:: Being Mormon ::

Elder David R. Stone
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How many of  our standards and morals are manipulated by our culture? Are we puppets to Hollywood and other popular media and cultural factors?
We must recognize the distinction between cultural norms and moral laws, and not confuse one for the other. Society would tell us how to dress, work, and live. Society would actually love to dictate every aspect of our lives. But we must give preference to the instructions that come from the Lord.

Elder Robert S. Wood
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Emotional reactions rather than thoughtful responses seem to be the norm today. Giving and taking offense appear to be deliberate acts. As church members — members of a covenant with Jesus Christ — we must rise above the casual darkness that can pervade much of interaction with others.

We must search for common ground and strive to build positive relationships with even those with whom we disagree. We need to “elevate our guns a little lower.” We must not make charicatures of the beliefs or values of others. Straw man arguments are unjust and unworthy of any church member.

Mockery and contempt are the tools of those who reside in the ‘great and spacious building’ — they should never be tools of a true seeker of truth. Cynicism allows us to dismiss an entire argument by finding a single flaw in it; this too leads us to reject truth and cause more hurt.

Political differences never justify hatred or ill will. Never allow differences in loyalties to lead to personal antagonism.

Elder H.Bruce Stucki
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Ask in faith. Prayer is a real vehicle for communication with God.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
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Snowman, the jumping horse, was old and broken-down when he was finally purchased by someone who recognized his potential. Entered into a competition, the horse was laughed at by other jockeys and owners. He was ugly and funny-looking. But Snowman could jump. And win.

Within a year, he was recognized as a true champion.

People are similar — we often have tremendous potential, but we don’t often recognize it. Happiness comes from recognizing our interal potential and character. From finding the qualities that turn ordinary life into a joyful, rich existence.

1.Drink deeply from living water — the Gospel is given to us to make us happy, not fill our lives with mourning and sorrow; we are to be filled with purpose and drive and to take full advantage of the great opportunities that are around us

2. Fill your heart with love — give service motivated by love, share blessings abundantly, avoid selfishness and give frequently, maintain connections with others
3. With the help of Heavenly Father, make a masterpiece of your life — live up to the potential and plans that God has for you

President Gordon B. Hinckley
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“May heaven’s blessings rest upon you, I pray.”

The end. Ten hours of Conference. That’s like a Lord of the Rings marathon!

To Moses, the Lord presented a pretty straightforward set of rules. “Thou shalt not…”

But does the Lord operate that way himself? Deontology, or rules-based ethics, is often coupled with religion. Many have suggested that religion is about following arbitrary rules handed down by an unresponsive God.

The Book of Mormon contains several interesting examples of the Lord reasoning with people. The book opens with the story of Nephi and his family leaving Jerusalem. Nephi is instructed to go back and get the brass plates — their history and scriptures — which are held by a powerful man named Laban. Nephi asks Laban for the plates, then offers to buy them. Both offers are rebuked, and Laban sends men to kill Nephi and his family.

Finally, Nephi heads into town a third time, to try somehow and get these plates.

7 Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine.

8 And when I came to him I found that it was Laban.

9 And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.

10 And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.

11 And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.

12 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands;

13 Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.

14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.

15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law.

16 And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass.

17 And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause—that I might obtain the records according to his commandments.

18 Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword.

There are two possible conclusions from this:

1. Thou shalt not kill, unless the Lord gives you some pretty good reasons to do it.

2. The Lord may override standing directives with specific instructions in special cases that would require a system of rules too complex for us to use or understand.

Either case suggests that the Lord doesn’t reveal to us the ultimate, absolute set of laws that we must live by. That’s why the Holy Ghost and the idea of continuous revelation is so important to Mormons.

Elder M. Russell Ballard:

“Some of you may feel guilty about not doing all you can to assist in missionary work. I invite you today to relax.”

Elder Ballard said that we should focus instead on our love of the Savior and our love for our families and neighbors. That will lead naturally into the formation of a ‘gospel-sharing’ home.

“Creating a gospel-sharing home is the easiest and most effective way we can share the gospel with others.”

This is, to me, the best talk I’ve ever heard about missionary work. When we force people into the activity of missionary work, they are more likely to make awkward mistakes that can push people away from the gospel. We may make insincere offers in sharing the gospel and give the impression that we are reaching for numbers rather than simply sharing something that we care about. When we focus instead on the end purpose of missionary work, our love of the Savior, we will foster an environment where truth-seeking people feel welcome. We will be able to bring gospel subjects into our conversations more easily, with “very little chance of being misunderstood.”

“Gospel-centered homes are not defined by whether or not people join the church as a result of our activities.” Instead, we create a loving, gospel-centered atmosphere and show Christlike love for our neighbors and others who enter our home. We are more open to bringing people into our homes. And more good things will happen in our homes.

What is the secret of your success? A woman, asked this in France, replied, “I share my joy!”  Talk about church. Tell people what we’re doing in church. Pray for opportunities to share aspects of the gospel. Not for forced, embarrassing conversations with strangers, but for comfortable opportunities to mention to an acquaintance (or a stranger, in line at a grocery store) some of the joy that comes from being a member of the church.

President Faust
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A history of apostasy and restoration.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
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A message to the broken-hearted and despairing. Meaningful and personal connections with Jesus are the key to inner peace. No matter what your problems, come first to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has engraven us upon his hands.
Elder Earl C. Tingey
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“Is there any happiness in death?”

The Book of Mormon answers this with five truths from the Great Plan of Happiness.

1. There is a God, and he has a son, Jesus Christ. They both have physical bodies and lived once.

2. Knowing the identity of God and Jesus Christ allows us to know that we were sent here to gain bodies and live.

3. Through the atonement, we can escape the eternal consequences of our sins and return to God.

4. The fall of Adam and Eve brought about physical and spiritual death. All mankind will suffer both kinds, but both can be overcome as well. The resurrection of Jesus Christ ensured that all mankind will also be resurrected. Overcoming spiritual death is available to us through the atonement.

5. Christ inherited mortality from his mother, Mary, and immortality from his father, God. This dual nature allowed him to perform the infinite atonement that alone allows us to repent.

Sister Ann Pingree
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Service helps us get through difficult circumstances — not just receiving service, but giving it. As we serve, we move beyond ourselves and appreciate our own blessings better. A firm determination to serve, even through personal difficulty, will result in tremendous success.

Dallin H. Oaks
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When we follow a commandment from the prophet, we will always receive the blessings of obedience. Additional blessings will depend on our own attitude toward our actions. The recent counsel to read the Book of Mormon is a good example of this — what we get from the book is determined largely by how we read it and what we are looking for.

The Book of Mormon teaches us of the reality of Christ’s mission and humanity. The message of the gospel is spreading internationally through the book.

President Gordon B. Hinckley
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The life of the Prophet belongs to the entire church. President Hinckley shares reflections on his life and some journal entries from the 1950’s, before he was called to be a General Authority.
“My shadow on this land is worth more than the labor of all of you.” (A father to his sons, after they’d been managing the farm for a while during his illness.)

“A man must get his satisfaction from his work each day; must recognize that his family will remember him, and he will get his final reward from the Lord.”

“The nations of the earth shall hear thy voice and be brought to a knowledge of the truth by the wonderful testimony which thou shalt bear.” (From President Hinckley’s patriarchal blessing.)

This talk continues the theme of this conference, that President Hinckley is not going to be here much longer. (”I hope you will not view this as an obituary!”)
“I apologize again for speaking in a personal vein.”

Testimony of Joseph Smith’s first vision.

Not many things about me are weird. (Really!) I fit pretty neatly into a lot of the computer nerd stereotypes. The deviations aren’t weird, exactly — I have better hygiene and I spend less on tech toys that I’ll never use. Nobody would say that’s weird about me. But I’m *Mormon*, and that’s weird sometimes.

What’s weird about it? From the perspective of an honest-to-goodness Mormon (a believing, obeying Mormon):

1. Baptism. We believe you have to be baptized in a physical tank of water (stream, lake, etc.) to attain the highest level of exaltation.

2. Heaven. Woah! What’s that? “Highest level of exaltation?” Yeah, that would be number two. We believe in multiple levels of existence after judgement — not the simple dichotomy of heaven and hell, but an infinite gradation of levels based on our degree of conformity to the principles taught by Jesus Christ.

3. Baptism for Everyone. We believe that people who aren’t baptized (who live and die in countries where the church does not operate, for instance) still need to be baptized. Pretty uncompromizing on that point. We do proxy baptisms for those people, which ordinances they can accept or not in the next phase of life. (The “afterlife,” or whatever you want to call it.)

4. God. We believe that God went through an experience just like what we’re doing now. It’s an outgrowth of our belief that we are children of a physical, living God. The really weird implication of this is that we believe we can eventually become gods ourselves — creating our own worlds and continuing the great work. Egotistical? Hopeful? I find it feels very ‘right.’ What else would the goal of this life be? I don’t really want to float around on clouds for eternity.

5. Polygamy. We don’t practice it anymore, and we really do excommunicate people who do. But we used to, and that makes us weird. I know.

6. Garments. ‘Mormon underwear.’ This is weird, too. Any faithful Mormon who’s been to the temple will be wearing special under-garments. How weird is that? Well, not so weird when you think about it. Because every Mormon male who’s been to the temple holds the priesthood, which we believe is the authority to act in the name of God. Women are partners in that priesthood. Every church that claims to have that kind of authority uses special clothing to mark those who hold such authority. Catholic priests wear very distinctive robes. Ancient Israel had elaborate clothing for their temple ordinances and those authorized to administer them. Our garments are very similar. An inward, instead of outward, expression of the covenants we make in the temple. Because, frankly, if every Mormon wore robes on the outside, that would be a whole lot weirder.

7. Exclusivity. We believe we are the only church on the face of the Earth truly authorized to act in the name of God. We believe our ordinances, like our baptism, are the only ‘right’ ones. So if you’re Catholic and you want to become a Mormon, you’ll have to be baptized again. Why? I’ll tell you what. From my perspective, it’s truly weird to think that other churches claim to be true and accept ordinances performed by other churches. Can there truly be many different, true churches? The Lord made repeated references to “one” church in the Bible. Whether the LDS church is that one church is a valid question, but separate from the issue that there’s only one true church.

Does that mean you’ll go straight to Hell when you die, if you’re Baptist or Lutheran? No. Remember point number three? We’ll perform a proxy baptism for you, so you can accept it later on if you need to. What a deal, huh?

8. No Coffee, Tea, or Alcohol. It’s called the “Word of Wisdom,” which name comes from modern scripture. (Which I just realized is going to be point number 9.) Mormonism is an eminently practical religion. We encourage people to be healthy. Only a subset of the full principle of healthy living is codified into the ‘word of wisdom,’ but that part is very important. As is often the case in life, the no’s end up being most frequently emphasized. To go to the temple, we have to tell our bishop (local church leader, a volunteer position in which people serve for 5-year shifts, typically) that we are following the word of wisdom.

9. Modern scripture. “But the Bible concludes with a warning against adding to this book!” Yes, I’ve read that, too. The standard answer is that it applies to the Book of Revelation, and it applies to men. We are not to tamper with the Word of God. I agree with both of these. We don’t believe any man — Joseph Smith or anyone else — has the authority to change doctrine, edit scripture, or write new scripture. But we do believe that God may do any of those things. And we believe that God works through men. So when Joseph Smith revised the Bible, he wasn’t just sitting down and writing changes as he thought them up. God inspired him to make specific changes to correct changes others had introduced accidentally or deliberately over the thousands of years.

10. We live in Utah. I mean, we don’t all. In fact, the majority don’t. But we settled here, long ago. And that’s just weird. But then, that’s why we did it. People didn’t really like Mormons at the time, so we needed a place that nobody else wanted. The long-term implications have resulted in us living in a desert now. Bummer, but we’re dealing with it.

I dunno. Anything else? Occasional bouts of hypocrisy, double standards, “members” who flagrantly violate principles and rules — these are common to any large organization. People, Mormon or not, are still people.

From Elder Bednar:

Baptism represents a covenant with God. We do not decide the nature or elements of the covenant – using our agency, we can simply accept the terms as God has set them.

Fundamental conditions:

1. Witness a willingness to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ
2. Always remember him
3. Keep his commandments

Blessing:

1. We may always have his spirit to be with us

“Receive the Holy Ghost” is a directive to strive for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. The physical performance of the ordinance is only a first step. Joseph Smith said, “You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting the Holy Ghost.”

If something we think, see, hear, or do causes us to stop feeling the Holy Ghost, then we should not think, see, hear, or do that anymore.

Do we view feeling the Spirit as a rare or exceptional event? We often speak as if we do. Fallen men and women living in a mortal world will not have the Spirit constantly, but it is realistic to strive for its presence more often than not.

In the Book of Mormon contains the story of Lehi and his family, Israelites who left Jerusalem and travelled to America. They were guided by a ball given them by the Lord. This ‘liahona’ told them where to go, but only as long as they were being righteous. When they were rude, irreverent, or immodest, the liahona stopped providing direction. The Liahona served as an outward, physical manifestation of the obedience and internal attitude of the family of Lehi.

The Holy Ghost is our modern liahona — our vehicle for receiving personal direction from God. The same factors that impaired the functioning of the liahona impair our own sensitivity to the Holy Ghost.

Here’s the real Plan of Salvation:

You can’t sin while you’re in meetings.

Pretty much every decision follows that.

How is investing in stocks different from gambling?

Here are some thoughts from church leaders that helped me understand the difference.

What is gambling?

“The attitude of taking something from someone else in order to enhance our own position — the essence of gambling — leads us away from the giving path of Christ and toward the taking path of the adversary.”
(Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, June 1987)

“Gambling degrades human dignity and saps moral strength as it promotes a philosophy of getting something for nothing.”
(William D. Oswald, Ensign, Feb 1986)

“Gambling is simply a process that takes money and does not offer a fair return in goods or services.”
(Gordon B. Hinckly, General Conference, April 2005)

Each of these quotes (emphasis added) stresses the idea that gambling is all about getting wildly disproportionate returns. A perversion of the natural law of the harvest.

What is investing?

“Of course, there is a place for wise investments, but generally temporal investments are at the mercy of forces beyond our control — the death or defection of a key executive or salesman, the patenting of a new invention that replaces our company’s product, the sudden change in the price of oil, the unexpected shift in interest rates, the fraud or embezzlement of a trusted partner, or the precipitous fall of the stock market.”
(John Groberg, Ensign, April 1986)

“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours… Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”
(J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, April 1938)

Where’s the quote about how investing is the best way to protect your assets? About how wise it is? These quotes both highlight the tremendous risk involved. Is the answer to just not invest?

I think the parable of the talents suggests otherwise. We are to be active, doing good things with the money we have. But we must not do it in a spirit of greed or covetousness. We must accept that we may lose what we invest, and that we invest to help others.

And then we must have faith that the Lord will help us as we do our best to help others.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

So, am I free to start a religion that believes all children should be killed before they turn eight (and evil)? It would be a firm tenet of this church that we should be anxiously engaged in the work of blowing up elementary schools, bringing salvation to all the little kids inside. And maybe we believe that the teachers and other adults who are ‘taken’ along with the children actually go straight to heaven as well; martyrs for the truth. Congress can’t stop me, or else they’re preventing me from living my religion.
Or are there limits to the exercise of religion; is there some point at which activities inspired by religious ideals may be proscribed by government?

I think the attempt to define the limits of religious freedom are problematic. I’ve tried to formulate a set of rules, but I can’t think of everything that a religion ought to be allowed to do. I prefer the principle the Founders took when writing the Constitution — we don’t define what people are free to do, we assume the government can do nothing except what we specifically allow.

In relation to religion, then, the government is not allowed to regulate religious behavior. That is, government may not regulate any behavior on the grounds of motive. If the government wants to ban a specific behavior, it must ban it for all people, in all cases.

Take my silly example of blowing up schools. Murder is illegal for anyone, including members of my horrible church. We are allowed to meet on Sundays in a chapel that we have legally purchased, and we can even advocate the general destruction of children because everyone is allowed to engage in that type of free speech.

So, if a religion advocates the use of hallucinogens in religious ceremonies — should they be granted a special exemption by Congress to use them? No. That would be a law ‘respecting’ religion.

What if a religion wants to perform polygamous marriages? No. Nobody is allowed to do that, and no particular religious group should be granted an exception.
So, should religions be granted tax-exempt status? No. Unless we grant tax-exempt status to ALL non-profit organizations, and religions must conform to exactly the same regulations that all other groups do. (Which, incidentally, is what we do, here in the US.)

I’d be interested to hear anybody’s objections to this line of reasoning. It seems to me to be a pretty good solution to the problems we face with religious freedom questions.

“When I was young I used to pray for a new bike, then I realised God didn’t work that way,so I stold one and prayed that he would forgive me.”

-Anonymous