Lesson 2 on Jesus Christ is now available on my blog:

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2013/01/d-sunday-school-lesson-2.html

Read there/ Comment here.

Chapter 20: Lehi’s Dream

In this chapter, Hugh Nibley discusses Lehi’s Dream (1 Nephi 8-10).  He  begins by noting that our dreams are usually based upon things we are familiar with.  So, when Joseph Smith Sr had a dream of being in a lone and dreary wilderness, it was a forest.  For Lehi, the dream had an Arab desert motif.

This is perhaps a strong evidence of the Book of Mormon.  If Joseph were making it up, would he know in detail events that occur in the desert half a world away?  Would he know of the importance of the oasis in the middle of the desert, wandering in the mists or sand storms, of dangerous dry wadis that suddenly become torrents of raging waters, or the tall buildings of the cities that seem to rise up out of the ground as you approach it?  Would he have known the tensions between the city and desert peoples, as contrasted by those eating the fruit of the tree and the mockers in the great and spacious building?

As a priesthood manual, Nibley showed many interesting concepts regarding the BoM that tied it to the Arabian desert of 600 BC.  Unfortunately, in this book we do not get a spiritual discussion of Lehi’s dream.  Elsewhere, others note it as an endowment, and discuss the temple symbolism found in it. This is perhaps the one big weakness in this manual. But it was written to provide intellectual information, and less of a spiritual journey – which is what we get in Lehi’s dream and the temple.

Read more of Rameumptom’s posts here

D&C lesson One is now on my blog.  This year’s schedule is different than the other 3 years (OT, NT, BoM), in that it goes by theme.  It works fairly well to give us a quick review of some scriptures in the D&C (and many from the BoM) on the weekly topic, so I won’t be adding much to the themes themselves.

Instead, I will be taking some of the sections in the D&C used in the lesson and picking them apart.  For this lesson, we study D&C 1 more in-depth.

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2013/01/d-sunday-school-lesson-1.html

Read it there/Comment here.

Read all of Rameumptom’s posts here: https://www.millennialstar.org/author/rameumptom

May as well jump on the bandwagon with my 2 cents.

I personally do not have any problem with allowing women to wear pants at Church. Go for it, girls!

What I do have a problem with is that the photos I’ve seen tend to show many with a tacky blouse or other top, which really does not fit well in Church. It almost shrieks “since I’m now wearing pants, I can also wear something less than my best for a top, shoes, etc).

Girls, if you are wanting equality, then you need to really do it. Pants, Jacket, Tie, etc. And there won’t be a bunch of frilly colors allowed.  White shirts, dark suit jacket.  Yes, I know that dresses are cold in winter, but suits and ties are strangling and confining all year round, and offer little chance at personal expression (Christmas and Father’s Day tacky ties as the few exceptions).

So, dress drab in dark gray or black pant suits, and a white blouse. Anything else will show that you are not serious about being equally viewed with the priesthood!

Geoff just wrote about the natural market working best in providing for employees.

That said, we live in a time when there are some businesses and employers that do exploit. Some companies spend millions to lobbyists, so they can get tax breaks or opportunities from the government.  We’ve lately seen companies that, in having huge losses, paid huge salary and benefit increases to a select few, while laying off workers.

I am not for a huge government program to regulate business. Such actions usually do more harm than good, such as being implicit in the cause of the Great Recession.
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