of my favorite college professors counseled a couple to get an abortion while he served as a bishop. I must be a sexua...