Following and believing in prophets - God's time

I went through and changed the titles from part numbers to something indicating which aspect was being covered. This series is going on longer than I expected, so better organization seemed advisable.

I also keep getting nagging feelings that I have written about some things before, but repetition is important; some of us are slow learners.

Just in this series, we have covered how some leaders and some commandments may not be so much for your benefit as others, but they are for other people, and that's valid. Last week was about how there are always opportunities for personal enlightenment, beyond what is generally available. What all of that is leading to is that everything works out for everyone eventually.

This life is a blink in eternity. It's an important blink, but still, it is finite.

In some ways, this post is more about believing in God in general, but often when people get irritated with the prophets, and don't trust them, it is because the message does not seem to be working out for them, so how can it be trusted?

It's like the question of why good things can happen to bad people. So much of it happens because we have choices, and those choices have consequences. It would be unfair that your bad choice can affect my happiness, but there is also the potential for my choice to affect you, and also your choice may not have been intentionally bad, and if God were interfering all the time, our choices would become meaningless.

God respects us too much to be a micro manager, but He loves us too much not to help. So, we have a world where we do not remember Him, but we can feel Him. We are subject to death and diseases, but we are promised resurrection. We are prone to sin, but welcome to forgiveness. We have prophets to teach us, and we have the Holy Ghost to confirm their teachings. Some people don't get taught in this life, but they will get the chance to learn after death. The Atonement of Jesus Christ balances justice and mercy, and between life, and after life, and the Millennium, there is a chance for everything to be reconciled and healed.

In my mind I have thought of this as God playing the long game. That does not sound right, because it's not a game, but there is still the point in there that his goal is not a fast partial victory, but taking time to bring back as many as possible.

Think of the apostasy. From the time of the apostles being killed or taken up, centuries had to pass before the Restoration. If you think of the conditions it required, the Reformation, and the formation of the United States, it took a lot to get to a spot where you can even have a new prophet whom the government or church won't kill. Even then, he does still get murdered, but he has time to accomplish his work. If people would not be so terrible, it wouldn't take so long, but that is not His fault. So instead He has a plan that no matter what we mess up, there are remedies in place.

We are slow learners. I am constantly amazed at God's patience with me, and it's not just for me. He is patient for everyone. So, when there are things that seem horrible, that are blamed on God, are used as proof of His absence, no, the problem is us, and He is the solution. But that's really more of a point to make for atheists.

For people who do believe in God, but have grown skeptical of His servants, maybe, right now, this thing is not about you. I will still promise you that there is room for you in it.

Following and believing in prophets - when you don't know about prophets

What I was leading to last time was the personal revelation part; we should ask, and we will receive.

One story that affected me a lot was about a friend of Wilford Woodruff. He had a vision where he understood that the earth was in an apostasy, but saw that a restoration was coming, and that he would know of it, but not be able to partake of the fruit. He did learn of the restoration as he was dying.

I did find the video, which can be seen at https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-003-the-great-apostasy?lang=eng.  It is a little long, because it is not really about the friend, but it was his story that stuck with me.

In the Church, we hear spiritual stories all the time, and shortly before seeing this, I had read some stories of things being revealed to the parents and grandparents of Joseph Smith. This was the first thing that really brought home to me that there are opportunities for revelation to everyone, everywhere. Yes, the earth has had long years of apostasy, and there are continents and countries that have been very hard to reach, but that has never made God unavailable.

When I was working with the Laotian refugees, most of them passed through some pretty dangerous times, and it was common that they found themselves praying. The prevalent religion there was Buddhism with roots in animism, but they knew they weren't praying to Buddha. They did not know whom they were praying to, but they sensed there was someone there.

We believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I hope we appreciate how wonderful that is, but also, we believe in the Holy Ghost, and we believe in the Light of Christ. There is always the opportunity for spiritual knowledge.

There are some things worth noting from Robert Mason's story. One is that he had the vision, but he prayed to understand it. We can get some information and not follow up on it.

Also, just for having the vision in the first place, he thought about religion a lot, and about authority. He was trying to understand. That would put him in a place where having that vision made perfect sense.

It is very easy in our society to stay trivial. There is plenty of entertainment and plenty of distraction, and we can easily avoid going deep. It is also easy to be exhausted, and not have time to think about God and our relationship with Him.  This society has problems. We know that.

But also I know that there is a path to God. Even without teachers, there is the ability to know what is right, and what is good, and build on that. He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.

Following and believing in prophets - personal responsibility

Last week I focused on the alcohol part of the Word of Wisdom. I know there is more to it. One thing that has been interesting to me is that I have heard that a lot of members in the South are vegetarian or flexitarian, taking the "meat sparingly" part very seriously. Almost no one does that out here.

Some people are very against drinking cola, due to the caffeine, because of the hot drinks. I have been like that, and now I rarely drink pop at all. It's not good for you. It ruins you for water, which is good for you. At the same time, give me about three days without meat and I will become a danger to people.

My point is that even with the guidelines that we have, there is a fair amount of latitude in how you interpret and live them. Some things are pretty basic, and some things come up in temple recommend interviews, but even then, you have some leeway. For example, they will ask you if you are a full-tithe payer, but they will not ask you if you pay on your net income or gross income, or ask to see a W2 and compare it to your tithing totals to see if it is really ten percent.

This is not encouraging anyone to lie, but to get at the importance of the individual relationship with God. We need to think about things. We need to understand why they are important. Sometimes you learn the importance of a commandment through practicing it, so it is not that you will always work it out before you live it, but it is not blind faith either. It is informed faith, and that is important.

This is not a secret. In part this series was inspired by frustration with how people blend their faith with their political ideologies. You would think that the announcements over the pulpit every election year reminding the congregation that we don't endorse candidates or parties, and that we don't hold political events, and that members are encouraged to study the issues would kind of give a hint that automatically assuming you need to belong to a specific party, and vote that way, is misguided.

When I was teaching Sunday School, there were many times when people would be surprised to find out that I teach adults, because there is this idea that Sunday School is for kids. It's not. We all study the scriptures together every Sunday, with extra classes during the week for high school students (seminary) and college students (institute), and then as adults we still study. It is the most popular class to skip, but the opportunity is still there.

Education is encouraged. Learning is encouraged. Pondering is encouraged. And yes, we still have leaders, and we are still supposed to listen to them. There is general council that works for the majority of us, and there are organizational issues, and it makes sense for those things to come out of leadership. There is also a great deal that is individual, where it makes sense to come to us directly, and personal revelation is important there.

There is also a need to know that the leaders are worth following. This is certainly something for investigators. If you don't believe in God or prophets, or if you believe in prophets for Biblical times but not for the modern era, you would need a witness from the Holy Ghost to get you there.

In addition, if you are a member, and have been, but the prophet says something you don't like, or you get a bishop in who is a real stick in the mud, then you need the Holy Ghost again.

We get commandments that are guidelines. It's not that they are not specific necessarily, but it is fascinating how people will build on them, either to justify judging others, or to build a Pharisaical hedge around the law which seems like it will help keep the law but really just creates a burden and removes the spiritual blessing of the law.

We need the Holy Ghost.

Following and believing in prophets - as times change

I want to briefly go over how it's okay that things change, and the Word of Wisdom seems like a good place for doing that.

We know it was given because early members of the church did smoke and drink, or it wouldn't have come up. We don't necessarily know about tobacco in earlier times, but certainly wine is mentioned often in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and while there are occasionally mentions of the negative effects of drinking too much, alcohol is not described as inherently evil.

So, it is reasonable to look at our abstinence today as part of our covenant for this time and place, and we adapt to it without constantly needing to rewrite it. There is no mention of recreational drug use, but as we understand the purpose of the law, it's a very logical extension.

One thing to remember is this point that I periodically return to, in that not everything we do has to be personally for us. Verse 3 kind of points that out:

"Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints."

There are members who would probably be fine drinking alcohol, just as there are people outside of the church who sometimes drink and sometimes don't, and for whom it does not become an issue. On my mother's side (in Italy), wine and coffee are pretty standard with meals, and they overall have good health and longevity and they do pretty well with it.

There are people for whom it is a big issue. On my father's side, I know of a few drinking problems, and that's with no one ever really talking about it. I have strong reactions to pretty basic medications, and am quite probably among the weakest of the saints for that issue. That covenant has protected me.

We don't usually know who would have an issue and who wouldn't, but there are other valuable things that come with abstaining. There is freedom from addiction, and the heartaches that can bring, but there is also a clear head, and one less thing interfering with listening to the Spirit. Because there is no using alcohol to lower inhibitions, we have to learn to deal with the inhibitions. We can't deaden our emotions that way, so perhaps we are more likely to deal with them. There is even the simple lesson of obedience that comes with keeping a commandment that is not cool.

It is not hard to believe that there is more benefit to abstaining from alcohol in this modern society, with so much leisure time, and advertising, and less physical labor, than there would have been many centuries ago.

Whether is is offering sacrifices, or paying tithing, or living the United Order, there are similar lessons, but perhaps better tailored for the time. If we are going to believe in revelation and divine leadership, then it makes sense that things can change and evolve. It also makes sense that we can gain individual reassurances, and we will be spending more time on that next week.

Following and believing in prophets - why I'm writing this

I keep starting this without being sure what to focus on. I know what the individual points are, but am not sure of the best order to treat them in, so I think I need to write about my motivation.

Part of my desire to do this comes from my membership in a group on Facebook that I thought would be for more liberal-leaning members of the Church. That was an exciting thought. There are many members who make being politically conservative an essential part of their faith, and they are so certain in their rightness, that it gets pretty irritating.

The members I know who are Democrats have been great, and talking to them has been great, so I was expecting that finding a trove of them on the internet would also be great. Sadly, they are mostly awful.

This should not really be surprising. No matter how you are grouping people, within that grouping there is a part that is awful, and part of that tends to include being vocal. (More on that at http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/02/atheism-study-authors-congratulations-non-believers-youre-just-like-everybody-else/.)

Anyway, a lot of the people show by their comments a lack of faith. Maybe they are not still going to church, or maybe they go due to a sense of tradition, but think of it as just a church, and not as the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. If that is the case, they have lost something precious.

I do get frustrated with various members at times, which is normal. It is totally normal. These things happen in churches and political parties and volunteer groups, because that is the nature of dealing with people. Cutting off things that are important to you because of other people is spiting yourself, but it can often affect others too, like less dogs getting rescued, or other people being influenced and losing something they valued but were still getting used to, or just an organization that is good becoming unbearable due to who is left.

The reason I focus on prophets for that is to remember that this isn't just a church. It's not just some good ideas at one time that haven't been updated. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and living church. It was restored by a prophet. It uses the words of old prophets, which anyone can do, but it is also still led by prophets. Those prophets are human, and the people they lead are human, but there is no getting around that part, so you have to deal with it.

What I will be trying to cover in the next two or three posts is how to deal with it, and why it's worth dealing with, and how it is actually a system that works after all.

Following and believing in prophets - as leaders change

This is probably going to take three or four parts, but I am going to start with a review of my relationship with various presidents of the Church.

The first one I remember is President Kimball, and I just instinctively loved him. I could not tell you a lot about the things that he taught - it was a very childlike love I suppose.

I do remember when I was a Beehive, my teacher saying that we should pay attention to the leaders, not just with what they taught, but getting to know them. She said some people were very concerned that President Benson was next in line, because he was so political, and that meant absolutely nothing to me.

This is perhaps where I should explain a little about my childhood. My parents joined the Church after they were married, and my father stopped going when I was nine. The rest of us kept going, though my two older siblings eventually stopped, but still, we did not have the pioneer heritage or the extended family, and then there was a desire at that time for there to not be a too much of a rift with Dad not going.

One way this played out is that conference weekends were considered time off, both stake and general. So I knew who the prophet was, and sometimes other names would sound familiar, but that was pretty much it.

(I read the scriptures a lot, so was generally considered pretty knowledgeable about church things, but not the current leaders.)

When I graduated high school and started to attend the singles ward, that started to change. I did start reading the Ensign more, and going to things, and I had a better idea, but where that really kicked into gear while I was on my mission.

One thing that happened before that is that when President Kimball died, I remembered being sad, but then "We Thank The O God For A Prophet" started playing in my head, and I remembered both that we'd had President Kimball, and that was not undone, but also that we still had a prophet and always would.

I was fine with President Benson, but I wasn't attached, and with his health problems it seemed like we did not hear from him much, even when I was attending General Conference. It was not a testimony issue - someone had suggested once that we did not get to hear from him much because we did not listen well enough, and that made sense - but there was just no connection.

That changed in the Missionary Training Center. We watched a video of him, and the love in his eyes made a strong impression on me. I knew I had loved President Kimball; now I knew President Benson loved me, and I loved him for that. Later one I borrowed a packet of his talks from someone, and got to know him on another level there.

The other thing about the MTC is that you have general authorities coming every week, and that was when some of the apostles started becoming real to me. I learned to love Elder Wirthlin when he came to the Modesto Stake Conference and I translated for him. I learned to love Elder Holland when he toured our mission and spoke to us while still a Seventy. And then I was watching and reading conference talks, so everyone became real. It just required some participation.

While in the mission field I remember expecting that President Hunter would die before President Benson, because he was so weak, and he couldn't have a very long presidency. Then he spoke in conference and he spoke with great power, and I knew I had been wrong. He could do whatever he needed to do. And then he did become President, and it was in fact a very short presidency, and yet a very powerful one. That was a huge lesson for me. What is supposed to happen happens, and it works, and it is based on wisdom that we do not have.

Both President Benson and President Hunter did what was needed, and filled the roles that they needed to, but it was still such a breath of fresh air to have President Hinckley so present, speaking and traveling everywhere. I loved him with all my heart, and eventually he died too.

I had liked President Monson's talks a lot when he was a counselor, at first, and then I found that while I liked his stories, he repeated them a lot, and then I started not liking them as much. I do not love him as much as I loved President Hinckley, and it does seem wrong to feel that way. All that being said, I still know he is the prophet. I trust him.

I see that having favorites is actually pretty common, and there can be bad things about it, but that is not necessary. All of my experience has shown me that this is guided. The men are called in the order they are called by a God who knows how long they will live, and what their strengths are, and what is going to happen to the Church and the people in it. If I have issues with an individual, it is my responsibility to come around, which I can do by prayer and the Spirit. It works, but there are things that make it work, and things that we can let get in our way. That's what I am going to try and cover over the next few weeks.

Tattoos and piercings

There's this meme going around lately:

"the nicest people I ever met were covered in tattoos and piercings. the most judgmental are the people who go to church every Sunday."

I have no tattoos and go to church every Sunday, and I think I actually am quite good about not judging and being kind, but it's not always that way, and as two things that seemingly don't go together, perhaps that is worth exploring.

In our church, we are specifically asked not to get tattoos or piercings, beyond the single piercing of ears for girls. President Hinckley gave three talks pretty close together on that topic, and I know there were people who had a hard time with it. It was always something I sort of assumed before, but I think it had become less of an assumption, where people were doing it and not feeling particularly rebellious.

I had some thoughts at the time on why it would be a point, and it's not that they are invalid now, but something else that has come to me more recently is that when we push the boundaries, it pushes them out for everybody else.

We are the squares. There is nothing wrong with that. We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't do drugs. (Actually, that kind of makes us straight edge, but without the tattoos.) There are a lot of things that we don't do, and we can be perfectly happy not doing them, especially if we focus more on the positive things that we do. I do not regret any of that.

Still, we are the squares, and to a large extent we are the institution, and "the man". Ways in which we are not part of the machine are important, but may not be immediately visible to some. If we, as the squares, begin appropriating the body art of the rebels, they have to go out further. Mormon guys have pierced ears, rebels need to put spacers in their ear lobes. We get tattoos, they need to get sleeves. We get sleeves, they need to get face tattoos and horns implanted in the forehead.

That probably sounds pretty stupid, but there are a few points to be made here. One is that it is completely acceptable that your compliance at times may be more intended for the blessing of someone else than of yourself. That doesn't mean that you won't get any benefits from it, but it is reasonable for us to do things for others. We should.

Also, I am not saying that the only reason for tattoos and piercings is rebellion, but some of the other purposes that they feel should maybe be things that we don't need.

For example, I remember one person talking about his tattoos being a way of remembering some pictures and images, which is hard. My first thought was that no, it's really easy. We have pictures and photo albums and memories. However, on a deeper level, I think the real issue was a feeling of impermanence, and a desire to hold on, especially to loved ones. I know of many tattoos that are in memory of someone who has died.

With our knowledge of the Resurrection, and eternal families, it's likely that we are not going to feel that same ache. It still hurts when we lose people, but we know it's temporary, and that helps. That's something we can be grateful for.

We know that our body is eternal. It will be changed and perfected, but that is something that is amazing to think about, and we can be grateful for that knowledge.

We understand that we are children of God and brothers and sisters, and I think that can give us a better understanding of what we would need to do to stand out, or why we would want to. That is something to be grateful for.

It's easy to judge, and when we do that as church-goers we are fulfilling one stereotype, and we are in the wrong. When we see and love and are willing to listen and understand, and then love some more, that's what we are supposed to do, and whom we are supposed to be. And while we will care about what we will do to our bodies, we will not get hung up on what other people have done to theirs.