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A new article has appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n
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\u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: Inheriting a Curse,\u201d<\/span><\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201c\u201cBeing of that Lineage\u201d: Generational Curses and Inheritance in the Book of Abraham<\/a>,\u201d written by John S. Thompson<\/a>, in Volume 54 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the \u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>\u201d series is available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thompson argues that historical justifications of the priesthood ban that rely on passages in the Book of Abraham are based on modern assumptions rather than being present in the text itself. Those passages instead appear to align with an ancient understanding of legal inheritance (both by lineage and by covenant), as well as the natural consequences of failing to keep covenants. Thompson suggests that modern conceptions of race are not relevant to Abraham\u2019s understanding of the priesthood, and emphasizes that a lost inheritance can be restored through the Atonement and through temple ordinances.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Some of you will recall that I\u2019ve sworn off electoral politics here for the past several years, after having learned that at least two potentially substantial donors to the completely apolitical Interpreter Foundation had decided not to contribute to the Foundation because of my personal political views, as they had been expressed here<\/em>.\u00a0 I\u2019m not (alas!) backing away from my vow to eschew electoral politics on this blog.\u00a0 But the topic immediately below is, in my judgment, not a partisan matter \u2014 and it is too important to ignore:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen I have an Article 2 [of the Constitution], where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.\u201d\u00a0 (Mr. Donald J.Trump, 23 July 2019)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Trump Promises to Be a Tyrant, Take Him at His Word\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?\u00a0 A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOur great \u2018Founders\u2019 did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!\u201d\u00a0 (Mr. Donald J. Trump, 3 December 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In response, here\u2019s a deservedly famous passage from Robert Bolt\u2019s classic play A Man for All Seasons<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n WILLIAM ROPER: \u00a0So now you\u2019d give the Devil benefit of law!<\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n I follow it up with a passage from an even greater Author:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And again I say unto you, those who have been scattered by their enemies, it is my will that they should continue to importune for redress, and redemption, by the hands of those who are placed as rulers and are in authority over you\u2014according to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; that every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.\u00a0 Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.\u00a0 And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding\u00a0of blood.\u00a0 (Doctrine and Covenants 101:76-80)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And now I turn to a distinct issue that, to my mind, even more clearly transcends partisan electoral politics:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Supreme Court is hearing a case on LGBTQ rights and religion (again). Here\u2019s what you need to know: Web designer Lorie Smith argues that a Colorado\u2019s anti-discrimination law tramples her free speech rights\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAlito Invokes Brief by Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJustice Gorsuch Accuses Colorado of Forcing Christian Baker to Undergo \u2018Reeducation Program\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m happy that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> has filed an Amicus<\/em> brief<\/a> in this case, and it once again seems appropriate to me to quote a famous passage from the German Lutheran pastor and theologian Martin Niem\u00f6ller (1892-1984).\u00a0 Pastor Niem\u00f6ller was a prisoner between 1937 and 1945 at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps.\u00a0 In this passage, he is talking about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis\u2019 rise to power and the subsequent purging of the Nazis\u2019 chosen targets, one by one, group after group.<\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nTHOMAS MORE: \u00a0Yes. \u00a0What would\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0do? \u00a0Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?<\/span>
\nROPER: \u00a0I\u2019d cut down every law in England to do that!<\/span>
\nMORE: \u00a0Oh? \u00a0And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you \u2014 where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? \u00a0This country\u2019s planted thick with laws from coast to coast \u2014 man\u2019s laws, not God\u2019s \u2014 and if you cut them down \u2014 and you\u2019re just the man to do it \u2014 d\u2019you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? \u00a0Yes, I\u2019d give the Devil the benefit of the law, for my own safety\u2019s sake.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n