Love-dovey

I've been thinking a lot about what to write about this week. I wondered if I should write about current events in the Mormon world, but I figured that I don't have enough followers who are worried about Brother Dehlin to justify that. I also thought about geeking out about the meditative prowess of Enos, but I figured I would save that for later.
Finally I decided to talk a little about a certain holiday coming up real soon...that's right, National Flag Day (Canada)!  Valentines Day!
Or rather, I want to talk on the theme of love..kind of...just bear with me for a while.

Yep, I went there. I'm sorry I'm not sorry.

Now, I'm kind of a quiet, reserved person. Actually I'm a very quiet and reserved person. And I can definitely support what they say, it's always the quiet one you need to worry about. But not because we'll go postal on everyone. It's because quiet people tend to notice a lot more than you think.
So, here's a few things I've noticed.
1. Nobody sits quietly and listens to the prelude music at sacrament meeting. Everyone talks during the prelude music. That's just sad to me. Especially in my current ward, we have some extremely talented people who play glorious and uplifting music before the meeting. It's tragic to me to think that while they could be cleansing their minds and souls in preparation to commune with their Savior they instead choose to talk about the latest episode of The Bachelor. Don't get me wrong, though, I get it. People are social and like to talk with each other. It's entirely healthy and normal. There are also quite a few conversations at that time that are important and entirely appropriate. But far too often the chatter becomes a noisy din of gibberish that becomes so loud on can't even hear themselves think. I'm sure everyone would agree with me when I say that nobody should ever be denied the the ability to think, especially in a church. I get a little upset with this not only because of how important it is that we sit and meditate before the sacrament, but also because this is such an easy problem to fix. If you want to talk with friends, arrive a few minutes earlier and talk in the foyer, or hold off on talking to them for an hour, or perhaps just lower your voice to a whisper. Watch yourself and what you do in the minutes leading up to sacrament meeting and you will see who you love more, the Savior or your friends.
2. People don't talk to people they don't really know. I often hear stories about how friendly our churches are. How everyone is so warm and friendly. I honestly can't say that I ever experienced that. I suppose it's because people see me and, knowing that I tend to keep to myself, assume that I prefer it that way and leave me alone. At times I do want to just be with my thoughts, but other times I desperately want somebody to just talk to me. I would just like to point out to anybody reading this that the people who need to see kindness the most will never say so. Speaking for myself, I've worked though many problems on my own and often approach my problems with the mentality that this is something I will have to deal with on my own. I wish I didn't have to think like that, I wish there was another option, I wish that some outgoing soul who can hear the Spirit's voice would just give me a little encouragement. I don't know how many others find themselves in a similar situation and I shudder to think how many of those have had their faith and hope crushed under burdens that could have been lightened. Being alone has made me stronger and taught me to rely on Christ and the Spirit for support, but still, I wish that just one person who is willing to cheer me on.

I think the main problem is that we don't really think about why we do or don't do the things we do. But we really need to. God filled our heads with think meat for us to use it. So I would encourage you to take the time in your meditations to think about how you show your love and who you show your love to.

Now, if you made it all the way to the bottom of the post here, congratulations! You're reward is...a small sense of accomplishment. Also you get to read about the site's new E-mail address segolotus@gmail.com. If you have any questions, concerns, ideas for future topics, fiery rebukes, watery rebukes, etc. send them there. or use the new thing-a-majig on the side of the page.
Namaste y'all
Michael

The post most likely incite an angry mob.

Remember how I said that I would sometimes use this blog to rant? This is one of those times.

So, apparently the Founder of "Ordain Women" is on church probation and has a disciplinary hearing scheduled which could result in a number of way including disfellowship or excommunication. The article mentions another guy who I've never heard of so I won't talk about him. Rather I'll stick with talking about Ordain Women. 

At the risk of sounding like a  behind-the-times misogynist he-man woman-hater and offending all three people who read this blog, can I just say that I agree with the Church's decision here?

"Men's trousers? On women? BALDERDASH!" source

Before you get all 'angry mob' on me let me explain my reasoning. If nothing else it'll give you time to sharpen you pitchforks, okay?

First off, I do not disagree with the motivations behind the OW movement. They see among Church members an unacceptable level of sexism that needs to be removed as soon as possible. On this point I agree. The Church is no place for the judging of other's capabilities based on gender. To do so is to deny the basic core of humankind's divine potential. That being said, I strongly disagree with how OW plans to fix this problem, that is, by ordaining women (No way! Is THAT how they got their name?). Plenty of digital ink has been spilled debating weather or not ordaining women would be an effective solution to the a fore mentioned sexism, so although that is one reason I disagree with OW I won't be getting into all that today. Instead I want to focus on what the priesthood is and why women shouldn't have it. (Wow, that sounded so sexist, please don't pitchfork me yet.)

So, what is the Priesthood? Standard primary answer: the authority to preform sacred ordinances in God's name. Yes, but who receives these ordinances? Loosely speaking they are meant for the believers, or those who have faith. Every priesthood office I can conceive of is intended to bless those who believe. 

"But wait!" cries my most argumentative reader (you know who you are), "What about the missionaries who are charged with taking the Gospel among the non-believers, and the Prophet who is to speak to the whole world? Those are both priesthood offices intended to bless the non-believers."

Not really. Missionaries generally don't waist time on people who have no faith to begin with, rather, they look for those who believe, even if it's the smallest mustard seed of belief and build on that. As for the Prophet, he can prophesy until he's blue in the face but if nobody believes what he's saying then he might as well keep quiet. In some cases the Prophet has even been told to keep quiet because there is so much unbelief. (Morm. 1:16-17, 19)

So, that is how I view the priesthood, as God mobilizing his followers to help one another. But that is at odds with a key element of who God is. God loves ALL his children and wants to bless all of them, regardless of weather they believe in him or not. So why would a loving God tell his followers to only look after each other and let the rest of humanity rot and suffer in unbelief?

This is where the Relief Society comes in. Whereas the Priesthood works on structuring the Church in order to distribute blessings and knowledge and covenants to the believers, the Relief Society, I believe, is intended to go out into the word and actively bless the lives of those outside the Church. 

Isn't that something? God, when looking at all the evil in the world, seeing Satan building armies of hate and fear and intolerance, seeing poisons to the soul like pornography and self-loathing thunder through families and rip them to shreds, seeing all this sorrow and misery His answer is one word; WOMEN. Lest you be confused, the Relief Society is NOT an arts and crafts club. It is an army. 

I mean that in a very real sense. The RS claims approximately 6,000,000 members world wide. To put that number into perspective, if the RS was listed as a military organization it would be the second largest in the world, right between the United States (at 2,291,910) and China (at 7,054,000). Imagine what could be accomplished in the world if that many women moved as one, like God intended them to. If those six million each in their own communities and countries and in their own way declared war on just one of the evils in the world today. Let's imagine that army six million strong chose to decry the dehumanizing and poisonous pornography industry. Say they start writing letters to the leaders of their countries, pleading with them to address the issue. World leader would take notice. Say they write blogs about their own experiences with families torn apart by pornography. The average person would be educated. Say they sought to unite the many other groups world wide that battle the objectifying of women. The army would be fortified. Perhaps they would not succeeded in dismantling that loathsome institution entirely, but those brave women would surely make the very gates of Hell quake with fear.

And Ordain Women is encouraging deserters.


We are at war and OW wants to abandon the front line. There is a word for that; Treason. 

That is something I cannot stand for.

That is why I believe the leader and instigator of the Ordain Women movement needs to be stopped. 
She is demanding that women should focus on only a small percentage of God's children and let the greater part suffer. That's akin to going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and getting upset that there's no spaghetti, or going to a five star restaurant and demanding a can of beans.

"Filet mignon? More like filet mi-YAWN, amiright?" 

Once again, I know that the motivations of the OW movement are not really all that bad. Yes, there are problems with how members of the church view women, but I think a more effective solution to that problem would be to encourage our women to fulfill their potential and bless the world. There are so many ways to do that.

Often I feel that members fall into the trap of viewing motherhood as the female equivalent of the priesthood. There are a number of reasons why this is not a healthy way of thinking. For starters, not all worthy women are mothers. Some simply haven't gotten married yet, for others physical problems prevent them. Still other women would, in all honesty, make terrible mothers. But all in all, motherhood is only one part of what makes women so powerful.

I don't mean to say that motherhood and giving birth are in anyways a lesser part. I mean, seriously, a woman crafts a tiny fully functioning human without using her hands, lets that tiny human live inside of her like some horror movie parasite until after nine months of wild hormonal shifts and bizarre cravings the tiny human bursts out of her abdomen in a screaming fit of bodily fluids, and she takes that screaming poop factory and raises it to be a decent full sized human? That's pretty hard core.

"I became a mother because my fight club wasn't metal enough."

What I'm saying is that there are so many different ways that the women of the Church can fulfill the role God has for them. Two examples: Lindsey Sterling and Al Fox.

Lindsey Sterling: aka 'the Hip-hop violinist'. She is a talented musician and performer who became a quarter-finalist in season five of America's Got Talent. Unlike other female 'performers' her age Miss Sterling presents a bold and ennobling role model for young girls to follow. Her music can and has uplifted so many and her example is just so inspiring. Just listen to this interview. Isn't that the sort of woman we need more of?

Al Fox: (Now Al Carraway) This woman, also known as 'The Tattooed Mormon' is, among many other things, a blogger. She has followers both in and out of the Church. With a very honest and fun style she tells them about her personal journeys in life and shares the lessons she's learned.She blesses other simply by sharing her real experiences of trying to live a Christ-like life.

These are just two of the hundreds upon thousands of examples of bold sisters blessing the world I could have used. If all six million Relief Society sisters worked to bless the world in these sorts of ways, What sort of new world would be born?

I'm sorry about the rant, but I think I needed to get this off my chest, if only t have one less thing to be shenpa'd about.

You may now resume your angry mob formation, I'll be waiting for you at the old wind mill. The one that's not up to fire code. You know the one.

Namaste, Y'all,
Micheal


P.S. Agree? Disagree? Completely neutral? Leave a comment! Have any other great examples of Mormon women blessing the world? Leave a comment! Want to stop lugging about a giant rock of space ice? Leave a comet! Want to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses and lists of three or more things? Leave a comma! Want to tell me to stop fishing for comments? Leave a comment!