March 29, 2015

Sacrament meeting talk – walking the careful path

Two Sundays ago, I gave a talk in Church. As usual, I spent quite a bit of time preparing, but I never quite felt like I’d got things right. Ultimately, the morning of the talk, I began to realize that although there was nothing wrong with the content as such, the tone wasn’t quite right, so I scribbled down some extra notes (which I then left at home), printed out my previous post from this site as an additional resource, and resolved to try to be led by the Spirit when I actually got up to speak. Below is the closest version I can build of what I actually said, based on those of my prepared remarks I actually gave and the rest which I added in. It’s not perfect – I suspect I said some of this better in sacrament meeting than I do below – but hopefully it captures the essence of what I tried to convey two weeks ago.

 

Elder Ballard gave a talk at this past General Conference entitled “Stay in the boat and hold on!” The title comes from the set of rules given to would-be white water rafters in Cataract Canyon in southeastern Utah, but Elder Ballard applies it to our lives in the Church. Elder Ballard says:

This adventure reminds me of our mortal journey. Most of us experience periods in our lives where the tranquil waters of life are appreciated. At other times, we encounter white-water rapids that are metaphorically comparable to those found in the 14-mile stretch through Cataract Canyon—challenges that may include physical and mental health issues, the death of a loved one, dashed dreams and hopes, and—for some—even a crisis of faith when faced with life’s problems, questions, and doubts.

Though the initial analogy comes from white water rafting, Elder Ballard then borrows a related but slightly different analogy from Brigham Young: that of the “Good Ship Zion”, sailing across an ocean. Though the temptation to get out of a raft in a river might be somewhat understandable, the temptation to do the same in the middle of an ocean seems harder to comprehend. But I think there are several circumstances under which we might want to leave the “Good Ship Zion” even in the middle of an ocean. The first scenario is that we are finding life inside the ship too difficult – trials and tribulations and perhaps even the demands of life and service in the Church become overwhelming to us, and we convince ourselves that if we could just jump overboard things would get better. But the other scenarios are less about leaping into the ocean and more about switching ships. On the one hand, perhaps we are lured out of the boat by Satan and his many temptations to sin. Perhaps the boat seems confining, and maybe a pleasure cruise steams by, looking so much more exciting and enticing.

But I think it’s a third reason that’s becoming increasingly prevalent today, and which is perhaps more likely than any overt temptation to sin to cause us to want to switch ships. I’ve been greatly saddened over the last couple of years as a number of people I know have distanced themselves from it. And oftentimes this is the reason. The reality is that, for many of us, the more obvious temptations don’t present any great threat – they are so obvious, and so obviously wrong, that we recoil from them and wouldn’t ever consider indulging them. But there’s another kind of temptation that’s sometimes more powerful.

This pull out of the boat derives from our compassion, when the behavior of those we hold dear sets them on a course that’s in conflict with the standards of the Church. When those we love choose such a path, we may experience a form of cognitive dissonance – a sense that two thought processes inside of us are in conflict. Actually, I think it may better be called emotional dissonance, because it’s about two sets of emotions in conflict. On the one hand, we know we love this person dearly, and would never want to cause them pain. On the other, we know that the path they’re pursuing will cause them pain, and yet in our efforts to warn them we may ourselves cause them pain.

In some ways, I think this challenge illustrates the difference between the Gospel in theory and in practice. It’s so easy to live and embrace the Gospel while we’re sitting in Sunday School, when we hear the principles taught and embrace them. But it’s when the rubber hits the road, when we actually have to go out and apply the Gospel in the real world, with real people, that things get hard. Once other people – imperfect as we are – get in the mix, it gets immeasurably more complicated.

We feel driven to resolve this conflict, and there are a couple of different ways we might be tempted to do so, both of them wrong. On the one hand, we might allow our feelings for the person who’s embarked on the wrong course to utterly win out over all else, and with them abandon the standards they’ve walked away from. On the other, we may place so much emphasis on our love for the Lord and His teachings that we abandon those who no longer feel the same way. Both of these responses are tempting, because they allow us to overcome that emotional dissonance, but neither is right. The only true path forward is to learn to live with the emotional dissonance, to balance our love for the Lord with our love for His children, and that can seem like the hardest path of all.

Here’s Elder Holland on this topic:

This Church can never dumb down its doctrine in response to social goodwill or political expediency or any other reason. It is only the high ground of revealed truth that gives us any footing on which to lift another who may feel troubled or forsaken. Our compassion and our love—fundamental characteristics and requirements of our Christianity—must never be interpreted as compromising the commandments…

I know of no more important ability and no greater integrity for us to demonstrate in a world from which we cannot flee than to walk that careful path—taking a moral stand according to what God has declared and the laws He has given but doing it compassionately and with understanding and great charity.

I’ve recently re-read the Book of Mormon with an emphasis on charity, and one of the things that struck me as I read the first part of the Book of Mormon is that charity can sometimes cause us great pain. Some examples from 1 Nephi:

  • 1 Nephi 2:18: “Laman and Lemuel would not hearken unto my words; and being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts I cried unto the Lord for them.”
  • 1 Nephi 15:5: “I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.”
  • 1 Nephi 17:47: “my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained; I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever.”

In each of these cases, and many others, a father or sibling mourns for the sins of a brother or son, but in none of these cases does the mourner abandon either the family member or the Gospel. They simply continue to exercise that charity towards them, which means both making earnest attempts to reach out to and reclaim them, but also engaging in fervent prayer on their behalf, knowing that only the Lord can truly change their hearts.

We may be tempted to hold back some of our emotions, or some of our love, for those who begin to pull away from the Lord and from the standards we believe to be true. But neither the Book of Mormon nor any other scripture sanctions this approach. Indeed, the Book of Mormon reaffirms what the Bible says in regard to charity: that without it, we are nothing.

The other thing that occurred to me as I learned (or re-learned) these truths about charity is that the Lord Himself is not immune to these feelings and the deep sadness they bring. In fact, since He is the ultimate example of charity, He feels these emotions more deeply than any of us and, as with us, these emotions sometimes (maybe even frequently) cause Him to weep. I quote now  from His interaction with Enoch in the Book of Moses:

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?

…

The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

…

Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands.

One of the greatest challenges of life, then, as Elder Holland says, is to reconcile our love for the Lord with our love for His children, and especially those of His children who happen to be ours too, or perhaps our siblings or dear friends. To continue to love both Him and them, and walk what Elder Holland calls “that careful path,” is what the Lord requires of us. That means neither abandoning the Lord and His teachings, nor abandoning those who appear to have done so, but continuing to love both, working and praying for the day when this dissonance is resolved in them and in us, but also learning to trust in the Lord and recognizing that there may be pain involved on both sides in the interim.

February 18, 2015

The promised land

As I’ve read over first Nephi these past few weeks, I’ve been struck by the many references to the “promised land” and the pattern the Lord uses in bringing his people to it. One of the most striking things to me was the first verse of 1 Nephi 2, where the Lord says to Lehi:

because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to take away thy life.

We sometimes talk about why bad things happen to good people, or why we’re not able to escape trials even when we’re doing all we can, but here Lehi is told in the most direct terms possible that he faces this particular trial precisely because he has been obedient. How’s that for perspective?

As a result of Lehi’s preaching, he must leave the “land of his inheritance” (v.4), and almost everything else he possesses of worldly value. There are two interesting things about this: firstly, most of the time when the Lord has a promised land for someone, it’s because they’ve long since been dispossessed, often as a result of wickedness; secondly, there’s no mention of the promised land here yet, so as far as Lehi and his family know they’re losing something, not gaining something, through this experience. All they’ll take with them are the necessities of life: family, shelter, and food.

In verses 19-20, we get the first mention of the land of promise:

And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart.

And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.

What’s interesting is that this promise is made to Nephi, not to Lehi. Since this is his account, we have no way of knowing at this point where Lehi has perhaps already been promised the same, but Nephi just hasn’t mentioned it (or perhaps hasn’t known). Perhaps even Lehi doesn’t know at this point – after all, it’s Nephi who will get his first lessons as the future leader of his people by building the boat that will take them there. It’s worth thinking, too, about Laman and Lemuel and their very different reaction to their circumstances. They murmur and don’t make any effort to find out what their father says about the destruction of Jerusalem is true, and therefore don’t even believe that. Nephi, meanwhile, makes the effort to “cry unto the Lord” (v.16) and as a result is blessed not only with confirmation that Jerusalem will indeed be destroyed (and with it their previous land of inheritance) but also the knowledge that an even better land of promise awaits them. I wonder if there’s a lesson for us all here about our various trials and – sometimes we resist our trials because we hope they’ll go away, but by recognizing them as what they are (opportunities to learn) we can get ourselves in tune with the will of the Lord, and at least some of the time He’ll show us the blessings that lie on the other side.

[The next couple of chapters are about securing two additional pre-requisites for obtaining and receiving the blessings of the promised land: the scriptures (the plates of brass), and the means to multiply once they get there (Ishmael’s children), and these may well be the subject of a future post.]

In Chapter 5 comes a striking example of faith from Lehi, as he attempts to placate an increasingly worried Sariah, who is starting to sound a lot like her oldest two sons (in verses 4-5):

And it had come to pass that my father spake unto her, saying: I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren.

But behold, I have obtained a land of promise, in the which things I do rejoice; yea, and I know that the Lord will deliver my sons out of the hands of Laban, and bring them down again unto us in the wilderness.

Remember that at this point Lehi and his family are living in the desert on the Arabian peninsula, in tents, having left all their possessions behind, and Lehi’s sons are in Jerusalem risking their lives to obtain some records. But the way Lehi puts it, he’s “obtained a land of promise”: his faith is such that he considers that he has already obtained the land of promise which is in reality thousands of miles, several years, and an ocean voyage away, just because the Lord has promised it, and he knows enough about himself to know that he will do what it takes to receive this promised blessing. Again, I wonder if there’s a lesson here for us about securing the blessings the Lord has promised us. I think of these verses from the Doctrine & Covenants, which suggests that – like Lehi – we all have blessings promised to us if we will be faithful:

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

Do we think of ourselves as having “obtained” these blessings, even though we haven’t received them yet? I know I don’t – something I clearly need to work on.

[Lehi’s vision (and Nephi’s version of it) will also likely be the subject of future posts, but suffice it to say here that there are certainly parallels between the journey to the tree of life and the quest for the promised land.]

One thing I did want to pick up on in Nephi’s vision specifically is contained in these two verses in Chapter 12:

And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Look, and behold thy seed, and also the seed of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld the land of promise; and I beheld multitudes of people, yea, even as it were in number as many as the sand of the sea.

2 And it came to pass that I beheld multitudes gathered together to battle, one against the other; and I beheld wars, and rumors of wars, and great slaughters with the sword among my people.

Nephi doesn’t tell us how he reacted emotionally to this vision, but it must have been heartbreaking. We don’t know whether Nephi had seen previous visions of the promised land, but in this one what he sees is that his descendants will go to war there and kill each other in huge numbers. This must have been emotionally wrenching for Nephi. Imagine not even reaching the promised land and already knowing that some day your own descendants would lose their grasp on it because of wickedness. Of course, Nephi also sees the great things that will happen in the promised land hundreds of years later, with the migration from Europe and elsewhere of persecuted people seeking religious freedom, the restoration of the Gospel, and the building of Christ’s kingdom.

In Chapter 17, we get another glimpse of the process and the rules that govern the journey to the promised land and their qualifications for its blessings:

And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.

There are two more principles here: despite Lehi’s faith that he had “obtained” a land of promise, he and his people wouldn’t actually inherit it unless they continued faithful; and only when they got to the promised land would they know for sure that the Lord had delivered them, having presumably only had faith on this point until then (a promise that’s fulfilled to Lehi in 2 Nephi 1:4). At this point, of course, the two families have been in the wilderness for eight or nine years, Ishmael has died, the women have borne children, they’ve eaten raw meat, they’ve been traveling and living in tents, and they’ve left every worldly possession behind. It would indeed take a certain amount of vision to believe that all this was in the service of something better than what they’d left behind, a vision Laman, Lemuel and others in the party continually struggle to capture, despite Lehi and Nephi’s best efforts.

After a long journey, the families finally arrive:

And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land.

I’m intrigued by that last phrase: “we did call it the promised land”. In my notes on this verse, I’ve written that perhaps this was simply an acknowledgement of the fulfillment of the promise of the Lord. But perhaps there’s more to it than this. Perhaps it signifies that they acknowledged also the covenant associated with the promised land: namely, that it would only a be a promised land to them if they kept the commandments and remembered the Lord. This, after all, is one of the key characteristics of the promised land, among which are:

  • A land prepared for them (1 Nephi 2:20)
  • Choice above all other lands (1 Nephi 2:20, 2 Nephi 1:5)
  • Only those who are brought by the Lord will come (2 Nephi 1:6)
  • Consecrated unto those He brings (2 Nephi 1:7)
  • If they serve Him, it shall be a land of liberty unto them (2 Nephi 1:7)
  • If iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes (2 Nephi 1:7).

I wonder how much these early chapters of the Book of Mormon helped Joseph Smith and the early saints, as they sought to first build Zion in place and then began to move from place to place in search of their own promised land. I would imagine it was reassuring to them to read of Lehi’s family’s struggles in the wilderness, their trials and setbacks, and the sheer length of time and work required before they reached the promised land. Their promised land, of course, is also ours, both in a geographical sense and in a spiritual sense. In the days of Lehi, at least some part of the Americas was consecrated and set apart as a gathering place for those the Lord was bring, and it was kept from the knowledge of other people (2 Nephi 1). Today, of course, the whole world is within reach, and we’re not separated in the same way. But wherever we live, the promises of the Lord to us are the same as His promises to the people of Lehi: keep the commandments, and we’ll be blessed; forget Him, and we’ll be left to face the consequences of our actions.

February 15, 2015

Charity in the Book of Mormon

Sometime last year, I did what Mormons do from time to time and I started reading the Book of Mormon again from scratch. This time, though, I tried to apply a recommendation from one of our Church meetings (I think a stake conference) and read with a particular topic in mind. The topic I chose was charity. Just after Christmas I finally finished reading through the book, and one of the first things I wanted to do here was share some of what I learned through this exercise. I read roughly one chapter a day, typically on my phone or iPad, and when I come across something that fits with the topic, I tag it and sometimes leave myself a little note to remember why, or to figure out the application. As such, I now have 78 little electronic tags in my Book of Mormon where I marked something as I read through. I’m not going to share all 78 here, but I did want to share some themes.

Charity leads to sadness

That may sound odd, but it was one of the first things I noticed in reading through the Book of Mormon this time around with this theme in mind. So many of the things associated with charity were occasions when someone was saddened because someone for whom they had charity was suffering, or was behaving in a way that would cause them to suffer. Some examples from 1 Nephi alone:

  • 1 Nephi 2:18: “Laman and Lemuel would not hearken unto my words; and being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts I cried unto the Lord for them.”
  • 1 Nephi 15:5: “I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.”
  • 1 Nephi 17:47: “my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained; I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever.”

As I read through 1 Nephi this time around, and focused on this topic, I really felt Lehi and Nephi’s anguish as they worried about their wayward family members, those they left behind in Jerusalem, and their descendants whose destruction they saw in visions. It reminded me, too, of Enoch’s experience with the Lord in the Book of Moses:

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?

…

The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

…

Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands.

Our Father and our Savior, who are our perfect Examples of charity, feel this sadness deeper than anyone, because they feel this love more greatly than any of us. This sadness isn’t something that’s just going to go away when we die – even the three Nephites who were permitted to tarry on the earth until the Savior returned had “a change wrought upon their bodies, that they might not suffer pain nor sorrow save it were for the sins of the world.” This is a form of “godly sorrow” (directed outwards and not inwards) and it’s an inevitable part of our existence as long as we seek to cultivate charity.

But charity is essential

We may be tempted, given this connection between charity and sadness, to avoid developing charity, and especially to avoid caring so deeply for those we believe may cause us pain. But if there is one other thing the Book of Mormon makes abundantly clear, it’s that charity is essential:

  • 2 Nephi 26:30: “the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing.”
  • Moroni 7:44: “if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.”
  • Alma 7:24: “And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.”

But perhaps the most powerful scripture on charity isn’t found in Moroni 7 or any of the other familiar places we think of when it comes to this topic, but this one, in Ether:

And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.

And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.

My favorite commentary on this scripture comes from Elder Jeffrey R Holland, from a talk at a mission presidents’ seminar attended by my mission president, and which he in turned shared with us missionaries:

When Moroni and Mormon are alone, weary and heartbroken, they still write of faith and hope and charity. But it isn’t Paul’s approach. I’m not saying Paul didn’t understand it, I’m just saying that as we’ve received the New Testament, we haven’t been blessed with all that Paul understood. 1 Corinthians 13 sounds like a lovely, kind virtuous way to be a good neighbor, but the Book of Mormon teaches so much more with these words. Moroni says, “I remember that thou has said that thou has loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou has had for the children of men is charity.” That definition of charity is more than being a good neighbor. This is at the heart of the Atonement of Christ. “Wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou has prepared in the mansions of thy Father.”

This is a powerful definition of charity. We are supposed to be Christ-like, we are supposed to be charitable, we are supposed to demonstrate love, but he is saying that were it not for real charity, capital C, the one time in all the world that real charity was demonstrated, i.e., the pure love of Christ — if it were not for that, “we could not inherit that place which thou has prepared in the mansions of thy Father.” This is the charity that saves. This is the charity that faileth not. Ours does not always save and it does sometimes fail. As much as we try, we fall short. But one time, by one Person, the pure love of Christ was demonstrated. Real charity was given to this world. Christ loved us perfectly and it lasts forever. That’s why we can say that real charity, never faileth. Henever fails us. The message of the Book of Mormon is that Christ does not fail us. That’s what we’re trying to tell the world. That’s what we’re trying to say through this basic missionary text of this dispensation. Christ’s love is pure love. He is the only one who has ever really mastered it while the rest of us are still trying to do so. his salvation will not fail, His ordinances will not fail, His church will not fail. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times. The restored gospel will never be taken from the face of the earth again. That is the message of the Book of Mormon.

Life has its shares of fears and failures. Sometimes things fall short. Sometimes people fail us, economics fail us, business or government fail us. But one thing in time and eternity does not fail us, the pure love of the Lord Jesus Christ as manifest in His Atoning sacrifice.

I was reminded of all this as I read through the Book of Mormon, keeping charity uppermost in mind. What a wonderful summary of what the book teaches about this subject, but also of its key message for us.

What charity moves us to do

The last thing that I took away from my reading, and which I tried to focus on in my reading, was what our charity should move us to do. Among other things, what I learned was that our charity should motivate us to: teach our children (and others) with all our whole energy and soul (1 Nephi 8:37), minister to the people around us (1 Nephi 11:28), share the Gospel blessings with others (1 Nephi 8:12, Mosiah 28:3), testify of the wickedness of others (1 Nephi 1:19) and its consequences (Jacob 3:12, 2 Nephi 9:48), love those both of our faith and not of our faith (2 Nephi 33:7-9), persuade people to believe in and remember the Savior (1 Nephi 19:18), keep records for those who will come after (2 Nephi 25:8), have compassion towards those who are suffering (3 Nephi 17:6), fast and pray for those not of our faith (Alma 6:6), and so on and so forth.

Much of this comes from the examples of the Savior and His prophets in the Book of Mormon, but some of it also comes from parent-child or sibling relationships such as those in Lehi’s family. I’m grateful for these examples, and for what the Book of Mormon teaches about charity.

February 14, 2015

About this blog

For those who don’t know, I’m a Mormon, or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This blog is a personal effort, not something officially associated with the Church, and the content is mine alone. The Church maintains official websites at mormon.org and lds.org where you can find out more about our beliefs. Alternatively, send me an email or hit me up on Facebook and I’d be happy to tell you more.

I’ve been feeling lately that I want to start getting my thoughts on the Gospel out there more, and feeling at the same time like Facebook itself isn’t the right place, even though I’ve been having quite a few discussions about the Gospel there. Several things have prompted this:

  • In my scripture study, I feel like I’m learning a lot, but most of it just stays in my head or in my own notes. In the past, I’ve taken pretty copious notes on my reading, but it never really goes beyond me, and I’d like to share it more widely. Not that I feel I’ve got anything particularly insightful to say, but rather that by sharing it I feel I can articulate things better in my own mind, and hopefully others will chime in too.
  • I’ve recently been called as the Ward Mission Leader in my Utah congregation, and although we have quite a few people living within our neighborhood who either aren’t LDS or aren’t currently active in the Church, I feel like I need to be doing more than just working with these individuals and families. Technology gives us so many opportunities to go further, and I feel drawn to do that in this way.
  • I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately on Facebook and elsewhere with people who, for one reason or another, have had a change in their feelings about the Church lately. I’ve found these conversations saddening and at times frustrating, but I don’t feel like the answer is to put yet more confrontational material out there trying to justify my own position or point out the errors of others. I feel like the best response to all that’s going on in the Church at the moment is to simply share what I believe to be true.

In doing all this, I’m conscious of a desire on my part to avoid using labels to describe myself or what I’m doing here, hence the name of the site. Americans are fond of hyphenated self-descriptions (African-Americans, Italian-Americans…) and Mormons sometimes like to do this too (Jack Mormons, Feminist Mormons, True Believing Mormons…). I think in an ideal world, despite our separate identities, we’d all still be able to come together and feel that we’re part of the same great whole, much as Mormon puts it in this verse from 4 Nephi:

There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

What you won’t find here is arguments for or against a particular cause or group of people. What you will hopefully find is things I’ve learned through my study of the scriptures, and what it means to me. I hope whatever small number of readers finds this blog will join in the discussion (constructively) and share your own thoughts and feelings about the subjects discussed.