Here’s what she said:

Why was this such a big deal to people?

This wasn’t the first time someone had predicted the rapture, and definitely wasn’t the first time someone predicted something pretty much publicly acknowledged as a joke (similar to those who predict the Cubs will win the world series someday).

My friends; this is the power of the new social network.  Sadly, there is no filter for stupid, inane things like this.  There is no editorial control, nor is there power to say “make it stop!”   You either ride the wave, or get out of the water entirely.  Welcome to the future.

My particular group of online associates (OK – “friends” – I guess) had one of two reactions:

1) My more secular friends tended to subtly poke fun at the very idea, wondering why any sensible person would believe that a God-being would descend to earth to burn the wicked and collect the righteous.  Gosh, I love being placed in the wholesale “retarded” category by that group…

2) My religious friends tended to just post comments that warmly and half-heartedly defended the idea that Jesus could/should/would/might come, and quoted scriptures about no one knowing when/if/how it would actually happen, and basically calling this guy who infamously predicted it a nutjob – or false prophet – depending on your particular flavor of religionist-on-religionist condemnation.  It was a pretty entertaining balance some struck between being part of the fun, and yet not undermining their own beliefs.

I decided to stay above the fray on this one – even though some of the comments got pretty good.  Surprisingly, as the week wore on, the comments became more and more telling as to who was actually taking this a little too seriously and a little too far.  The most committed secularists pushed harder while the most committed religionists pushed back.

I started asking myself important questions like: “What happens if I’m on a plane when Jesus comes?” (I was on a plane on Saturday) or “In what time zone, exactly, was the prediction made?”  You know — the really important details that have never been quite clear or distinct.  Instead of worrying too much, however, I chose to roll over and take a nap.

On Saturday, I ended up being in Wal Mart during the appointed hour.  I didn’t notice that Wal Mart was any less busy than usual in our Christian town, though I did notice several people were dressed up (for Wal Mart, that doesn’t take much). I’m assuming that was just in case something happened, they would be able to meet Jesus wearing a fresh coat of lipstick and a nice skirt.

Obviously, nothing happened – and I haven’t even bothered to find out what excuse was given by the guy who predicted it all.

As a person of faith, my personal beliefs on this topic are a little hard to describe.  Yes, I believe Jesus was really the Son of God and he did promise to return in power and glory.  I have to take him at his word, there.  However, I also recognize the pattern that, even right after his death and resurrection, Peter, Paul and the other loyal followers were looking for an immediate return.  Different religious persuasions have gone through cycles of panic and immediacy when it comes to the Second Coming ever since.  My particular religion had a famous period in the early 1900′s where the preaching rhetoric ramped up across the church, and many were whipped up into a pre-Second Coming frenzy.

Looking at these patterns, I choose to believe that it is far liklier that my personal rapture will occur when I go to be judged of God after this life.  The chances are very low that a rapture “event” will occur while I’m living, given the clear fact that centuries have past with each subsequent generation sure that it would happen to them and in their lifetime.  My choice, then, is to just live my life as if death or rapture could come and it wouldn’t matter either way.  I don’t have to get amped up over it at all.  In fact, if I get amped up over it, I’ve missed the point of it entirely.  I just need to be living in a way that my family, my friends, and my God will all be proud to have known me and called me a friend – no matter how the end comes for me.

You’ll have to pardon me if this application of my beliefs is a bit too practical or uninspiring, it’s just how I choose to live and get by each day, retaining some faith without becoming a crazy, fixated lunatic like the people everyone was talking about on Facebook.

One such lesson that I learned from my mission president was based on the New Testament account of the Last Supper.  During the event, the Lord informs his disciples that before the morning, one of them would betray him. Most of us focus on Jesus’ miraculous clairvoyance and wait in suspense for Judas to be named, and in doing so, gloss over an interesting and important verse that comes in between.  The disciples respond to their savior’s accusation:

And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
- Matthew 26:22

The disciple’s response to their master’s allegation that one of them would betray him was not as ours might typically be.  If you were sitting around that table, would you have responded with “Is it I?” or would you have said, “Oooohh… who is it?” Would you have thumbed through the file folder in your brain labeled “People I know that might betray Jesus” or the one labeled “Stuff I’ve done that has betrayed Jesus”?

It’s natural for us to find fault with each other, but not good.  Somehow we are programmed at a young age to feel that the more we can put others down, the higher we will rise.  We are so worried with how well everyone else is doing that we sometimes lose sight of how we, ourselves, are doing.  Sometimes we even seek to remember someone we know is struggling so that we can feel better about our own comparatively small issues.

Finger pointing often becomes a team sport.  Can you imagine the Disciples breaking into a full-on Pick-a-Little-Talk-a-Little number, accusing each other of being the possible betrayer?  Or the whisper campaign theorizing who the traitor would be?

But, no.  Not the Disciples.  Their humble response to this disturbing allegation was: Is it I?

The lesson: we need to check ourselves first.  People living in glass houses shouldn’t cast stones even when they have more rocks in their hands than their neighbors.  When we are being corrected or taught something, especially when we think it was intended for someone else, we should examine ourselves. When we hear about divorce, do we dwell on the couple who is struggling, or do we consider the health of our own marriage?  When we hear about giving back, do we compare ourselves to the one who gives little or do we consider whether we are being generous with what we’ve been blessed with?

…Renewed in spirit, and with fresh new opinions to opine…

…Unashamed of even the most poorly-researched commentary…

…and unafraid of being lampooned, harassed, technologically abused, and left for dead.

Here’s a quick smattering of topics to get us up to speed:

Politics:

Congress now has a “jobs agenda” instead of a “jobs bill.”  Switching from an actual bill to an agenda seems to mean it will be even less likely that anything actually gets done in congress.  Is there a negative approval rating?  That’s seems to be what they are heading for.  People were harassing Obama that he got very little of his ambitious agenda done in his first year, but I would definitely say Congress gets the prize for completely wasting its time working on mondo-legislation that will be forever gridlocked.  My solution?  Congress needs to focus on incremental, consensus change.  Get what you can get, because it will be better than getting nothing at all.

Religion:

Lately I’ve been reading a biography of Brigham Young.  So far, I’m at 1848, right after he’s entered the Salt Lake Valley for the 2nd time.  Here are few things I didn’t know I never wanted to didn’t realize:

• Brigham came from a very poor family
• He was one of the most ardent protectors of Joseph Smith, oftentimes threatening and exposing apostate church members who were seeking to harm him.
• He served only one mission to England, which was less than 18 months, and still baptized and gathered over 8000 converts.  The message was not well received in London, but was best received in the British countryside among the working class.
• Brigham left Winter Quarters shooting directly for the Great Basin, in spite of others who made strong cases for California or Oregon.  It wasn’t quite the ‘wandering children of Israel with miraculous discovery of the Salt Lake Valley’ portrait that has oft been painted.
• After Brigham got to the Valley, he basically turned back around and went directly back to Winter Quarters.  I wasn’t sure I knew that.  He left most of the men of the initial 1847 company there to start planting winter crops, and his thoughts then turned exclusively on initiating the massive migration the following spring.
• I’m surprised how poor of a writer he was.  All of the direct quotes from his diary are extremely poor in grammar and spelling, while things like “Journal of Discourses” are just replete with flowery language.  He must have been a much better orator than he was writer, and he certainly had some help committing it to paper later.

American Idol:

I’m not going to be able to watch the Top 12 Boys and Girls until Thursday… so stay tuned for a massive blog on Thursday.

Seems appropriate for Sunday.

* Note: You will want to listen to this with good speakers with a sub woofer (for the organ).  It sounds pretty crappy on laptop speakers.

Sunday night, I finished reading a biography of Mormon leader David O McKay who served as prophet and President of the LDS Church during the Civil Rights Movement.  In one of the most interesting chapters, the author attempted to characterize  and describe the various thoughts and rhetoric that were circulating amongst the church’s hierarchy during this turbulent time.

The political ideology among the upper echelon of church leaders ranged from the ultra-conservative Ezra Benson, who repeatedly and publicly alleged that the Civil Rights movement was nothing more than a puppet organization of the Soviet communists in a trojan horse plot to take over the United States government, to Hugh Brown, a liberal who consistently (albeit quietly) pressed his Apostolic colleagues, searching for small ways to gain a foothold that would eventually move the church toward a reversal of the long-standing Church policy that excluded people of African descent from becoming a part of the lay Priesthood of the Church.

David O McKay, for his part, tried to hold a moderate course during this time.  It wasn’t by choice, but by the internationalization of the Church that he was forced to grapple with this policy time after time.  Many questions came to his desk dealing with the extensive grey area that existed in the policy.  Exactly how ‘African’ did someone have to be before they were denied the Priesthood?  He took an unprecedentedly liberal position, giving people “the benefit of the doubt” and approving ordinations unless there was explicit evidence or knowledge of African ancestry.  In other words, rather than asking dark-skinned members to prove they weren’t of African descent, they were only asked if they were, which greatly eased the burden on people of mixed heritage.

He began softening the rhetoric toward Blacks and established, if only within the ranks of the General Authorities, the fact that the ban on Priesthood ordination was indeed a Church policy that generations of Church leaders and members had tried to doctrinally justify, rather than an immutable, eternal Church doctrine that was irreversible.  It was scarcely known among Church members at the time, that the policy originated with Brigham Young years after the Church moved into the Great Basin, and that Joseph Smith, the Church’s founder, had in fact ordained several Black church members into the Priesthood before his martyrdom.  McKay did acknowledge, though, that the policy could only be changed by direct revelation from the Lord, and evidence seemed to suggest that he did his fair share of pleading for divine clarification on this issue.

McKay’s moderate course was probably influenced by the wide variety of opinions he was surrounded with and his desire to be a uniter between them. Himself, he was not a social progressive, and he was anchored by the overwhelming majority of conservative Mormon members and leaders, but also listened to and elevated President Brown and other liberal and moderate voices into his inner circle.  He was even quite close to President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into federal law.

While the policy reversal would not come by revelation until 1978 (to then-junior apostle Spencer Kimball), it is hardly correct to characterize LDS church and its leaders as uninfluenced by the Civil Rights era of the 1960′s.

I share this because in my post-racial lifetime (born in the 1980′s), I’ve never understood why it took 15 additional years for the Church to come around on this.  Perhaps only God will know why it took so long, as it was clear that movement began as early as the 1950′s to try and change this policy.  It also wasn’t as simple as the old-school dying out (as I previously thought), as hard-liners such as Benson and McConkie ended up making up the Council that would later approve the change.

It does make me appreciate those who lived during this trying time, both in our Church and in our country, who were not afraid of change and who had a vision of what a colorblind society might look like.  Change can be scary and uncomfortable, and we can choose to disagree with change.  But the march of progress moves ever-forward, and often we have to decide whether we’re going to be on the train or be left behind.  I appreciate those who sacrificed and stretched in order to provide me with a better, though still imperfect, world and Church.

My most personal run-in with this came during my mission to Brazil.  Because most church members in Brazil joined the church after 1978 and due to Brazil’s already race-insensitive culture, race is rarely an issue for members.  However, one day when I was working in one of the oldest, most established areas of the church, we visited with a long-time less-active family.  While they graciously fed and entertained my companion and I, it soon became clear why they had gone inactive almost 20 years earlier: they couldn’t stand the ‘browning’ of their local congregation.  In sum, they considered the Church less of a religion and more of a whites-only private club. After probing the issue more, it became clear that many of the nascent branches of Brazil suffered some loss of membership after the lifting of the priesthood ban.  Certainly this was overshadowed by the worldwide influx of new members and the joy that was felt by those thousands of saints who had waited, many for decades, to receive the priesthood and full fellowship in the church.  Still, though, it was a bit disheartening to see how an individual had let their personal racism preclude their entire posterity from the blessings of church membership.

Thankfully, Mormonism’s long-term association with racism will likely be very different than its association with polygamy.  While polygamous sensitivity has lived on for several generations past the practice’s discontinuance, we already see the world and Church membership much more quickly moving on from the days of the priesthood restriction.  While those who lived through and were most affected by the Civil Rights era will probably always be sensitive to the history, it is clear that those born in this generation will experience this period as a point of fact, rather than a first-person emotion.

Many outsiders, when they visit a predominately LDS community, are impressed with the nice people of the local community.  People are typically smiling and well put together.  There are pleases and thank yous.  People seem very friendly and personable in their interactions, some only with people who they know as friends while others are even very sweet and good-natured toward complete strangers as well.

After some extended examination, though, you quickly find that many people in predominantly LDS communities make a very simple mistake: they mistake being sweet for being good.

Don’t get me wrong, kindness is certainly a Christian virtue that LDS people should work to espouse, but I’m talking about those who walk around with a very thin veneer of fake, feigned kindness that quickly breaks down when that person is put in any kind of uncomfortable, unfamiliar, precarious, or embarrassing situation.  Just as McKay pointed out in his article, this seems to be most visible in the retail/service industries where the oft-needed patience and kindness often quickly gives way to ugliness, meanness, and harshness.

– And thus reveals the saccharine Mormon: sweet, but totally fake.

These might be the ones Christ was referring to in the parable of the sower; when the seed falls among stony ground and the seed takes shallow root but is quickly burned when the sun comes out.  Their kindness thrives when life is good, when things are going well, and when they have friends and good times.  But when the true test of their patience and kindness comes, how quickly does the harsh, judgmental side rear its ugly head?

Really — how deeply has one accepted the teaching to “love your neighbor as yourself” when they can’t be patient waiting in a line at the DMV?  How wholly has one decided to “turn the other cheek” when they take the first opportunity to spread gossip about someone they consider an enemy?

Christ as the Antidote

I’m not here to advocate more fake kindness as an antidote, though.  I’m advocating a deeper level of goodness.  I’m advocating development of the ability to see people as Christ saw them.  That’s true charity: seeing people through Christ’s eyes.

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s
differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.

Marvin J. Ashton, “The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword,” Ensign, May 1992, 19. (emphasis added)

Seeing people through Christ’s eyes will keep you from freaking out at the bank teller about putting your ID in the envelope with your cash, will prevent you from gossiping and backbiting, and will even give you the right purpose to be nice to total strangers: not just for niceness’ sake, but as a reflection of His love.

I have known many people, women mostly, who aren’t very flashy or social.  You won’t find them giggling in the hall with girlfriends, starting bunco clubs, or organizing massive, flashy one-time service events.  They aren’t very loud and they don’t walk around with fake tans and fake smiles.

But they work — oh, do they work.

They are taking food to the needy, driving other people’s kids around, and preparing and providing for others in the shadows.  They do thankless work day after day.  They are johnny-on-the-spot with every need from their religious leaders.  They are consistent, and their consistency is what makes them so impressive and phenomenal.  I admire these men and women.

Good Isn’t Always Nice

Sometimes seeing people through Christ’s eyes, especially in a priesthood capacity, doesn’t always result in sweet, nice feelings.  Sometimes being good isn’t always being kind.  Brigham Young didn’t get the nickname “Lion of the Lord” for going around giving people warm fuzzies.  When is more important to stand for right than to be sweet and nice?  Can you always be good/right and still be kind as well?  Are those who gloss over the truth in order to be nice really doing the world (or themselves) any kind of service, especially if they have a calling of stewardship over someone?  (See Jacob 1:19 to understand why)

When there is a correction to be made, it is OK for it to be a little uncomfortable.  You can’t make people feel good about sin or you become the direct accomplice of the scripture:

…when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition… behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; [and] the Spirit of the Lord is grieved…

D&C 121:37

I’m certainly no poster child of goodness, but I try to have integrity.  I have a rule for life (and for this blog) that I try not to say anything about anyone that I wouldn’t say directly to their face.  One of my problems, though, (as my wife points out) is that I  don’t always have a problem with saying unkind things to people’s face when it’s the truth.  Sometimes my loyalty to the truth trumps the need to show kindness and charity toward an individual.

I’m still working on figuring out the balance on that one.

Last night I had a dream about General Conference.  I dreamed that they had decided to make Conference a lot more ‘accessible’ and ‘relevant’ to children.  They did this by making it a lot less of a stable camera pointing at the podium.  In fact, most of it wasn’t filmed at the Conference Center at all.

I must have been on the production staff, because I remember I was working with this kid (child-actor) and his mom (stage-mom) who was supposed to go and simply stand in a few shots during someone’s talk and look reverent and all inquisitive.  He was struggling to keep it together for all the shots he was scheduled for.

Then I dreamed I was down in the BYU Law Library, and people were watching the conference.  The people were very familiar to me, although now I don’t know who they were.  Everyone kept commenting about how ‘different’ conference was that year.  I remember watching it and thinking – this really isn’t very good.  I mean, most messages were less than 5 minutes long and about as deep as a 12 year old talk in the local ward.  Many of the segments were more about the dramatizations and visual effects we were producing than about the message itself.

I thought to myself, this is kind of lame, but I guess we need to reach out better to the younger generation…

Then the dream ended.

I’m hoping when I tune in later today, there are no pre-staged crazy looking kids staring up at President Monson as he speaks.  If there is, I guess I’ll be expecting a call from Salt Lake…

Since then, Mark Mabry and company have indeed released their work in picture book format, as well as a DVD and fine art prints.  I happen to have my favorite print hanging in my hallway as we speak, (it’s the one on the home page of the website) signed and dated by the artist.

Well, these guys are at it again with Another Testament of Christ, which depicts Christ’s visit to the Americas after his resurrection and final ascension in Jerusalem.  If you’ve never heard this story, you might want to check out The Book of Mormon as this is it’s central message.  It is yet another testament of Christ’s divine mission to redeem all mankind.

I absolutely love their work.

Here is the video which previews their latest project, Another Testament of Christ:

It was cute, informational, highlighted the girls and their upcoming activities, and I’m sure made everyone smile who saw it that day.

Yes, friends, a newsletter is definitely a sign of the true church.

All functioning organizations, especially ones headed by women (or men with wives who do their calling for them) have a newsletter.  A President’s succeess is gauged on their ability to get a newsletter committee up, running, and putting out a newsletter every month.

I know we’re not supposed to confess past transgressions, but this seems appropriate… One time, when I was a Quorum president, I even tried to get my Elder’s Quorum to have a newsletter.  I think in 6 months, we had 3 newsletters… which aproximated our Home Teaching percentage as well.  Is there a link there?  I would think so!!

Lesson learned: Men don’t need newsletters. (Unless they are looking for something to give their kid to tear up and put in their mouths.)

Newsletters are also bad news for the Young Men who get to clean the building.  Pews with crumpled up newsletter papers scattered amongst the mashed up cheerios make them all the more difficult to clean.

Yes, newsletters are a sign of the true church, but when will we ever learn about email?

One of my favorite hymns is “For the Strength of the Hills”

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
Our God, our father’s God.

Thou has made thy children mighty
by the touch of the mountain sod

Thou hast led thy chosen Israel
to freedom’s last abode

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
Our God, our father’s God.

When I come to Utah and see the mighty Wasatch mountains, the imposing Mount Timpanogos, or even the smaller but prominent mountains above Pine Valley in St George, this song comes to mind.

The lyrics aren’t much, but the tune is incredible!  It has a run in the second line that makes you feel as if you climbed the mountain, reached the top, and then in the final line are standing on the top of the mountain, having conquered it.

I absolutely love living in Texas, but the one thing I miss about my home state is the beautiful mountains and valleys.

Whenever we drive up one of the canyons (we drove up and over Parley’s Summit and also through Provo Canyon this weekend), I can’t help but think of how pioneers in handcarts and wagon trains every managed to make it through these treacherous passages.  I wonder what they must have thought of their leader who said “this is the right place” after they’d arrived in one of the most arid valleys in the United States, complete with a huge lake of undrinkable water.

My paternal great-great grandparents were among some of the Mormons who came and settled as “pioneers”.  While they weren’t some of the first in the Salt Lake valley, they were among those called to colonize and pioneer the southern areas.  Originally, they were called to settle in Arizona, but a crisis among the Indians and Pioneers halted their journey, in southern Utah.

Since we’ve been out here honoring the living this weekend (through weddings, graduations, showers, and baptisms), the dead will have to settle for a blogged memorial this year.

They are as the firm mountains around us, beautiful giants, presences of the past, which are a never-changing signposts of who we are and where we have come from.  We owe a debt of gratitude to them for pioneering the way, advancing our society, and defining who we are.

Here are my key take-aways this year.

1. Every conference session begins with the same television preamble “This is the (insert number here) General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”  This year was 179th.  If it weren’t for the semi-annual stating of this number, I never would have learned how to say the “nds” and “ths” in Portuguese.  In other words, “One hundred and seventy ninth” translates to “Centesimo septuagesimo nono.”  Tough stuff!
2. We attend 10 hours of General Conference over a two day period.  … And, it’s commercial free…  10 hours!  Part of the problem is that there’s 15 main leaders in our church, and by golly we want to hear from all of them at least 15 minutes.  Then, some of them we want to hear twice.  Wedge in a few of our women leaders and some of the up-and-comers, and voila!  Ten hours of Church in one weekend!
3. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is just great.  Here are a few highlights there:
   • My wife and I discovered that between us, we personally know 100% of the black men in the choir.  (There are two.  She knows one and I know one.)
   • While the MoTab is incredibly skilled and miraculously grand, the over 300 voice choir has a DEARTH of diversity. Yes, Asian woman and Latin/poly looking dude are always prominently placed for the camera angles.
   • Cheekbone guy was more promiently featured than usual.  Does he have a wife on the production crew?
   • Mack Wilburg makes me smile.  I love the way he mouths the words, even on the quiet songs it looks like he would be shouting them if he were actually vocalizing.
   • Just wondering… does the choir get all their suits and dresses from Mr. Mac clothing stores?  Seems like a natural fit for (former?) choir president Mac Christensen.
4. President Monson, the church’s presiding authority, mentioned in just in passing that he knew an individual personally that another General Authority had briefly referenced in his talk just previous.  This confirms my suspicion that President Monson actually knows everyone who has ever walked the earth.  (Especially the sweet widows in his Salt Lake ward)
5. Inspired by President Monson’s story about being called up, unannounced, as a deacon’s quorum secretary to give an accounting of his service, the twelve years olds of the church should stand advised and ready for a renaissance of impromptu talks and testimonies in Sacrament, Stake, and Leadership meetings.  Little Brothers, take a page from my book.  The one time I was called out of a congregation to give a talk/testimony impromptu, I was absent from church that day.
6. Will President Uchtdorf ever tell a story that isn’t about aviation?  I’m beginning to lose hope. (ha ha.. I’m so funny!  Did you catch my vague reference to his October conference address there?)
7. Final question: Will I ever make it through this 10-hour marathon without getting emotional at least once?  Sometimes I wonder if it’s out of sheer fatigue, or if I’m really inspired.  Then I realize, yup I’m actually being inspired. (Cause I just woke up from a nap, so it can’t be fatigue.)

Clarity is the silliest one of all.  Supposedly, a perfect diamond has no ‘inclusions’; permanent flaws or marks in the inside of the stone.  As I was choosing a stone, the saleswoman would tell me about each stone, show me the stone under a magnifying glass, and point out to me all of the flaws and inclusions of each.

I just pretended to see them…

Reflecting back, I thought, “Wow! Talk about nickel and diming a rock!”  The poor little things are subject to so much subjective scrutiny.  No one but me seems to be amazed at the fact that these shiny, valuable rocks actually started as a worthless, common lumps of carbon.

And isn’t it the same with us?

Life is not some big scorecard of the bad things you do vs the good things you do.  There are no angels in heaven making tick marks under the “naughty” and “nice” columns.

And yet we insist so much on keeping score against our fellow men. Judgment (the unrighteous kind) is when you assume you know the non-existent score on someone else’s scorecard.

This life isn’t about keeping score, it’s about becoming something!  And what are you becoming?

The final judgement will take into account the totality of your life’s existence; your good, bad, and ugly moments.  The judgement will not be a recounting or retelling of your life’s good deeds and misdeeds.  It will be an evaluation of what you have become.  Have you become the ‘manner of men ye ought to be’?

This is why no one is fit to judge (and why all human judgment is erred), because there is no way to see the totality of your heart – what you’ve been through and what you’ve become – where you’ve come from and where you are today.

Sometimes we get down on ourselves.  This is usually because we look at ourselves under the magnifying glass of the present, looking for all the imperfections. In these moments, we would be well advised to take a moment and reflect on the lump of coal we started as, and what we have become since.

Understanding this makes living the gospel much more practical and doable.  Rather than focusing on repenting of every little thing we do wrong, we can just relax and take the long view of our lives.  Over the long term, we take on ourselves the name of Christ, learning and perfecting over our whole life what that means.  We become a truer disciple very slowly over time.

One can quickly tire of living the gospel if we focus on keeping a postive win-loss column.  We will be more successfull if we simply enjoy the ride, and be content to slowly become what we were meant to become.

Generally, people rarely take the time to clearly explain the main tenants of the LDS/Mormon faith, and as a result most of the general public know very little about our core beliefs.

Although I think  the illustrations in these movies are super-corny, they do get at the core facts of my religion, without editorial and without overwrought musical underscoring either.

As I’ve repeatedly stated, I find my religion just as unbelievable as any other religion on the earth. I don’t insist that anyone believe what I believe, I only insist that they become factually educated so that when we discuss religion, we can do so in an educated, respectful manner, rather than working from a slanted, incomplete view of my faith.

“The Media” (whatever that is) often writes stories about my religion that I have a problem with.  What is my problem?  They seem to treat my faith different from every other nutty religious sect.  Can’t they see that all religion is equally nutty?

How come I rarely see an article about Christianity say “a guy name Jesus was purported to have died on the cross, and then rose from the dead 3 days later.”  That would offend Christians the world over.

And yet they can write this about my faith:

Mormons believe in a version of Christianity that stems from a new chapter of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, allegedly recorded on gold tablets by inhabitants of North America shortly after the time of Christ.

The tablets were discovered in the 1820s - or so the story goes – by the religion’s founder, Joseph Smith. Smith’s own standing as a polygamist has laced the argument over gay versus “traditional” marriage with a heavy dose of irony.

* emphasis added

So… aside from the factual errors of the article, which are many, it’s the tone of the piece that bothers me.  My religion is always “alleged” and “purported” and “so the story goes.” Why does other religions get an assumption of truth while mine is always assumed untrue?

The journalist pre-disposes the reader to not believe the story either.  (Which in this case is, of course, revealing their bias against our stance on Prop 8 in California)

It kind of sucks.