Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> unfit, untalented, inarticulate, unnuanced, cowardly, morally acquiescent, and conformist.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, it seems unlikely to me that the Saints suddenly became inferior and inadequate overnight, just when Ms. Kelley was excommunicated last summer. \u00a0Presumably, they were already low specimens of humanity even when she was still a member of the Church.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, her judgment of the Saints seems merely\u00a0a superficially more civil variant of the description often given of Mormon believers on some apostate message boards, as \u201csheeple,\u201d \u201cMorgbots,\u201d \u201cMor(m)ons,\u201d and \u201cUtards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, I confess, I\u2019ve been led to\u00a0wonder why she was ever demanding to be ordained a leader among such a defective people.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Do successful corporate executives crave appointment as Boy Scout patrol leaders?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Do Nobel-laureate physicists aspire to take first prize at junior high school science fairs?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I suspect that the Lutheran theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wanted to\u00a0abolish<\/em>\u00a0the Hitler Youth, not to join the boys and become their\u00a0leader<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But perhaps I\u2019m failing to grasp\u00a0the self-sacrificial and compassionate nobility of her offer to receive ordination and to help us. \u00a0I\u2019m reminded of Rudyard Kipling\u2019s famous 1899 poem \u201cThe White Man\u2019s Burden\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take up the White Man\u2019s burden\u2014<\/span><\/p>\nSend forth the best ye breed\u2014<\/span><\/p>\nGo send your sons to exile<\/span><\/p>\nTo serve your captives\u2019 need<\/span><\/p>\nTo wait in heavy harness<\/span><\/p>\nOn fluttered folk and wild\u2014<\/span><\/p>\nYour new-caught, sullen peoples,<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nHalf devil and half child<\/span><\/p>\nTake up the White Man\u2019s burden<\/span><\/p>\nIn patience to abide<\/span><\/p>\nTo veil the threat of terror<\/span><\/p>\nAnd check the show of pride;<\/span><\/p>\nBy open speech and simple<\/span><\/p>\nAn hundred times made plain<\/span><\/p>\nTo seek another\u2019s profit<\/span><\/p>\nAnd work another\u2019s gain<\/span><\/p>\nTake up the White Man\u2019s burden\u2014<\/span><\/p>\nAnd reap his old reward:<\/span><\/p>\nThe blame of those ye better<\/span><\/p>\nThe hate of those ye guard\u2014<\/span><\/p>\nThe cry of hosts ye humour<\/span><\/p>\n(Ah slowly) to the light:<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhy brought ye us from bondage,<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cOur loved Egyptian night?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nTake up the White Man\u2019s burden-<\/span><\/p>\nHave done with childish days-<\/span><\/p>\nThe lightly proffered laurel,<\/span><\/p>\nThe easy, ungrudged praise.<\/span><\/p>\nComes now, to search your manhood<\/span><\/p>\nThrough all the thankless years,<\/span><\/p>\nCold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,<\/span><\/p>\nThe judgment of your peers!<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I grant that the concept of a \u201cWhite Man\u2019s Burden\u201d is racist, and that Mr. Kipling\u2019s poem and the Pear\u2019s Soap ad are gender-exclusive. \u00a0Thank History that we\u2019ve evolved beyond such sexism and ethnic bigotry. \u00a0But their unashamedly condescending statements of a felt mission to help lesser people, even at considerable cost to oneself, may be relevant here.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 My bi-weekly Deseret News column now typically appears in the print edition on Thursdays, and then, also, in the online edition of\u00a0LDS Living. \u00a0Some people tell me that that is a positive development. \u00a0I\u2019m not so sure, myself. \u00a0But that\u2019s the way it is nowadays. \u00a0 Anyway, here\u2019s the latest: \u00a0 \u201cWhat Do […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-66423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Pear's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/10\/398px-1890sc_Pears_Soap_Ad.jpg\")
<\/a>