Earlier this year I was reading John Winthrop’s famous 1630 sermon, A Modell of Christian Charity which is more popularly known as “The City on A Hill” sermon.
According to tradition the sermon was given aboard the Pilgrim ship Arbella before landing at what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but recent scholarship suggests that it was more likely given in England before the pilgrims set sail.
The image of the City on a Hill that Winthrop envisioned has become a common American theme.
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has released the results of a new Survey on Religious Belief and Politics in America (pdf).
More than three-quarters of American adults (78%) believe there are absolute standards of right and wrong, with a majority (52%) saying they rely primarily on practical experience and common sense for guidance regarding right and wrong. Far fewer say they rely mainly on their religious beliefs (29%), and fewer still say they rely on philosophy and reason (9%) or scientific information (5%). Only among Jehovah’s Witnesses (73%), Mormons (58%) and members of evangelical churches (52%) do majorities say they rely primarily on their religion for guidance about right and wrong.
Some of the interesting findings:
- 39% of Mormons surveyed agreed to the statement that “Many religions can lead to eternal life” (Compare: Protestant 66%, Catholic 79%, JW 16%, Muslim 56%, Jewish 82%)
- 100% of Mormons Surveyed believe in God in some form (Compare: Protestant 98%, Catholic 97%, JW 98%, Muslim 92%, Jewish 83%, Atheist 21% ??)
This is an entry in an ongoing, periodic series I call “An LDS Lexicon.” Each entry in my LDS Lexicon series contains etymology, etymologically related words, some information about the Hebrew and Greek terms from which the word is translated in the Bible (if applicable), and some personal insights about the word.
The views expressed here and in other entries in this series are my own and should not be construed to represent the official doctrine of the LDS Church. They are subject to change and amendment.
You may view all entries in this series: An LDS Lexicon
SACRAMENT
Many Latter-day Saints aren’t particularly adventuresome when it comes to serving drinks at mormon get-togethers. If you go to a mormon party you will often find that there isn’t much of a variety when it comes to beverages. It is likely that you will have to choose between the most inexpensive generic band of Rootbeer, Lemon-Lime soda, Orange soda, or if it is the season, Steven’s Hot Chocolate.
Faithful members of the church live by a dietary law called “The Word of Wisdom” which prohibits drinking Cofee, Tea, and Alcoholic beverages. Many also avoid drinks containing Caffeine, though it is not explicitly required (the church owned Brigham Young University does not sell cafinated drinks on campus).
Latter-day Saints are also often quit frugal, and this also affects what they drink. I attended a Mormon “bachelor” party recently in a beautiful, multi-million dollar home. What did they have to drink? Generic-brand Rootbeer, Sprite, and water.
So, this holiday season, I thought it would be fun to compile a list of Mormon Friendly beverages that one might consider serving at party for a little more variety. By Mormon friendly I mean drinks that not only strictly comply with the official Word of Wisdom restrictions, but drinks that could easily be stocked and sold at the Creamery on BYU campus—no caffeine; drinks that shouldn’t give even the more fastidious Word-of-Wisdom-Czar any reason to worry.
Here are a few of my favorites, most of which are currently available at the BYU Creamery or Church-owned Deseret Bookstore. They should all be served cold:
Apple Beer
http://www.applebeer.com
Recently, Apple Beer has become my favorite Mormon-Friendly soda. It is not too strong and has a nice subtle flavor and after-taste. It bills itself as the “Soft Drink with a Head.” Get it in the bottles if you can, the flavor is much better that way.
The LDS Church Newsroom is highlighting a speech given by Elder Russel M. Ballard, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, at the graduation ceremony of BYU-Hawaii on Friday, December 15th, in which he encouraged students to embrace the “New Media,” including blogging, as a way to share the gospel and support the kingdom.
You can read the full text of the speech:
Using New Media to Support the Work of the Church
This is very exciting news! Blogging is a wonderful tool for all the reasons Elder Ballard enumerates and I hope to see increasing numbers of faithful Latter-day Saints blogging about the gospel.
However, to all of you who are just beginning to discover and explore Mormon blogs, I feel compelled to post a Caveat Lector:
Elder Ballard endorsed LDS Blogging, but he did not necessarily endorse the existing LDS Blogging community known as “The Bloggernacle.”
Recently, Brother Micheal Otterson, who is the media relations director for the LDS Church, wrote a wonderful essay on whether or not Mormons are Christians.
I recognize that Creedal Christians have a specialized definition of “Christian,” and Later-day Saints are not “Christians” by that definition.
Latter-day Saints, they say, are not Christians because they reject the Trinitarian doctrine of the Nicaean Creed, and instead believe in a Godhead of three separate beings (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) who are one in purpose.
Aside from the question of how Protestants square Creedal Cristianity with their doctrine of Sola Scriptura, we should examine whether they apply their creedal definition consistently?
I remember the first time that I read John Milton’s Paradise Lost discovering that Milton presented God the Father and Jesus as two distinct beings. In particular this passage where the Father asks the equivalent of the famous Whom shall I send? query in LDS scripture:
As a kind of a follow up to my previous post on the family, I wanted to share a story about our children that occurred yesterday.
First, a little background:
A few years back, the Marriage and Family class at our LDS church was taught by sister Williams, who is a professional psychiatrist working with young, recently married couples at BYU. She had lots of wonderful insights, both as a marriage dynamics professional and a gospel instructor, that have stuck with me ever since.
Among the many topics she presented, one discussed studies that indicated that some parents were enforcing the virtue of “sharing” upon their children so much that their children were growing up with a deficient, warped, or even nonexistent concept of personal property. As a result, these children who lacked a sense of property were less likely to respect the property of others and more likely to steal or vandalize.
My own parents had been careful about how much we were forced to “share” our toys.
With our own children, we have tried to teach that their belongings really do belong to them, and that, while sharing is the right thing to do, we will not force them to share against their will. After all, what virtue is there in sharing unless you have the choice not to share? And if no property is ever your own to withhold, then what beneficence is there in giving?
In my previous post I discussed briefly the theory that Europe is less religious than the U.S. because of a stifled market of religious competition. While I think that religious freedom has certainly played a part, I would like to discuss another contributing factor.
Some years ago I speculated upon the role of the family in propagating traditional values and religion. I wrote:
...if religion is the opiate of the masses, the traditional family is the pusher.
Relativism is perhaps easy to espouse intellectually. However, it is completely impracticable in the day to day interactions between father, mother, and children. A great deal of familial interaction represents an ongoing negotiation with an innate sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice, “fair” and “unfair.”
If you haven’t watched Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” address, you should take twenty minutes or so and do so. A copy of the address as prepared for delivery is available. However, I recommend watching the speech rather than just reading the script. His delivery was great and he exhibited a great deal of charisma, passion, and eloquence. If you only read the transcript you will miss out.
I’ll update this post with embedded video when it becomes available.
There were many memorable and quotable parts the speech. I liked that Romney referred to Abraham Lincoln’s 1838 address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield Illinois on The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions in which Lincoln describes our nation’s “political religion” as the commitment to defend the rule of law and the Constitution.
In my previous post I alluded briefly to the linguistic and scriptural interplay between the words “Breath” and “Spirit.” A decade ago I wrote a poem based upon the semantic interplay of words etymologically related to breathing and the spirit, and, since I had mentioned the idea already, I thought I’d share the poem as well.
In the years since I wrote this, my poetic style has become more formal, but the focus of this poem is less on structure and more on etymological pun and religious symbolism.
Why Osiris is Green
by J. Max Wilson
When one is inspired,
‘Tis wise to hold one’s breath.
Lay hold upon that aspiration.
To exhale is expiration;
And expiration, death.
When people talk about ADD they usually are talking about an inability to focus. Attention disorders are prevalent in my family and, superficially, you might attribute a great deal of my behavior to this standard concept of ADD. In reality, however, my disability is exactly the opposite. I struggle with an Attention Over-Focus Disorder. I become over focused on a project, a task, or an idea, to the exclusion of perspective. It is very difficult for me to transfer my attention from one thing to another and as a result I often neglect important tasks, spend to much time on minutia, and resist change.
Over-focus is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, when my focus does shift to something that needs to be done, I am capable of long periods of sustained focus with a great deal of attention to detail and I get a lot accomplished. On the other, if my focus does somehow turn to something else before I have completed that upon which I was previously focused, it may be a long time before I manage to get back to it. And when I am over-focused I overreact negatively to even minor interruptions, tend to give undue weight to perceived slights or criticisms, unnecessarily go over the same idea repeatedly in my head, over-focus on the negative in general, and I don’t get anything else done, no matter how important it is.
Controlling this behavior involves influencing the levels of Dopamine and Serotonin in my brain. It is a tricky balance to strike because I need to become unfocused enough to not be over-focused, but still focussed enough to be productive. Often the effort results in an unhappy choice: I can be a pleasant, happy person and make my wife and children happy to be around me and be completely unproductive, or I can be highly productive and a miserable excuse for a husband and father. We have been praying that Heavenly Father would reveal to us a better solution to my disability.
Recently I have taken up running or jogging in the mornings as a way of trying to strike the balance. It appears to be helping.
As you probably already know, the new Relief Society/Priesthood manual for next year in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church series is Joseph Smith.
It is already available online for free in PDF format for anyone interested:
Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (6.34 MB)
At 610 pages, it is the longest volume in the series so far, surpassing the Brigham Young book (385 pages) and the Joseph F. Smith book (481 pages) by over a hundred pages. However, the 610 pages are divided among 47 lessons, which is actually one lesson fewer than the other two manuals (as if it weren’t already difficult enough to cover the lesson material in a single class period!). It will be the curriculum for the the next two years.
No, no…this post isn’t about me. I’m not having doubts about my faith. So don’t worry.
I just wanted to direct your attention to, and solicit your comments on a great short story entitled “Confession” by a Philosophy student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City named James Hoskins. Hoskins’s story puts an interesting, fun new twist on a familiar scenario:
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Some time, somewhere….Adam began having doubts about his faith. His mother was deeply concerned about him. She had been an active member in the church for as long as he could remember and faith was her life. Adam’s doubts had progressed past his private thoughts and were starting to come out in his speech. His mother was heart broken to hear her son question all she had taught him. She feared he had been reading books of false doctrine or, even worse, that his brain had been corrupted by evil philosophies. But she feared most for his salvation. She urged Adam to go and talk with Father Antony. Finally, after much reluctance, Adam agreed. After all, he regretted his lack of faith almost as much as his mother did. Indeed, he felt guilty for it. Yet, there were so many things that did not make sense to him.
Father Antony was an extremely intelligent man. He had quite an impressive vocabulary, yet he could still put complex ideas into common vernacular in a very thoughtful way. As Adam entered the Father’s quarters, his eyes passed over a long bookshelf containing all the books of the Holy Canon. Father Antony looked up through his reading glasses and greeted Adam with a warm smile.
“Hello Adam! Good to see you here. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t entirely my idea,” Adam replied.
“I know, your mother called me,” the Father said with a grin.
“That sounds like her,” said Adam as he gazed at all the books.
“Your mother loves you very much Adam. She’s just worried about you. I’m glad you came. Please sit down.”
After a very uncomfortable silence of what seemed like an hour, Adam began,
“Well, I guess I should start by saying I’ve been having a lot of questions.”
“About what?”
“Everything!” Adam’s eyebrows raised.
The Father, twiddling his glasses in his hand, said calmly, “Why don’t you tell me some specifics and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.”
...
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In June, the Barna Group published a new study examining the numbers, lifestyles and self-perceptions of American atheists and agnostics in contrast to those who actively participate in the Christian faith. The “No-Faith” segment was defined as anyone who openly identified themselves as an atheist, an agnostic, or who specifically said they have “no faith.” “Active Faith” was defined as simply having gone to church, read the Bible and prayed during the week preceding the survey. The study says:
- 9% of Americans self identify in the “No Faith” group (1/11 adults, or 20 million).
- Only about five million adults, however, unequivocally use the label “atheist” and staunchly reject the existence of God.
- “No-Faith” individuals are younger, likely male, unmarried, college graduates, and earn more.
- The proportion of atheists and agnostics increases from 6% of Elders (ages 61+) and 9% of Boomers (ages 42-60), to 14% of Busters (23-41) and 19% of adult Mosaics (18-22).
The Deseret News reports that the Church has released a new pamphlet on the subject of Same-Sex Attraction.
Some excerpts from the pamphlet:
These blessings are based on obedience to eternal principles. The importance of families is one of these principles. Heaven is organized by families, which require a man and a woman who together exercise their creative powers within the bounds the Lord has set. Same-gender relationships are inconsistent with this plan. Without both a husband and a wife there would be no eternal family and no opportunity to become like Heavenly Father. In some circumstances a person defers marriage because he or she is not presently attracted to a member of the opposite gender. While many Latter-day Saints, through individual effort, the exercise of faith, and reliance upon the enabling power of the Atonement, overcome same-gender attraction in mortality, others may not be free of this challenge in this life. However, the perfect plan of our Father in Heaven makes provision for individuals who seek to keep His commandments but who, through no fault of their own, do not have an eternal marriage in mortal life. As we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, our bodies, feelings, and desires will be perfected in the next life so that every one of God’s children may find joy in a family consisting of a husband, a wife, and children.
