Continued from \u201cOn Gospel Doctrine Teaching (2)\u201d:<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dynamic (or, perhaps even better, the demographic) in the old Mar Vista Ward was interesting. \u00a0For a long time, I found it baffling, but eventually I figured it out (I think).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The building was the second-oldest Latter-day Saint chapel in southern California. \u00a0I think it had been constructed by volunteers from the congregation itself in the 1920s. \u00a0(My wife\u2019s maternal grandfather and grandmother, who spent almost all of their lives before and after in Salt Lake City, had lived in Mar Vista for two or three years in the 1920s or 1930s. \u00a0I think that he was one of those who helped built the chapel.) \u00a0What struck me, though, was the fact that the area around it was quite congested and rather expensive, and yet kids who grew up in the ward often seemed almost desperately eager to get back into it. \u00a0Then I began to notice some of the street names around the building, names like Wasatch<\/em> and McCune<\/em>, which seemed strongly LDS- and Utah-related. \u00a0It finally dawned on me that the old Mar Vista Ward was essentially a small Utah town that had sprung up in west Los Angeles when that now quite urban area was largely bean fields.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, though, there were the old guard in the ward . . . \u00a0and also a large contingent of UCLA graduate students, from the law school, the dental school, the school of management, from philosophy, classics, Near Eastern studies, and so forth. \u00a0UCLA\u2019s Family Student Housing, on Sawtelle Boulevard, had been assigned to the Mar Vista Ward several miles away, even though our stake center precisely bisected that housing complex, such that we had to drive past it whenever we went to church.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, although it was really quite mild and although we got along very well, there was probably a subtle element of the common \u201ctown and gown\u201d clash in the Mar Vista Ward. \u00a0That, I think, was what went on when that small group of elder sisters came in to the bishop to complain about my supposed teaching of \u201csecular humanism\u201d in the Gospel Doctrine class.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyhow: \u00a0Another example that I had given in my class of the human side of prophets in the Book of Mormon involved Nephi, the son of Lehi. \u00a0I noted his common refrain of \u201cmy brothers murmured, but I, Nephi, did not murmur,\u201d and I contrasted that continual bravado with the striking confesson of personal weakness and shortcoming in what is sometimes called the \u201cPsalm of Nephi\u201d in 2 Nephi 4. \u00a0I suggested that Nephi\u2019s seeming boastfulness reflected political necessity (on this, see Noel Reynolds\u2019s important article \u201cNephi\u2019s Political Testament\u201d<\/a>), but that, in 2 Nephi 4, we see the real man.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once again, this realism, this very believable and very human portrayal, strengthens my confidence in the Book of Mormon as genuine history.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bishop and I had a pleasant conversation. \u00a0He smiled and told me not to worry about the complaint filed by the sisters. \u00a0Just go on teaching the way you have been, he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Continued from \u201cOn Gospel Doctrine Teaching (2)\u201d: \u00a0 The dynamic (or, perhaps even better, the demographic) in the old Mar Vista Ward was interesting. \u00a0For a long time, I found it baffling, but eventually I figured it out (I think). \u00a0 The building was the second-oldest Latter-day Saint chapel in southern California. \u00a0I […]<\/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-75012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>