3 responses
Comments, Blog 3. learnjustice.posthaven.com Three Testimonies, or Please help Me! – I’m Caught on the Sharp “Horns of a Dilemma” 1. Para. 1. The Garden of Eden episode was a “set-up”. Two sets of consequences accompanied the choice to disobey. Both lead to the ultimate benefit of those who successfully overcome the conditions. (See Rev. Chapters. 2 and 3. that describe the rewards for overcomers.) In terms of fundamentalist theology, I think it entirely appropriate that an act of disobedience with such grave consequences should be undertaken by the One who will preside over redemption, healing, and reward. 2. Para. 2. Keep in mind for a future blog that Abraham received a direct, revelatory order. In order to realize the privilege of access an office gives to a man, he may question to seek clarification, if provided, or request a repeat, but, nevertheless, he must obey orders when received. The consequence for failure to obey is silence that can persist for the lifetime. Woe to such a man and those who rely on him for the oracles of God. 3. Para. 3. A holy people are a praying people. They pray with purpose, not just to throw up obligatory offerings. Many have come to grave offense and grief because they have not done their “spiritual homework” to strengthen them from the wearing-down of family life. “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation.” (Mk. 14:38) In this blog, Bro. Steve is also attempting to strengthen folk to be attentive to the fundamentals of the Master’s Way, easily neglected by life’s daily challenges. By giving an open invitation to examine and discern facts, he provides a path to put the things of this blog into an eternal perspective and see things with the eyes of God, as it were, through scripture. God is not confused, nor should his people be who reach out to expand their understanding with Him. As for giving up altogether, Rulon said the equivalent of, “You are never out until you quit.” Some will recognize “Oh what shall I do?” as a quote from Joseph Smith when he faced one of his “Abrahamic tests.” 4. Paras. 4. & 5. This vignette is a poignant reminder of how much we need the understanding and solicitude of friends in times of spiritual crisis. I am sure it is no fun to face “knowing as we are known” in a public document. How many of us live in a personal prison house of fear of the censure of others and how a social judgment will spread out of recall and with permanent consequences. This is an environment we help to create and maintain when we broadcast judgments based on incomplete information administered without regard to the actual gravity of the perceived offense, or the truth of the accusation. 5. Para. 4. Those who have not experienced the heartbreaking trauma of sexual violation of their very personhood and the sense of betrayal it causes in its victims cannot truly appreciate the power to maim and disfigure a personality and alter their perception of the outside world. The psychiatric profession categorizes the finding of such things in their patients as the foundation for personality disorder. This is understood as being very difficult to eradicate, meaning there is a low success rate and results are typically imperfect. Things affected are relationships to authority, to persons with trusted status, such as parents and other family members, life with members of the opposite sex (marriage), rules of living declared to be true (social and moral values), and religion and its “truths” and demands. All these anchors are either severed or easily slip along the sea bed that represents reality to us, but of little or no value to them. It’s an illness of conscience, as well. Comments, Blog 3 6. Para. 4. Victims of this violation of the soul, overwhelmed by its contradictions, are forever strangers among us, whose interpretation of life will always be colored by the profound disillusionment from intimate abuse to their core-selves. Only by great effort with God arranging events and would-be close friends and loved-ones and trained professionals doing their parts can these victims relearn the lessons to living that others take for granted with assurance. The residue will still be there, like the experiences of war, for war it is. 7. Victims can believe themselves to be at war with the world as the world is with them and may never escape the selfish orientation of undirected childhood that uses and takes. The path to healing, in any case, is a long one. It requires reliving over and over again (with help) better ways and successful outcomes so that a mustard seed of trust can grow into a proper tree. Despite its growing darkness, the outside world still recognizes the profound damage done to child-victims and reserves its opprobrium and special vigilance and lingering confinement for the most worrisome perpetrators. 8. In a climate of secrecy emphasized and accompanied by strong emotions above all other social and religious laws, sexual predators and their prey coexist, as do the beasts in the wild and empty lands. This alone, in our midst is sufficient to indict us before our Heavenly Father. He expects us in the obedience to all His higher laws, to do so with love and forbearance for all so the encumbering thickets of fear, distrust, and enmity will dry out and die of their own, and sin has no place to hide and breed new generations of the afflicted. “Overcome evil with good,” the scripture says. 9. The requirements of priesthood office, however, demand a standard that approaches the absolute. In sustaining the flawed, we cannot excuse, or we shall find ourselves without excuse. Bro. Steve’s assessment bears repeating and committing to memory: “We can’t always control what happens to us in life, but we have much more control over what we do about what happens to us, don’t we?” 10. Consider this example for self-rescue. The largest ships in the world are oil tankers. The rudder may be the size of the side of a two-story house. In order to get it to move on its pivot, nautical engineers have installed on the trailing edge a secondary rudder the size of a door. To aid the rudder in turning against the current, a signal is given to the little rudder. 11. If an afflicted person can make even a slight gesture to reach for help, or be open to recognizing an opportunity, it is easier for the Lord’s angels to position events and people to begin to provide support. By exercising persistent willingness to seek, the degree of help is enabled to grow. The process begins with prayer, even if in one’s experience, one does not trust, or even know God. If you are so wounded as to not be able to believe in Him, act as though you did. Guideposts © Magazine features many examples of people who simply call on God to reveal Himself and a chain of events begins, but you have to follow through on the opportunities provided. 12. Unhappily, all the answers to a soul’s healing are not necessarily to be found in the Work. This is greatly to our shame. It should not be that our concern with the far-off ground of hoped-for reward should leave so many hazards and pitfalls in the intervening ground. 13. Para. 4. I see an embattled conscience attempting to heal despite a profound wound. Since the damage is to the core personality, that injured selfhood will defend itself fiercely when it perceives itself to be threatened. This defense is both a barrier to further harm and a blockade to any help. Although a person so afflicted can manage the daily requirements of life, the impairment, the emotional, social and psychological burden, reaches into other areas requiring great strength to hear God and judge aright without fear, favor, respect to persons, or hope of earthly reward. God is waiting on us. 14. What is best on an eternal scale for a person so afflicted by wounds and by sins in light of the eternal consequences is not to remain in their sins, but to be relieved from committing further offense by remaining as they are and as though they were. The Work of God is not to be a haven for those who for whatever reason are slaves to selfishness, whatever the cause. How many highway deaths do men allow before they fix the roadway or recall the defective automobiles? 15. The world’s voters foolishly over and over again exercise forgiveness of politicians who do them harm. Thus we are plagued with a government that in the name of a counterfeit compassion and a dimly understood relict of Christianity imposes its will as a tyranny, worse than that of King George III and now approaches the abyss that shall not be named. This is forgiveness misapplied to the stewards of our divinely-created Constitution. The Gospel we have received is from the same Source and is governed and operates by the same rules to protect itself from the tendencies of man to usurp and subjugate under cover of becoming the all-powerful, all-provider. Instead of God-made man, we have Man made-God. 16. Paras. 6. and 9. This cry represents the functioning of the disordered personality, exposed at its core (where conscience still resided) by the extreme distress of the victim and by fear of exposure. It is at the crux of denial, and if action not be taken now, what follows is only in keeping with the victory of the pathology over the personality and the passing of conscience. The way the game is played, persons who have reached a certain rank (priesthood office and appointment, if you prefer) are, in a sense, “too big to fail.” There was too little understanding and too little love in the experiences of both seeker and sought to effect the beginning of a corrective, healing, and restorative process. The moment passed and the chain of consequences has extended to this day, imperiling us. 17. Para. 7. This episode reinforces the view that a decision had formed and a course of life chosen. Take note of this, for it reflects intense personal motivation to alter judgment to purely selfish ends. 18. Para. 8. I am put in mind of the progress of sin in the destruction of a kingship contained in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth (of the play), having in great secrecy murdered King Duncan, is obliged to commit further murders to safeguard his secret and protect his position among men. His conscience, or the hand of God, cannot be stilled, and so his reasoned resolution becomes animal-like madness, until at last he is pulled down by young Malcolm and an alliance of aggrieved nobles led by the avenging Thane, MacDuff. “Infamia!” a Sicilian Mafioso would say. 19. Para. 9. The question is put, “How could he have risen, etc.” I think the answer has a parallel in how many LDS temple marriages end in releases because discernment was not exercised in accepting those who presented themselves as candidates (et apud nos?). God let his temple in Jerusalem be destroyed twice and where are the original Kirtland and Nauvoo temples? These lamentable conditions and states of affairs confer no eternal blessings on those who are involved in them. Take note of the testimony of Bro. R. in blog 6. A re-read of the Doctrine and Covenants will show that in God’s eyes, no-one, not even the head of this dispensation, is too big to fail or be corrected. The events should speak for themselves, unless we are so cowed as to be blinded by the big green head in the Wizard’s cave. 20. Para. 9. People are limited by the scale of their perceptive framework. Maintain a big enough misrepresentation and they won’t recognize it for what it is. Men will steer their perceptions to preserve their peace with things as they are for them. Men will embrace a convenient “all is well” if by so doing they are made comfortable. Men will choose to accept a lie (even if suspicious) into themselves if it conveys an emotional reward rooted in safety for the self. 21. And then there is the dread of being shunned. We see the freezing fear this de-socialization by edict has on the LDS people. Until the secular religions of the 20th century (Communism and Nazism) emerged to shake the Vatican to its core, the Roman church claimed for the pope the keys to heaven, purgatory, and hell, symbolized to the world by the beehive crown with its three circlets stacked one on top of the other. The long roll of martyrs for the truth in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance were every one of them condemned to hell by the pope or his assigns (delegated authorities). In 1415, Jan Huss, proclaimer of the authority of scripture above the rule of priests, went to the stake of burning clothed in robes and a paper crown ornamented with painted devils for all to see. He forgave his executioners and died singing a joyful hymn. No man holds the keys to extinguish eternal life, save by delegation from the Lord and the specific word of the Lord on the matter. Binding on earth and heaven as well is a tandem enactment and the Lord holds the handle bars. Misuse of this authority is turned upon the offender. 22. There was a custom in ancient Athens in which the citizens who typically strolled about the agora, or public plaza in the afternoon, would be summoned to one end to give judgment and decide issues of public import. A line of slaves bearing a rope stained with a dye (ochre) would slowly walk and the crowd would move to within the bounds of the appointed place and had to stay there until the public business was completed. Any person whose tunic or cloak was so stained was held in mocking and lingering contempt by the rest. I sense a summons to each one of us to move towards examination, prayer, and consultation with the Holy Spirit to obtain the will of God in these matters, only man does not hold this stained rope. Which is worth more, honors and comforts among men, or a name in the Lamb’s Book of Life? 23. Deliverance from sin has a price, since the things contaminated by sin must be discarded or the sin remains. The character depicted in this trilogy is caught in a whirlpool of sin. Fear of discovery drives protective action and from out of the stress arises rampant selfishness. Selfishness, which isolates from others and from God, seeks relief in acts that may harm others. A selfish person is dulled or indifferent to their suffering. Addictive behavior is associated with an inability to obtain fulfillment in wholesome human relationships. Those who are most in need of redemption are often least capable of accepting the medicine. 3-4 24. “Pay me now, or pay me later.” The compounding interest for continuing in an office for which one is manifestly unqualified and behaving unworthily and presents a threat to all is measureless to man. See the facsimile of “The Letter” in blog 6. 25. Is your knowledge of revealed truth, and your conscience and your testimony of the risen Savior stronger to find truth than the proclaimed authority of man to make truth or avoid truth? A word to the discerning: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo Possum, by Walt Kelly * * * There is a saying had among men of the world, “A man (in a state of sexual engorgement) has no conscience.” Is this a valid excuse for a child-victimizer, combined with, “It was done to me?” Does that make it right? Is this what we accept? Is this how we value and safeguard our children? In a recent notorious case, the Mormon church has cravenly allowed an admitted homosexual to teach among them in their chain of authority. How many more of his kind have followed? What example do we set in teaching? Are we a divinely constituted monarchy or a monarchy legitimized through the agency of men, only? Does silence mean consent, or does it signify separation from God? It is estimated that one-third of girls in the United States are sexually abused by age 18! There are 39 million victims estimated in the USA with 1 million new ones a year. This is from Out of Darkness - Into Light, a TV program. There are 20,000 cases of alleged child abuse in Utah with 6,000 proven per year in Utah. Utah ranks 8th in the nation for these crimes according to the state agency responsible to investigate and prosecute these things. (Mary Dixon “Contact” KSL) According to the experts, sex abuse is about power and control, not sex. The first stage is called grooming, in which the predator pays special attention to the victim by close association, listening, validating and supplying rewards as trips, privileges, special foods – all to build up a special bond of trust and loyalty, the better to ensure eventual compliance and secrecy. The next phase is conditioning in which the predator gradually accustoms the victim to touching that becomes more and more invasive, testing the barriers and then breaking them down. The third phase is consummation, accompanied by threats and fear and further psychological devaluing and taking advantage of the dependency. In a more law-respecting time, sexual abusers would be labeled perverts, sex fiends, sexually insane, and if discovered prosecuted and imprisoned in asylums or prisons for the criminally insane. The victim’s response may take the form of heightened sexuality characterized by self-abuse, seductivity, and promiscuity. They use sex as a drug to counter feelings of emptiness and worthlessness. The second response is internalized, particularly with girls, it includes: regression in toilet training, infantile outbursts, loss of coping skills, speech, and eating disorders. These victims may compensate to distract themselves and win approval by exceling in school studies. The third response: externalized; this response is characterized by aggression, war against authority, law breaking, and tantrums. Boys may become “lady-killers” in order to prove themselves the macho. Ninety-five percent of child abuse is preventable by other adults being vigilant and taking protective action early. Laurenskids.org 3-5
— A posthaven user
Three Testimonies, or Please help Me! – I’m Caught on the Sharp “Horns of a Dilemma” 1. Para. 1. The Garden of Eden episode was a “set-up”. Two sets of consequences accompanied the choice to disobey. Both lead to the ultimate benefit of those who successfully overcome the conditions. (See Rev. Chapters. 2 and 3. that describe the rewards for overcomers.) In terms of fundamentalist theology, I think it entirely appropriate that an act of disobedience with such grave consequences should be undertaken by the One who will preside over redemption, healing, and reward. 2. Para. 2. Keep in mind for a future blog that Abraham received a direct, revelatory order. In order to realize the privilege of access an office gives to a man, he may question to seek clarification, if provided, or request a repeat, but, nevertheless, he must obey orders when received. The consequence for failure to obey is silence that can persist for the lifetime. Woe to such a man and those who rely on him for the oracles of God. 3. Para. 3. A holy people are a praying people. They pray with purpose, not just to throw up obligatory offerings. Many have come to grave offense and grief because they have not done their “spiritual homework” to strengthen them from the wearing-down of family life. “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation.” (Mk. 14:38) In this blog, Bro. Steve is also attempting to strengthen folk to be attentive to the fundamentals of the Master’s Way, easily neglected by life’s daily challenges. By giving an open invitation to examine and discern facts, he provides a path to put the things of this blog into an eternal perspective and see things with the eyes of God, as it were, through scripture. God is not confused, nor should His people be who reach out to expand their understanding with Him. As for giving up altogether, Rulon said the equivalent of, “You are never out until you quit.” Some will recognize “Oh what shall I do?” as a quote from Joseph Smith when he faced one of his “Abrahamic tests.” 4. Paras. 4. & 5. This vignette is a poignant reminder of how much we need the understanding and solicitude of friends in times of spiritual crisis. I am sure it is no fun to face “knowing as we are known” in a public document. How many of us live in a personal prison house of fear of the censure of others and how a social judgment will spread out of recall and with permanent consequences. This is an environment we help to create and maintain when we broadcast judgments based on incomplete information administered without regard to the actual gravity of the perceived offense, or the truth of the accusation. 5. Para. 4. Those who have not experienced the heartbreaking trauma of sexual violation of their very personhood and the sense of betrayal it causes in its victims cannot truly appreciate the power to maim and disfigure a personality and alter their perception of the outside world. The psychiatric profession categorizes the finding of such things in their patients as the foundation for personality disorder. This is understood as being very difficult to eradicate, meaning there is a low success rate and results are typically imperfect, even uncertain. Things affected are relationships to authority, to persons with trusted status, such as parents and other family members, life with members of the opposite sex (marriage), rules of living declared to be true (social and moral values), and religion and its “truths” and demands. All these anchors are either severed or easily slip along the sea bed that represents reality to us, but of little or no value to them. It’s an illness of conscience, as well. 6. Para. 4. Victims of this violation of the soul, overwhelmed by its contradictions, are forever strangers among us, whose interpretation of life will always be colored by the profound disillusionment from intimate abuse to their core-selves. Only by great effort with God arranging events and would-be close friends and loved-ones and trained professionals doing their parts can these victims relearn the lessons to living that others take for granted with assurance. The residue will still be there, like the experiences of war, for war it is. 7. Victims can believe themselves to be at war with the world as the world is with them and may never escape the selfish orientation of undirected childhood that uses and takes. The path to healing, in any case, is a long one. It requires reliving over and over again (with help) better ways and successful outcomes so that a mustard seed of trust can grow into a proper tree. Despite its growing darkness, the outside world still recognizes the profound damage done to child-victims and reserves its opprobrium and special vigilance and lingering confinement for the most worrisome perpetrators. 8. In a climate of secrecy emphasized and accompanied by strong emotions above all other social and religious laws, sexual predators and their prey coexist, as do the beasts in the wild and empty lands. This alone, in our midst is sufficient to indict us before our Heavenly Father. He expects us in the obedience to all His higher laws, to do so with love and forbearance for all so the encumbering thickets of fear, distrust, and enmity will dry out and die of their own, and sin has no place to hide and breed new generations of the afflicted. “Overcome evil with good,” the scripture says. 9. The requirements of priesthood office, however, demand a standard that approaches the absolute. In sustaining the flawed, we cannot excuse, or we shall find ourselves without excuse. Bro. Steve’s assessment bears repeating and committing to memory: “We can’t always control what happens to us in life, but we have much more control over what we do about what happens to us, don’t we?” 10. Consider this example for self-rescue. The largest ships in the world are oil tankers. The rudder may be the size of the side of a two-story house. In order to get it to move on its pivot, nautical engineers have installed on the trailing edge a secondary rudder the size of a door. To aid the rudder in turning against the current, a signal is given to the little rudder. 11. If an afflicted person can make even a slight gesture to reach for help, or be open to recognizing an opportunity, it is easier for the Lord’s angels to position events and people to begin to provide support. By exercising persistent willingness to seek, the degree of help is enabled to grow. The process begins with prayer, even if in one’s experience, one does not trust, or even know God. If you are so wounded as to not be able to believe in Him, act as though you did. Guideposts © Magazine features many examples of people who simply call on God to reveal Himself and a chain of events begins, but you have to follow through on the opportunities provided. 12. Unhappily, all the answers to a soul’s healing are not necessarily to be found in the Work. This is greatly to our shame. It should not be that our concern with the far-off ground of hoped-for reward should leave so many hazards and pitfalls in the intervening ground. 13. Para. 4. I see an embattled conscience attempting to heal despite a profound wound. Since the damage is to the core personality, that injured selfhood will defend itself fiercely when it perceives itself to be threatened. This defense is both a barrier to further harm and a blockade to any help. Although a person so afflicted can manage the daily requirements of life, the impairment, the emotional, social and psychological burden, reaches into other areas requiring great strength to hear God and judge aright without fear, favor, respect to persons, or hope of earthly reward. God is waiting on us. 14. What is best on an eternal scale for a person so afflicted by wounds and by sins in light of the eternal consequences is not to remain in their sins, but to be relieved from committing further offense by remaining as they are and as though they were. The Work of God is not to be a haven for those who for whatever reason are slaves to selfishness, whatever the cause. How many highway deaths do men allow before they fix the roadway or recall the defective automobiles? 15. The world’s voters foolishly over and over again exercise forgiveness of politicians who do them harm. Thus we are plagued with a government that in the name of a counterfeit compassion and a dimly understood relict of Christianity imposes its will as a tyranny, worse than that of King George III and now approaches the abyss that shall not be named. This is forgiveness misapplied to the stewards of our divinely-created Constitution. The Gospel we have received is from the same Source and is governed and operates by the same rules to protect itself from the tendencies of man to usurp and subjugate under cover of becoming the all-powerful, all-provider. Instead of God-made man, we have Man made-God. 16. Paras. 6. and 9. This cry represents the functioning of the disordered personality, exposed at its core (where conscience still resided) by the extreme distress of the victim and by fear of exposure. It is at the crux of denial, and if action not be taken now, what follows is only in keeping with the victory of the pathology over the personality and the passing of conscience. The way the game is played, persons who have reached a certain rank (priesthood office and appointment, if you prefer) are, in a sense, “too big to fail.” There was too little understanding and too little love in the experiences of both seeker and sought to effect the beginning of a corrective, healing, and restorative process. The moment passed and the chain of consequences has extended to this day, imperiling us. 17. Para. 7. This episode reinforces the view that a decision had formed and a course of life chosen. Take note of this, for it reflects intense personal motivation to alter judgment to purely selfish ends. 18. Para. 8. I am put in mind of the progress of sin in the destruction of a kingship contained in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth (of the play), having in great secrecy murdered King Duncan, is obliged to commit further murders to safeguard his secret and protect his position among men. His conscience, or the hand of God, cannot be stilled, and so his reasoned resolution becomes animal-like madness, until at last he is pulled down by young Malcolm and an alliance of aggrieved nobles led by the avenging Thane [Scottish Lord], MacDuff. “Infamia!” a Sicilian Mafioso would say. 19. Para. 9. The question is put, “How could he have risen, etc.” I think the answer has a parallel in how many LDS temple marriages end in releases because discernment was not exercised in accepting those who presented themselves as candidates (et apud nos?). God let his temple in Jerusalem be destroyed twice and where are the original Kirtland and Nauvoo temples? These lamentable conditions and states of affairs confer no eternal blessings on those who are involved in them. Take note of the testimony of Bro. R. in blog 6. A re-read of the Doctrine and Covenants will show that in God’s eyes, no-one, not even the head of this dispensation, is too big to fail or be corrected. The events should speak for themselves, unless we are so cowed as to be blinded by the big green head in the Wizard’s cave. 20. Para. 9. People are limited by the scale of their perceptive framework. Maintain a big enough misrepresentation and they won’t recognize it for what it is. Men will steer their perceptions to preserve their peace with things as they are for them. Men will embrace a convenient “all is well” if by so doing they are made comfortable. Men will choose to accept a lie (even if suspicious) into themselves if it conveys an emotional reward rooted in safety for the self. 21. And then there is the dread of being shunned. We see the freezing fear this de-socialization by edict has on the LDS people. Until the secular religions of the 20th century (Communism and Nazism) emerged to shake the Vatican to its core, the Roman church claimed for the pope the keys to heaven, purgatory, and hell, symbolized to the world by the beehive crown with its three circlets stacked one on top of the other. The long roll of martyrs for the truth in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance were every one of them condemned to hell by the pope or his assigns (delegated authorities). In 1415, Jan Huss, proclaimer of the authority of scripture above the rule of priests, went to the stake of burning clothed in robes and a paper crown ornamented with painted devils for all to see. He forgave his executioners and died singing a joyful hymn. No man holds the keys to extinguish eternal life, save by delegation from the Lord and the specific word of the Lord on the matter. Binding on earth and heaven as well is a tandem enactment and the Lord holds the handle bars. Misuse of this authority is turned upon the offender. 22. There was a custom in ancient Athens in which the citizens who typically strolled about the agora, or public plaza in the afternoon, would be summoned to one end to give judgment and decide issues of public import. A line of slaves bearing a rope stained with a dye (ochre) would slowly walk and the crowd would move to within the bounds of the appointed place and had to stay there until the public business was completed. Any person whose tunic or cloak was so stained was held in mocking and lingering contempt by the rest. I sense a summons to each one of us to move towards examination, prayer, and consultation with the Holy Spirit to obtain the will of God in these matters, only man does not hold this stained rope. Which is worth more, honors and comforts among men, or a name in the Lamb’s Book of Life? 23. Deliverance from sin has a price, since the things contaminated by sin must be discarded or the sin remains. The character depicted in this trilogy is caught in a whirlpool of sin. Fear of discovery drives protective action and from out of the stress arises rampant selfishness. Selfishness, which isolates from others and from God, seeks relief in acts that may harm others. A selfish person is dulled or indifferent to their suffering. Addictive behavior is associated with an inability to obtain fulfillment in wholesome human relationships. Those who are most in need of redemption are often least capable of accepting the medicine. 24. “Pay me now, or pay me later.” The compounding interest for continuing in an office for which one is manifestly unqualified and behaving unworthily and presents a threat to all is measureless to man. See the facsimile of “The Letter” in blog 6. 25. Is your knowledge of revealed truth, and your conscience and your testimony of the risen Savior stronger to find truth than the proclaimed authority of man to make truth or avoid truth? A word to the discerning: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo Possum, by Walt Kelly * * * There is a saying had among men of the world, “A man (in a state of sexual engorgement) has no conscience.” Is this a valid excuse for a child-victimizer, combined with, “It was done to me?” Does that make it right? Is this what we accept? Is this how we value and safeguard our children? In a recent notorious case, the Mormon church has cravenly allowed an admitted homosexual to teach among them in their chain of authority. How many more of his kind have followed? What example do we set in teaching? Are we a divinely constituted monarchy or a monarchy legitimized through the agency of men, only? Does silence from the heavens mean consent, or does it signify separation from God? It is estimated that one-third of girls in the United States are sexually abused by age 18! There are 39 million victims estimated in the USA with 1 million new ones a year. This is from Out of Darkness - Into Light, a TV program. There are 20,000 cases of alleged child abuse in Utah with 6,000 proven per year in Utah. Utah ranks 8th in the nation for these crimes according to the state agency responsible to investigate and prosecute these things. (Mary Dixon “Contact” KSL) According to the experts, sex abuse is about power and control, not sex. The first stage is called grooming, in which the predator pays special attention to the victim by close association, listening, validating and supplying rewards as trips, privileges, special foods – all to build up a special bond of trust and loyalty, the better to ensure eventual compliance and secrecy. The next phase is conditioning in which the predator gradually accustoms the victim to touching that becomes more and more invasive, testing the barriers and then breaking them down. The third phase is consummation, accompanied by threats and fear and further psychological devaluing and taking advantage of the dependency. In a more law-respecting time, sexual abusers would be labeled perverts, sex fiends, sexually insane, and if discovered prosecuted and imprisoned in asylums or prisons for the criminally insane. The victim’s response may take the form of heightened sexuality characterized by self-abuse, seductivity, and promiscuity. They use sex as a drug to counter feelings of emptiness and worthlessness. The second response is internalized, particularly with girls, it includes: regression in toilet training, infantile outbursts, loss of coping skills, speech, and eating disorders. These victims may compensate to distract themselves and win approval by excelling in school studies. The third response: externalized; this response is characterized by aggression, war against authority, law breaking, and tantrums. Boys may become “lady-killers” in order to prove themselves the macho. Ninety-five percent of child abuse is preventable by other adults being vigilant and taking protective action early. Laurenskids.org
— A posthaven user
On the Road to Marrakech (or wherever) If a man has spent his life striving to please the powerful in order to stand with them on their mountain and that has been his guiding star, the concept expressed by Thomas Moore, one-time Lord Chancellor of England on the scaffold at Tower Green in 1535 will have no meaning for him. “The king commands me to be brief, so brief I must be. I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” If the history of our cultural climate has taught men that every other man is or is likely to be two-faced or yielding when questioned with regard to discussing forbidden topics, they will not be discussed. Also, there is an obsessive fear of being part of a schism; this is part of our institutional memory. Does that possibility hold greater terror for some men than seeking justice or upholding the honor of God? What is “the Work” working for? Who is “the Work” working for? How many will unthinkingly react in an eye-blink to this dread, rather than exercise the self- discipline that should be a part of priesthood training and lifetime practice and ask God what is more important to Him, as well as how to proceed? Belonging to the religion is not sealed upon us, if we do not practice its principles and observe its statutes. Words are not enough. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mt. 3:3) One normal reaction to an overwhelming catastrophe in which one is enmeshed is paralysis. “. . . and they stood as if they knew not whither they should go.” (1 Nephi 8:14) Consider the phenomenon illustrated by the comment circulating in Britain in the summer of 1938, “Why should we be concerned about what happens in an insignificant country far away, of whom we know nothing (Czechoslovakia)? (This is not PM Chamberlain’s exact quote.) An incident or group of them can be minimized in the minds of those who much more greatly value the status-quo. Does God agree with men who would say that it’s no big deal to have molested children in the distant past, or defy their champion (Bro. Steve), or quietly to pick the Savior’s purse when need is great? Didn’t King David help himself to the temple showbread? Does God agree? Every priesthood holder must take a stand on how the sacred covenant of marriage will be maintained and under what circumstances it can be broken. Principles of law and justice must be honored. Ye are not his if ye are not one with the Lord! Could it be said that the Army does a better job of character development and invoking a sense of honor and devotion to duty than we do? They defend a nation; we defend the Kingdom of God – more or less. Jesus has told the church-age of our time (Laodicea) that because they are neither hot nor cold, he will vomit them out from himself. That’s us, people, if we don’t get another pair of spectacles. If some are above impeachment by man and only God can intervene, why is God silent? Either there is no problem worth God’s attention, or men have sufficient law and instruction and it is incumbent upon them to act, or God requires a people to be aroused and prayerful as a body before God will act in their behalf. If there is no will of the people for justice and a clean house and for adherence to priesthood purity, (even to pray for it and police themselves) then God will not act to deliver, rather He will inflict judgments on all who are spiritually slothful or recreant. 16. For the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth; and in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity they shall perish. (2Ne 28:16) All too many Mormons have gotten used to the notion that they have been given a pass from responsibility to actively repent where the social consequences are dire, because they are not acutely aware of the eternal consequences. (“Fullness, fullness, we’ve got the fullness!”) 27. Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more ! (2Ne 28:27) This has its parallel in ancient Israel. God doesn’t have to go out of His way to punish; punishment is in our future as a nation as the world rushes towards the concluding events of the winding-up scene. When Israel repented, God protected them. When Israel persisted in transgression, God let them take their lumps as they fell victim to the political reality of the world around them. In order to be “living,” an ordinance or a law and its specific application must have the sanction of the head of the priesthood, namely Jesus Christ. There has to be a connection between him and the ordinance or law. Without that endorsement, the ordinance is dead, without effect, or does God really hand out blank checks and “bearer” bonds? “I don’t got to show you no stinkin’ badges.” Humphrey Bogart – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre The Divine Order requires all apprentice priesthood holders (us) to exercise their priesthood subject to an earthly head as part of that pathway. The pathway must be essentially pure, or it’s like a road with a bridge out or a telephone line with a wire down somewhere. The tail does not wag the dog. Men do not make up the rules for God to their convenience and stand approved by Him. (See Moses striking the rock. Num. 20:11) The new head must be appointed through the last earthly head by the Lord’s confirming manifestation. Failing to give justice afterwards speaks to this being absent, does it not? Men are required to promulgate God’s law and policy and in a fullness of truth, or they will have only a portion of reward commensurate with their faithfulness and valiance. In the Book of Revelation men are warned of the consequences of tampering with the words of that book, either through alteration or deletion. (Rev. 22:18, 19) Are we, therefore, justified in teaching or accepting as truth any less of a standard for ourselves or for those in our charge? As God’s people, can we govern ourselves without applying His law and His justice? Can a man lie against his own heart and be true before God? Jesus during his earthly ministry was praying “all the time” to the Father to ensure his course was right. Christ is our example of examples. We have been given the Holy Spirit to be our constant companion for a reason. Within the doctrines we hold are provisions to deal with grave fallibility of men, individually and collectively; these were not put there to support infallibility. If infallibility were the right of our peers, contingency protocols to handle breakdowns would not be needed. Even Joseph was admonished and threatened; are we greater than the holder of the keys to this dispensation? We are expected to conform to the laws of God as understood by men and then some. The “then some” are not just more laws, but the spirit of those laws. Look at what’s at stake here: 1) the loss of teaching a pure doctrine to our children that all may be fully informed, and they be with us in eternity, 2) the loss of a strengthening and desirable example to converts, that God’s intention for them may be fulfilled, 3) the loss of empowering knowledge to advance testimonies beyond a rudimentary stage, so that we may have a greater portion in the resurrection, 4) the loss of a cultural climate in which trust, respect, and love prevail, so that we do not practice a Celestial way of life, 5) the loss of our place and our good name with God. Selective judgment and iniquitous judgment both derive from corrupt judges and with that comes disaffection and withdrawal (desertion from within), and radiating apostasy. How can we progress, how can we even hold ourselves together in tribulation if, bearing the name of the fullness of the gospel, we put apart from ourselves any aspect of the gospel and refuse its practice, namely Divine law and justice? If we are a community, we share a communal responsibility towards our brothers and sisters. Here is a code held among men of the world: “We do not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate among us those who do.” As Christians, we believe in forgiveness and reconciliation, but before forgiveness must come confession and submission to God’s judgment. Where God’s priesthood government prevails, is there also to be inequality of responsibility to repent? An “if I have offended” statement is nothing new among us. It is commonly heard in testimony meetings. It is an emotionally charged, but safe expression. Far more potentially painful, but efficacious is to listen to one’s conscience and go the person that the speaker knows has suffered an offence and make the thing right. Cowboys have a name for this sort of dodging. (Blog 3) Are we so far gone from His guiding voice among our leaders and among us as well that God would say through the still small voice, “Come out of her, my people, lest ye partake of her sins and receive of her plagues?” (rendering of Rev. 18:4) Are God and man in agreement about this scandal and the administration of the aftermath? If not, Who’s on the Lord’s side and who’s on man’s side? Agreement should only come after individual, prayer-confirmed deliberation. “Gaining a testimony” of a thing need not be forced. The Heavens may be consulted repeatedly to gain a clear and discernable impression and importuned again for confirmation, but the idea of directing the Holy Spirit to deliver a specific answer or outcome in which the petitioner believes (or is told to believe) -is erroneous. “Seek not to counsel your God.” (D&C 22:4) Jesus said we do not receive when we ask amiss. (Jas. 4:3) The Holy Spirit deals in truth. The truth can be surprising to us, thus the need for us to release or subtract our emotional investment in accepting the answer. We can and should care very much to get an answer about matters of our salvation, but we must be prepared to be surprised. The backup is to ask God to arrange events that we may better know the truth of a thing. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” “For what shall it profit a man, that he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mk. 8:36) A church, likewise. (And a church is made of people.) Every time we partake of the sacrament we renew a covenant to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ. An integral part of taking his name is asking ourselves what Jesus would do and then doing it. Is breaking that standard, a form of taking the Lord’s name in vain? Taking upon us the Lord’s name and then doing wickedly or continuing to harbor wickedness means we do not value either the sacrament or the name of Him who gave it. The judgment of one’s own conscience must weigh a cry for justice from outside if there is no impartial judicial process to intervene, but these matters must not be allowed to drift, or we drift likewise as a people. “And thus he leadeth them carefully down to hell.” 2 Nep. 28:21) I believe that taking the sacrament unworthily and we know it -does not necessarily have an apparent consequence. I believe the consequence of taking upon us the Lord’s name and yet not doing his will is to dull the conscience and place a barrier between us and the Lord such that He becomes not our Father, and we not a member of His family, but the other, whom we approach on occasion, and with fear and trembling when face-to-face. A God we so treat is not a part of us nor we a part of Him. “. . they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (J.S. 2:19) Those in greatest danger of not being able to recover from damnation are those who have made peace with transgression and have silenced the voice of guilt. The final revelation of unworthiness through sacrament-breaking will come at Christ’s judgment seat when he says, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”(Mt. 7:23) Joseph Smith called it: “Depart from me, you never knew me.” Those quotes describe the spiritual vacancy that lies at the heart of so many of our problems as a people. “Judge not, (unrighteously) that ye be not judged.” (Inspired Version of Mt. 7:1) We can speak to empower conscience, not wherein we do not have certain knowledge, but speak we must. Where are our actions and our attitudes taking us? Where are our foremen leading us? Who has really taken up the mantle of Rulon? Is the motorcycle of our faith able to carry us across the Snake River?
— A posthaven user