- rogerdhansen on CFM 7/20-7/26: Thoughts and Poetry for “Our Eyes Are upon Thee”: ““One of the reasons we need peace is that it allows us to hear both God and His prophets. When we don’t have peace, we need a prophetic voice to tell us how to obtain the peace that the Lord wants to provide us. I’m 81, the USA has been at war (or armed conflict) for most of my life. From Korea to Iran and Ukraine. I have heard no prophetic voice advocating for peace. And all the Mormon’s in Congress are hawks. The one action that Church leaders did take was to come out against the MX missile deployment in Utah’s West Desert. To further complicate the issue, the P3 refused to meet with the world’s foremost advocate for peace: the Dali Lama. Instead they met with then president Trump. Even the Pope has taken a strong against the war in Iran. Unfortunately our prayers will not bring peace. The Lord helps those who help themselves.” Jul 14, 02:04
- on What You Should Talk About in the Foyer (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7/12: “Thx to Kent Larson’s entry above, I just had a vivid memory of my own encounter w Elder Perry. He addressed a Saturday session of our stake conference (in E Utah), and I also recall that he got right next to us in the benches to make his talk. Because of that talk, I was motivated to memorize the Elizabeth Barrett poem “How Do I Love Thee?”, which came in handy 18 yrs later during an impromptu sermon to a non-denominational church group on a military base on New Year’s Eve. The “foyer” in this post is pertinent to me, because my strongest impression from my latest Sunday’s session came from our foyer. Due to circumstances, I was enjoying our Sac Mtg from the foyer thru the overhead speaker, when an old friend from another ward (their mtg was just letting out) recognized me and stopped to visit. We were wardmates decades before, until our suburb’s density increased and the inevitable ward divisions had placed us in different groups. I remembered this man as a strong, intellectually-driven caring person, a man who had made a fair living selling encyclopedias (before home computers, of course). But this week I realized that 4 decades brings changes, some uplifting, some grinding. He now has a debilitating condition which makes him dependent on his wife. In the few moments I was able to talk to him before the wife whisked him home (so she could return to the chapel and take care of more church-related stuff), I realized that he was seeking somebody to talk to, to review and catalog his challenges, and to be interested in his past. I realize that I should find an opportunity to rekindle our friendship on a more regular basis. Our friendship of 4 decades ago was merely based on monthly home-teacher calls, but I think we all enjoyed the church-driven excuse to spend time together back then. Now, I think this lovely man needs an ear and an interest.” Jul 14, 00:00
- on What You Should Talk About in the Foyer (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7/12: “We talked about the “testing” that we undergo in this life. This was about a conference talk. The discussion was about how testing proves how good we are. Some people talked about automobile proving grounds, testing how good the engineering was. I proposed that testing is necessary for learning. You test the auto on the proving ground. If there is a failure, you learn and re-engineer the produce. Likewise, if we are tested in life, it is so we can learn, not to measure our worth. I pointed out that life can deliver horrid “tests.” A few years ago we visited the mass graves in St. Petersburg, Russia, caused by the Germans starving the population. Think of being a father watching you children starving to death and praying to God for help. What a test. Afterward a friend asked it God tests us so harshly, should we not be testing our physical children as well with harsh tests? This is what God does. I suggested to him that much of what God subjects us to is for contrast. So that we can really appreciate the celestial realms without death and suffering. We are here to learn what evil really is. This is not a test, but an education.” Jul 13, 17:07
- on “Being Man and Woman Both”: The Unfiltered Voice of a Pioneer Missionary Wife: “It is definitely hard on families. In some ways, the emphasis on strong, “forever” families was more a mid-twentieth-century missionary tactic that then looped back into making the Church more deeply focused on the idea. Back then, the millennial emphasis on converting people before Jesus returned took precedence. But it definitely left a lot of scars on families. While we put a lot of emphasis on the trek west in our storytelling in the Church, the most difficult things were often what came after. Not a cougar, I am a strong believer in candid discussion of what is both going well and what is wrong or difficult in the Church. But it does go against a lot of the culture to do so, particularly in Church settings. There is also the opposite end of things to balance against – i.e., becoming exculsively focused on what is wrong to the point that we distort reality. But, again, I personally find it to be healthy to be able to openly discuss issues and concerns.” Jul 13, 10:44
- on The Gospel and Entropy: ““So yes, the fact that God can overcome thermodynamics is huge, and glorious.” It’s not clear that God can overcome thermodynamics.” Jul 13, 03:42
- on What You Should Talk About in the Foyer (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 7/12: “Here’s a few of my thoughts in reaction to what I experienced in Church yesterday (7/12): One of the speakers re-told the story of Esther from the bible, reading a previously-written text. While I’m familiar with the story, it was different from the biblical text, and the speaker chose to focus on Esther’s courage. Even though very little was different from the biblical text, it still made me think about what we can get out of re-telling scripture stories (or General Conference talks, for that matter). Even when simply reading the text of the scripture aloud, the emphasis and cadence of what we read can provide a different reading from what someone else would do. Isn’t there value in re-telling the scriptures? For Elders Quorum meeting the chairs in the gym were arranged (as usual) in a circle, allowing everyone to see each other. But today it occurred to me that this arrangement actually makes the room seem smaller — almost like the proper size for the number of people we have. I like this arrangement because I think it feels more welcoming and encourages better participation from everyone there, instead of rows of chairs where no-one sits on the front row, and those in the back tend to shy away from participating. In contrast to this, after a talk that mentioned Elder L. Tom Perry, I was in conversation with a local leader who once attended a leadership meeting with Elder Perry. He was impressed that Elder Perry had chosen to speak from the front of the room, instead of up on the podium. That simple move makes the experience more intimate and less formal, again encouraging participation. I wish there were more times when it seemed appropriate to do that. We discussed the idea of “Enduring to the End”, and the teacher suggested that we shouldn’t think that we will end up exhausted at the end, like we had spent every last bit of effort to endure. This made me wonder where the ‘exhausted’ idea comes from—I suspect it’s related to the hero fantasy we often see in films, where the protagonist wins an epic battle to save everyone. Sometimes these tropes worm their way into our perception of the gospel with deceptive results. ” Jul 12, 17:12
- on “Being Man and Woman Both”: The Unfiltered Voice of a Pioneer Missionary Wife: “Jack, Hugh Nibley faced backlash and the potential of church discipline. He only survived due to high-placed relatives and friends in church leadership.” Jul 12, 02:24
- on “Being Man and Woman Both”: The Unfiltered Voice of a Pioneer Missionary Wife: “I like what Neal A. Maxwell said about Hugh Nibley’s criticism of the saints: “His commitment is so visible and so pronounced and so repetitively stated that that’s not even the issue. So then we can get on to what Hugh is saying.”” Jul 11, 16:43
- on “Being Man and Woman Both”: The Unfiltered Voice of a Pioneer Missionary Wife: “In response to Cougar, yes, we absolutely need to be honest and not only acknowledge negative experiences but also mediocre ones and “blah” feelings. Otherwise, good people seeking to gain, maintain, or strengthen testimonies may feel ignored, unvalidated, or unworthy–or that something’s “wrong” with them. Plus, how can the Church improve and grow if members are always happy and positive? Look at all the changes to the temple ceremonies over the past few years (let alone since the 1980s when I was endowed)–aren’t these due at least in part to leaders surveying members who asked sincere questions and provided honest feedback? No organization can survive if participants are indoctrinated or brainwashed to be “yes” men and women. As a relatively simple example, after a Women’s Broadcast several years ago I felt that one of the male speakers massively stereotyped and oversimplified women. A family member made a brief comment about her equally negative reaction and it was an overwhelming “Yes! I’m not alone!”” Jul 11, 13:20
- on “Being Man and Woman Both”: The Unfiltered Voice of a Pioneer Missionary Wife: “Chad, I appreciate the post, and it coincides with something I’ve been thinking about lately. Is it culturally appropriate to share with other Latter-day Saints in a public forum stories about the “scars” we carry with us from membership and service in the Church. It’s been my experience that we Latter-day Saints don’t know what to do with experiences that aren’t really faith-promoting. What do you do with stories where a young man serves a mission and feels like it was a waste of time and an exercise in learning pressure sales tactics? Or a women who receives her endowment for the first time and has a terrible experience that causes to never want to attend again? Even when General Authorities tell stories from the pulpit that have a sad theme, they do their best to highlight the good that resulted even when you can kinda tell the outcome wasn’t particularly positive. We like to think that the gospel and the Church are forces for good in our lives, and often they are, but sometimes they aren’t and I don’t know that we as a Church are all that comfortable with vocalizing that. Thoughts?” Jul 11, 07:03
