The 12 Days of Christmas

In the spirit of Christmas, leaving these poems and a piece of the nativity of every night before Christmas--and some candy and food--has been a great mission experience.

By E.B.M.

I hate the University of Utah

Finally, Someone had the courage and the lack of tact to say it. "I don’t like Utah, in fact I hate them." How true those words ring in my soul. And no, I’m no typical zoobie. I don’t think BYU is the ‘Lord’s University”, and in fact I disagree that Utah is isn’t a great institution and has a fantastic football program. But I do hate them. Not because they are all anti-Mormon or jack Mormon—although a lot of them are—but because they accuse the BYU Nation of being self-righteous and Hippocratic. They are just as self-righteous in their Utah fanship or even in their behavior as BYU is, they just don’t have a Church of Jesus Christ officially supporting them. They aren’t hypocrites, that is for sure. but they are often mean, fowl, and counter-culture.

I will be the first to admit that our fans are almost as bad as Utah fans, and Max Hall had harsh words for BYU fans too. We are annoying, and going to home games can be painful because of how idiotic, self-righteous, and myopic BYU fans are. But Utah is worse. They just are.

I digress a little, because I think my hate for Utah isn’t something that can be explained. It’s something that is inside me. I want to be able to be happy that they won a BCS game, because it helped the conference, but I can’t. I want to be able to be happy for Alex Smith when he got drafted and feel bad for his poor performance, although I wasn’t happy for him and I love that he fell flat on his face. I loved it. I love that a self-righteous jerk, who is ignorant and even arrogant, is kicking butt in the NFL on the Colts. I just love BYU so much that it requires me to hate Utah.

I just think that deep in the rivalry between these two teams lies a mountain of emotion that extends into LDS church history and modern Mormon culture. Think about it, BYU-Utah, Dessert News-Salt Lake Tribune, Provo-Salt Lake City. The fight between Mormon culture and modern thought puts people at odds. And although not generally applied to every BYU and Utah fan, the rivalry is rooted in that dynamic.

So if you're a true BYU fan, you really don't like Utah, but Max’s rant doesn't really reflect the church, and probably doesn’t come from his love of BYU. It doesn't reflect the university of BYU. It reflects his emotions—from sucking last year and having one bad family experience—and reflects his passion for what has happened this year. But that first sentence reflects what I and every true blue cougar feels. I hate Utah and I sure love beating and sending them to a bowl game named after a flower.

The Living Church

As a missionary I have a strong belief in the truthfulness of the LDS movement and the tenets to which it adheres. They are inspired and bless many lives, including my family and my own. But I do not like the dogmatic shift into absolutist territory that befalls many others churches. If we turn into the kind of church that is so infallible, so sure, so unconditional; we begin to mirror other faiths in their lack of progression and refusal to acknowledge reason and truth. Believing that we are the ‘one true church’ without consideration and constant self-evaluation, borders on the conditions that precede apostasy. Letting tradition blind us and allowing for a system where there is an absence of doubt, blurs the lines of the differences between us and the rest of the world’s religions. The reason Mormonism is so beautiful is because of that line; because it began and continued to be progressive. The more tradition and culture drag us toward stagnation, the more uncomfortable I feel.

The movement started with a boy who was willing to accept and progress in any way show to him as being right. He did not hold to any cultural tradition; in fact he defied most of all them. It’s what made the church stand out. The book of Mormon proves to the church that nothing is done or sure, but that God will continue to reveal and we must be ready to adapt to the changing world and embrace true and progressive doctrinal shifts.

The true victims of the Mormon culture phenomenon are those who are the strongest members of the church. They can become a part of a guilt motivated system. They are not it’s source by any means, but rather the result of the bureaucracy that can take advantage of the best intentioned. The outcome of such a system is not unpleasant; the ends of this process are what we celebrate and take pride in. The church does so much for so many, and gives a filter of love and hope to the religious world. But for those—such as myself—who struggle with a Machiavellian justification for a system that may border on violating the principles of the religion it operates in, it can be disheartening and discouraging.

I guess it comes down to what’s more important to you; the ends or the means by which they are produced. This pseudo-business style of running a religion that is largely pure and loving may be effective in increasing numbers (tithing, members, retention); but this mixture is not necessarily morally permissible to me.  It’s a good thing that the church continues to progress and evolve with living apostles and prophets or else the traditionalist members might have stagnated the ‘living church’. And if it's a living church, it will adapt and change for the better; and thankfully it continues to do so.

What Religion are you?

Throwing up the "J's"

Judge not, that ye be not judged-Matthew 7

Let that missionary without apostate thoughts, feelings, or actions cast the first stone.

Pharisee: Condemns others for their lack of righteousness and for their unwillingness to fall within the bounds they believe are correct. They lack Understanding & Empathy

Apostate: Condemns others for their lack of rebelliousness and for their unyielding convictions. They lack respect and admiration for people who are faithful

There is little difference between the two groups. Both condemn others for their differences, and for their aversion to be exactly like themselves. They both lack humility, charity, and open-mindedness. A true follower of Christ would follow his beliefs whilst respecting and accommodating the beliefs of others. He would stand firm in his convictions and yet not force them onto others.

The Greatest Missionaries display these qualities

Alma Sr: Reformed his ways after he openly considered Abinidi’s message

Alma Jr: Reformed his ways after highly spiritual experience, which then allowed him to use his prior experience to relate and help the people who had similar problems as he had.

Saul/Paul: Reformed from persecuting the saints as an apostate, to becoming a follower.

Ammon: Did not force his views onto others, but served them and then they inquired of him.

Samuel/Ether: Unafraid to express his true opinion even at the cost of being hated by those in the world.

Abinidi: Unafraid to express his true opinion even at the cost of being hated by those in the church and in authority at the time

The Keys To Unity

1.Before we turn to the outer vessel (others), we must turn and consider the inner vessel (ourselves)

2.How can we expect to spread the love and spirit if the gospel when we as a group do not feel it towards each other.

3.A House (Mission, Zone, District) divided against itself cannot stand, and the way to gain unity is not to tell everyone to change, but to build trust and understanding for others.

4.Gifts of the spirit are different for everyone (D&C 46) and acknowledging and accepting that others do things differently that can benefit us as a whole is vital to Unity.

5.Do Leaders Throw-Down or do the Lift-Where-They-Stand?

Absolute Altruism or Selfish Selflessness

Over the course of my mission, the general focus of ‘the work’ has seemed to me at times, incongruent. The focus on not being selfish, which in of itself it admirable, but not at all possible. (See Communism or Law of Consecration). There is a notion that we as missionaries and even members of the LDS church should not do what is in our ‘best self-interest” because doing so would be wrong. I may be diving into mere definitions, but generally when we are doing what is right, we have selfish motivations.

Selfishness play a role— a necessary and beneficial one—in missionary work and in life in general. We strive to reach our goals to better ourselves, that is selfish. We want to have fun on p-day and unwind and prepare for another week of missionary work, that is selfish. All the things we do are in our ‘best self-interest’ or we would not be doing them. The standard should not be are you suffering and going against your own needs, but should be: Do my actions helps others and benefit more than just yourself—which is where altruism can play a part. We try and act selfless, but our motives will always be selfish for anything. Like faith and doubt, selfishness and selflessness is a coupled process and how we harness our natural selves by trying to better ourselves.

I Would say—religiously—that selfishness is the common motivator for most people. The plan of Salvation is selfish, we do the right things in order to gain a reward. It’s selfish to want to go to the highest degree of heaven. It’s selfish to want to become like god. It’s selfish to merely obey to obtain blessings. It’s selfish to want to be with your family for forever. It’s selfish to come unto Christ so you can obtain ‘rest’. Our desires and actions will always follow our ‘best self interest’ as we perceive them. The gospel is the way which we believe we can obtain those things that we desire. Even when we serve in the best interest of others, that means we ourselves deem helping someone else as in our best interest.

That doesn’t mean we don’t act in ways that bless others. We may go on missions because we have been asked to by a prophet (obeying a commandment to obtain blessings) and to satisfy social pressure (recognition as a good member of the church), and because we desire to serve others (a selfish need to view ourselves as good people). But, the results are that people are helped and blessings come to others—as well as ourselves—when we do so.

We act selfless based on selfish motives. And if our selfish desires help us and others, then they aren’t bad at all, their vital to progress on a mission, in the gospel, and in life in general.

Flow Charts for Belief

There is this really agnostic kid we are teaching right now and I'm trying my best to convert him to the belief process, so I made some flow charts. I thought I'd post them just in case I lose them here.

 

 

Halloween Update

This week has been very good. A general authority came, brother Christensen, and spoke to us. The very antithesis of Elder Pearson from last year. He said numbers and systematic bureaucracy were necessary but if they are the goal then the work means very little to the people who teach. He then went on to talk about doing good—not because it will help missionary work—but because it’s the right thing to do. Be motivated by love, not duty and it will forge better relationships with the people you come in contact with. He said of faith, hope, charity, and love; charity is the most important. He then did a question and answer section and I asked him if I could exercise faith and still have doubt. He said that faith is a way to combat doubt…and that answer is something I like. We doubt, but then we do things anyway in good faith, and if it was something good to have faith in then the doubt goes away. Indirectly indicating to me that doubt is part of the process that leads to greater faith and eventually conviction.

The office is crazy. There is no real protocol for anything and the entire system was very messy, but me and my companion are cleaning it up and installing a new system on the computers call iMOS (internet Mission Office System), and that will streamline a lot of work and organize everything so that it’s not just all word of mouth instruction, but protocol so that nothing falls through the cracks. My position as finance officer is very stressful…or rather busy and it makes time fly. I love it. I manage assets of a little under a half of a million dollars for the mission budget. Very cool and a large responsibility.

Also my Sister got into NYU. I am so proud of her. She is such an influence in so many people’s lives and she just emulates happiness and fun! I think that many successes and amazing accomplishments await her in the future!

Tort-Deformity

In an ever increasingly tense atmosphere of health-care reform, the subject of tort reform has found a cozy spot in the heart’s of angry conservatives. In an effort to cut cost of health-care, fiscal caps would be imposed on malpractice law-suits and hinder the ability to collect on wrongful death, pain, and suffering in tort cases related to medical care.

Why not, right? As long as costs are down then the public is better-off, and in that spirit there are a few more actions the public should take. We should implement sweeping pay cuts for all of America’s teachers in order to improve the education system. To eliminate costs in crime-fighting, we will lower the salaries of all patrol-men, detectives, and highway patrol in order to develop and enhance the way we fight crime. And finally, we will immediately stop building stoplights and halt funding of highway improvement projects to make our roads and highways safer.

Yeah, doesn’t make much sense, does it? Funny thing about costs; some of them are definitely worth it. Just like roadways, crime, and education; health-care benefits from responsible spending on oversight (tort law, police, teachers, stop lights all oversee and help regulate their system)are worth the cost. Particularly in torts, which help insure people’s safety by holding people accountable for mistakes or breaches of the standard of care and help correct shattered lives from those actions. Tort law helps victims of negligence or worse, tort reform benefits corporations who can legally shrug their mission of insuring people’s lives. Which side do we want to be on? This change in the tort system seems to be more worried with helping HMO’s manage their costs than it does helping the average Joe. Seems….well…kinda evil.

If health-care wants to reduce costs responsibly—whilst helping doctors, patients, and victims of medical malpractice or abuse—then HMO regulation is the way to go. Making it harder for HMO’s to raise doctor’s premiums for insurance and harder for HMO’s to deny promised coverage to patients, then tort reform will look less like an destruction of victims rights and malpractice law—like it does in states like Texas where wrongful death and malpractice is non-existent now—and more like a plausible solution for everyone.

Studies agree that tort reform correlates with higher mortality rates. Not really helping health care then, is it? No, just helping cut costs.

The new African-American: LDS

Two Dudes kissing each other at Temple Square are arrested and kicked off public property; quickly followed by protests. Prop 8 legislation prohibiting marriage rights to homosexuals passes with considerable support from the LDS church; quickly followed by protests, boycotts, and even vandalism. If you had to assign a 'persecuted' label to either the LDS church or the Gay Rights, which would it be?

According to Elder Oaks, it'd be the church.

In a speech at BYU-I, Elder Oaks compared the treatment of the church to the treatment of blacks in the 1960's. He said that the church's position and experience in Prop 8 echoed that of the African-Americans in that the church is being persecuted for using its first amendment right to freely speak out on issues.

A shaky statement at best, especially given the church's less than ideal stance on blacks in the past (At the time that African-Americans experienced what Elder Oaks is referring to, they also weren't allowed to hold the priesthood in the LDS church). The logic is heard to see. It's the equivalent of the U.S. government complaining of persecution during the civil rights march in D.C. The gay community is seeking rights and the church played a large role in denying them those rights. What follows it a natural backlash. Gay Rights groups are angry and the church gets flack. No Duh. What did they expect to happen?

Elder Oaks is right that the church has every right to say and proclaim whatever they want. But the public has just as much right to boycott and protest (although not vandalize) the church because of what it says. It's seems to be a two way street this free-speech thing. We can say homosexuality is un-natural and un-godly, and they can say we are bigots and homophobic.

The church has been know to play the victim card. Ever since the extermination order was issued back in Missouri, persecution is something of a confirmation of belief for us. But in this particular case, if you had to pick which group is more like the evil galactic empire and which group is the rebellion, then us Mormons are looking an awful lot like storm troopers these days (no matter how much President Kimball looked like Yoda).

I think the real issue is that both sides want respect from the other, which of course is ridiculous. Homosexuals are never going to understand why the church thinks they are an abomination, and the Church is never going to condone homosexuality. Gay Rights groups want the church to let Gays into the temple. The church wants gays to stop fighting for rights and seek help for their 'condition'. Neither is likely, because the two groups vastly disagree and mostly hate each other--which by the way would go against both the church's aim to be Christ-like and the homosexual's claim that they just want more acceptance and higher minded ideals.

But lets look at the bright side. At least Mormons going to conference get to see the rather hilarious sight of gays and evangelicals protesting side by side. Strange anti-Mormon bedfellows indeed.