Back from the eclipse. (It was way cool.)

Going through my emails. There was one from the local schools, who for reasons unknown are under the impression I have a student attending school from my  home. It was a long discussion of the upcoming eclipse watching activities, emphasizing safety and end with the curious statement:

Students are allowed to opt out of these activities for cultural, religious or others reasons.

I am genuinely puzzled which religions or cultures eschew eclipse observation.

And yet, you can’t decline to customize a wedding cake for a ceremony you sincerely believe, for religious reasons, to be a mockery of one of your most sacred sacraments.

Go figure.

So, … how has that Sexual Revolution thing worked out?  It’s been 50 years, about two generations, so there should be plenty of data. (more…)

The ACLU defended the Neo-Nazis’ right to march/rally in Skokie, IL, in 1977/1978.

https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-speech-skokie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_America_v._Village_of_Skokie

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says ‘Love your enemies,’ he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Link.

From the LDS Newsroom:
After receiving media inquiries, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided the following statement about the LoveLoud Festival in Orem, Utah, which takes place August 26, 2017:

We applaud the LoveLoud Festival for LGBT youth’s aim to bring people together to address teen safety and to express respect and love for all of God’s children. We join our voice with all who come together to foster a community of inclusion in which no one is mistreated because of who they are or what they believe.

We share common beliefs, among them the pricelessness of our youth and the value of families. We earnestly hope this festival and other related efforts can build respectful communication, better understanding and civility as we all learn from each other.

LoveLoudFest.com

We all know that Hollywood is sick. Not just morally depraved, but intellectually and creatively bankrupt. This is no great surprise to any of us. Looking at foreign films, even just good anime, can really surprise you with genuine emotion, real stakes, terrifying loss, and real characters, you just don’t get with movies like Transformers, or even most of Hollywood. It is interesting to note, that besides the Founding Fathers, the majority of people who appeared to Pres. Woodroof and ask why their temple work had not been done, were artists (authors, poets, playwrights, etc). So, I think their is a genuine spiritual angle here, besides simply Hollywood mediocrity.

The New York Post has a great little article How Harry Potter and ‘The Dark Tower’ have messed up millennials
Please read it – it is quite short.

Protagonists don’t have to grow or struggle. They are simply the Chosen One. (more…)

On one hand, visions and dreams that do not come through the church authorities, or ourselves, are not binding to us at all. And there are certainly no shortage of nutjobs out there.

On the other hand, there is a notable vision by Charles D Evans, a church Patriarch back in the 1890’s, that keeps ringing in my ear.

Right after showing the gospel restoration and general national prosperity, and right before discussing disasters and plagues, he is told (more…)

Speaking of lifting up, I leave for the eclipse in the morning.  In my absence, His Majesty may try posting a thing or two. Be forewarned.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this in movies.

Another icon of my youth crosses the veil.

From a very old friend who is now an infectious diseases specialist:

(more…)

“One of the ways Satan wants us to manipulate others is by dwelling upon and even exaggerating the evil in the world.
Certainly our world has always been, and will continue to be, imperfect. Far too many innocent people suffer because of circumstances of nature as well as from man’s inhumanity. The corruption and wickedness in our day are unique and alarming. (more…)

I am coming to understand the advent of Mormonism in terms of a completion of the divine promptings that were first detectable with the early Romantic movement among its greatest exponents such as ST Coleridge and JW von Goethe (who both died just as the CJCLDS was emerging).

Mormonism brought an astonishing metaphysical clarity to the embryonic striving to express the fundamental nature of existence in terms which were real, symbolic and comprehensible; by means of the ‘Master Metaphor’ of marriage and family love – of the dyadic nature of Man as a man and woman in an eternal and fertile divine marriage (and of originating from exactly such a union of Heavenly parents).

I feel that much more can, and should, be done to develop this core insight: here is my latest attempt – in which I do not mention Mormonism because I take its truth for granted.

http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/coleridges-polarity-as-explicated-by.html

Someone, at some point, might write a scholarly study of Joseph Smith as a metaphysical philosopher; one of the greatest of all time – so remarkably successful in creating a coherent, practical and motivating basic understanding of ultimate reality that his profundity is apparently invisible!)