It's interesting that people object to identifying the characteristics of God because, by doing so, they limit God; while at the same time find no objection to labeling, and thereby limiting, humans, who, as Latter Day Saints teach, have unlimited potential. If we have unlimited potential, then wouldn't placing labels on ourselves or others limit us in the same way God becomes limited when he becomes defined? What we must first realize is that the nature of God is not altered by man's views of Him. The second is a thought shared by Gordon B. Hinckley who said that no person on earth is living up to their potential; no, not one. We must realize that we live in a fallen state and will never realize our full potential in this life. Therefore, we must do all we can while we are here to unlock that potential which is stored in us, no matter how finite it may appear in the grand scheme of things. Finally, we can learn a sublime truth from examining the fact that God remains unchanged by man's opinion. Our full potential can not be realized when the opinions of fallen man are placed upon us. We must base our views of ourselves on revelations from God rather than on mortal labels. We are, first and foremost, children of God, and we will learn the significance of that truth more and more as we view the opinions of man and heed them not.
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About six months ago, one of my coworkers was criticizing the LDS church for eliminating their adoption services. This came as quite a shock to me since it this service was such a benefit to thousands of not only orphaned children, but couples that otherwise would be unable to have children.
Recently though, I came across an article that explained why the LDS church ceased their participation in adoption—the reason being that they were making preparations for a much better service that will help more people than they ever could with their previous program.
Here’s the link to that article:
http://ldsliving.com/story/78193-church-announces-new-adoption-policy
When it was first announced, there were several people criticizing the LDS church because of it, but as it turns out, there was a greater plan in store.
Sometimes in life we are denied blessings in order to prepare for something better. Let’s take an extreme example. Abraham was tried with the challenge of sacrificing his son. On first glance this is a horrid act, one that brings into question the nature of God, for why would God ask something of Abraham that not only contradicts one of his Ten Commandments, but also is horrendous in nature. We can see the reason I’m the blessings that came. From this small sacrifice, both Abraham and Isaac were consecrated to the lord, making them worthy to carry on the abrahamic covenant, which blessed the entirety of the human family. One moment of pain became an eternity of prosperity. This it will be with the adoption program, and certainly won’t be the last time we see this happen in church history. A relatively small pause, and then the outpouring of blessings upon the children of men.
I took a Sociology of the Family class for my degree. It was by far one of my favorite classes I've ever taken, partly because I thought the material was fascinating, but mostly because I though the teacher was amazing. She always had insightful little tidbits to share with the class, and one of the things has stuck with me was her opinion on how feminism has been corrupted. She explained to us that feminism has reached a point where it has emasculated men to the point where they have nothing left to define their manhood besides the size of their dicks. I personally don't feel that it's gotten quite that extreme for every male on the planet, but I agree that the modern interpretation of feminism is that women need to oppress men as a type of vengeance for all of the oppression they received.
I've never been too familiar with the whole topic of feminism in any sense, but I've had opinions on the matter but haven't been able to verbalize them due to my own ignorance. But recently I've found some helpful youtube videos that allow me to verbalize those opinions.
This first video talks about how the common take of feminism has been fueled by a misrepresentation of statistical information, namely the pay gap between men and women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oqyrflOQFc
This second video talks about what feminism in the 21st century should look like, it's particularly insightful after viewing the first video which explains the misconceptions that feminism has been founded on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR9FHKKbMZo
At the end of this second video, the speaker explains that feminism shouldn't be making women more like men, but their role should rather be to civilize men. I thought this was a very unique take on a woman's role in society, but I was curious what a gospel's take on what that role is.
Furthermore, what neither of these videos do is give a description of what it means to be a woman, and how women differentiate from men. I stumbled across this fun video that adds some illumination, but again, doesn't fully answer the question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kCJvfo28w
Just to recap quickly, I believe that with a gospel-centered idea of what woman is, and what a woman's role is not only in society but in the plan of salvation will all allow us to have a better idea of what feminism ought to be.
What Is Woman?
There was a stake conference meeting on my mission in which Elder Richard G. Scott (at least I'm pretty sure it was him) spoke about the sacred nature of women. One thing that always stood out to me was his mention of how the creation of man and woman on the sixth day was God's crowning achievement, but that God didn't declare his work complete until after he created Woman, thus, Elder Scott declared, Woman was the crowning creation of God's work.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any better word on the nature of woman than that at this point in time, but perhaps it will help to remind ourselves that all are equal to God, for we are all his children with the same divine potential.
A Woman's Role
Elder M. Russell Ballard, referring to the Family Proclamation, spoke of a woman's role in society and the plan of salvation during a BYU Devotional. He stated:
This doctrine sometimes causes women to ask: “Is a woman’s value dependent exclusively upon her role as a wife and mother?” The answer is simple and obvious: No. Although there is nothing a woman can do that has more far-reaching, eternal impact than to rear her children to walk in righteousness, motherhood and marital status are not the only measures of a woman’s worth. Some women do not have the privilege of marrying or rearing children in this life. Yet if they are worthy, these blessings will come later. Men and women who do have the privilege of rearing children will of course be held accountable for that priceless, eternal stewardship. Although there is simply not a more significant contribution you can make to society, to the Church, or to the eternal destiny of our Father’s children than what you will do as a mother or father, motherhood and fatherhood are not the only measures of goodness or of one’s acceptance before the Lord. Every righteous man and woman has a significant role to play in the onward march of the kingdom of God.
Lds.org gives us some more insight into what other roles a woman may fill to determine their measure of 'goodness' and 'acceptance before the Lord', "Women are a necessary part of the plan of happiness, and that plan cannot operate without them. Women participate in the work of salvation, which includes member missionary work, convert retention, activation of less-active members, temple and family history work, teaching the gospel, and caring for the poor and needy. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, every woman in the Church is given the responsibility to know and defend the divine roles of women, which include that of wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. They stand strong and immovable in faith, in family, and in relief. Women participate in councils that oversee congregational activities throughout the world. They also have, by divine nature, the greater gift and responsibility for home and children and nurturing there and in other settings".
Conclusion
I know for me, this article has given me a greater insight into the existential trials women face in our world, especially within the church. The conflicting ideologies of contemporary feminism and the doctrines of the church would surely create some dissonance in the recipients. Though I am not a woman, I still believe that many women, both in and out of the church, have been misled by feminism hype, which, in turn, is founded upon and being perpetuated by misleading information. There is nothing wrong with women being paid the same as men, there's nothing wrong with women having the same upward mobility as men, but women are not men and they shouldn't lower themselves to the stature of a man in an attempt to be equal with them. The ideals of feminism ought to be founded on correct information and the true nature of womanhood, namely that women have more freedoms today than they have in the history of the world, and that women are children of god, in fact, they are the crowning creation of God's kingdom, with a divine potential that men should be striven for, not suppressed.
I upgraded my iPhone from a 4 to the 5c on Black friday. I was so excited to have a new phone that actually worked and wasn't mind-numbigly slow. But since Black Friday, my new 5c has been having problems, namely that the thing would never charge, and when it did it would do so extremely slowly or not at all; and second, the screen would occasionally spaz out while I was reading a document or scrolling through an app and skip to the top of the page, or a few paragraphs above where I was reading. After a few weeks of dealing with these two issues, I finally took my phone into the Apple store to get it fixed. This story has a happy ending, they replaced my iPhone and the new one both charges and functions normally when I'm using different apps. But something very interesting happened while I was there. While the technician was helping me he told me that he'd just replace the phone, meaning that he'd put my SIM card into the new phone, and, to the technician's chagrin, we'd have to wipe the old phone. The technician had me wipe the phone because, in his own words, "It breaks my heart to do that." I laughed, but I was perplexed by the (real or not) emotional attachment he was portraying towards an iPhone, not to mention a complete stranger's iPhone.
While I waited for my replacement iPhone, I thought about how odd it was that a company was able to instill such emotions in their customers towards the company's products. I stumbled across an article from The Atlantic (okay, I've actually had this article open on my desktop for a few weeks, and just finally got around to reading it. But I think fate was keeping me from reading it until after I had my iPhone replaced) titled Turning Customers Into Cultists with this image at its helm.
Read the full article here:
Just like in this image, Apple seems to have a cult of devoted followers that, as the article puts it, "squat for hours outside the nearest Apple store like Wiccans worshipping before Stonehenge." So how exactly does a corporation transform from a company into a cult (not literally, of course)? The article reports several ways such as establishing an "us vs. them" mentality as was the case in Apple's early stages when they were portrayed as rebelling against IBM and Microsoft; there is the emphasis on establishing community while at the same time establishing individuality in regards to their products; but, the factor I'd like to explore at this time, is the withholding of information from the customer.
The article states, "Research shows that typically, the more information consumers have, the better they are at ignoring corporate iconography." meaning that the better informed customers are, not only about the products they're buying, but also those product's competitors, the less likely they are to start following a company like a cult.
This issue of misinformation (or a lack of it) in advertising has bugged me for quite some time. Someone once asked me, if I had the ability to remove one group of people from the world, who would it be (you can see how that conversation could have gotten negative very quickly)? I answered that I would get rid of people involved in advertising. I can't remember my exact reasoning for this, it was something along the lines of how it perpetuates this consumer mentality, which consists of cheaply made products and companies telling us what we need in order to be happy, and its one big slippery slope that's leading to a rotting population (this coming from the guy that just got his iPhone replaced because it wouldn't charge "all the way"). But if I was asked that question now, I may or may not give the same answer, but my reasoning would be different. My reasoning would be that commercials, the way they are now, are limiting our agency.
Bruce R. McConkie explains that there are four principles that need to be in effect if there is to be agency (meaning that agency doesn't exist if one or more is missing,which is saying that, yes, we have been given agency, but we have to make a conscious effort to for it to exist in our lives). The four principles are :
1. Laws must exist, laws ordained by an Omnipotent power, laws which can be obeyed or disobeyed.
2. Opposites must exist - good and evil, virtue and vice, right and wrong - that is, there must be an opposition, one force pulling one way and another pulling the other.
3. A knowledge of good and evil must be had by those who are to enjoy the agency, that is, they must know the difference between the opposites.
4. An unfettered power of choice must prevail. (Mormon Doctrine, p. 20)
As I explained earlier, companies use a lack of information to create a cult-like following, relying instead on the feelings of community and belonging (also telling you that you need their product to be happy). This lack of information is rampant in our society, and it is limiting our agency. In a more minute sense, it is limiting our agency because it is minimizing our knowledge of both sides. In a more expansive sense, it is limiting our agency because we are only presented with one primary way to live our lives, and that is the ideals of consumerism.
I guess the whole purpose of this essay was to say that agency is important, and that the advertisements we see is just one example of how our society is slowly being transformed into one that limits individual agency. But let me move on to the "so what?" of the paper. How does this whole thing with iPhones and cults apply to us on a daily basis.
Basically, agency, contrary to popular belief, is not simply the ability to choose for oneself like so many of us believe it is. How many times have you, one of your siblings, one of your children, or even a spouse refused to go to church, and defended their decision by arguing that they have their agency to choose whether to go or not. I hope that from our discussion so far you can see that this is a misconception of what agency is, and is in fact not agency at all, but merely one of the factors that must be in place for agency to exist. "Agency is the ability and freedom to choose good or evil" (Mormon Doctrine, p. 20). One of the purposes of this life, and therefore one of the purposes of our agency is to see if we will choose to follow Christ or not (See Moses 7: 32-33).
It's not the purpose of this post to evaluate all the ways in which we can foster agency more effectively in our lives, for such a discussion would span a variety of topics that would range from large areas such as politics, psychology, and philosophy, to smaller issues like how to get you children or siblings to go to church, how to teach effectively, or how to be a good friend. I'll leave it up to you to decide how to do that in the various aspects of your lives. I pray that this essay will help you not only in your decision about whether to get the next iPhone or not, but also in your spiritual and interpersonal lives as well.
This has been one of the best semesters of my academic career, as as well as some of the best months of my entire life. There are a lot of reasons for this. I've moved up to Salt Lake City, an environment that I prefer much more to any other that I've lived; I've started working with great people and started forming greater friendships in my life, which is something I've been lacking for several years; I've become more interested in music, and begun finding joy in discovering new songs and artists, which has added a lot of richness into my life; I've also learned more about how to analyze literature, which has given me much more appreciation for all of the books I read, as well as the movies I watch; but more than anything, it's the things that I've learned that has made this one of the most joyful and enlightened periods of my life.
I was told once (this semester, in fact) that students only learn on average seven new ideas, and therefore it was a waste to try to teach them much more than that, because you'd just be wasting your breath. So in that spirit, I'd like to try and list the seven (roughly) most important things I've learned over these last few months.
The first thing I've learned, which is really the overarching theme of all of the things I've learned is that one must always be on the quest for greater light and truth. I don't even know where to begin with explaining this one. This idea can be seen all throughout the gospel of Jesus Christ (especially in the temple), and brings so much clarity when dealing with any situations in we may face in day-to-day life. This quest for greater light and truth, as it has become a greater part of me, has been manifest in a few different facets, namely understanding and discovery.
I was once told that I had a gift for understanding, and ever since then I've always been fascinated with the idea of what it truly means to understand something, and what that gift truly means. I've learned that it can mean to have a deep comprehension of a given topic, or it can mean to have a comprehension of the connection between two or more topics. But over the last few months, I've learned to view the desire to understand as one of the aspects of questing for greater light and truth. Because when we come to understand something, it is because its truthfulness is testified to us by the power of the holy ghost, who's main purpose is to testify of the truth.Thus, seeking to understand becomes a spiritual journey that is guided by the companionship of the holy ghost. It keeps you curious, humble, and teachable while you learn and discover new things.
One of the things that has always impressed me about the first man, Adam, was the tremendous amount of discovery that must have taken place for him not only in the garden of eden, but even in the fallen world. When you stop to think about it, it is mind-boggling how much we have learned just from digging deeper into what we already know. if we look at the realm of physics alone, we can see that we have discovered tinier and tinier particles that are asked to the human eye, nevertheless they are there, and we would still be ignorant of them had we not made the effort to discover them. And just imagine how much there is that we don't know that either hasn't been discovered yet, or we're just not aware of it yet. because of this I've started having two separate windows open at all times on my internet browser, one for articles and things I want to read, and the other for videos I want to watch. This has been one step that I've been taking to ensure that I'm always discovering new knowledge as part of my quest for greater light and truth.
Another thing I've learned that goes along with the idea of discovery is the pursuit of trying to develop a more complete, more accurate picture of whatever it is I'm viewing. Meaning that the quest for truth is a depth as well as a breadth of knowledge. In this context I'm viewing truth as being things as they really were, things as they really are, and things as they really will be. Because of this, there are many different viewpoints we can take as we examine truth, and therefore a knowledge of several fields is required to gain a more complete picture. because of this, I've decided to make a conscious effort to learn more about a few topics that will give me a more complete truth, those being: psychology (which I'm already majoring in); neuroscience and the function of the brain; physics and the functions of the world around us, especially quantum physics as it has special interest to the realm of neuroscience; history and the various perspectives that take exist around different events; likewise politics and the whole slough of topics that exist within that realm and the various perspectives on each; literature, both ancient and modern that gives uniques perspectives on various topics; philosophy, and the knowledge of the great thinkers of the history of the world and how their ideas compare and contrast to one another; and, of course, doctrines of Jesus Christ that I believe to be universal constants and how every bit of knowledge that I obtain adds to my understanding of true doctrine.
The third thing I've learned (or fourth depending on how you're counting) comes from my social psychology class, which is the power that situations can have on us. Just the other day I posted an essay all about this topic, but essentially the idea is that being self-disciplined is more about making a conscious choice to avoid certain situations that would lead you into sin rather than just having a mental determination to not sin. This course of action will prove to be more effective at living the commandments than mental fortitude or willpower alone. And, any way we can more effectively live the commandments is part of the quest towards more light and truth.
The next thing I've learned is from my Research Methods class, in which my professor gave a long rant about how important it was to her to be consistent in all of her actions, no matter what situation she found herself in, either intentionally or unintentionally. I felt this was significant to my concept of questing for light and truth, because discovering our true selves, and being true to ourselves, would only enable the discovery of greater light and truth.
The fifth thing I've learned (Or is it sixth? I don't know why I'm even bothering to count any more) is that mathematics can be used to gain greater knowledge and truth. In my Statistics For Behavioral Sciences class, my professor made a side note about how statistics can be used to gain a greater insight into the reality of various situations. he used the example of how people throw around the statistic of how women get paid roughly 77 cents to the dollar that men make. In response to this, he claimed that when you control for things such as education, age, and experience in the field, the difference ends up being about a one or two cent difference. I don't know how accurate his claim is for myself, but it illustrated a good point, that statistics can be misreported, and upon further analysis, we can receive a more accurate portrayal of the situation we're examining. This can also be done through what's called a meta-analysis, in which a statistician would perform a series of tests on several sets of data to see how they compare to one another to receive a more accurate image than any one of them could provide on their own. Basically, math may be boring, but it can lead us to a better understanding of things as they really are.
One final thing that I've learned from my academic studies this semester comes from my theories of personality class. There are two ideas I'd like to touch on. The first reinforces the concept of how statistics and mathematics can give us a more accurate representation of reality. Each week in my class we'd review a different theory of personality and talk about the theorist that came up with it. One personality test we took, called the NEO PI-3 test, was easily the one test that seemed to be the most valid among any of the others that we studied. In this test, the theorists analyzed every personality test they could get their hands on and found the most statistically relevant characteristics they all shared and then found the questions that would best measure those. Long story short, statistics were used to gain a far more accurate picture by combining all of the knowledge that existed on the subject, and the result said more than any individual test could on its own. The second thing I learned from this class was from my own thinking on this subject on where exactly personality comes from. I initially thought that personality comes from our cognitive expectations of the various situations we're in. While that may be part of it, I think, more accurately, that personality comes from our individual desires. I feel that this idea aligns more closely with gospel teachings, as can be seen by Elder Oaks' talk, Desire. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but essentially what we want shapes who we are. The question then becomes, 'where do our desires come from?' And that most likely will be the topic of discussion for another day.
Now I'd like to talk about some of the doctrinal insights that have really stood out to me this semester. I've learned about the effects pride can have on our lives, the powerful change in ones heart that gratitude can have, and the importance of agency. But there's one item in particular I'd like to talk about, and that is about the culminating facets of the gospel.
Earlier in this semester I was making an extra effort to study the law of consecration, I've even written an essay or two on the subject. During my study, I realized that the law of consecration is the culminating principle of the gospel, meaning that all other principles (i.e tithing, fasting, temple work, service, scripture study) are all leading up to the act of consecrating our all to the Lord, because consecration embraces all actions we perform in the gospel.
This made me wonder if there were other culminating facets of the gospel. The first thing to pop into my head, as I'm sure it was for those of you reading this, was the atonement. I was told once that if you teach a lesson in Sunday School that doesn't relate back to the atonement, then you've missed the point. The doctrine of the Atonement is the culminating doctrine of the restored gospel, because every other core doctrine (i.e faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, christlike attributes, covenants, priesthood) all tie back to the atonement, which all of them possible.
So far we have a culminating principle and a culminating doctrine, but there is also a culminating ordinance. In the temple, the endowment is to receive (meaning to perform and live worthy of) all of the ordinances available there, the sealing ordinance being the crowning event. The sealing which takes place in the temple truly is the culminating ordinance of the gospel, since every ordinance we partake of leads to that final ordinance between husband and wife.
One thing that I fid fascinating is how I learned all of these things. I didn't set a goal or make a reading schedule in order to understand certain things better; but rather I accepted the fact that there is greater truth beyond what I know, and I became receptive to that truth as I received it.
Well, I didn't expect this post to be quite so long. If you read all the way through this, I hope you've learned something, whether it be about culminating doctrines or the power of situations, or, hopefully, that the quest for greater light and truth is a ever ending one, and when we are receptive to the knowledge our Heavenly Father wants to bestow on us, we will receive it.
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Recently I’ve been struggling with committing myself to the pursuits I’m engaged in. I realized that I’m not fully committed to my major in psychology like I should be, I’m not as committed to my hobby of writing as I could be, and most importantly, I’m not as devoted to the gospel as the Savior expects me to be.
I’ve heard it said for both worldly pursuits as well as gospel pursuits, that to be successful you have to be 100% committed to whatever you’re pursuing; and, in gospel terms, we have to devote our whole heart, might, mind, and strength.
So the question came to me: how can we be completely devote ourselves to a cause in a world that pulls us in so many different directions?
I feel the answer to this lies in the quote, “Wherever you are, be there.”
In this context, no matter what we’re doing, whether it’s school, work, or school, we need to be fully committed in the moment we’re engaging in it.
It’s increasingly difficult to engage 100% of our time to just one pursuit in this life, but if we consecrate our time to that pursuit in the time we’re doing it, we can consecrate ourselves to several pursuits.
Last week I was attending a church BBQ where I overheard a conversation between a guy and a girl, in which the girl said the the guy "I feel like you would only marry someone that was perfect" to which the guy replied that he did expect his wife to be perfect. I'll admit that I didn't know the full context of the story, but what I heard reminded me of a pet peeve of mine, which is the cultural idea that Latter Day Saints carry of being perfect.
When we usually hear the word 'perfect' or 'perfection' we usually think of having an ideal athletic body, receiving straight A's in a rigorous academic field, working full time in a challenging job with a prestigious company, all while maintaining an indestructible testimony and being an active participant in their ward and whatever volunteer work they are doing. Oh, and of course, being able to make the perfect dinner with the perfect dessert of green jello. Unfortunately, this image of the 'Molly Mormon' or 'Peter Priesthood' is what comes to mind when we read the scripture, "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect" (3 Ne. 12: 48; see also Matt. 5:48).
But this isn't the correct way to view this scripture, let alone this idea of perfection. In a conference talk by Russell M. Nelson he explains the origins of the word perfect,In Matt. 5:48, the term perfect was translated from the Greek teleios,which means “complete.” Teleios is an adjective derived from the nountelos, which means “end.” 10 The infinitive form of the verb is teleiono,which means “to reach a distant end, to be fully developed, to consummate, or to finish.” Hugh Nibley expands on this idea by explaining that this word, in context of the original Christian church, has direct relation to covenants with the Lord.
I know that we want to choose a mate that is perfect to us, but let us remember that more important than being physically perfect, it is more important to strive to be whole or complete as we live up to the covenants we make in the temple.
Elder Nelson has some more great insights into the idea of perfection in his talk. Check it out:
