3 responses
"Ave Papam" [Hail to the Pope] If I were to do even one of the offenses charged against Lynn Thompson, even one time, I am convinced the priesthood I hold in trust would be forfeit, my family would be liberated, and I would be excommunicated without pity; I would expect nothing less of a just God. Any exceptional mercy whatever would be accompanied by a long period of probation, and I would have to walk the path to any possible reinstatement step-by-step. Long before he got this far, his course should have been interrupted. The declared attitude of being a law unto one’s self (with a record of deeds to witness) before the President of the Priesthood, no less, (blog 29) should have provoked a trial and a judgment that would have put him where he couldn’t do any more harm to any more “little ones who believe in me,” or the good name of God. Since when should a family be retained as hostages to perpetuate evil? For whose sake is that? God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, (Mro. 10:19) but men will adapt to change under the direction (or misdirection) of the living prophet, irresponsible and blind to future consequences. As for his inner circle, who should have retained the ability to have known the mind of the Lord, have they have made their own covenant and agreement etc.? Do they not seek counsel of the Lord: do they give the counsel of the Lord to us in the matter of dealing with the wound of rampant sin upon our charter and escutcheon? (An escutcheon is a carving on a tomb bearing the coat of arms of the resident.) What does that say for the word of their authority? The point is whether God is talking to them or through them should be examined. The most you can say is, “I don’t know, but I want to believe.” What is at stake here? Anything that requires delegated authority though a president of priesthood is in doubt. It isn’t doubting Lynn and Co. that is wrong; it’s doubting the truth and failing to pursue it. If we pan them we have no place to go. No place to go except God, where we should have gone in the first place. Whose Work is it? Whose priesthood is it? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not. (Js. 1:5) Jesus declares it is he who answers when one seeks. (JS: 11) There is another aggravating aspect to this and it is the malice with which the crimes allegedly have been carried out and defended. This is apparently not a case of someone (“a good man, but weak”) giving into an overwhelming passion or being addicted to prurient pleasure [impure desires], sufficiently bad in itself. Those sins have been described as conducted and concealed with disregard for the value of another human being and reparation has not been made. This is the opposite of priesthood, and it’s not going away by a duplicitous confession and sycophantic stonewalling. The spirit around here is that of the Pharisees, preoccupied with rules and external content when the Spirit has departed. The Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of love for one another – the spirit behind the mission and purpose of priesthood – all missing. This Brother Lynn Thompson is the standard bearer of what? He answers to no one, if he said so as reported in blog 29. Although the servants of God will not pass open judgment upon him because of his office, has he pronounced is own damnation (in the form of separation from God) upon himself? What example does he set, but the example we see among the political class and other criminals we view on the nightly news. “I got away with it.” “Keep moving; they’ll forget about it when time has passed and things return to normal.” “The show must go on.” “Macht, macht errecht.” Ave Papam • By failing to exercise our faith and have the courage of our convictions, we are getting the government we deserve. • By praying for our leaders and giving them our unqualified endorsement (without regard for fundamental right or wrong, rather than praying for discernment, or deliverance or only in their righteousness) we are getting the government we deserve. • By failing to heed the warnings of known prophets and failing to recognize the tendencies of human nature to substitute their will for God’s and impose their will on others, as well as the Devil’s influence in creating a counterfeit gospel – we get the government we deserve. • By failing to open our spiritual eyes to the wholesale wickedness that now styles itself too indispensable to fail – we get the government we deserve. • By having so little love ourselves we fail to be aroused by its absence at our head with regard to Christian compassion and common decency towards whom should not be considered “the least of these” – we get the government we deserve. • By putting our families of men in their unrighteousness ahead of the family of God and making it whole – we get the government we deserve. • By being silent, even to invite a higher standard of virtue vindicated by God, through his righteousness intervention – we get the government we deserve. • By failing to appreciate the unique value, an unparalleled treasure of truth, we have here and safeguard it from corruption and abuse, we are passing the tipping point that others have already passed – and we get the government we deserve. • By following an ukase to silence the single voice of truth conscientious and valiant enough to advocate for God to our condition and warn us of the peril we are in – we get the government we deserve. • “Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.” This saying comes from the civilization of the Roman emperors, men made gods by an act of the Senate. “What is permitted to (the head) god, is not permitted to a cow.” It means that in the unalterable order of justice, he/they who are at the head may do things not allowed to their subjects. And we get the government we deserve. How many of us are lying against our own hearts out of ignorant fear of a God we do not know and out of fearful ignorance refuse to believe in? “We are getting into such a condition that if we were to meet the Lord, we could not look him in the face, and the way we are going it will soon be impossible to tell what we do believe….” John W. Taylor What are we, after all? Are we king-men or are we free men – or are we God men? (Alma 51:5,6, etc.) From each one of us, the Savior wants to know. We’re not supposed to be the sheep; we’re supposed to be the priesthood, the shepherds to the world. As with the LDS Mormons, the words remain in circulation after the Spirit that gave them has left. “Two wrongs do not make a right,” only a return to God’s mind and Spirit does that. If there is no place for the God of righteousness and His rule among us, then we have us, not a prophet, but a pope. And we get the government we deserve.
— A posthaven user
Third Call – Trial as Tribulation Blogs 25-29 Examining what has been presented by Bro. Steve in evidence and the availability of witnesses to the offences charged may not, in itself, constitute a viable case in the courts of men. The swarm of accusers of the iconic entertainer, Bill Cosby, have not been able to secure even a hearing, so far. What we have before us, however, certainly calls for an official airing of the evidence before those appointed by the D & C to do so. See Section 102. The purpose of such an airing is to determine whether the case should go to a trial. The next step is to convene a court wherein the evidence and witnesses can be presented, the presenter and witnesses questioned. The accused has a right before the court to present a defense, point by point, and the whole matter is weighed by, in our case, the judges. That this has not been done and no explanation has been given that addresses the accusations. The purpose of the law as it should be used by authority is not to act as a club to threaten people, but as a protector of the weak against the strong. Civilization to the degree we have it with inventions, intellectual property, and personal property would not be possible without a code of law that (imposes) standards of fairness and equality and standing for all before the bar of justice. Bro. Steve has successfully uncovered and required the separation of three malefactors. Bro. Steve has presented the relevant law and the requirement for a judicial process among us, established in the time of Joseph. It is right before God that we should examine such grave charges and clean ourselves of them and not allow the law code of God that is an integral part of our faith to be annulled by men who have reasons of their own for making some more equal than others. Living the gospel is everyone’s responsibility that cannot be delegated, either up or down. Equal justice for all is an ideal that enables people to live together in peace and safety from each other. It corrects people who have a distorted view of the boundaries between a neighbor’s rights and their own in getting it right. A conscientiously-enabled justice system that fulfills the intent of Joseph (the head of this dispensation) puts up a barrier that makes temptation to abuse, exploit and otherwise take an unjust advantage, harder to access. The official reply, or as near as we can get from the council, (Blog 8 of learnjustice.posthaven.com) suggests the dire consequence that their credibility and what amounts to their ability to govern will be undermined if this matter is brought to a trial and if the law of justice (that is part of our responsibility to abide by every word of all the accepted scripture) is applied to Bro. Lynn Thompson. They might as well proclaim the reason behind their stand in letters as big as the Hollywood sign. “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” Apparently, neither can they. They act as though they do have secrets to hide. These secrets could potentially call into question the worthiness of each of them to hold office, and in some cases, priesthood itself. This has worse consequences for us than the Watergate break-in did for Nixon and the Republicans, because the consequences are eternal and the judge is our Lord. They can't, however, hide from the Eternal. Neither can we. Unhappily, the burden of priesthood isn’t for everyone. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” So, their credibility is more important to them than justice. I believe that. They want you to think the same way. I wonder, since they appear to be unanimous in denying an airing of this case, how far wrongdoing among them extends. “Follow the Brethren, even if they’re wrong, and God will bless you for it.” Will this be our version of Church-speak? The necessity to persuade and coerce and deceive has always been used by men to govern other men. The Chinese called the right to rule of their emperor, the Mandate of Heaven. In medieval times, the cry was, “The king can do no wrong.” In the recent past, the spokesman for the national socialist secular religion of Germany boasted in its ability to tell the “big lie”. The very foundation of national survival, they were taught depended on the people accepting the Nazi version of reality, as well as right and wrong. First this was a psychological slight of hand, but when the war broke out, it became a fact. Mussolini had these words of inspiration for his people: “Credere – combattere - obbedere!” “Believe, fight, obey.” The LDS have the saying that the Lord will not permit His prophet to go astray. I would insert a slight modification: the Lord will not permit his prophet to go astray – forever. Here’s another saying that I believe in: “We get the government we deserve.” So, if the people will not insist on justice for all, a prophet, whether just or unjust, will not save them from themselves. The battle for upholding a Work true to the original principles upon which it was founded was fought out in Bro. Owen’s time (blogs 31, 33-36). Men have chosen to maintain credibility with men, forsaking credibility with God, imagining that because they honor a part of God’s gospel, God will somehow forgive them for that which they do not choose to honor. These are your file leaders. These are your authorities. We are instructed to study Isaiah. Isaiah deals with the failures of Israel, the House of Faith as a corporate self. We hear such words through him as, “For the leaders of this people cause them to err.” (Is. 9:16) “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.” (Is. 28:8) The purpose of Bro. Steve’s blog is not to convince you of anything, but to prompt you to listen to the Holy Spirit and be instructed thereby, and awaken your own sense of right and wrong, basic human decency. Right away, I can see, from this case and beyond, that we as a people are not fit to govern in the name of the Lord, if we cannot as a people abide by his statutes. Our detractors are right in assigning to us the label polygamists. That is what we have become, mere polygamists, too many upholding a lifestyle, not the transforming and delivering the light of the gospel. Bro. Steve does not run. He remains just inside your city gates. What profit is it to him to persist? This should suggest that he is motivated by something other than what motivates our establishment to pillory him (blog 8). What will he get out of this from among us, even if there is a restoration of the principle of equal and open justice for all? However scary it is to face the implications of Bro. Steve’s stand, look at history and look at fact. How many times has God appointed just one man to stand against “His own people”? It is a characteristic of the information age that information is manipulated, the better to entrain whole peoples to the will of their governments. We see that this is the way of the world. People depend on opinion leaders, spokespersons, newscasters, experts whose right to influence is proclaimed by titles and honors among men. One of the evils of our age is information overload. Clever students of the human mind have learned how to agitate and inspire with fear, pride, and loathing. The ability to reason, weigh, judge, decide and act with confidence has been carefully taken away, and group thinking substituted. The whole world’s people are relying on borrowed light. It’s “the scientific management of humanity,” Lenin’s stated dream. And where are they being led? What spirit is leading them? We are supposed to be a peculiar people, a special people, called out from among the nations to be schooled and led by God, Himself, following His unchanging blueprint. We are supposed to be a chosen people – to what end if we don’t understand our own religion, and if our pride prevents us from realizing that. We compare ourselves to others among the deceived of the world, but our pride prevents us from realizing wherein we, ourselves have fallen short. Bro. Steve has connected his stand to law that when use correctly enables us to be free of the wiles of conspiring men, so all may have confidence in themselves and in each other and in God and receive the oracles of God in power. (See Blog 10.) His detractors have connected themselves to what? They have connected themselves not to God’s law, but to themselves and their own right to govern (and define reality for you) that Bro. Ron (Blog 8 of learnjustice.posthaven.com) has admitted depends not on truth, but on your credulity. So which is it – lamb chops or the salad bar? What’s threatening their credibility is not Brother Steve, but their own determination to hide behind invoking authority. In so doing their credibility is safe among the blind and fearful followers who have always been the mainstay of the LDS community, afraid to think for themselves if their leaders say “You may think for yourself as long as you agree with us.” Their credibility is threatened before those who would magnify their own callings as servants of God, but those are and always will be revealed as a remnant, a tithe of a tithe. What all this amounts to is that the Council in their support of the unsupportable are not acting as leaders of the people, but as balls and chains on the spiritual growth of the people. The negativity and hostility directed against Bro. Steve, not even that well disguised, reflects the spirit they carry with them. That, in itself, is a barrier to the Spirit of the Lord. The people have been so removed from that Spirit among them in public discourse that they don’t react consciously and thoughtfully to its absence. The course of allowing a few to have their position of respect and trust provides an opportunity to get gain and enable, and then cover sin is like the course of a disease that shows itself first at the site where the infection occurred, but is bearable. Then it disappears for years and everything’s fine. In the third stage the disease manifests itself in ways that do not appear to be related to the (cause) as any number of the body’s systems may be attacked, singly or in multiple afflictions. It is then that the true suffering begins, as this disease attacks from within. Any part of the body, including the brain can be consumed, and this disease is passed on to one’s children, as well. One of its names is, The Great Pretender. The common name for this disease, acquired through disregarding a covenanted relationship with God and another person, is Syphilis. Likewise, it is with disregarding a covenanted relationship with God and with each other called Divinely-ordained law and justice. When the events come upon us that are our recompense for failing to reach the mark and keep the things we have been entrusted with holy, let us not be bewildered and cry with the peoples of the world that God has abandoned us, when it is we who have allowed ourselves to abandon the Lord and his righteousness. “Those who will do nothing to oppose wrong when confronted by it are supporting wrong.” Theodore Roosevelt As important as it is to have law and justice among us, if the loving, affirming spirit that cherishes our well-being and undergirds those principles is not present, we shall not be healed or progress.
— A posthaven user
On Culture Elements of culture. This is taken from a synthesis of anthropological and private views. I have always had trouble getting into my mind what the word culture means. Why I think an understanding of culture is important I’m going to set forth. Anthropo·logy: anthropo- pertaining to human beings. Logy, from logos (word) meaning word knowledge or knowledge reduced to words, or knowledge in word forms. This is how knowledge is fixed and becomes transmissible to others. Language is a system by which words are understood and ordered. Religion: re – again; ligio – to tie or join. Thus: religion – to join again. Religion is supposed to reverse the verdict of the Garden of Eden and provide for us a pathway to rejoin our Father in Heaven. 1. Definition of culture: That which identifies members of a group to each other and distinguishes group members from others. 2. Elements of culture: 1) Mechanical, or biological. This describes how members get their survival needs met - that is, how they provide for food, clothing, shelter, defense, and reproductive needs. Add language, the means of communication, perception. 2) Instrumental or institutional: This describes social institutions, normative behavior, standards, customs, law and how these common behaviors are taught and enforced. 3) Ornamental or aesthetic: This describes how members express themselves that also serve to characterize themselves creating a bond through the senses. It includes art, music, and style. Add commemorative events. 4) Ideological: What a people believe. This encompasses their lore, myths, historical interpretation and religion. * * * When the people of the Work forsake the Christian way of understanding and serving God and treating others and allow substituted values to govern, some of them aberrant, the Work becomes increasingly and then essentially a culture and defines what used to be a religion in cultural terms. The alarming thing here is they don’t realize this is what has happened to them. A culture is a sort of cocoon that puts a veil around them that limits their understanding beyond the terms of culture. Jesus, through Joseph Smith intended that religion should supersede culture and be at its heart and core. Search yourself. How much have we become cultural fundamentalists? Aberrant perceptions and values (extrapolated from the blogs of learnjustice.posthaven.com) : “Men can get away with anything because their standing with God as males and their ordained status makes them special before God. God will forgive or excuse them because they are the Lord’s anointed.” “We have to obey men whether right or wrong to our view, because obedience is more important than scriptural guidelines or what we think. For the Lord’s anointed, scripture is a record of suggestions that don’t necessarily have to apply to them; they have past all that.” “Sexual experimentation and exploration is OK. It’s just normal teenage stuff. The full yoke of keeping those things between husband and wife can come later.” (“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”) On Culture 2 “Possession of ordinances outweighs any requirement for private conduct and indemnifies the holder from the consequences that must be suffered by lesser mortals. Where we are concerned, God is definitely a respecter of male persons who hold higher ordinances and have entered into ‘the Covenant.’” “At a man’s discretion, a woman can be treated as his property. It is essentially so agreed as part of our covenant of marriage.” “Loyalty to family and its head is more important than equitable social justice, or individual justice, or individual worth.” “Men have the authority of the priesthood (and the terms of the covenant of marriage when it applies) to exercise godlike power right now over those who are subject to them, either by marriage, birth, or by subordination within the priesthood hierarchy. Those under their authority who rebel are subject to being declared damned. God (and those who are made close to Him, ordained by office) can do whatever they please.” “The individual’s worth (or security in their own person) is to be accepted as less important than family integrity, or the wants and desires of the man on top.” “Sexual acts and impositions that insult the dignity of woman, violate her self-value, and are medically unsound are OK, because the man holds the priesthood and can make those decisions.” “Repentance from any class of sin can be a private matter between a man and his God. The man’s sense or sincere desire of its acceptance and/or his word is sufficient to confirm ratification by God.” (The tail wags the dog.) “Rank has its privileges above equal justice or consideration for (God given) human rights.” All these are departures from Christianity. They contain within them doctrines of men and devils. They represent distortions and perversions of truth. Held and obeyed, their fruits are our certain damnation, because they deny our gospel and our God. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Mt. 10:33) Conclusion: Despite the doctrinal and perceptual departures of the LDS that seal them off from a full salvation, we are worse off than they are! For people who cannot stand on their own, knowing and discerning truth and maintaining righteousness, those people are better off with the LDS than with us. (I believe that God has allowed the LDS Church its way to provide a home for the many who desire a closer orientation to God, but cannot abide by what we have to face, or the consequences of getting it wrong as we have. We chose this battleground and gateway test.) To our pain (and yet to a fullness of reward) once we are in possession of greater light and knowledge, we cannot retreat to lie against God and against our own hearts. We cannot agree to sustain as truth, anywhere, that which we, ourselves, know to be false. On Culture 3 1) If you have men among you who will not teach and proclaim and abide by the gospel principles concerning justice, servant-leadership, sexual purity, sanctity of marriage, honest and honorable dealing, and unconditional, unambiguous, open repentance, then they are not to be taken for men of God. 2) If you have men among you who will not stand to be accountable unto the Lord and before his Saints, as well, then they are not men of God. 3) If you have men among you, who will not receive the witness of God unto men, then they are not men of God. (The witness of God is the Holy Spirit in power, or whispered in prayer.) 4) If you will sustain such men as though they were men of God, before God, then you are not men and women of God. * * * “. . . it is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (Mt. 21:13) (Thieves of truth from the members, as well? A.F.) “But Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 19:14) (Using them for sin and condoning sin among them puts a barrier between their understanding and their will to seek Heavenly Father. A.F.) “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” (Mt. 18: 14) (What is your will concerning what happens to them? A.F.) “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Mt. 15:8) (This applies to those who pervert the gospel by teaching, by example, and by sustaining those who do. A.F.) “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mt. 15:9) Also see Isa. 29:13. (Even allowing aberrant beliefs to stand uncorrected constitutes the offense, persisting in setting a bad example, likewise. A.F.) “13. Every plant, which my heavenly father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. 14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (Mt. 15:13, 14) Because of unrighteous leaders - “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. (2 Th. 2: 10, 11) (Not only the truth, but the love of the truth. A.F.) “For the time is come that judgment must begin in the house of God.” (1 Peter 4:21) “You only have failed when you quit.” Rulon C. Allred
— A posthaven user