Superstition, Faith and Scientific Hypotheses

If we define superstition as "explanations of the unknown" and faith as "the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen" - then they are very similar in practical terms. Similarly, if we define scientific hypothesis as "the best guess prior to the discovery of conclusive evidence", we begin to see how vital a role belief in the unknown is - no matter what form it takes or words we use to describe it.

It's not "faith" (or even "doubt") that is the core issue; it's the approach we take to having faith or doubt that matters. It's our willingness to accept that we need "faith/superstition/hypothesis/etc" in order to grow and learn.

Do we try to understand whatever we can - and not disparage those who also are trying to understand whatever they can simply because they don't understand exactly as we understand (or even don't accept that of which we are convinced)? Do we leave ourselves open to modify our understanding? Do we accept that not all can be open to the same degree - and that there must exist a tension between total openness (and the risks it brings) and limited openness (and the security it provides)?
 
These are the questions, in my mind, that are the most critical - and they all point to the importance of accepting that we don't know all things and need to be open to further light and knowledge.

A Simply Stunning Post : "Bear My Joy or Let Me Weep Your Tears"

I Pray You...Bear My Joy Awhile - Kristine (By Common Consent)

Genealogy, Temple Work and Understanding Ourselves

I'm not sure I (individually) can ever be perfect (complete, whole, fully developed) without an undersdtanding of how I came to be who I am - and that is possible, to a large degree, only by knowing something of my genetic heritage. 

That's why adoptees usually long to know of their birth parents - and why those with traumatic amnesia flounder until they rediscover themselves - and why orphans and only children often are the most enthusiastic genealogists. There is a deeply embedded drive in humans to know who we are.

Temple work, in my opinion, takes that drive and channels it universally - and I really do believe the symbolism can be powerful and must be taught explicitly. 

I also believe temple work really isn't about the dead but rather about us - but that's a topic for another post.

Thoughts on The Fall during the fall season

The Fall - Steve Evans (By Common Consent)

Many Global Issues Really Are Local Issues

I think it’s instructive how many people equate their own local experience(s) with “The Church”.

Those whose local units are wonderful, warm, spiritual places often have a hard time understanding those who leave, while those who live in areas with major problems of various kinds (or one overwhelming problem) often struggle to understand those who stay – since both often project their experiences as representative of “The Church”. 

We really do have two distinct churches within the LDS Church – the global one and the local one.

I dare say more people leave because of the local one than the global one – and I dare say many of the things that many members see as global issues really are examples of the global water not getting to the end of the local row.

Of course, there are global leadership issues that cause some to leave – but a local ward, branch and/or stake that functions like it’s supposed to function often is one of the prime reasons why many people stay, even when there are some "big issues" with which they struggle.

Truly God Knows Us Personally: My Children and the New Missionary Age Policy

When I heard Pres. Monson announce that young women now can serve full-time missions beginning at the age of 19, I was ecstatic - but my joy was initially intellectual, for the most part, at that point. 

This announcement is HUGE, in my opinion. As of today, marriage no longer is the de facto first goal for Mormon teenage girls; the first goal now can be a mission, college or marriage. In other words, there is no “waiting period” for girls that says, implicitly at the very least, that they should serve missions only if they can’t get married. In that sense, there really is no difference now in “practical life planning”, if you will, for Mormon teenagers – male and female.

Then, as I processed my intellectual response, I looked at my youngest three daughters who were in the room listening with me.  My teenage daughters were on the verge of tears of joy when they heard the announcement. Their excitement was palpable. The youngest didn't understand fully the import of the change, but she also was beaming. 

What happened next changed the way I saw the announcement - adding a deeply personal element to the entire situation.

My oldest daughter who is in college right now called me. She hadn't been able to watch conference due to her responsibilities at school, so she hadn't know about the announcement until I texted her to see how she felt about it.  She gave me permission to share the following:

She has been feeling strongly for the last couple of weeks that she needs to prepare to serve a mission. In the temple this week (to do baptisms for the dead), she got an overwhelming impression that she should go on a mission “immediately”. She is barely 20, so she assumed that meant next summer when she turns 21.

She was in tears today when she told me she had contacted her Bishop and asked to start the process of being able to leave “immediately”.

To me, that’s what it’s all about, at the most fundamental level. 

My girls are happy. 

That really is all that matters right now. 

Postscript:

Just to provide the complement to my daughter’s experience:

I also texted my second son (22 years old) and told him I hope he doesn’t question his personal revelation to not serve a full-time mission, what with the policy change and all. Part of the wording now is “worthy and ABLE” – and his personal situation makes him unable to serve a full-time mission and remain true to his responsibility to his fiance.

As he was pondering and praying about it, he was out with the missionaries one evening and realized he could be involved in teaching the Gospel very actively whether or not he served a full-time mission – and it hit him later that night as he was reading his Patriarchal Blessing again that it never says he will serve a mission. Instead, it says he would preach and share the Gospel “in the spirit of missionary work”. He and I are grateful for a Patriarch who was inspired to say something so personal and visionary / revelatory to him.

Each person is different, and each person has to make the decisions that are right for him or her. Nobody can make those decisions for them, not even their parents or their church leaders.

I’m grateful - deeply and profoundly grateful - that God knows us personally and is willing to reach down into mortality occasionally and speak directly and individually to his children - even when what he says to one is very different than what he says to another one.  The fact that two of my children could receive such different revelations about the exact same question comforts me greatly. 

The Solution to Widespread Apostasy

The solution to the concept of a great apostasy, in my opinion, is NOT converting everyone to the LDS Church. Rather, it is enlightening everyone with the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - even if that means never mentioning Jesus to some but instead using their own terminology and common beliefs to accomplish the same objective.

Jesus actually didn't establish a church during his ministry. He didn't have to do so; he was his own church, in a way - a classic itinerant preacher. Once he was gone, however, establishing a church became absolutely critical to spreading what he taught ("the Gospel") to the whole world. That "humanization" of principle was the beginning of apostasy, since it introduced mortals into the transmission of immortal principles - and we still are involved in the work of getting back to the ideal and the pure, even within the LDS Church.

One of the reasons I love the Allegory of the Vineyard in Jacob 5 is that is describes, in simple, clear and unmistakable terms, the condition of apostasy as an ever-present, even pervasive condition that will not be conquered until the very end. In my opinion, the Great Apostasy hasn't ended; it simply has been tackled in a different and more comprehensive way.

"A Grace that Came Unbidden"

Charity Unbidden - Rachel (Times & Seasons)

Mormonism's View of Authority Is a Combination of Protestant and Catholic

The following is a simplified generalization, but I think it is a useful and reasonably accurate one:

Martin Luther and other Protestant leaders of the Reformation realized very clearly that they did not have "The Priesthood" as it was understood at that time within Catholicism. In rejecting Catholicism, they also rejected the idea that God's authority was vested exclusively and totally in a few people through an ordination process (who were the only people required to read and know the word of God, and, therefore, stood as intermediaries between the people and God) - replacing that concept with the idea that God's authority was vested purely in His word (The Bible) and all true believers had the ability to read His word and act according to their own understanding of it ("the priesthood of believers").

Of course, this has been limited over time to be only those understandings of the Bible that don't contradict their own interpretations - which is ironic, given the foundation of the Reformation. Thus, in their construction, all who are "true believers" (not Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, and other deluded cultists) have the right to act in God's name (as true Christians), but God's actual authority lies only in the Bible.

So, the overall Mormon view of authority is kind of a combination of Catholic and Protestant views - since we maintain a formal, capital "P" Priesthood for the performance of binding ordinances but couple it with the general idea of a lower case "p" priesthood of believers who can read and act according to God's universal word, even though we don't talk about it in those terms. The "additional" aspect within Mormonism is that it posits that "His universal word" includes more than just the Bible - that it includes whatever he has said to all (truly universally) - and that individual believers actually can receive His unique word to them, even if it contradicts, occasionally, His universal word to all.

Therefore, in a nutshell, the Great Apostasy, as it is defined within Mormonism, began when the apostles no longer were able to gather and replace those who were being killed (to continue the ordinance-performing Priesthood) and was further entrenched when the priesthood of believers was eliminated by the Catholic Priesthood organization that removed from them the right and ability to read God's word and interact with God directly within their own spheres. The Reformation addressed the foundation of the second of these issues (allowing regular believers to interact directly with God through exposure to His word), while the Restoration addressed the extension of the second issue (re-establishing truly personal revelation as a universal right) and the first issue (re-establishing binding Priesthood ordinances).

We Are All Jerks - and Miracles - and Fools - and Saints

A Letter to a Lost One from Long Ago - Margaret Blair Young (By Common Consent)