Posted on 04/15/2010 8:56:50 AM PDT by T Minus Four
Think of the Salt Lake Temple as a designer bottle holding a one-of-a-kind fragrance.
Think of the gardens and buildings of Temple Square as bubble wrap around that container.
Think of the City Creek Center to the south, the Church Plaza to the east, the Conference Center to the north, and the Family History Library and Church History Museum to the west as a firm, sturdy box around all of it.
When something merits that much protection, you have to figure rough bumps and bounces are coming down the road.
I get a feeling the LDS Church sees turbulence ahead -- nasty weather -- and it is making preparations.
It's not about being defensive and keeping things out.
It's about being protective and keeping precious things safe.
When the chilly winds blow, forest creatures gather all that's life-sustaining about them.
Horses in the fields cluster together to stand against the hail.
I feel the LDS Church battening down the hatches for bad weather.
The Tabernacle Choir, which was performing musical versions of Robert Frost poetry and other secular works, now releases CDs filled with songs of faith, assurance and the need to rely on the Divine.
I feel protection is the point behind the long row of sentries -- those Mormon temples -- that stand along the Wasatch -- the new Brigham City temple, new Payson temple, the new remade Ogden temple and all the others.
I feel protect precious things is the point of the new mission statements of LDS businesses, the point for books that are picked for publication and the lessons selected for manuals.
Part of the world would divide and conquer.
The church would gather and protect.
Something uneasy this way comes. Not a vilent clash as in Jerusalem -- where cultures fight openly. We won't be seeing stone throwers in the streets of Salt Lake City.
The battle here won't be about territory.
It will be about choices -- about the advent of a bolder, more self-indulgent popular culture.
The church can see the writing on the wall -- often literally.
And graffiti on the temple will never do.
It's time -- as the old hymn has it -- to "safely gather in, ere the winter storms begin."
The plan is not to force people away.
The plan is to keep what's on the inside safe from harm.
And if that means putting up ramparts and watchtowers, so be it.
Even heaven, if you believe the stories, is a gated community -- not to keep people away, but to safeguard the gentle hearts of those who dwell there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com Jerry Earl Johnston chronicles his take on the Mormon experience in his column “New Harmony,” which appears on MormonTimes.com on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Well, then I guess we are just reading it differently.
Or maybe I’m just overly paranoid about BO and see myself in it. We are preparing for the storm.
Maybe it’s just me.
I don’t think I’m a skilled sophist. I DO think you like to argue from false premise.
Me too.
But I also see conservatives in general under attack. I have friends who don’t proclaim any religion who are as scared as I am.
Thanks for sticking up for me...
(and me only a nasty apostate Gentile Whoda thunk ???)
but svcw is one of us Flying Inmans...
She’s my buddy...
I know she wasnt being mean...
She was being funny and cute...
Please come back and protect me when the mormons are bashing me...
:)
Well, I don’t read the Caucuses. I’ve seen even Immigration threads turned into “Why we hate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” threads. (Truth be told, I’d love to know why, but no one ever says why single the one religion out, they just slam it once one brings it up).
There is nothing good to come from this kind of talking. We have real issues and real threats. The divide and conquer methodology works if people can’t get over their differences. We can be grateful for what unites us, rather than pick apart differences. There is no need to disparage any church simply because you don’t like them.
I applaud netmilmom, because I can see you understand. Well intentioned as some may be, Ingroup, Outgroup dynamics shows that once people see others as a different group, they’ll attack, and they’ll look for bad things about them to keep up the status quo of “us vs. them.” We have to get over that or you’ll wake up with no one left to stand with you.
No one is asking that you can’t have a belief, but you can stop disparaging others round the clock. Look for commonalities, not differences, because I promise when you get separated from others, you’re not better off, unless you are in mortal danger (from those with whom you seperated), and then you had better be able to find others to help, because when you reduce your size of “us” you’ll always grow the “Them.”
The LDS do not fall under that however.
In the case of the LDS it is exposure of their tricks and deceit, that is all. Of course to the deceiver (or the deceived) it would certainly be desirous to play the victim and claim hatred and paint it as an attack in order to promote sales.
With the exception of a couple of other cults, none of the other religions represent themselves as something they are not on these pages. Catholics are Catholics, Protestants are protestant, Jews are Jews, Muslims are Muslim, Buddhist are Buddhist. Each have their own identity and do not pass themselves off as anything but what their tenets dictate. The Muslims do not put Buddhas in their Mosques and call themselves Buddhist while still practicing Islam, the Jews don't say Hail Marys whilst following their traditions, the Buddhist don't put crosses in their temples and follow their master.
Not so the LDS. Ergo they hold a special place in the eyes of those from whom they have stolen and modeled a large part of their mythical faith from and now claim to be the better version of despite practicing rather different beliefs. If the LDS were to swap out the name Jesus for say, Fred, and have their own distinct dogma and not co-opt large portions of Christanity for their own gains, it would then fail into the same category as any other faith, spiritually on the wrong path as fair as Christians are concerned, but still a distinct and self contained practice, standing on its own.
I always find that wording....odd. When spoken or typed by a mormon.
"the Church"....
But it's also illuminating for me at the same time....
It's rarely and/or never "my church"..Or "the church" ( little "c"..)
Or frankly, "I don't see us hunkering down".....
It's a tell...imo.
If you are on every side of an issue, you are never wrong.
Indeed.
YOur point is valid and important. We conservatives need to batten down the hatches, definitely. That’s NOT paranoia.
I believe all Christians are in the crosshairs, and that’s where we need to work on. The KGB Defector “Griffen,” Yuri Bezmenov, said that the plan was to demoralize us. As they do so, they’ll divide and conquer. They’re using a forked attack, an attack on Christianity (or anything but Islam... it seems these days that fascists, as Hitler tried to, are using radical Islam), to demoralize us, and an infighting among sects to keep us occupied.
That it the endgame, keep the pressure on us and get us to fight one another. It doesn’t matter which religions, groups, whatever, just keep the fight going while they take over.
>>Thanks for sticking up for me...<<
I don’t often come to these threads, but I don’t care for anyone being bashed (I know she didn’t, but it happens).
I think we can all discuss without name calling. AND I think I pretty well helped myself to a big cup of “fool” on this one.
Now my kids are pulling me out into the sun so God Bless and have a good one!
Define cult, then tell me why you don’t belong to one. I won’t bother reading your posts until you can talk like a mature adult.
Oh, you mean like the book that was translated by the use of a stone in a hat by an occultist treasure seeker? THAT kind of perfect record? How many corrections has the BOM gone through anyway?
But mormons believe the Bible is the "word of God as far as it has been translated correctly"...not to mention the DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS and the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE A SELECTION FROM THE REVELATIONS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NARRATIONS OF JOSEPH SMITH which were not even "translated" but "revealed to Joseph Smith" supposedly by God, not to mention the Journal of Discourses of the General Authorities of the LDS Church which is full of fascinating tales by mormon prophets of their translations and revelations.
One has to wonder how much of these "versions of religious scripture" you consider to be "not false" in your comparison of the Bible? OR, one wonders if the level of study done by this poster is in any way as complete as the study done by various Inmans.
;)
We can talk premises and argumentation anytime you like. If you want to argue factuality of premises and validity and cogency of arguments, I’m here when you like. History shows it will never happen. That’s why it has boiled down to ad hominem attacks EVERY time.
My gf was LDS, she's not anymore. I've meet several others that are former LDS. Just wondered if they were losing members.
I thought about telling them I needed a blood transfusion and asking them to donate. I wonder it that would work?
I dunno what an Inman is, but I wish I culd use your fancy red writing :)
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