A couple of days ago I finished reading the Book of Mormon, which I had started in October based on President Nelson’s challenge.

About a year ago I recall opining that the Book of Mormon peoples had a more complete version of the creation narrative, a narrative which was neutered by the Deuteronomists and then corrupted during the Babylonian captivity. At that time I was wondering if the fullness of that creation narrative, which we see in accounts canonized in the Pearl of Great Price and the temple endowment, could have been contained in the initial manuscript pages that have been lost.

During this reading, however, I realized the fullness of the creation narrative can be found scattered throughout the extant Book of Mormon, included as asides during doctrinal discussions about the purpose of this life and the need for a Redeemer.

Saving the 60 Billion

According to some estimates, roughly 60 billion humans have lived on this earth, including the ~7 billion that are alive at the moment.

If God’s plan includes offering redemption to all His children, how are the bulk of the 60 billion to be saved? As many cultures are lost to memory, we cannot do the work entirely by means of searching out the records. There must needs be a way to learn the identities of those memory has forgotten. Continue reading →

Hyman Rickover was a great man and a controversial man. He was convinced nuclear power was fundamentally dangerous, and yet he created the US nuclear Navy. His interviews of prospective officers for the nuclear Navy were bizarre. At times he demanded a candidate call their fiancée and break off the relationship. One time he told the officer candidate to shut himself up in the closet and remain there until Rickover let him out, which did not occur until the next day.

When the young officer asked why Rickover had forced him to stay in a closet without relief for an entire day, Rickover responded that the time could come when the officer would have to stay at the reactor in an emergency, a time when it would not be possible to leave the station without disastrous results.

Rickover on Responsibility

A colleague has the following Rickover quote as the wallpaper for their computer screens:

“Responsibility is a unique concept… You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you… If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.”

There are many contexts where this view of responsibility is compelling. In my view, however, parenthood is the most critical of these contexts.

The mother and father of each individual born into this life have this responsibility. When they fail, others may surge forward to take up the burden of caring for the child. While this is admirable, we should never create so strong an adoption market that children are wrested from their biological parents by design.

In a similar fashion, scientific investigation of the outcomes for children consistently show that the gold standard is for a child to be raised by their biological parents (necessarily male and female) in a committed marriage. Anything short of this gold standard results in significantly increased probability that the child will be damaged.

A man or woman who, through selfishness or fecklessness, denies their child this gold standard will rightly be held to account for the damage they have done. If you don’t know how damaging “alternate lifestyles” are for children, check out the research of Dr. Brad Wilcox of the National Marriage Project. An example is his NY Times piece, “Why the Ring Matters“. For what it is worth, Dr. Wilcox is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ.

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Facebook informed me that the Church is stepping away from some of the pageants that Church members and their friends have attended over the past decades.

According to the Deseret News, 2020 will be the last year the Hill Cumorah Pageant will be held with direct support from the Church. The Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti will no longer benefit from direct Church support after 2019.

On the other hand, the two pageants that are held in Nauvoo will continue.

I haven’t attended the Hill Cumorah pageant in decades. I hear in the past few years attendance has dwindled. Apparently the local mission decided this summer it was no longer appropriate for full-time missionaries to attend the pageant, attendance which involved long miles of travel and very late nights (even when missionaries ostensibly were accompanying those seeking to learn more about the Church).

I haven’t attended the Manti pageant. I’m not sure what I’ve heard about that pageant is accurate, or if what I remember of comments is actually what people told me.

I am happy to hear the Nauvoo pageants will continue. These pageants were written recently, reflecting history that is relatively accurate.

This news is interesting in light of what I did yesterday. I and several family members traveled 7-8 hours each way and spent $45 apiece to spend the day at Hart Square Village, a privately assembled collection of over 100 pioneer structures. Hundreds of docents and artisans assemble on the fourth Saturday of October each year to explain and recreate quotidian activities of 1800s life. We shucked corn, sampled sweet sorghum, sang hymns in the log chapel next to the lake, and watched as re-enactors fought a Civil War-era skirmish (in this North Carolina setting, the Confederate soldiers won the day). It is not that crowds won’t assemble for such gatherings, but the zeitgeist of our age is not the same as the 1937 sensibility that gave birth to the original Hill Cumorah pageant.

An era is coming to a close. But for me and my household, we look forward to the future and the new opportunities that wait in store.

Have you heard of Rodney King? He was brutally beaten by the LA Police Department in 1991, and the acquittal of the police officers the next year led to six days of rioting in LA. Sixty-three people were killed and more than 2000 injured because of the riots. Rodney King appeared on TV during the riots and gave an oft-quoted, impassioned speech in which he said,

“I just want to say – you know – can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?… it’s just not right – it’s not right. And it’s not going to change anything. …And, just, uh, I love – I’m neutral, I love every – I love people of color. I’m not like they’re making me out to be. We’ve got to quit – we’ve got to quit; I mean after-all, I could understand the first – upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground – it’s just not right; it’s just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along – we just gotta, we gotta.”

King’s speech, which you can watch in part here, was very touching for me the first time I watched it. It is — dare I say it — almost Christ-like in its deep desire for people to love rather than hate.

I’ve been thinking about that phrase — “can we all get along” (which popular culture has often expressed as “can’t we all just get along?”) — a lot lately. This is the message that modern-day prophets express in almost every talk they give. This is the message that all Christians should impart, especially in these very tense times of national tumult over politics.

So, in that spirit, I would like to try in this post to help people on both sides understand the position of the other side a bit. Perhaps if we stop seeing one “side” (ie, Democrats/liberals/progressives/democratic socialists vs Republicans/right-leaning libertarians/conservatives) as evil, we can turn down the political temperature just a bit.
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Chapter 4 of Saints has it all: buried treasure and golden plates, action and romance.

Joseph’s work in assisting with treasure seeking has been the subject of much controversy. This chapter smartly positions that employment in the context of Joseph meeting and courting Emma Hale. Whether Joseph was right to use his talents in pursuit of treasure seeking or not, God used his experience to put him where he needed to be to meet Emma.

I like how the chapter describes the romance between Emma and Joseph. You can see what each found so attractive in the other. Emma had grown up in relative wealth and privilege and I suspect that Joseph seemed so different. He was rugged and rough. He had a natural charm and was gregarious and humorous. Emma likely offered Joseph a sense of refinement and class that attracted him.

It was no surprise that Issac Hale did not approve of their relationship and marriage. Joseph was a poor hired laborer whose family had little property and little standing. Joseph must have appeared uneducated and superstitious. And the rumors of gold plates and angels would frighten any would be father in law.

Amidst this courtship, Joseph is charged with fraud for his work with Josiah Stowell. The charges are dismissed after Josiah testifies on his behalf. But I can’t imagine that those charges helped Joseph’s relationship with Isaac Hale.

When Joseph visits the Hill Cumorah again, he is warned that he is still using his skills to pursue financial gain and that he must quit working with money diggers. He is told that if he does not change his ways, he will not have another chance. This makes me wonder if there are moments in our lives where God gives us a similar warning and where we have to either step up and change of lose out on precious spiritual opportunities? Continue reading →