- Jonathan Green on Vocabulary lesson: “The moments of inspiration have been more frightening than cringeworthy.” Oct 29, 23:30
- on Vocabulary lesson: “I can easily imagine some of the cringeworthy moments that inspired this post. (“What do you mean not everything that ends with ‘Kampf’ is related to Hitler? Next you’ll be telling me not everything that ends with ‘Waffe’ is Nazi!”) It did get my youngest to demonstrate some of the specialized training he received at our local high school. :)” Oct 29, 21:48
- on The Ancient Greek Endowment: “I am so puzzled at what you all see in the temple. I love the reverence for all that is sacred, I say this not in a spirit of attack, but as far as covenants go, I really thought I’d already made these covenants at baptism. But I find no specific enrichment in anything I do in the temple. I experience all kinds of sacred space in my every day life. In a room full of sunshine or a tai chi class or in sacred spaces in nature or gardens. In libraries or classrooms or spaces in which children play. I experience sacred instruction in scripture, poetry or books, theatre or music, or simply in prayerful living and experience in real time. I love Jungian ideas and genuinely experience aspects of his thinking as spiritually useful. So I’d always thought that temple worship would be a good fit for me. Had no negative expectations. So, 40 years on I’m still trying to work out what is ‘literal’ and what ‘figurative’. Maybe I get to make it up as I go along? In which case can’t I just go for a walk and think about the eternal import of trees and soil? Or birth and death? I get the sealing aspects as necessary, but in terms of what I learn from the temple, I actually can’t think of anything 1specific. So then I just finish up thinking I’m bad and wrong and so it becomes a negative experience for me. Which I can live without in a difficult life of caring for sick relatives. Because someone has to do that stuff whilst others enjoy the abstraction of their temple experience.” Oct 29, 12:19
- on Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 10/26: “I particularly liked the Hymns we sang as a congregation; they were some of the older Hymns – perhpas even some that had been used by other Christian denominations for many decades. (I particularly like the old ones. I (we) greatly appreciated taking the Sacrament as well. As for the talks – well, they were the standard, fairly scripted, in the boundaries, culturally acceptable…..entirely banal…speeches. I sure wish there were some way to break this habit.” Oct 28, 15:26
- on Nobody Likes Us: “Its a feature. We are getting disliked for what I see as good reasons that I am fine with by both sides. I reject secular and theological leftism and I reject the theology of the Christian and secular right. I am LDS and that is a unique way of approaching politics and theology” Oct 28, 13:15
- on Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 10/26: “Sacrament speakers were a young grad student couple who just moved into the ward. He talked about how when he was ten, he started paying tithing on his paper route money and immediately got tips that more than made up for it. His ten-year-old conclusion: “tithing is awesome!” He drew on that a couple of months ago when he looked at his last paycheck and compared their bank account to their possible moving expenses. Clicking the donate button was painful, but he did it and they were blessed: their three-day drive across the country went perfectly, and then his car broke down shortly after their arrival when they could afford to be without it for a while. It’s remarkable to me how often the Lord uses tithing to help young people, or people who are young in the gospel, develop faith in him (“prove me now herewith”). Then he sometimes tests that faith later by letting them struggle financially even though they continue to pay tithing. EQ lesson was on Elder Gong’s “No One Sits Alone” talk. One man shared how in their last ward he and his wife had been getting frustrated that no one was reaching out and fellowshipping them, but decided that they would do the reaching out. Then they quickly found that the ward was full of great people. This tied into an observation I read later that the Book of Mormon describes the Church as a small group of ministers and a much larger group of people being ministered too, but in the dispensation of the fullness of time we’re all ministers even though we need to be ministered to as well. Often those happen sequentially: today I bring you a casserole; tomorrow you bring me one. But sometimes they happen simultaneously: if I take it upon myself to ensure that no one sits alone, I’ll never sit alone either.” Oct 28, 12:19
- on Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 10/26: “This last Sunday started with us picking up a mother and two children, rather haphazardly. We went to the house, knock, rang, called, and texted, and waited for about fifteen minutes. While we were heading to church, the mother called back and said they were ready. So we went back to pick them up, and then went on to the meetinghouse. Ward business included a new Relief Society presidency. So after the sacrament and before the first speaker, the outgoing RS president was invited to bear her testimony. That and two longish talks made us run over ten to fifteen minutes. One verse of the rest hymn was sung as the closing hymn. (I’m not sure if someone got bumped.) Before Elders’ Quorum started, our (relatively new) bishop stuck his head in the door, so I briefly told him about problems I’m having with Sunday School. (More on that later.) Elders’ Quorum was on “Feeding the Sheep”, but we only got through two paragraphs because we were short on time. I did interject about the need for accurate membership records. (You can take me out of the clerks’ office after twenty-plus years, but . . . ) About half an hour later was our weekly baptismal service. The new convert was baptized by a ward member (usually it’s an Elder) and this time the ward mission leader (who plans every service down to the T including confirmations) was the voice himself for that, and he invited every MP holder to stand in. (Not many did, I did not.) During the downtime I talked with the outgoing RS president and her counselor about the state of the ward mission program, given how many converts we’ve had in the last two years or so. The mother who we’d picked up had asked us to take them to a real estate appointment after the baptism. We were willing to do that, but the bishop pulled me into his office to talk about my Sunday School concerns. We’re severely understaffed (because of so many teachers getting other callings), and it looks like I have to replace the second counselor. (Said counselor is a stroke survivor and has been less and less functional over the years. We talked about him a little bit.) Fortunately the bishopric is getting together Wednesday night to get these slots filled. Of course, my wife and this family were waiting in our minivan the whole time. (I’d found out later that Alisa had tried to call me three times, but my phone was on “do not disturb”.) We went out to the real estate appointment, and after that stopped at the stake center (not our current building) to show the family. The mother (Stephanie) didn’t want to go in, because she didn’t know if they were going to be moving, etc. So we took them home and dropped them off, and then drove the mile or so home. Alisa and Stephanie talked the whole way there and back about the Church and what it means, etc. It turned out the family is being baptized this next Sunday. Alisa did help Stephanie download Gospel Library on her phone. The fact that we were picking anyone up at all was because the day before, said RS first counselor told us just how stretched out the ward was giving a ride to every friend and new convert who wanted/needed one. (Most of them do not drive for whatever reason.) So Alisa volunteered us.” Oct 28, 11:52
- on Nobody Likes Us: “For the left, it’s mostly politics (everything is mostly politics these days). I saw a distinct shift with Prop 8 and related efforts: while our theology has always been heteronormative, from the left’s perspective we were trying to force it on everyone else. Of course Catholics were right there with us, but the left knows more about Catholics so Prop 8 isn’t their whole impression, and since then there’s been Pope Francis and now Leo. Which does suggest we could change the left’s perceptions if we wanted to, at least to get to a level more like Catholics. It wouldn’t take a full-blown transformation like Stephen describes, but it probably would take more than we’re interested in doing. Things like, say, an official statement about how and why our position has changed from Prop 8 to the Respect for Marriage Act, or an apology for the priesthood ban. Given that everything is mostly politics these days, the fact that the right still doesn’t like us is remarkable. I suspect the mean masks that there’s a group that is just fine with us (Jonathan’s Main Street Republicans) and a substantial group that does consider us mortal enemies comparable to Muslims and atheists. That perception is based on our theology and not something we can ever change. (They also put a lot more time and resources into attacking us than the left does. If the Grand Blanc shooting had really been an “Anti-Christian” attack like the Trump administration talked about initially, I imagine they’d have wanted to “go after” those who radicalized the shooter. That faded pretty fast once it became clear where his inspiration really came from.) But I agree with Stephen: not fitting in with either tribe is a feature, not a bug, and not something we need to worry about fixing.” Oct 28, 11:49
- on Masculine Fidelity and Sexual Propriety in the Media: “RLD, Thanks for slapping down the (likely unintentional) misandry about Testosterone. Testosterone is a necessary sex hormone. I can’t imagine talking about depressive or gossipy women having too much estrogen or something like that. LL, and everyone else, what if that aggressive toxic male behavior we are so quick to dunk on is the other side of the coin of depression and anxiety? What if it’s just as hard to control aggressive responses to stressors as it is depressive and anxiety inducing ones?” Oct 28, 10:20
