Mormonstories.org has has recently led me to critically evaluate things of the spiritual nature in my life. Once I started listening to the interviews presented there I have allowed them to occupy much of my free time. I download recordings and listen as I perform somewhat mindless activities such as running and driving. These once mindless activities have been transformed into times of deep thought and pondering. I recently listened to an interview with Daymon Smith who wrote the book, "The Book Of Mammon: A Book About A Book About A Corportation That Owns The Mormons". It was a fascinating interview that covered topics that I haven't previously known much about. My brief thoughts on each of the 4 parts of the lecture.
Lecture is found here: 149-152: LDS Anthropologist Daymon Smith on Post-Manifesto Polygamy, Correlation, The Corporate LDS Chruch, and Mammon.
Episode 1: In this interview Daymon discusses the hurdles that the church had to overcome to eventually break off from the practice of polygamy. Polygamy was so deeply ingrained into the minds of the members of the church at that time that this task couldn't be accomplished with the issuing of a simple manifesto as I had always thought and as is taught in the church today. Due to the paranoia at the time that the feds would come and take polygamy practicing brethren away it was difficult to tell which statements concerning polygamy were serious and which were a type of code to appease the federal government and "beat the devil at his own game". This was an extremely complex time in church history. It caused me to ponder the question of what I would do if I was put in the position where I had to go against what I felt God had asked me to do to follow the laws of the land.
Episode 2: This episode discusses that question that probably every member of the church has had at some point, "who the heck wrote this manual". Daymon discusses the evolution of a correlated doctrine in an attempt to handle the rapid worldwide church growth in the middle 1900's. I know I always wondered what part the brethren of the church played in the decision of what goes into the manual. He also mentions that nothing on LDS.org goes back prior to the early 1970's (I think it was 1972), about the time that correlated doctrines began in the church. While I can see how the church had a need to keep the doctrine uniformed throughout the world I also see the problems that it causes with the concept that God's truths are eternal, yet changing behind the scenes. I personally agree with the concept that we should be searching for absolute truths but should always have the ability to reject or improve something that we thought was true at one point. So in essence we need to admit that nothing can be a confirmed absolute truth. This leads us on an eternal search which is only allowed to continue when we accept this fact. Thinking that we have the absolute truth only causes us to stop.
Episode 3: This one was all about the church being a corporation and honestly nothing really stuck. But I'm sure it was good.
Episode 4: Living is Oakland I pass people on a regular basis that are asking for handouts. They usually have a small cardboard sign with some reason as to why they need some sort of help. Most of the time I give out money I feel as if I am a sucker and that the person isn't honest in his/her efforts. This feeling has prevented me from helping others and causes a small internal wrestle every time. What is the best way to help people? What would our titled perfect example, Jesus Christ, do in these situations? In this episode it discusses what the church does with it's money. While not a lot is known on this topic, because the church doesn't release it's financial statements, there is some information that is available. From income estimates provided by Daymon, the church is bringing in a whopping 13 million dollars a day!!! The ways in which this money is used is the topic of discussion and while there are multiple perspectives to every issue we are given a few facts to help us at least see where the church's money is going. This has led me to thing about how am I living my life? Am I contributing to society? How much should I be expected to contribute? What is the best way to contribute to those in need? These are the hard questions. Brother Smith wraps things up with a powerful testimony in the church, acknowledging that it does have it's problems and probably needs to do some redirecting on certain issues.
Thanks again Mormonstories for a spiritually/mentally stimulating experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment