prisonchaplain

This point is so crucial--and so easy to demonstrate. Most of us recall praying that God would bring a certain cute person into our romantic lives. We were usually very young teenagers and thought we had met the love of our lives. How many of us thank God daily for NOT answering that prayer in the affirmative.

There are many examples of religion gone awry. Further, I'm not going to defend Baal worship. My purpose was to highlight how God can use something we've considered bad for so long--religion--as a good--a preparation for acceptance of the gospel. My pastor argues that one of the spirits Jesus' crucifixion set out to destroy was that of religion. I suspect that even within the many wards represented here there are probably a few who are more motivated by religion than the Holy Ghost. So, of course, religion can be understood as bad. However, it's amazing how God can use religion itself (again, defined as a system by which one seeks God) can be so useful in preparing a soul to embrace the Good News.

I heard a great teaching on this subject. The speaker addressed the elephant in the room--same-sex attraction and gender confusion. He told the story of a pilot several decades back who wanted to cross the Atlantic by plane. As he reached his cruising altitude, he realized something was wrong. He noticed that there was a rat chewing on wiring. He could not reach the rat. Suddenly, he realized that if he rose to a high enough altitude the rat would not be able to breathe. So he throttled up. Sure enough, the rat suffocated, and his problem was solved. Christians need to do likewise. When we have ungodly thoughts, we should "throttle up." In other words, bring the wrong thoughts to the scriptures and the influence of the Holy Ghost. So, fill up with God's stuff and there won't be room left for the dross.

Replace the word "woke" with the word "divisive," and I will grant you the possibility. I doubt that Chinese leadership is savvy enough to realize that woke ideology is horrible. However, they know that gender or race-centric fads will increase division in the U.S. Divide--then conquer.

He was trying to be funny. The next year I thought I was funnier. We both came to realize that neither of us had a normal sense of humor. 😉

And to think I was impressed that President Reagan had a BA in Economics. 🙂

When my brother-in-law graduated with a Masters in English Literature (he now has a doctorate and is a professor) he told me I should call him Master. The next year I graduated from seminary and asked if he would be calling me Divine Master. Needless to say, we're on a first name basis now. 😉

This reminds me of the Education Pyramid. 1. In kindergarten we learn a little bit about everything. 2. In high school we learn more about less. 3. In college we learn even more about even less. 4. At the doctorate level we learn everything about nothing.

GULP!

Typical scene at my college football games (and just about any sports stadium of teams I cheer for):

I'm not necessarily advocating this, but there is The A.C.T.--The Alliance of Christian Tattooers. I imagine that their argument is that the biblical prohibition against tattooing was part of the ritualistic law (similar to laws about not blending cloth types or kosher regulations), and is not part of the moral law, so Christians are not bound by it. Most Evangelicals likely agree with this reasoning, but in practice are not comfortable with tattooing. We still associate it with rebellion and being counterculture, even though it's considered mainstream these days. I guess I'm a product of my advanced middle age.

That could backfire. Far too many bought into the antisemitic trope that immoral Jewish Hollywood influencers are intentionally destroying American morality. My fear is that adding LDS would not help Jews. Rather, it would resurrect a lie that deserves to die a swift death.

I finally showed our LDS volunteers this website and my role as a non-LDS moderator. The introduction was the question: Does the term "third hour" mean anything to you? They said it used to. So, I mentioned that some LDS folk wanted a third hour to discuss the gospel and other topics, and so LDSTalk was renamed. While they said they had never heard of the site they seemed impressed. They expressed appreciation, so who knows, we may see a bit of uptick in our traffic. 🙂

Nothing bad comes from donuts. Some of us do develop a bit of "tactical girth" however. 😉

This brings to mind the sad story of a young couple who got married in church and then had their first child five months later. The oft-repeated comment was that they had broken the speed limit. 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ (They did repent, btw).

I'm guessing it's the same way I know. 😉

Telling a narcissist who believes s/he is the opposite gender from what they were born as that they suffer from a gender dysphoria strikes me as fair, firm, consistent halfway point. 😉

I may have learned more about the church from this string than I did from most others. 😉

I was trying to meet those suffering halfway. 🤷‍♂️

There are 3 genders. 1. Male 2. Female 3. Gender Dysphoria about 1. or 2.

I wonder if it would be too much to define spirituality as a vague form of religiosity. Often the only people that will own the label atheist are those who want to be perceived as intellectual and blunt. Most find such impolite. And yet, they really aren't religious or spiritual. They're just too lazy to be atheists. Or they just don't think any of it is important. IMHO the people least likely to repent/convert are those who are self-satisfied with their vague goodness and equally nebulous spirituality.

I may be betraying my age, but I grew hearing that religion is bad. For Christians, the refrain was, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship." The idea being that everyone else had to be religious because they were trying to reach God. Religion was humanity's attempt to find God. We learned that God came after us by sending Jesus to die for our sins. Non-Christians, and some progressive ones, were fond of saying, "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." What they meant was that organized religions were about systems and rules and programs. They were about personally connecting with their higher power. My argument, as a chaplain, is that religion is good. If people are trying to reach God the Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon proclaim that they will find Him. As a great example, I've heard stories of Muslims having dreams of Jesus coming to them. Since Islam teaches that Jesus is a prophet, they listen carefully. After all, we should listen to and heed what prophets tell us, right? (i hear the faithful church members saying 'amen.') Jesus tells them that he is more than a prophet--he is the Savior--the Son of God. They listen and some convert, because they are religious. Their religion teaches them that Jesus is to be listened to because he is a prophet. So, no, religion will not redeem anyone. However, religion--a seeking after God--can build a spiritual bridge that can lead the soul to conversion/salvation. Bottom-line: Religion is good.

People with hot wives can eat pudding any way they want. I do. 😉

You make him sound like the adult in the room. 😉

Somebody raised this string from the dead! My short answer is that the first word most English-speaking infants learn is: NO!