The righteous have many promises. The most surpassing of them all is a five-word infinity: All That The Father Hath. Spend some time with this concept and you begin to see why it so torments the sectarians. What God has is merely eternity, space, time, worlds without end. To fulfill that promise one must either unrighteously diminish God or blasphemously exalt man, and . . .
Yep, It’s the latter.
I’m going to continue the series begun by Geoff with the movie Catch Me If You Can. In this fact-based movie (I don’t know what was changed for dramatic purposes, so my thoughts stem only from the movie, not what may have actually happened), Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenager, becomes a brilliant con artist, and cashes millions of dollars of fraudulent checks in many countries. He begins his path when his father gets in trouble with the IRS, and then his parents separate. He wants to regain his father’s losses and get his parents back together, figuring if he can fix their money problems, then they will be happy again. He impersonates an airline pilot, doctor, and lawyer, all quite successfully, even though he is a teenager. At one point, Frank is clearly tired of running from the FBI and anyone else who would know he is a fraud, and goes to his father, clearly wanting to be acceptable in his father’s eyes and able to stop lying and running. His father just encourages him to continue. From early on, the FBI pursues him, led by Agent Carl Hanratty. After a few years, Hanratty succeeds in catching Frank in France, and Frank is tried and jailed.
In case anyone is interested, FAIR has uploaded some transcripts from last month’s conference:
Reflections on Secular Anti-Mormonism by Daniel C. Peterson
What I Learned about Life, the Church, and the Cosmos from Hugh Nibley by Boyd Petersen
Though uploaded earlier, this one was not linked on the main page of the site, so you may have missed it – “Believest thou…?”: Faith, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Psychology of Religious Experience by Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D.
The last one was one of my favorites, though the other two are also excellent.
Thanks, Adam, for continuing the BOMblogging campaign (two parentheticals– 1. how great is it to see Adam back in action? 2. Also, don’t you think BOMblogging gets on the list of fantastic, tongue-soothing names invented by Bells? Think Blogscars, BLODTD and Intellecxhibitionist. These guys are sooooo good! We also write jingles.) (Ahem– and they currently have won only 2 of 62 votes at THIS POLL. Ahem).
So can I pile on with my own Book of Mormon thoughts?
Have you ever noticed that the only reason to trust in the Lord is that it’s all going to work out great for you in the end? That’s the way the doctrine is generally taught, at least. And it’s true, taking the long view. But I’m not sure it’s very helpful to jump into such a commitment with so blithe an assurance of the happy times just around the bend.