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If you can find about 45 minutes \u2014 of course, you can watch it in shorter increments, as well \u2014 the April 2018 \u201cWorld Report\u201d of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is both very interesting and quite enjoyable, very well done:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe World Report\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m delighted at this news:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPublic Invited to Tour Rome Italy Temple:\u00a0Open House and Dedication Dates Announced\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a very long time coming.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I enjoyed this retrospective, and perhaps you will, as well:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c7 Touching Conference Moments We\u2019ll Never Forget\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I strongly recommend this new video (roughly 6:25 minutes long) from Book of Mormon Central:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvidence of the Book of Mormon: Internal Complexity\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The latest iteration of the Saturday Hamblin-Peterson column in the Deseret News<\/em> is Easter-themed:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge of the empty tomb\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I mentioned the other day that, alerted by a friend, I had just joined a Facebook group called \u201cLDS Conservatives\u201d<\/a> where, I was told, my Ensign<\/em> article on Islam<\/a> and I were being trashed in very harsh terms. \u00a0(See \u201cSome notes from a politically conservative Latter-day Saint Islamicist.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0I was being called, among other things, a \u201cfool\u201d and a \u201ctool of Satan\u201d \u2014 not to mention, worst of all, a \u201cliberal.\u201d \u00a0I\u2019m pretending to expertise on Islam that I obviously don\u2019t possess. \u00a0One woman reported that, with her husband, she had burned my article in their back yard. \u00a0An angry man said that, upon receiving the copy of the Ensign<\/em> containing my article, he had immediately gone to complain to his bishop, indicating that what I had written might very well kindle a \u201cschism\u201d \u2014 his word \u2014 in the Church.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I thought that maybe I should say something. \u00a0So, disclaiming any intention to argue or contend with them, I posted a note explaining that I\u2019m both a faithful, believing, committed, orthodox Latter-day Saint and a life-long and very serious political conservative, a believer in the Constitution, in federalism, and in free markets.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I was \u2014 despite abundant provocation \u2014 cordial, friendly, and good humored. \u00a0Very deliberately so. \u00a0And, though some came to my defense, I was accused of lying, of writing pro-Islamic propaganda, and even of having somehow deceived the leaders of the Church into publishing my article. \u00a0President Monson was too ill to stop me, and President Nelson, at nearly 94 years of age, doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When I pointed out that I had been asked<\/em> to write the article, that it hadn\u2019t been my<\/em> idea, it was demanded that I identify those who had requested it. \u00a0I said that it was the leadership of the Church. \u00a0\u201cBut precisely who<\/em> asked for it?\u201d came the demand. \u00a0I replied that it was the same quorum that would be presiding at and conducting General Conference this weekend. \u00a0\u201cBut exactly who?\u201d \u00a0Could I please identify that quorum? \u00a0Well, I said, it was the First Presidency. \u00a0But the demand persisted: \u00a0\u201cExactly who?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One wanted me to identify the precise name or names of any who had requested the article or indicated approval of it. \u00a0The notion, so far as I could tell, is that there may be a faction among the Brethren \u2014 my bet would be on Europeans like Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Patrick Kearon \u2014 that is aiding and abetting people who are (as one lady interestingly put it) trying to \u201cdestroy Christianity and the white race.\u201d \u00a0At least one person, though, seems to suspect that the Brethren themselves are, in whole or in part, in apostasy.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, I was eventually accused of having joined \u201cLDS Conservatives\u201d in bad faith. \u00a0Had I not seen the question, when I joined, requiring me to pledge allegiance to President Trump? \u00a0No, I had not. \u00a0(I had imagined that, being both LDS and conservative, I qualified quite honestly for membership.) \u00a0And then somebody discovered online evidence \u2014 I hope it wasn\u2019t hard to find! \u2014 that I\u2019m not an enthusiastic fan of Donald Trump. \u00a0So, when I tried to access the site yesterday afternoon, I found that I had been blocked from it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Oh well. \u00a0I presume that I\u2019m still being verbally assaulted there, and my intelligence and character denigrated, but I can no longer read what\u2019s being said. \u00a0Which, on the whole, is probably for the best.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m saddened, though, by the experience. \u00a0Not so much for the personal attacks on me \u2014 such attacks have been the water that I swim in since I first began editing and publishing with the old Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) very nearly three decades ago \u2014 as for the evidence that at least some Latter-day Saints seem to be putting their political views \u2014 and perhaps even their cultural preference or, worse still, their race \u2014 ahead of the Church and the Gospel. \u00a0Talk of a \u201cschism,\u201d and suggestions that some if not most or all of the Brethren are apostates, is genuinely depressing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Elder Neal A. Maxwell was fond of quoting the eighteenth century English clergyman William Law, who lived his own life very heroically by this principle: \u00a0\u201cIf you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first,\u201d Law declared, \u201cit will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.\u201d \u00a0And President John Taylor adopted this as his motto: \u00a0\u201cThe Kingdom of God or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve long been distressed when I\u2019ve seen people on the Left choose their politics over the Church. \u00a0In recent years, though, I\u2019ve been astonished to see that some on what might roughly be termed the Right<\/em> are doing much the same thing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In his 1911 Devil\u2019s Dictionary<\/em>, the great American cynic Ambrose Bierce offered this definition: \u00a0\u201cChristian<\/b>,\u00a0n.<\/i>\u00a0One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And the fact plainly is that the scriptures are not intended only for them<\/em>, those others<\/em>, but for us<\/em>. \u00a0They\u2019re a standing exhortation, even sometimes a rebuke, to us<\/em>. \u00a0And if we don\u2019t read them that way, if we read them only as illustrating how other people have gone astray, we\u2019re misreading<\/em> them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 9\u00a0<\/span>And he spake this parable unto certain which\u00a0trusted\u00a0in themselves that they were righteous, and\u00a0despised\u00a0others:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 10\u00a0<\/span>Two men went up into the temple to\u00a0pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 11\u00a0<\/span>The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am\u00a0not\u00a0as other men\u00a0are,<\/span>\u00a0extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 12\u00a0<\/span>I\u00a0fast\u00a0twice in the week, I give\u00a0tithes\u00a0of all that I\u00a0possess.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 13\u00a0<\/span>And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as\u00a0his<\/span>\u00a0eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a\u00a0sinner.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 14\u00a0<\/span>I tell you, this man went down to his house justified\u00a0rather<\/span>\u00a0than the other: for every one that\u00a0exalteth\u00a0himself shall be abased; and he that\u00a0humbleth\u00a0himself shall be exalted. \u00a0(Luke 18)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, effectively and by design the preface to the book, the Lord plainly says that modern people have gone astray, which is plainly why the Restoration was needed:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n They\u00a0seek\u00a0not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man\u00a0walketh\u00a0in his\u00a0own\u00a0way, and after the\u00a0image\u00a0of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth\u00a0old\u00a0and shall perish in\u00a0Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall. \u00a0(Doctrine and Covenants 1:16)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s certainly possible to read this passage as only historical, speaking of apostate Christendom prior to 1830 and as it continues to exist beyond the walls of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0But wouldn\u2019t it be more valuable, spiritually, to read it also as a warning to ourselves?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For verily the\u00a0voice\u00a0of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to\u00a0escape; and there is no eye that shall not see, neither\u00a0ear\u00a0that shall not hear, neither\u00a0heart\u00a0that shall not be penetrated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>And the\u00a0rebellious\u00a0shall be\u00a0pierced\u00a0with much\u00a0sorrow . . .\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>And the\u00a0voice\u00a0of warning shall be unto all people. \u00a0(Doctrine and Covenants 1:2-4)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n To offer primary allegiance to material advancement, or to lust, or to greed, or to a political party or leader, or to an ideology, or to a race, or even to a culture, to choose it instead of the Kingdom of God, is to make of it an idol, a false god.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We marvel at the silliness of many in ancient Israel who whored after the false gods of the Canaanites. \u00a0How absurd to worship an idol! \u00a0But the scriptures are given to us not so that we can laugh at the folly of others and feel ourselves superior. \u00a0They\u2019re given to us for our guidance, for our introspection and reflection.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I close with a passage from a conference talk given by (my co-conspirator?) Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It was our beloved Savior\u2019s final night in mortality, the evening before He would offer Himself a ransom for all mankind. As He broke bread with His disciples, He said something that must have filled their hearts with great alarm and deep sadness. \u201cOne of you shall betray me,\u201d He told them.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The disciples didn\u2019t question the truth of what He said. Nor did they look around, point to someone else, and ask, \u201cIs it him?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Instead, \u201cthey were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him,\u00a0Lord, is it I?<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I wonder what each of us would do if we were asked that question by the Savior. Would we look at those around us and say in our hearts, \u201cHe\u2019s probably talking about Brother Johnson. I\u2019ve always wondered about him,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m glad Brother Brown is here. He really needs to hear this message\u201d? Or would we, like those disciples of old, look inward and ask that penetrating question: \u201cIs it I?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In these simple words,\u00a0\u201cLord, is it I?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0lies the beginning of wisdom and the pathway to personal conversion and lasting change.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 If you can find about 45 minutes \u2014 of course, you can watch it in shorter increments, as well \u2014 the April 2018 \u201cWorld Report\u201d of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is both very interesting and quite enjoyable, very well done: \u00a0 \u201cThe World Report\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I\u2019m delighted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1420,701,725,1417,1405,66,1426,55,1414,1411,1408,722,1423],"class_list":["post-47437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ambrose-bierce","tag-apostasy","tag-conservatism","tag-ensign","tag-idolatry","tag-islam","tag-john-taylor","tag-mormonism","tag-mormonism-and-islam","tag-neal-maxwell","tag-schism","tag-trumpism","tag-william-law"],"yoast_head":"\n