Today I met a new brother, recently moved into our congregation. [Actually, I met several new brothers (and sisters), recently moved into our congregation.] As we often have since January, we used the hour after the end of formal meetings to chat with one another.

This brother, who suffered near-fatal injuries in Afghanistan, spoke of the miracles that had occurred in his life. He shared of a day after his injury when he was broken, in pain, angry at everyone and everything. In his pain and anger, he had quarreled with a fellow patient, a quarrel that led to murderous blows. He had wholly given up on himself and anything he had learned since his baptism as a child convert about religion and forbearance and forgiveness. The rest of that day was expected to go on without love or concern, just pain and anguish.

As visiting hours began, this brother headed to the back of the facility. As he passed through a doorway, the fellow he’d quarreled with was coming the other way.

“Where’re you going?!” he demanded.

“Some Elders from my Church are here. My Bishop gave them permission so I can have the sacrament.”

All hostility faded away.

“Um… Could I join you?”

I’m sure words conveyed something about the brother’s baptism many years earlier, and his willingness to renew that covenant. So in less than eight hours he’d gone from actively trying to murder a fellow patient to humbly partaking of the sacrament side by side with that same patient.

A miracle.

My new friend shared that one of his favorite talks is Matthew Cowley’s 1953 talk on miracles, which this brother listens to regularly. I recommend the talk to you. As Elder Crowley relates, he was advised early in his ministry that he was always to speak as inspired by God.

In great epics, the hero faces tragedy around age ten. Scrappy, unruly, the hero overcomes great odds as they find themselves and their quest. In the best stories, the hero joins together with valued colleagues to conquer against great odds, risking death.

If Maiden was a fictional film, it would be a great film. But the story of Tracy Edwards and her friends is better than that. It is true.

Maiden is both a universal tale of an underdog making good and a specific tale of a woman proving gender should not be used to exclude excellence. No matter what your life experience, I project you will find that Maiden grips you, inspires you, and surprises you in all the best ways. To explain further why I am posting this to Millennial Star would be to post spoilers. And as much as possible, this is a story best told to an audience that doesn’t know what (exactly) will happen.

For those of us who have adult memories of 1989, watching Maiden is like looking back at a trailhead from a summit. It seems impossible that Tracy Edwards and her fellow female sailors faced such disdain and abuse. No businesses would initially back them, fearing negative press when the presumed fatal disaster inevitably occurred. When Tracy and her team arrived at the start of the race, the bets were not about where they would place, but how close to the start they would founder on the initial transatlantic leg.

This morning I was in a meeting headed by my Captain, a woman who was commanding officer of a US Navy Destroyer and now directs acquisition of military capability worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year. We who rejoice to see women able to achieve and lead in what were formerly male-only fields of endeavor owe a debt to Tracy Edwards. She did not excel through fighting in the courts or demanding a seat at the table, but by achieving a dream over which she had control, a dream for which she offered everything she had and all that she was.

As our family read from Romans this week, I was struck by two verses which differentiate between those who are struggling with faith they wish to retain and those who are actively attempting to destroy faith.

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations….

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ…,

Romans 14:1, 16:17-18

There are those who tear down with words. Then there are those who destroy in more disturbing ways.

The Church has launched training, which is mandatory for those who minister to children and youth. This training can be accessed at ProtectingChildren.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

All may take the training, which becomes part of one’s Church “training jacket.” The training must be re-taken every three years to maintain eligibility to minister to children. As all become trained, we will be better able to detect and prevent inappropriate behavior.

Paul’s counsel to the Romans was to help them understand the difference between earnest questions and calculated attacks, counsel we do well to consider in our day.

The Church training on protecting children and youth is to avoid those instances of inappropriate behavior which so harm children of God and further provoke those wanting to condemn God and His people.

Let us so live that we are fully acceptable to God and those who are His, no matter how those in the great and spacious building might mock and jeer.

On 19 May 1842, President Emma Smith told the Nauvoo Female Relief Society that “now it is necessary that sin should be expos’d— that heinous sins were among us—”.

On May 21 the first of several individuals came forward to testify before the Nauvoo High Council regarding sins they either suspected or could confess to.

Brian Hales sent me a copy of a portion of these testimonies in 2014. Ironically, he has since asserted that he never looked at that pdf, suggesting that perhaps the pdf had been created from Dr. Val Avery’s notes by Don Bradley. While I had a theory leading into my 2013-2014 Faithful Joseph series of blog posts, it was the copy of these statements that confirmed the truth was even more sobering than I had speculated.

In 2018 I visited Utah State University, where Dr. Val Avery’s notes are housed. My visit was inspired by two purposes. First, I had reason to suspect that the pdf I’d been sent did not include all the pages. Second, I was looking forward to talking with the USU archivist, to ensure he was aware of my research and plans.

Unfortunately, I talked enough about my research and its implications that the USU archivist became very nervous. He strongly suggested I obtain permission to use the notes directly from the Church Archives. He was concerned that my research (which some find controversial) could prompt the Church to remove sensitive documents from the USU archives.

During the summer of 2016 I had attended the Mormon History Association. During that encounter, Elder Steven Snow had given me his business card. So I e-mailed Elder Snow directly. I praised Saints, the initial chapters of which were beginning to be published. Then I explained my concern about the Nauvoo Statements before the High Council.

Up until now these statements have been protected from publication, which is appropriate for documents related to Church Disciplinary Courts. Unfortunately, theories regarding Nauvoo have abounded, with the illicit intercourse activity neatly suppressed.

I did not hear from Elder Snow himself, but I did receive an e-mail from Keith Erekson. He assured me that these important documents were in the queue to be digitized and published on the Church History website. Though he could not promise when they would be available, he assured me that they should be available online by the time the Joseph Smith Papers Project reached 1842, which it did this year.

On the All Hallows Eve of 1932, Winnifred Wygal’s[ref]Ms. Wygal’s obituary characterized her as “retired secretary for religious resources of the community division of the National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Association.” Wygal had done postgraduate work under the guidance of noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr while at Harvard.[/ref] diary contained the first record describing the Serenity Prayer:

R.N. [Reinhold Niebuhr] says that ‘moral will plus imagination are the two elements of which faith is compounded.’ ‘The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered.’

Wygal, October 31, 1932

That Which We Cannot Change

Many things can be changed, but the wisdom is determining if you are the one able to make the thing change.

Some of the most tragic episodes involve people trying desperately to change something they do not have the power to change.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio. Thereafter he was unable to walk. But for a period of time shortly after his disability, his loved ones tried to help him regain his lost abilities. The hopeful treatments involved excruciating massage and constant anger and disappointment. Eventually the doctors were able to convince loved ones that there was nothing that could bring back FDR’s ability to walk. The pain and anger ceased, and constructive means of overcoming the limitations of the disability were developed.

Similarly, there was a time when people earnestly believed it was possible to change an individual’s sexual orientation. The hopeful treatments involved excruciating pain and constant anger and disappointment. Eventually doctors and others accepted that some conditions cannot be changed. The membership of the Church, for instance, is in the midst of shifting to a place where pain and anger can cease, where we as a people can develop constructive means to minister to those few dealing with this issue in their own lives.

Kate Kelly earnestly believed that God wished to immediately transform the Church into an organization where every position and privilege was open to individuals of any gender. She poured her soul into shaming the Church into asking God. But this change was not something Kate, of herself, could make. Like individuals from the 1830s, she presumed she could “command him who is at thy head, and at the head of the church.”[ref]D&C 28:6[/ref]

The Courage the Change What We Can [for good]

I remember pouring out my soul to God on behalf of my son, who had a serious heart defect. But ultimately my son died. At that point the healing I had so desired on his behalf was no longer possible. What was required was the courage to embrace a life without my son.

Unfortunately, my extended family had lived through what can happen when an infant dies suddenly. Knowing the bad that can happen, they rallied around me with love, ensuring that I got the rest I needed in those early days after my son’s passing. Where the family member who suffered a child’s death had gone through excruciating months of despair, I was able to rally relatively quickly. In the weeks after the child’s death, my family member had been in the hospital under heavy medication. I, on the other hand, was back at work.

In 1939 the British government knew that Britons would be faced with horrific realities arising from war with Germany. While America rationed and sent many of her children into war zones, British citizens faced bombing and blockades. In the face of these horrors, Britons were encouraged to remain courageous. Three posters were designed to hearten Britons in the face of these terrors. They said:

Freedom is in Peril. Defend It with All Your Might.

Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.

and most familiar to modern ears,

Keep Calm and Carry On.