I want to read an SF story where you have a small lost colony in a star system somewhere.  They eventually convert en masse to the Restoration.  But its all on paper.  No authority.  They are hopeful that they will be sent an angel someday.  But so far it hasn’t happened.  They struggle with their finite resources to build a broadcaster sending out their complete genealogies so their work can be done.  But even with this hope and this effort, they realize that its still not complete.  Without their genealogies going back beyond the settlement of the colony, which they don’t have, they can receive their individual ordinances and they can be sealed to each other, but they cannot be welded in to the rest of the human race.  They would be an isolated pocket of sealings.

So they decide to launch a starship.  They will send a young man to the stars.  His mission is to marry an LDS girl.

Its some kind of cosmic injustice that John C. Wright can write serious stuff more serious than me and silly stuff sillier than me.

http://scifiwright.com/2025/06/my-plan-for-a-better-polity-2/

I have petitioned the Congress for redress.

I was in Sacrament meeting feeling separated from the Savior.  Yes, I have spiritual feelings.  Yes, I feel his presence in my life.  It is not enough.  I feel a hole.

But I know myself.  When the veil finally breaks, I probably won’t feel some kind of ecstatic reunion, I will probably just be too overwhelmed to feel anything at all.  And after that, I know this is incredible to say, but I know myself, it risks becoming routine.

The sense of separation I have now is necessary so that in the future the end of the separation never feels routine.

Scribblers have spilled lots of ink on why George RR Martin can’t finish his Song of Fire and Ice.  For technical reasons, he has too many viewpoint characters, one says..  For character reasons, he’s old and fat and lost his drive, another says.

I have my own theory.  I think he is fighting reality and losing.

Here’s a truth about the world we live in.

The good man always wins in the end.  If he hasn’t won, it’s not the end.

Stories reflect that truth.  Even tragedies have to.

(more…)

A lot of being a parent is gross. A little kid isn’t sinning when they mess their little diaper nor is it obviously some kind of trial from which the youngster will develop personal character. It’s just gross. But perhaps being the parent is a preparation for Godhood. He is with us always, every time when we are on the pot.

Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them

In the midst of them — Metaphor? Vibe? Some kind of spiritual physics we know not of?

In recent years we have been hearing more Second Coming talk again.  But instead of hearing about preparing for the calamities and misery that will precede it, our brethren have been talking about it as a blessed relief from all the ills of the world.  (It must get pretty tiring up there where they are).  I remember a talk a few years ago, maybe from Elder Cook, where the real longing in his voice for the Savior to come and put an end to all the gross evils was obvious.

In the words of the meme, ‘the Second Coming solves this.”

But one of the sections we just read in the Doctrine and Covenants is even more optimistic than that.

Brothers and Sisters, welcome to another installment of Talking About Things After Everyone Has Moved On to Something Else.  For our select audience  only.

(more…)

Child of Light on display in the Conference Center, Salt Lake City
Sculptor Laura Lee Stay Bradshaw b.1958
Cast bronze, 2003

The sculptress: “Ever since I can remember I had an insatiable desire to create.”

My teenage daughters have a delightful custom of putting on favorite conference talks while we cook and clean up on Sunday.  This Sunday it was Elder Holland on why understanding the Fall was important to understanding the Atonement.

Coincidentally, I had been thinking about the logic of Eden and the Fall on the drive to Church and during the Sacrament, for no particular reason.

What I am going to tell you is that the story of Eden and the Fall has a deep logic to it that connects with the basic and unavoidable features of mortality and progress.  It’s a fount of philosophy.

(more…)

Wherefore, I will that all men shall repent, for all are under sin, except those which I have reserved unto myself, holy men that ye know not of.

-thus D&C 49:8

I don’t know what this means and I wish I did.  There is no context to speak of.

There are two references I could find.  One from Spencer W. Kimball which doesn’t address the holy men part.  The other was added by a later editor in a footnote in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, to a statement by Joseph Smith saying that God had reserved Enoch unto Himself.

There once was a church that was a secret.  The secrecy was sacred to them.  Anyone could learn about it, but you  had to do it this way.  You had to go to a certain place, a hidden alcove in a wall, and there you would be taught a truth and be given instructions for the next location to go to.  They would give you a token–the first one was a lumpy black polished stone turtle about the size of a chocolate.  If you wanted to know more, you would then go to the next location, present your token, and learn the next step.  Eventually you would have to make commitments and join.  If you see some of your neighbors slinking along a back alley on a Sunday morning and then fugitively disappearing into an apparently abandoned warehouse, you might suspect what church they belong to.

Of course any large organization has to have some flexibility built in, so there are other methods for the church to get people to come in on some of their secrets.  There was a young man who was not a member of the church but had done some important work for the leadership and knew them and a lot of their affairs–in confidence of course.  They complained to him that there was a church that was even more secret.  This even-more-secret church was out in the open and its doctrines were all openly taught and its rituals conducted in public, but all these had a hidden truer inner meaning that no one was ever explained, if you belonged you just figured it out in a moment of illumination.  The first secret church was desperate to figure out which of the many open churches around them was secretly the second even-more-secret church but so far they hadn’t been able to.

—

This came to me a in a waking dream.

Doctrine and Covenants 46 on spiritual gifts.  Here are some unexpected points

• Ask in the Spirit according to the will of God in the name of Christ (vv. 30-33)
• Ask the Bishop if you don’t know what  your gifts are (v. 27)
• Ask for gifts with prayer and thanksgiving (v. 7)

On that last point, I think I had a genuine insight of sorts.

(more…)

Stasis + Misery = Hell

Stasis + Happiness = Eden

Growth + Misery = Mortality

Growth + Happiness = Heaven

Pride is climbing a hill and building a house there for the view of the plains.
Humility is scaling the summit and learning you still haven’t touched the sky.