Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A great quote about how culture and tradition inhibits the spirit

Brigham Young:

“[God] would be glad to send angels to communicate further to this people, but there is no room to receive it, consequently, He cannot come and dwell with you. There is a further reason: we are not capacitated to throw off in one day all our traditions, and our prepossessed feelings and notions, but have to do it little by little. It is a gradual process, advancing from one step to another; and as we layoff our false traditions and foolish notions, we receive more and more light, and thus we grow in grace; and if we continue so to grow we shall be prepared eventually to receive the Son of Man, and that is what we are after.” (Journal of Discourses 2:309-318).

My thanks to Lorin for the reminder.



2 comments:

Scott B. said...

Great Quote Stephen. I think the difficulty comes in identifying which of all our traditions are "false ... and foolish notions," which of them are more or less benign, and which of them are actually an aid or catalyst to further inspiration.

Surely there will not be agreement among everyone on the relative value of different traditions, and opposing sides would likely use BY's quote in defense of their own viewpoint.

Stephen said...

Scott, that is a great comment. I've taken the liberty of noting over at http://mormonmatters.org/2009/02/17/more-unbridled-speculation-the-priesthood-ban/#comment-58989

Thanks.