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.
So, by definition, the AoF are a creed.
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BINGO!!
I have no idea why you take such strange pleasure in bashing my heart-felt faith
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Youre not suppose to be trusting youre own dumb heart...
Youre suppose to be trusting the Jesus of the Christian Bible...
You cant find god with your flesh...
The human heart is the most perverse and deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is Jeremiah 17:9
mormonism has always been such a sensual fleshy religion...
Fea linz
Applause.
So shall it eventually be with us—‘Joseph Smith or the Sword!’ (Joey Smith, Missouri, 1838)
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Yep.
122 temples are in operation,
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That is disgusting...
all those people who could have been fed...
Resty, nothing in there supports LDS doctrine or refutes Christian doctrine.
Context, context, context.
Again it was Joseph Smith a boy of 14 in a humble prayer seeking answers to his question of which church he should join and the Lord told Joseph Smith to join none.
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Resty, there is NO proof Smith’s story is true and quite a bit of documentary evidence that it is not (the different first vision accounts).
It is Smith’s word against the evidence and a prosecuting attorney would have a FIELD DAY with Smith on this.
Sandy, how would you feel if the LDS re-instituted polygamy? What would your position on that be?
What an interesting question. I will remember that one. One could ask also about blacks not being able to participate.
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. At certain times and for His specific purposes, God, through His prophets, has directed the practice of plural marriage (sometimes called polygamy), which means one man having more than one living wife at the same time. In obedience to direction from God, Latter-day Saints followed this practice for about 50 years during the 1800s but officially ceased the practice of such marriages after the Manifesto was issued by President Woodruff in 1890.
When you read this statement, it becomes apparent that the lds god changes his mind quite frequently.
If you were 14 and God the father and Jesus appeared to you, woulod you keep it to yourself andf not tell anyone for the next twn years ???
and wouldnt it make you want to behave ???
Joey Smith just went back to his sheep stealing and glass looking cons and didnt say anything about MEETING GOD IN THE FLESH...
Well until he found his yarn was good foir a few beers down at the pub...
and to keep his followers interested...
he had to come up with something sensational...
after all as we are told repeatedly, he was licing in a “burnt over” district...
all the old stories were boring...nobody wanted to hear them
But HEY shaking hands with God ??? Thats big...
for this week...
Then he had to add and embullish through several different versions...
and since Joey couldnt write to record what he had told the last ime...
He tweeked the tall talle about the “visitation” each time he told it...
This week there was one god...
the next week WOW TWO gods...
Then there were all the angels...
this time only one angel but a great big fellow...
Joey was folksy in his story telling so his audience didnt mind.,..
Wouldnt a visit from God be BURNED into your memory...each detail as vivid today as it was ten years before...
Who could forget so easily a visirt from God ???
A loud mouthed liar who just made it all up to impress his drinking buddies and to entice and seduce gullible under age girls could get mixed up...
and not care if he blasphemed against the Christian God..
You know saundra - you have to be 100% perfect in your prophecies in order to hold the mantle of a prophet - in smith's case 0% doesn't cut it. Same goes for you living prophet - haven't heard many prophecies from monson yet - nor have any previous prophecies been fulfilled lately.
Someone asked me how could the LDS support polygamy and oppose gay marriage in CA.
My response was that the LDS opposes marriage between 2 men or 2 women, but instead of ‘marriage between one man and one woman’, polygamy is ‘marriage between ONE man and MANY women’, and that is a big difference. Only one man involved.
When you read this statement, it becomes apparent that the lds god changes his mind quite frequently.
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What do you expect? He was human after all...
Smith didn't believe in fair trials either - he ordered a newspaper to be destroyed and the owners had to flee for THEIR LIVES. Ever heard the phrase - he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. The General lived a lot by the sword in Nauvoo.
When briggy Young was unConstutionally “king” and theocratic dictaor of utah Territory, he considered that he OWNED California and all its gold mines amd people too, and that it wouldnt be long before the US government would come bowing and scraping to him and just hand the whole state over to him...beg him to take it...
I wonder if that mentality still exists in mormondom, because the mormons in Utah state sure take an unhealthy interest in a state that is none of their business...
Agreed.
So you think insulting me is endearing
You love your faith and I love my faith if you can not be civil then stop posting me!
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