Most organizations face a dilemma. On the one hand, too much factionalism and resistance and they break down into feuding, balkanized  fragments. On the other hand, without any pushback, they turn into an echo chamber of yes men. The trick to success is to harness the power of loyal opposition. 

 Thus the Chinese wisdom saying:  “A thousand yes-men cannot equal one honest advisor.” 

Evangelicals often talk about what happened to King Ahab and yes men as false prophets.  Others refer to Warburg, where Martin Luther was sheltered from Pope Leo. 

 And even Forbes talks often about Yes Men and the peril they represent. 

 I got pulled into a conversation on the topic when I tried to bring up the Ensign and Church messages with someone who had left the LDS Church.  They pulled up LDS.org and started reading the August Visiting Teaching message.  Next thing I knew they had thrown their iPhone across the room and told me "This is the sort of thing that is the f*cking reason I left the church!"

So I read the article, and got to talking about it with friends.  It turns out that the entire 2016 year of Visiting Teaching messages were not drafted or chosen by the Relief Society Presidency but were picked for them and written by the all male correlation committee.  

As you might suspect, the messages often are mostly men lecturing women on things such as to how to suffer joyfully.  

The August lesson consists of two lectures from men, with a small, non-substantive ornamental note in the middle by a woman. The express design for the entire year of articles is to show how the values of the Proclamation on the Family works in application. 

The first lecture in the August article is on not saying anything but positive things. 

 The core of the lesson is the story of a woman with cancer, who because of an ill guided surgery, has crippling pain. Doing the daily family ironing caused her such pain that she would have to break in the middle of it to go cry in her room. When her family noticed her pain, what did they do that illustrates the spirit of the Proclamation?

1. Take over the ironing so she was not in Take Take over the ironing so she was not in such pain?
2. Trade lawn mowing or other services with another family in return for ironing?
3. Wear wrinkled shirts?
4. Pool their lunch money to pay for shirt laundry services?
5. Let her suffer for a year until they could afford, by saving lunch money, a better tool for ironing shirts?

The point of the lesson is that the Proclamation’s spirit led the family and the father to pick choice 5.

That story was used as an example of caring for a family in the spirit of the Proclamation. Notice that it is a story told by a man about what a man did as a lecture to women about how to live their lives. It was held up as an example about how a real man cares for his wife.

The untold part of the story includes a 13 year old Elder D. Todd Christofferson going to his grandmother.  He asked her teach him how to make bread so he could start making bread for the family as a way to help his mother.  He was unaware of the pain ironing caused his mother until years later or I suspect he would have also had someone teach him to iron.

That part of the story wasn't seen as worthy of publication by the committee of men. There is a shout-out to Jacob 3:7 in the Book of Mormon, which is about how the Lamanites were more righteous than the Nephites because they had rejected polygamy, and there is an encouragement to use kind words. 

The bulk of the lesson is about how if a woman is in such pain that she breaks down crying from it, the proper response is to let her suffer for a year and then do something that lets her keep suffering at a reduced rate rather than change things so she doesn’t suffer at all. If we do that, let the women suffer, but reduce their pain after a year so they don't break down crying in their rooms so often, then we are real men.

The biggest problem with this article is that this message isn't directed at the men; this is the Visiting Teaching message for the women of the Church. I've been told by a number of women  that the real lesson is that the Proclamation means they should expect to suffer, weep, and iron.

The message is that they would be lesser women if they could not fulfill stereotypical household tasks. The message is that the family's cleanly pressed shirts were more important than a cancer-stricken woman's comfort. Ultimately, the message seems to be that real women who embody the spirit of the Proclamation never complain, should expect to feel pain, and should show gratitude for new irons instead of expecting the men in their lives to stoop to this domestic task. As one woman put it:

This message is ostensibly written for women, and yet the woman in the story is completely passive. Things happen to her. She never acts. My first question was not "Why didn't the men in her life...?" It was, "Why didn't she...?" Who was she helping by crying alone, in her room? Why would this be held up as an example when she did nothing but suffer??Why didn't she teach her sons to be compassionate and take responsibility for the operation of their own household? What kind of sick pretense for womanhood is this? I am so done with this message that women are never to act, that the only role for us to fill is to spend our lives doing menial labor and, if we're really ambitious, to ask a priesthood holder to do something more exciting on our behalf and then support him in it by doing all the yucky parts he doesn't want to be bothered with, if we really feel inspired to do so. Otherwise, we should just be quiet and work, and go in our rooms to cry alone if we absolutely have to.

I did get some discussion on how such a tone deaf lesson could be sent out.  I got comments that asked how a group of men could write lesson after lesson like this, an entire year of them, for women who do not seem to get the same message from the lesson that the men think they are sending out. I was told that in many of the committees, the lower level people who do the work are very afraid of offending anyone.  They ruthlessly self-edit.  Then, when something is proposed for publication, even something as flawed as this lesson, rather than pointing out its flaws, everyone just nods and says yes for fear of offending anyone.  I asked if Elder D. Todd Christofferson was really that fearsome. I was told no.  Definitely not.  He is exactly what you would think of someone who started baking the family bread at age thirteen and then kept them in fresh bread until he left for college to try and make his mother's life better. A despot leader wasn't the problem.  It never got to Elder Christofferson ever expressing anything but love and kindness.  The people below him self edit.  They have created a culture of yes men so thorough that this sort of tone deaf train wreck gets into print without challenge  That is the result of the lack of a loyal opposition. I've since been talking with my wife's best friend growing up.  Kristine Lesperance's dissertation chair had her gathering literature on the topic and doing specialized graduate readings on it. The bottom line:  Without honesty and pushback, without a loyal opposition, a culture of yes men will go off into the weeds.  Such a culture will generate lessons like this year's sequence wherein the topic of the Proclamation on the Family is hammered home with tone deaf lessons such as the August one. Such lessons lead to people like me getting blindsided by the anger and response of people like the person I was trying to share the gospel with. What do you think?

• Do we need a mechanism for pushback or do we just need "yes men?"
• Was the August lesson exactly what women needed to hear?
• What is the lesson a woman should have gotten from the August lesson?
• Is there something better out there that shows how a family is nurtured other than by letting women cry in pain by themselves in their rooms while the men become heroes of the story by skipping lunch for a year?
• Is there a better lesson this year that I should have focused on rather than just wandering into this one?
• If you had to face the five options that family had, which one would you have chosen?

Rough Draft Interview of Jerilyn Hassell Pool

Welcome to the interview series Ms. Jerilyn Hassell Pool. You are famous in some circles and others haven’t ever heard of you. Can you give our readers a quick thumbnail of how you came to be LDS (your short family history) and how that affected where you are now?

I was born to a Mormon father and a former Catholic mother who converted to Mormonism a couple of years before I was born. I’m the oldest of 8 kids. I was baptized at the age of 8. My father was a CES employee until his retirement a couple of years ago, so my family has alway been very deeply committed to the Mormon church. I grew up with a nuanced view of the church, I believe. My father, being a CES man, knew a lot of the church history that people now find so troubling, and so I grew up knowing a lot of it, which I think has helped me remain a believing, active member.

I did, however, marry a convert who has always been sort of a hellion and who breaks every Mormon male norm possible. We did not get married in the temple, and that was scandalous to a lot of people. From that point on, I gained a growing understood what it was like to be marginalized in the Mormon church and since then, I have worked to raise awareness to many of the issues that marginalize people in the church. Oh, and that hellion I married? We just celebrated 25 years of marriage.

Tell us about your recent projects that have involved you in the Bloggernacle and other areas.

After the terrific work of Stephanie Lauritzen, I took over Wear Pants to Church Day with Nancy Ross, so every December, I start bugging every Mormon I know to wear pants to church as a sign of inclusion for marginalized people.

I’m a sometimes blogger for Feminist Mormon Housewives and Rational Faiths. I moderate the Facebook groups for FMH and for The Mormon Hub. I do comedy presentations for Sunstone (Mormon Food and the upcoming Mormon Internet Habits).

Most recently, I planned and executed a family Christmas retreat for LGBTQ Mormons and I am currently working on more than 400 care packages for even more.

I am devoted to learning about what I can do to eliminate systems of oppression and sometimes I post things online that make a lot of white, straight cishet people cry their white, straight cishet tears. No regrets.

How did those projects grab your attention?

I have a brother who is gay, and who has also recently resigned from the church. A lot of what I do now is the kinds of things I wish had been done for him many years ago. I don’t fault him for leaving the church, especially after the Exclusion Policy announcement, but I wonder what his relationship with the church would look like now if he had found affirming Mormons who wished for his health and well-being instead of a commitment to extreme celibacy.

As my circle of friends widens, I have become increasingly aware of the intersections between the oppression of women, the oppression of the LGBTQ community and the oppression of people of color and those have informed my course of study and activism.

In another interview [link] you mention your testimony of the gospel and Joseph Smith. Could you share that with our readers?

I am one of those weirdo Progressive Mormons who loves Joseph Smith. I don’t think he was perfect—I actually revel in his imperfections. If I believe he was a prophet of God (and I do) then I also love hearing about all the weird things he did, because I am also greatly flawed. If God could work with someone who was as flawed as Joseph, then there is hope for me, too. I’m not saying I aspire to be a Prophet, but I am prayerful about the kind of activism with which I get involved and I believe God uses my willingness to serve marginalized people as a conduit for His/Her love.

I love the plain truths of the gospel. I try to stick to the basics and avoid all of the things we can’t possibly know. Fiona Givens once told me that instead of thinking of putting things on a shelf that can be broken, put them on a target. Determine what is at the center of your target (which for me is Jesus Christ) and then as other things come to my attention, I can move them closer and farther away from my target. However, one day, God and Jesus and Joseph Smith and I will have a chat and I’ll ask them to explain a lot of stuff on my target.

I also love the scriptures. They’re so weird and fun and angry and dramatic. I love reading about all the times God chastised the prophets for their mistakes. I work hard to love those 15 white dudes in Salt Lake City, and I really want to believe are doing the best they can. I think they miss the mark sometimes, but even the disciples who legit hung out with Jesus himself made some mistakes. I wish we had a record of the current leadership having a Come to Jesus Meeting with, uh, Jesus.

What is the question that you wish interviewers would ask that you haven’t been asked yet?

My address, so they can send me money and Cheetos.

What is next for you?

I have over 400 care packages to send to LGBTQ Mormons. One hundred of them are needed immediately. There is so much triage that has to be done. There is more info on how to sign up to get a care package and how to donate to the cause on the website I hastily built, www.safeSpaces.us. It is my hope to expand what we're doing to include a safeXmas 2.0, a safeReunion for anyone who wants an old-fashioned yet affirming family reunion this summer, and also materials for people who are wiling to take to their bishops/stake presidents that works to create safeSpaces in our wards and stakes.

I can’t make the Exclusion Policy go away, but I can put all of my effort into making sure there are pockets and spaces in Mormonism where LGBTQ Mormons who wish to remain involved can feel loved and supported just as they are.

Finding Faith in Jesus Christ -- January 10th lesson

When you think about how Howard W. Hunter lost his job about seven months after getting married and then how and his wife buried a child early on in their marriage, how he graduated third in his class from law school but still could not get full time work for five years and the other hardships he went through, what does this statement mean to you?

 “If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong.”

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Comment: 


A prominent theme in President Howard W. Hunter’s teachings is that true peace, healing, and happiness come only as a person strives to know and follow Jesus Christ. President Hunter taught that:

“Christ’s way is not only the right way, but ultimately the only way to hope and joy.”  

 “As an ordained Apostle and special witness of Christ, I give to you my solemn witness that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God,” he declared. “He is the Messiah prophetically anticipated by Old Testament prophets. He is the Hope of Israel, for whose coming the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had prayed during the long centuries of prescribed worship. …  

“It is by the power of the Holy Ghost that I bear my witness. I know of Christ’s reality as if I had seen with my eyes and heard with my ears. I know also that the Holy Spirit will confirm the truthfulness of my witness in the hearts of all those who listen with an ear of faith. 

• What did he mean here?

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Comment:  

 … How often do we think of the Savior? How deeply and how gratefully and how adoringly do we reflect on his life? How central to our lives do we know him to be? For example, how much of a normal day, a working week, or a fleeting month is devoted to “Jesus, the very thought of thee”? 
Perhaps for some of us, not enough. Unless we pay more attention to the thoughts of our hearts, I wonder what hope we have to claim that greater joy, that sweeter prize: someday his loving “face to see / And in [his] presence rest.” 

•  How do we pay more attention to Christ? 
•  What can we do to remember to remember Christ and to reflect on Christ in our lives?

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Comment:

 Contrition is costly—it costs us our pride and our insensitivity, but it especially costs us our sins. For, as King Lamoni’s father knew twenty centuries ago, this is the price of true hope. “O God,” he cried, “wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee … that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day.” (Alma 22:18.) When we, too, are willing to give away all our sins to know him and follow him, we, too, will be filled with the joy of eternal life. 

• What is contrition? 
• How can we give our sins away?

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Comment:  

 And what of the meek? In a world too preoccupied with winning through intimidation and seeking to be number one, no large crowd of folk is standing in line to buy books that call for mere meekness. 

• What is meekness? 
• How do we find meekness? 
• How do we make that part of our lives? 
• Why isn’t meekness easier?

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Comment:  

gentleness is better than brutality, that kindness is greater than coercion, that the soft voice turneth away wrath. In the end, and sooner than that whenever possible, we must be more like him. … 

• How hard is it to be gentle? 
• How hard is it to not attempt to coerce and control others? 
• How easy is it to think that we are gentle when we are not? 
• How easy is it to think that we are kind when we are really just trying to control others? 
• How much control do we really have, other than the control over our own lives to choose to follow Christ?

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Comment:  


… May we be more devoted and disciplined followers of Christ. May we cherish him in our thoughts and speak his name with love. May we kneel before him with meekness and mercy. May we bless and serve others that they may do the same. 

•  How do we do that?

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Comment:  

We are in a world where there is at the same time both a growing hunger to hear more of Jesus Christ and a continued drift by many into what is referred to as a post-religious or post-Christian world. In addressing both, President Hunter said:

 In great simplicity the Master taught the principles of life eternal and lessons that bring happiness to those with the faith to believe. It doesn’t seem reasonable to assume the necessity of modernizing these teachings of the Master. 
His message concerned principles that are eternal. In this age, as in every age before us and in every age that will follow, the greatest need in all the world is an active and sincere faith in the basic teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God. Because many reject those teachings, that is all the more reason why sincere believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ should proclaim its truth and show by example the power and peace of a righteous, gentle life. …
How are we supposed to act when we are offended, misunderstood, unfairly or unkindly treated, or sinned against? What are we supposed to do if we are hurt by those we love, or passed over for promotion, or are falsely accused, or have our motives unfairly assailed? 

• So, how do we proclaim the truth by the way we act?

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Comment:

Strive to build a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and the atonement. A study of the life of Christ and a testimony of his reality is something each of us should seek. As we come to understand his mission, and the atonement which he wrought, we will desire to live more like him. 

• How do we do this? 
• Feel free to ask the person next to you what has worked for them in building a testimony of Jesus Christ and of the atonement or to share what has worked for you – or to do both.

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Comment:  

There is a serious application to this lesson. All of us have seen some sudden storms in our lives. A few of them … can be violent and frightening and potentially destructive. As individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, even as a church, we have had sudden squalls arise which have made us ask one way or another, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” [Mark 4:38.] And one way or another we always hear in the stillness after the storm, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” [Mark 4:40.] 

 None of us would like to think we have no faith, but I suppose the Lord’s gentle rebuke here is largely deserved. 

We will all have some adversity in our lives. I think we can be reasonably sure of that. Some of it will have the potential to be violent and damaging and destructive. Some of it may even strain our faith in a loving God who has the power to administer relief in our behalf. 

• Are we ever surprised by adversity? 
• How does Christ help us in our adversity?

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Comment:

 Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33.) Sure, there are plenty of things to worry about—some of them very serious things—but that is why we speak in gospel terms of faith, and hope, and charity. 

As Latter-day Saints, ours is “the abundant life,” and we try to emphasize our blessings and opportunities while we minimize our disappointments and worries. “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing,” the scripture says, “and all things shall work together for your good” (D&C 90:24). I want to remind you of that promise. …  

 Please remember this one thing. If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right. …  

We all struggle with health problems occasionally—others do so constantly. Illness and disease are part of the burden of mortality. Have faith and be positive. The power of the priesthood is real, and there is so much that is good in life, even if we struggle physically. It is a joy to know that there will be no injury or disease in the Resurrection.

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Comment:

 Some of our concerns may come in the form of temptations. Others may be difficult decisions pertaining to education or career or money or marriage. Whatever your burden is, you will find the strength you need in Christ. Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega, literally the beginning and the end. He is with us from start to finish, and as such is more than a spectator in our lives. … If the yoke under which we struggle is sin itself, the message is the same. 

Christ knows the full weight of our sins, for he carried it first. If our burden is not sin nor temptation, but illness or poverty or rejection, it’s the same. He knows. … He suffered so much more than our sins. He whom Isaiah called the “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3; Mosiah 14:3) knows perfectly every problem through which we pass because he chose to bear the full weight of all our troubles and our pains. …  

 Brothers and sisters, you have and will have worries and challenges of many kinds, but embrace life joyfully and full of faith. Study the scriptures regularly. Pray fervently. Obey the voice of the Spirit and the prophets. Do all that you can to help others. You will find great happiness in such a course. Some glorious day all your worries will be turned to joys.

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Comment:

 As Joseph Smith wrote to the struggling Saints from his cell in Liberty Jail: 

Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed [D&C 123:17; emphasis added]. 

[In the words of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith:] Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail. … Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven [D&C 6:34–37]. 

• What is in our power? 
• What can we do?

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Comment:  

• What do you think we can do to turn more to Christ and to feel the peace of his message in our hearts in times of trouble?

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Comment:

Sacrament talk, November 29, 2015

Brothers and Sisters, the Apostle Paul wrote:

o   But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;

o   whether there be tongues, they shall cease;

o   whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

I was asked to speak on the love of Christ, and what it means.  Which means I have been asked to speak on Charity, which is the pure love of Christ.

Though everything else will fail, still the Lord has promised us that there will yet remain “faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

o   So, what is charity?

o   How does charity relate to Christ?

o   How do we act so that we express and encompass Charity?

What is Charity?

          When I was younger, I began to look at just what the love of Christ meant from how it acts, how it fits in our lives.  That led me to a different definition of what charity is than you might expect.  I was looking at where charity fit and what charity meant to each person who might seek it.

          I started where I read where Paul taught:

We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

          Paul was stating that knowledge tended to make us proud, to keep us from what we need to know, while Charity edified or made us what we needed to be, and that charity led us to know God, because we were known by God.

          Paul, and other apostles were fond of talking about how we would be known of God and that we would learn what we were to become, what we truly were, by encountering the Spirit of God.  They spoke of how the Spirit of God would make us like God. 

          Thus in 1 John 3:2.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

          Or 1 Cor 13: 12.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

          In that context, the striking part of what they taught is that by loving God, and by showing God’s love to others, we are known of God, and that by being known of God we come to know God.

          Which means that charity’s place in our lives is that charity is the key to being known by God and to knowing God.  It is by learning Charity, learning love, we become like God.

          So while in definition charity may mean “loving kindness” or “tender kindness” in action, in our lives, the place that charity fits into our lives is that charity is the key to salvation, because it is the method by which we become like God.

So, how does Charity relate to Christ?

In my own life, when our daughter Jessica was sick, she was transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth.   That left us with two other small children in the home.  A babysitter we had used told us that since our two children had been exposed to their sister, they were not welcome.

A family friend, Kathy Warnock, called my wife, said that she had nine children who had been exposed to everything under the sun, and that she would gladly take in our other two children while I had work and my wife went to be with our daughter.  She kept them until family was able to come in from out of town to help.

That was Christ-like love and charity realized in our lives.

          Realizing that charity is the key to being like our heavenly father and that “charity is the pure love of Christ,” means that charity is how we become like Christ.  It is how we learn Christ’s will and participate in Christ’s work.  It is how we become his children and are reborn through him.

          The atonement is the great focus of the charity of Christ towards us.  Charity is a spiritual power that comes through Christ, and thus is connected to Christ in an intrinsic way.

          In his great sermon, the Prophet Mormon brought together the lessons I’ve talked about so far that were taught by many Prophets and Apostles.  He said:

39 But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church.

 40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

 41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

 42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

 43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

 44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

 45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

          That is how Charity relates to Christ.  It is the culmination of faith and hope in Christ. Charity is what makes us true followers of Christ and it is what makes us like him, to see him as he is, to be purified as he is pure and to be able to be saved.

So what do we do, where does Charity take us, how do we express Charity?

          In the Book of Matthew in the New Testament, Christ’s sermon on this point is recorded.  Christ said:

31 ¶When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

          Christ was clear that it was the expression of charity, of loving kindness, in our lives that was key to salvation.  The expression is how Christ will judge us. Christ did not care what people called him, or what they thought they knew.  He cared how they expressed his love, his tender mercy, to others.

          Thus he said:

46 ¶And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

          And Christ also taught:

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

 21 ¶Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

So what are we to do, what does this mean?

          In studying charity, it became clear to me that:

o   But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;

o   whether there be tongues, they shall cease;

o   whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away

But Charity never faileth. 

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

          We must be kind.  We must avoid vaunting ourselves up, we must avoid pride in our knowledge and pride in our own righteousness.  Instead if we wish to know God, if we wish to be like Christ and if we wish to be purified by him so that we may be saved in the kingdom of God, we must:

• ·    Feed the hungry.
• ·        Administer to the sick.
• ·        Reach out to the impoverished and to strangers.
• ·        Visit those in prison, those who have brought disaster upon themselves by their own actions and who are without merit.

For we are without merit sufficient for salvation and are saved only by Christ reaching out to us in our sins. This means that to be like Christ we must also reach out in kindness and love to others, who lack sufficient merit to deserve it.

That is what the love of Christ means and that why Paul would say: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” 

In our lives, and in our salvation, there is nothing greater than the love of Christ.

I bear witness to that in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

_________

This is the talk I gave today. 

Interviews

I decided to start a new feature at Wheat & Tares -- interviews of people I either really like or find interesting.

Well, I've got a great one line up -- for December of this year (it is May now if you are reading this sometime in the past).  Another who said "sure, just follow-up with me in a month when I'm not so busy." More of the same.  Lots of friendly, but very busy people.

The essence of the interviews is to ask the people the questions they would like to be asked and to let them give the answers they would like to give.  I know, it is a softball's softball type of interview, but it is also a type of interview that often gets surprising answers (at least that is my experience in real life talking to people).

However, that leaves me without anyone for the week I put as my deadline to get an interview up.

So, I'm interviewing myself.  I'm available this week.

What do you believe the gospel is?

1. Faith in Jesus Christ and the atonement.
2. Repentance  and making the atonement real in our lives.
3. Baptism.
4. The gift of the Holy Ghost.

What commandments do you think are important?

34Now when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. 35And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him: 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” 

(And yes, I like the NET Bible, even own print copies of it.  http://biblehub.com/net/matthew/22.htm)

What sermons (talks) or doctrines or church leaders made an impression on you?

When I was first at BYU working on my bachelor's degree (which I finished at CSULA) I heard Spencer W. Kimball speak.  He talked about how following leaders blindly would lead you straight to hell, buttressed with Brigham Young quotes. That talk had a very strong impact on me, even now, I believe that:

"Those who talk of blind obedience may appear to know many things, but they do not understand the doctrines of the gospel." 

The second was hearing my father talk about when Spencer W. Kimball came through Newfoundland.  He stopped and met with our branch.  

When I was just a kid (like first or second grade), Spencer W. Kimball came through Newfoundland where my dad was stationed.

We had a sister who was trying to get her husband to shape up.  She tried to enlist Elder Kimball’s help at that time as to how she could force him to do the right thing.  As an apostle he told her to focus instead on patiently loving him.  To put her family first and the love between the two of them first, even if it meant not attending meetings and not pushing him to improve.  The advice made a big impression on my dad who was in the branch presidency and who had expected something different.  

I had a similar experience on my mission.  A sister who had long been a member with a bitterly opposed husband asked my advice.  The spirit pushed me strongly to tell her that the Church existed to support her family, her family did not exist to support the Church, and that she should put her husband and family's harmony and love first.  Nothing else was important.

She followed my advice.  Amazingly (to me) he was reconciled to her and to her membership, before he died rather suddenly of a cancer that he had been unaware of.

As for the couple that Elder Kimball had advised, years later my dad encountered the couple in the temple.  They had been completely transformed.

Obviously I do not expect that sort of thing to happen for everyone, or for even most people.  But if families are forever, I think that what we should do is focus on loving and supporting each other, in patience and kindness.

The other part of the visit was a very strong outpouring of the Spirit and a small miracle.  Something that struck my father was that when he met people later, those who had treasured the moment and remembered it were all active.  Those who were not had also lost the memory.

I understand you used to ...

I used to do a lot of things.  For example, I started blogging on September 16, 1997.  One thing that I was involved in was FARMS before it was FARMS and was just a desk in John Welch's office.  Back then it was pretty much some reading lists and some photocopies of essays that were going out of print or about to be lost.  When I hear people who say "everything FARMS has said is .[redacted harsh statements]..." I think back to reading Eliade and Campbell and Nibley and others and the broader scope of thinking that introduced me to.

I was also involved with FAIR as a founding board member.  But apologetics tend to make me cranky, so I've stepped away from them.  Too often there is the following pattern:

• [Other person] They've discovered "xyz."  It is irrefutable, new and ... etc.
• [Me] Try to get enough details about xyz to figure out which of the several mutually exclusive xyzs they are talking about. 
• [Other person] And it is all hard evidence.  [still without enough details for me to figure out which version they are talking about].
• [Me] Probing (and trying to be gentle about it)
• [Other person] you aren't listening.
• [Me] Finally figure out which one they are talking about.  Look up the details.
• often the details reflect huge jumps.
• often the "facts" behind the details have huge gaps or are inconsistent. 
• Etc.
• [Other person] I don't care about that any more, what I really was trying to get to was "qrs."
• Rinse and repeat.

I found it too annoying.  Though I did enjoy Was the Book of Mormon Plagiarized from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass?

 Anything else?

Too much.

If you could give one piece of advice?

I'm not smart enough to do that.  Maybe in a few more years when I have more wisdom.

---

 
Probably not the best example, but it will fill in the gap until I actually get an interview completed.

 

Lesson 3

Preface:

    Discussions in small groups “give a large number of people the opportunity to participate in a lesson. Individuals who are usually hesitant to participate might share ideas in small groups that they would not express in front of the entire group”

_________________________________________________________


    “Agency has been given to all of us to make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation. Those decisions affect our happiness in eternity.”

    Living and working on a farm, Ezra Taft Benson learned about the consequences of good decisions. He recalled: “I grew up believing that the willingness and ability to work is the basic ingredient of successful farming. Hard, intelligent work is the key. Use it, and your chances for success are good.”1

    At a young age, Ezra learned that he and his family would have more to eat if they chose to take care of their garden. He learned that if he wanted the family to be successful in their dairy business, he had to decide to get out of bed early every day to milk the cows.2 He saw that when he made the choice to work hard, local farmers hired him to thin their beets and pitch their hay.3 He saw that trials come even to the faithful, but he also saw that individuals and families could decide to respond to trials in a way that would help them be happy and successful.

    *    How do some professions reflect the effects of effort and attitude better than others?  Which are based mostly on hard work and effort, which on social connection and personality?

    *    What choices do we have in dealing with trials?  What choices do we not have?

    With this experience as a foundation, President Ezra Taft Benson frequently reminded Latter-day Saints and others of the importance of agency—the freedom “to choose the course they should follow.”6 His teachings about the principle of agency included more than just a reminder to “choose between right and wrong.”7 He spoke of agency as the ability to “make important decisions that will have bearing on our salvation” and that will “affect our happiness in eternity.”8 He encouraged Latter-day Saints and others to use their agency to “act on their own,” without waiting to be commanded in all things.9 The principle of agency, he said, “runs like a golden thread throughout the gospel plan of the Lord for the blessing of his children.”10


    *    How easy is it to think of “free agency” as only choosing between right and wrong? 
    *    What do we miss when we don’t think of other choices we make in the same way?

Ezra Taft Benson’s testimony:

    I testify that we are the spirit offspring of a loving God, our Heavenly Father. He has a great plan of salvation whereby His children might be perfected as He is and might have a fulness of joy as He enjoys.

    I testify that in our premortal state our Elder Brother in the spirit, even Jesus Christ, became our foreordained Savior in the Father’s plan of salvation. He is the captain of our salvation and the only means through whom we can return to our Father in Heaven to gain that fulness of joy.

    I testify that Lucifer was also in the council of heaven. He sought to destroy the agency of man. He rebelled.) There was a war in heaven, and a third of the hosts were cast to the earth and denied a body. Lucifer is the enemy of all righteousness and seeks the misery of all mankind.

    The central issue in that premortal council was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be coerced and forced to be obedient? Christ and all who followed Him stood for the former proposition—freedom of choice; Satan stood for the latter—coercion and force.

    *    Have you ever considered the concepts above as things you would bear testimony of?
    *    Are there other gospel principles that might fit into areas you might have a testimony of?
    *    How often do people try to govern by coercion and force?

    Abraham was shown the spirit children of our Heavenly Father before they came to earth. He, too, was shown the creation of the earth, and the Lord said to him: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.” (Abraham 3:25.) In that divine statement is embodied also the right of choice.16

    This life is a probation: a probation in which you and I prove our mettle, a probation that has eternal consequences for each of us. And now is our time and season—as every generation has had theirs—to learn our duties and to do them.17

    That the Lord is displeased with wickedness is true. That He desires that it not occur is also true. That He will help those who oppose it is true. But that He allows wickedness to occur at all through His children here in mortality is proof of His having given them their freedom to choose, while reserving for Him a basis for their final judgment.18

    There is no evil that [Jesus Christ] cannot arrest. All things are in His hands. This earth is His rightful dominion. Yet He permits evil so that we can make choices between good and evil.19

    *    How important is choice?
    *    What happens if there is no choice?

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION:

    *    In what ways have you seen that “the war that began in heaven … is not yet over”? What can we do to continue to stand for the principle of agency?

    *    People often wonder why God allows evil to exist in the world. How do President Benson’s teachings help to answer that question?

    *    Why or why not?

    *    What can we do to help those younger than ourselves understand how the decisions they make (and the decisions we made) have affected our happiness and our lives? What can we do to help children and youth understand the impact of the decisions they make?

    *    How can we teach from our own lives?



[We ran out of time before this point, but]

More reading and large group discussion:

    If we are to make proper, Christ-like decisions, we must first of all live so we can reach out and tap that unseen power without which no man can do his best in decision making.

    The Lord said, “Knock and it shall be opened unto you” (3 Nephi 14:7; Matthew 7:7). In other words, it requires effort on our part.30

    Wise decisions are usually arrived at following work, struggle, and prayerful effort. The Lord’s response to Oliver Cowdery’s ineffective effort makes this clear: “But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.” (D&C 9:8.)

    Let us begin, therefore, by saying that earnestly seeking our Father in heaven, having faith that he will answer our prayers, is a comforting base on which to begin. … The Lord will not take water from a dry well, so we must do our part. Sometimes attempting to find a correct decision takes great amounts of energy, study, and long-suffering.31

    In decisions of crucial importance, fasting combined with prayer can bring great spiritual insight.32

    *    In reviewing what the lesson manual refers to as President Benson’s counsel about making “proper, Christ-like decisions” what have you learned about combining prayer with diligent effort in making decisions?

    *    What else do you consider part of a proper, Christ-like decision?

    *   What does it mean to you to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause”?
    *    How does your life change when you do good things “of [your] own free will” rather than waiting to be commanded?

    *    What would you consider a good cause?

In 1831 the Lord said this to his Church:

    “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

    “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

    “For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

    “But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” (D&C 58:26–29.)

    The Lord wants us to use our agency to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:27).

    The purposes of the Lord—the great objectives—continue the same: the salvation and exaltation of his children.
 
    Usually the Lord gives us the overall objectives to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but he expects us to work out most of the details and methods. The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the Spirit. Less spiritually advanced people, such as those in the days of Moses, had to be commanded in many things. Today those spiritually alert look at the objectives, check the guidelines laid down by the Lord and his prophets, and then prayerfully act—without having to be commanded “in all things.” This attitude prepares men for godhood. …

    Sometimes the Lord hopefully waits on his children to act on their own, and when they do not, they lose the greater prize, and the Lord will either drop the entire matter and let them suffer the consequences or else he will have to spell it out in greater detail. Usually, I fear, the more he has to spell it out, the smaller is our reward.33

    We should be “anxiously engaged” in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it.34

What does it mean to you to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause”?


  *   Any final comments?
 

Baptism -- Guest Post

I think it is very fitting that the anniversary when I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is near Thanksgiving.   November 21st,  2012, marks the 25th anniversary of my baptism.  I remember anticipating that day with such excitement. I was 19 and that is an age when people like to forge identities. Yet, I did not take such a decision casually. 

I originally resisted attempts by my friend in my Composition class at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to give me a copy of the Book of Mormon during my first semester. I was just barely 18 and the warnings about people out in the world trying to convert Catholics by the nun who taught my last religion class at my Catholic high school were very vivid in my mind. 

A history teacher had also made me fully cognizant of any cult activity where groups of people would try to gain my favor, show me love, and fill me lots of carbs and little protein making me wary of my over-zealous friend. Many members are not nearly so zealous. I later learned that he felt prompted to share the Gospel with me. However, many may have made just a feeble, half-hearted attempt while he continued to share. As we sat in the classroom, he shared about the persecution of the Saints in Missouri. I replied that they would have persecuted Donnie and Marie. I knew a few adults who were members but did not know anything about their religion other their abstaining from alcohol and members giving money to their Church.

As disinterested as I was, I do recall opening the encyclopedia to review the First Vision by Joseph Smith after my friend shared this story with me.  Still, I would not accept a copy of the Book of Mormon. I was a good conformist growing up and was at that point a very content Catholic. While I wasn’t the best on observing Holy Days of Obligation, I was faithfully attending the nearby Catholic Church on a weekly basis. 

I was no longer in class with my friend when I shared a religious dream with with him when I crossed paths on campus  because I thought of him as someone that I could discuss religion.  He was very animated as he marched to his car and offered me a copy of the Book of Mormon again. I accepted with the intention of waiting until finals were over to read from the work. How surprised my friend was when I called him that Summer letting him know that I had received an answer to my prayers.  I started attending the scripture study program known as Institute prior to starting my missionary lessons

 During the period that I took the lessons, I felt the influence of the Holy Spirit quite often. As I became more aware of what the Holy Spirit felt like, I could recall times in my youth when I had felt the Holy Spirit. Latter Day Saint Doctrine does believe that all people are born with the light of Christ and that people may have the influence of the Holy Spirit at times. 

To have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, a person needs to be confirmed by someone who holds the proper Priesthood and live worthily. I have had a Bishop who I think was using the gift of discernment when he said that I was receptive to recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit. However, this was not during my most spiritual period, which was prior to my mission. I felt very prepared to serve a mission and felt the love of God  so much at that time that I knew I could never repay the debt. My nonmember family was protective and concerned about my going on a mission. Fortunate for them and their peace of mind, I was called to serve in the United States in the Pennsylvania Harrisburg Mission. 

I have reexamined my convictions from time to time and have had periods of renewal such as reading the Book of Mormon during the period that President Gordon B. Hinckley, one of the Prophets of the Latter Day Saint  Church told members that there would be special blessings if we finished by the end of the year. 

At times, I have longed to be more connected with my roots in the Catholic Faith and also the roots with the Lutheran Faith on my mother’s side of the family. I am connected to many people from my Catholic Schools and have appreciated their support. Latter Day Saints do not believe you have to be a Latter Day Saint during this life to be in Heaven.  We also respect all major religions, which raise the moral compass of the people. While we encourage people to learn about our religion, we respect people to worship according to the dictates of their conscience.  

I have become increasingly interested in learning more about all religions through the years. Latter Day Saints do not feel we have a corner on righteousness and I am continually humbled by good examples of other faiths.  I do feel the faith of my youth has prepared me in many ways to be a good Latter Day Saints.   President Hinckley encouraged people to bring the good with them from other religions. I have done that. I have not been without my trials. And I don’t know what blessings would have been mine if I took a different path. 

Even the blessings we have are often beyond our comprehension. I do know that I have had many blessings in my 44 years of life and the 25 years as a Latter Day Saint have been particularly rich in so many ways even when times were hard.