What’s the right way to act when you disagree with the Church?
I’m not asking this question because it’s some sort of novel situation I find myself in. Far from it. Who doesn’t have disagreements with the Church? Even with the prophets, dead or living? Even with (*installs lightning rod*) the Word of God itself as recorded in the scriptures? There are thousands of pages of scriptures, conference talks, Church policies, Sunday School lessons, half-remembered anecdotes from your batty old aunt about how they used to run things in the pre-war M.I.A., etc. The odds that you could thoughtfully ponder all that and not find some points of honest disagreement are astronomical. (more…)
“I fear America has attained critical mass: an unstoppable process of reciprocally escalating outrage & disgust, justified via social media”
Thus Jonathan Haidt via twitter
And is what job of the Saints and the Righteous of every denomination? It is to oppose contention and the spirit of the devil. Or in other words, to act as the control rods of society, keeping things as sub-critical as possible, which is the function of silver, indium, cadmium and boron in a nuclear reactor.
If the time comes that the Saints must leave the rest of society, or if they are driven out, then critical mass has most certainly been attained.
… aren’t receiving revelation themselves. Otherwise, they would know “how it works.” (more…)
The Committee is gratified by the response to Federal Constitution v2.0, Draft Revision 2. Public comments received to date have highlighted the need to publish a more extended rationale for Presidential Election Process v2.0 Draft 2.
Julia Yost has an unconventional and sympathetic interpretation of a film I never care to see.
As one whose own children have been a bit problematic, I found this a fascinating insight.
His Majesty keeps a small trove of candy in the cabinet above the microwave.
Normative text is displayed in black. Archaic spellings and capitalization have been modernized. Annotation to distinguish changes from version 1.27 has been dropped, on the grounds that it was visually confusing and tended to steer reviewers away from careful review of the original test of version 1.27.
Rationale is displayed in red. Rationale is non-normative, but is provided to call out differences from release 1.27, better define terms of art, offer the reasoning behind the normative text, and offer other clarifications.
Every year there is an end to Christmas day and an end to the Christmas season. It is always a bit melancholy. Each of us will have a last Christmas of our life. That will be a bit melancholy too.
Our kind of Christmas will end someday too. Someday there will be a Last Christmas within the circle of the world.
But this year I have had an intimation that at the true last Christmas, Christ will be there. It will not be sad at all. (more…)
Helpless as a Baby and Helpless as a Child–what we learn from Christ taking on the feeble helplessness of an infant.
How we are Mary and Overlooked Christmas Scriptures and We are Joseph and Mary and Holding the Messiah–four essays on being a father or a mother or a recipient of revelation. See also this brief meditation on the comparison between Mary and the tree of life.
The Book of Revelation is an exceedingly mysterious and symbolic text; and I have never been convinced by any particular interpretation of its meanings.
It seems like a multi-referential code, understandable to an initiate of the time, no doubt; but whose ‘key’ has been (to a significant extent) lost. Consequently, guesswork is required, and results will be tentative… (more…)