Green Oasis

$2 Mormon Haircuts

2009-11-04T20:58:24Z

stvltvs College Girls Give $2 Mormon Haircuts, a Rhett and Link local commercial. http://u.blakeclan.org/3o http://u.blakeclan.org/3p

Freethinker’s Book of Mormon

2009-11-02T21:58:24Z

It could use a lot more work before making its way into the bazaar, but it’s time.

I’ve been working on a project recently. I’m always full of crazy ideas, only some of which pan out. Succeed or fail, I have fun discovering how things turn out.

My latest overly ambitious, harebrained scheme is the Freethinker’s Book of Mormon, an effort to look objectively at the claims surrounding the Book of Mormon.

While some believers may immediately dismiss it as “anti-Mormon”, I think that label is undeserved. I plan to cover good and bad. If it seems biased against Mormonism, I hope it is because reality has an anti-Mormon bias. Ultimately, I want to reflect the reality of the situation, not build a case against Mormonism. I want to hear what the facts say.

I don’t think I could have done this objectively until very recently. I’m finally ready to take up the gauntlet that was laid at my feet almost three years ago. I’m sure Anonymous forgot about this long ago, but it has stuck in the back of my mind ever since, and its time has come due.

There’s not a lot there yet. Aside from designing and implementing the website, I’ve spent the most time on a challenge to Book of Mormon authenticity, an article on anachronistic animals that is still incomplete.

So, please take a look and tell me what you think.

A Call from the John Birch Society

2009-09-20T01:57:13Z

We just got a voice message from the John Birch Society that explicitly mentions Ezra Taft Benson, a fervent admirer of the JBS. I wonder if they got our number from an LDS church phone directory. (702) 951-7242 if anyone wants to call and find out.

Broken Eggs

2009-09-13T06:47:01Z

This video of Todd Whitaker standing up and speaking his mind in sacrament meeting about the involvement of the LDS church in the fight against marriage rights has been making the rounds. The bishop eventually has enough and cuts off the mic. Here’s what you can’t hear:

…I Leave you today in hopes that maybe just one of you will take to heart and question the wrong doing and the rights that have been robbed from millions of Californians. I would never vote to take away your right to marry so why did you take away mine? Tolerance is not the same as love. Mormons confuse the two quite often. I know that God loves me unconditionally. He will be the final Judge in the end, so any church court, judge or jury cannot condemn me nor will I succumb to such evil ungodly treatment from this church. You have done enough damage to many lives and ruined many family’s because of your strict rules concerning gays. I am done being a hypocrite and will ask that you remove my name from all church records, as I am divorcing my membership here today in this church. I will not allow you to revoke me. Amen.

A longer video is also available if you want more context, though I wish I knew what happened immediately after he walked out.

Some may say that it is disrespectful to stand up in someone’s church meeting and criticize them. I can agree with that. I wonder if this kind of outspokenness would be necessary if the LDS church encouraged open discussion instead of the carefully correlated message that has been the standard fare since 1972. In any case, you can’t make omeletes without breaking some eggs, as we say. I think breaking down decorum is justified when fighting to have your civil rights recognized by an unwilling majority.

He Spoke 29 Languages

2009-08-31T17:28:20Z

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself. — Sir Richard Francis Burton

Cosmic Calendar: Mother Star

2009-08-30T17:46:22Z

The Cosmic Calendar resumes, but not here. I’ve moved it over to Sense of Wonder. The latest outpost on the calendar is the explosion of our Mother Star.

Pure Religion and Stewardship

2009-08-22T17:30:40Z

[Sometimes I fantasize about what I would say if I were asked to speak at an LDS meeting. Is that weird? This comment that I made at a friend's blog may be the seed of one possible such talk. I am responding to the question "What truths can you think of that have been twisted by Satan to distract us?"]

I realize the fact that you may be skeptical of what I’m about to say because of who I am. I only ask that you listen to what I say.

Dreaming about heavenly mansions above can distract from doing important things today. The eloquent and compassionate hymn Have I Done Any Good teaches us this.

Dreaming about a heavenly reward and worrying about whether we’ll be worthy of it diverts our energy from the tasks at hand. Pure religion and undefiled (James 1:27) requires that we exercise compassion through our actions now, in the present.

The principle of stewardship that you mention says that we are the caretakers of our earthly home. We are told that we will be held accountable for the condition that the earth is in when our stewardship is over.

Sometimes, I hear people with the mindset that what we do here and now ultimately doesn’t matter because Jesus will come again and rescue us from the chaos that precedes his coming. This may make sense to some kinds of Christians, but this runs contrary to the ideal of the faithful steward taught by the Bible and the other LDS scriptures.

The notion that we are not doing irreparable damage to our home despite numerous evidences only serves to dull the senses and allow us to continue to live the easy life, the life that we’re familiar with. The life of a disciple of Christ should call a person to wake up to the harm they do and live a higher life.

It seems to me that faithful followers of Christ should be striving to return their stewardship to the hands of the Lord of the Vineyard in good condition.

I focus on the good that I can do today while the sun shines, and have faith that if I succeed in exercising compassion and fulfilling my stewardship—and if I meet God after my life is over—that I will be welcomed home into his mansions. Focusing on the possibility of those mansions now is only a distraction from the good that can be accomplished today.

2012 Bitches

2009-08-14T22:59:32Z

Dinosaur Comics manages in six panels to expose the stupidity of all calendar-based predictions of the end of the world and other important events. This includes pretty much everything John Pratt has ever submitted to the credulous editors of Meridian Magazine. When 2000 came and went with no Apocalypse-themed mayhem, I started to get the impression that humanity had been stood up and it was time to pay the waiter and go home.

The New Gospel Principles

2009-08-12T00:36:25Z

I have mixed feelings.

The LDS church has published an updated edition of Gospel Principles (already available for purchase). Sunday school teachers use this manual to teach new church members and anyone thinking about becoming a member. For the next two years, the church will also use this manual to teach the other adult members during the last hour of Sunday services instead of another installment in the Teachings of the Prophets series.

A number of changes have been made to the manual since it was last published in 1997. Among changes made for clarity, the church has also made changes that eliminate or significantly downplay a number of doctrines:

Faithful members will become “a god”.
God was not always a god.
God became a god the same way members of the LDS church can become gods.
Jesus Christ is our eldest spiritual brother.
Satan is also our brother. That makes Jesus and Satan brothers.
We are the children of “heavenly parents” (i.e. we have a Mother in Heaven).
Adam and Eve are the “parents of the human race”. They are now simply called “our first parents”.
The church in Jesus’ time had the same organization as the current LDS church.
The organization of the church in Joseph Smith’s time was completed within “several years”. Instead, the manual says that the church is still developing.
Faithful members must be obedient to all of the commandments in order to gain Exaltation.

I applaud some of those changes. One gives enough wiggle room that members can stop ignoring the evidence that humans evolved from apes. Another may help ameliorate the plague of perfectionism among Mormons. Others open the door to the admission that the church has changed over the years.

And hey, the new cover is an improvement (which happens to nicely complement this blog’s theme).

At the same time, I’m sad to see the leaders of the LDS church continue to distance themselves from some of the doctrines that I cherished most as a member of their faith. These doctrines gave me hope and made Mormonism interesting. Without them, Mormonism becomes just another shade of Protestantism. yawn

Some LDS members will say that this doesn’t represent a change in doctrine, that the church is only simplifying things for new members. I would be tempted to accept that except for a couple of things. First, this is being used to teach all adult members, not just the new ones. If the intention was to ease new members’ learning curve, then why dumb doctrines down for everyone?

Second, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find those doctrines in any official publications. It would be an enlightening exercise to research the last official publication that explicitly mentioned, for example, that faithful LDS members would become gods and goddesses. Even the temple ceremony doesn’t present that doctrine. I’m not sure how anyone learns that doctrine anymore except by word of mouth.

More and more, the Mormonism that I grew up with is becoming an oral tradition expunged from the written record. That makes me a little sad, strangely enough.

Footage of Main Street Plaza Altercation

2009-08-02T02:13:59Z

Surveilance footage of a portion of the altercation between LDS church security and the couple Aune and Jones has been released. Judge for yourself. (via Mind on Fire)