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.
LOL
An antacid would do the trick...
Jesus is the right antacid for the burning caused by mormonism...
Take one Jesus or burn...
But how could He already be God (divine) without having kept His ‘second estate’ (human existence).
It just doesn’t jibe.
Can you not see the duplicity here? JS is saying that one must ignore his unethical and immoral behavior when “he’s not acting as a prophet? Yet everything else he said and did is supposed to have merit?
When did he turn it on and when did he turn it off?
Since you weren’t there, you can’t know because there is no indication by him when he was supposedly doing so.
Therefore, it is all suspect.
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And we have a WINNER!!! Good post, sz.
Wow! I’m speechless.
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Stick around and it will happen more often.
I often post a disclaimer that I am not joking when posting LDS theology.
You probably know that Latter-day saints believe that Jesus was the creator of all things under direction of the Father.
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Actually, He was more of an ‘organizer’, Stretch. LDS do not believe in creation ex-nihilo.
And He was only fore ordained after God rejected Satan’s plan in favor of Jesus’.
There where the 80s?
I invite them in for dinner. They are always hungry and I have 2 hour captive witnessing audience. When they start in with their canned ‘testimony’, I just counter with mine which is NOT canned.
Sorry I will not answer post that demean the names of my faith!
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Yet you will fail to capitalize He/Him/His when referring to God and Christ.
Shows what is first to the LDS: “The Church” (and I even capitalized it for you).
First of all, there are not 14M ACTIVE members, only about half that are ‘active’ (7M) and only about 3-4M max here in the States.
And any group that exerts that much control over their membership is enslaving. That is one of the Sociological characteristics of a ‘cult’.
Of the 13,824,854 members of the church an estimated 50% are "active"...meaning attending at least once a month...far fewer are temple recommend holders, etc...
LDS Church statistics through Dec. 31, 2009, as released by the First Presidency during the Saturday afternoon session of general conference:
Stakes: 2,865
Missions: 344
Districts: 616
Wards and branches: 28,424
Members: 13,824,854
New children of record: 119,722
Converts: 280,106
Full-time missionaries: 51,736
New temples dedicated: 2 (Draper Utah, Oquirrh Mountain Utah)
Total operating temples: 130
Good catch.
No one has any idea what you are talking about. There are no “slaves” in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You have stretched your imagination to the limit and beyond.
I am going to tell you that given how my aunt and uncle have been treated by lds and that they still dutifully go through the motions, they are slaves.
slave:
1 : a person held in servitude as the chattel of another
2 : one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence
No one has to attend Church if they don’t want to. I don’t care what Church you belong to, no one can force you to attend a service against your will. I don’t know what you are talking about. There are no “slaves” in the Kingdom.
Sandy we are not talking about The Kingdom we are talking about lds.
If you want to know the story ask me, I will tell you in a private mail.
Often, it takes some dramatic event to make a break with the Morg. At that point, their eyes are opened to the slavery they lived in - often for decades.
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Very, very true. And the trauma can even be as ‘simple’ as finding out it was your church that was lying to you.
ROFL. Thanks monk.
That is by far my favorite movie of the Star Trek Series. Something about ‘The Journey Home’, returning to the Earth of an earlier era to bring two Whales to the age of Spock caught my imagination ... but it was bringing the orca scientist too that captured my wonderlust side.
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