NateHowe

My parents were members of the Church, and they helped me learn. But I have not stayed in the Church because of them - I had to read the Scriptures, pray to God, and listen for the Holy Spirit to answer me. You can hear me talk more my conversion in my podcast. Each one has a transcript, so you can use an online translator to read them.

It is true that our individual worthiness is the determining factor in exaltation. Temple sealing is a gate through which we must eventually pass to inherit the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. God knows and understands those who do not have the opportunity to make that covenant in this life, and will provide a way for them in the future. He also understands those whose spouses do not keep their part of the covenant, and will give them what they need in the life to come.

If you do not consciously control yourself, something or someone else will. I am not implying demonic possession here; the forces that control us are subtle. If we do not actively question the media we consume, the ideas and attitudes that come along with them will become a part of us. If we do not actively choose those with whom we spend our free time, their habits and ideas will affect ours. Anger can function as a disease in itself or as a symptom of something else amiss in our lives. Nobody is completely immune - we just keep trying.

Welcome, indeed! If you would like to learn more about our religion, I recommend the Church's site in Polish: Official information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) I hope you enjoy the discussions here.

Additional light and truth are unlikely to come forth until we begin to live consistently by the scriptures we already have.

Sydney South here.

I haven't had a landline since we got married over two years ago. It works out very well. My parents just got rid of theirs, as well. The people with whom you communicate already have your cell number. When people ask for your home number, just give your cell. It works in almost any situation.

The one from LDS.org is great, and definitely no viruses. Others can be fine, too.

Covetousness and seeking after good gifts are very different things. When we covet, we allow ourselves to become obsessed with the object of our desire. This obsession impairs our ability to feel the Spirit. In contrast, seeking good gifts is necessary to temporal and spiritual salvation. For example, I seek after those things which will help my wife and son to be healthy, clothed, fed, sheltered, etc. Although I am seeking these things, the pursuit of them does not stand between me and the Lord. Rather, I am fulfilling the stewardship He gave me over them.

It seems you are wrestling with some very small issues here. The big question is whether the Prophet and the Apostles are true messengers of God. If they are, their teachings should answer your questions on this subject. Read the Book of Mormon, pray for understanding, and listen for the answers. If you pursue this course with intent to follow the Lord's will rather than your own, He will tell you in His time, in a way you will understand.

With great respect to the Catholic tradition, that particular aspect of the Mass makes little sense to me. Essentially, you are saying that it is a new sacrifice, a new Atonement, at every Mass. This seems contrary to Paul's warning about those who "crucify the Son of God afresh" (Hebrews 6). In our doctrine, there was one Atonement, wrought by Jesus Christ, at one time. That Atonement is infinite in power and scope, and it was the great and last sacrifice necessary to save all men who would come unto Christ and live according to His commandments. Christ suffered once. The Atonement occurred once. Our role is not to reenact or remake the Atonement, but to accept and apply it in our lives. First, the Priest is not the head of the congregation, as in Catholicism or Orthodoxy. Joseph Smith wrote: "We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive Church, namely, Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists and so forth." In this organization, Priesthood leaders oversee various groups of people. In our Wards, the Bishop is the head of the congregation, and he presides in the Sacrament Meeting. The Prophet and the Apostles preside over the entire Church. However, in addition to presiding over certain groups, the Priesthood is the power to perform ordinances. In your view, the Eucharist is the ordinance of greatest importance. For us, although the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a supremely sacred ordinance, other saving ordinances which the Lord instituted (such as Baptism and the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost) bear equal weight. Every ordinance instituted by the Savior is sacred to us, and different ordinances require different authority. The preparatory Priesthood is named for Aaron, the great ancient Priest. Within this Aaronic Priesthood are the offices of Deacon, Teacher, Priest, and Bishop. The Aaronic Priesthood includes the authority to baptize and to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The higher Priesthood is named for Melchizedek, the great High Priest. Within the Melchizedek Priesthood are the offices of Elder, High Priest, Seventy, and Apostle. The Prophet, who is the President of the Church, is the presiding Apostle. The Melchizedek Priesthood includes authority to anoint and bless the sick, to preside in meetings of the Church, to administer ordinances in the Temple (such as Eternal Marriage), and many other privileges and responsibilities. Those with the Melchizedek Priesthood can also administer in the ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood. Priesthood is the government of God's Kingdom on Earth and the authority to perform the ordinances which Jesus Christ instituted for the benefit of mankind. The Atonement of Christ ended animal sacrifice as a part of true worship. The Priests in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints administer the Sacrament as instructed by revelation for the benefit of the congregation. This is in accordance with scripture. Although Christ and Paul place strong emphasis on the Lord's Supper, they do not indicate or validate the doctrines of transubstantiation or the power of the Priest over Christ during the Mass. These were later alterations to true doctrine. Priests (as all those who hold the Priesthood) are servants of the Lord and of their fellow man. They are called, as were the Priests in the Old and New Testaments, to perform the ordinances dictated by the Lord for the people at that time, under the direction of the living Prophet. This is the great key, which Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and other world religions ignore: Revelation from God to His Prophets. We can point to the Bible and infer a course the Lord would have us take, but the Bible was not written as an instruction manual. It is a collection of sacred historical documents from various times and authors. It does not claim to be complete, because the Bible was not written with the conscious notion that it would be collected in its current form. Whenever the Lord has had His Church on Earth, He has organized it with a living Prophet at its head and Priesthood authority as its foundation, with Christ the chief cornerstone. That is the position of the Latter-day Saints - that God reveals His will in all pertinent matters to the Prophet. The Prophet gives us direction so that we will remain aligned with the will of God. This is the oldest pattern in the world's religious history, beginning with Adam.

Baptism is for the remission of sins, but if it is not preceded by faith and sincere repentance, it is not effective for that purpose. In other words, if I commit all manner of sins in the days leading up to baptism, with the view that baptism will erase those wrongs, the baptism will not cause my sins to be remitted because proper repentance was not made. The principles of the Gospel are spelled out in order for a reason.

In the Catholic tradition, the priest supposedly brings Christ down to the altar to become the tokens of the eucharist. Those who participate eat what is believed to be the actual blood and flesh of Christ. The entire process is a reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ - not symbolic, but supposedly literal. By contrast, the priests in the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are authorized servants of Christ who say a blessing upon the emblems of the Lord's Supper. When they do this, they place those who participate under specific covenant obligations. Those in the congregation covenant to remember Christ, keep His commandments, and take His name upon them. In return, the Lord promises His Spirit. The emblems are given in remembrance of Christ - not physically changed into anything but bread and water. They are emblems of a covenant, and the Priests have authority to facilitate the renewal of that covenant. They are not making a sacrifice in behalf of the people - the people bring their own repentant sacrifices to the table. The Priest does not stand as an intermediary between the congregation and the Lord.

The Earth was in the presence of Jesus Christ (Jehovah) during the entire creative process. Thus, the Light of Christ (His influence as we understand it) was already present before He commanded the visible light (and perhaps by extension, other radiative energy) to gather around it. However, all physical things parallel spiritual things, and your ideas in this line of thinking may be a useful metaphor.

Polygamy was not ended immediately when it became illegal. The Church went to great lengths to be able to do what the Lord had commanded on the subject. But when the time to end the practice was at hand (according to the Lord's will, not man's), the Prophet did what the Lord required. Wilford Woodruff said: Laws of man are important, and we should obey them as far as they are just and compatible with the revealed will of God. We should further strive to make the laws of our country fit these criteria. When there is a conflict, peaceable practice of revealed faith should override an unjust law in our minds and our actions.

85%. Can't say I'm terribly proud of it, but I could have done worse.

As far as we can tell in Biblical history, plural marriage has only been authorized at periods when the Lord needed to raise up a large number of the faithful in a short time. When it has not been necessary, it has not been authorized. When the Lord gives instruction to the current prophet, all previous instructions on that subject are superseded. The former practices thus become not doctrinal, in the way President Hinckley described. It is not doctrinal for us to sacrifice goats and doves in our Sacrament Meetings. That doesn't mean it was wrong for the ancient Jews to do it in accordance with the laws Jehovah gave them.

Honestly, if the job makes you uncomfortable, you may want to keep submitting applications to other companies while you are working at the liquor store temporarily. Although you are not drinking or forcing others to drink, your sole job is to provide others the opportunity to do so. Depending on your personal set of values (we are talking about purely personal feelings here), you may or may not feel that you should keep this job. If it becomes something that stands between you and the Lord, you should leave. On the other hand, while you do this job for the moment, it may help you to pay tithing and demonstrate faith in that way. In a broader sense, it sounds to me like you could improve your career prospects with some type of education or training. Consider attending a Stake Employment Night in your area - many stakes have them weekly. You can also contact an employment specialist through the Church's employment page: LDS.org - Employment Best of luck.

News item from the Church today: LDS Newsroom - Church Seeks to Address Public Confusion Over Texas Polygamy Group

Yet under the current system, the money which goes to the schools is almost exclusively government money. That "extra layer of government employees" is already there in the form of each state's department of education. Do factories go out of business because they have to pay to have OSHA inspectors on site? No, it is usually something else fundamentally wrong with the business. If a private school had to pay for one employee whose sole job was to assure that they were accredited, it would be a reasonable part of the business plan. As a bureaucratic socialist institution, the current K-12 educational system is bloated. Smart businessmen could still make plenty of money in private schools, even by paying teachers better than they will get in a public school.

Here's the benefit I can see: Many people, when asked to give a talk, find a General Conference talk on the same subject and read it. Although the words of the living prophets are true, our role as speakers in a Sacrament Meeting is not to read from the Church magazines, but to testify of truth, using the scriptures and the words of living prophets as our guides. Without advance warning, a person must speak from the heart and off the cuff. He or she won't copy and paste from LDS.org - the talk will be more personal, less staged, and likely related to that speaker's current scripture study. I like it. But my stake has not announced anything like that.

For those who say privatization would be unprofitable, consider this scenario: Let's say that for a better education, a parent is willing to pay babysitters' wages for their children to be in school. Minimum wage is $6.85. How about round that off - let's say a flat $5 per hour for a good education. If you tossed the kid in daycare instead of school, you would spend significantly more than that. $5 per hour would work out to $30 per day (let's assume you pay for 6 hours of instruction, but not lunch or recess times). Based on a 180-day school year (which is about normal), that works out to $450 per month per student. For some, that may seem like a significant cost, but isn't it much cheaper than a babysitter? OK, I know that's ridiculous. But let's assume that the government would provide tuition assistance in the form of vouchers, etc. Even if they chose to pay the whole tuition for every student, the annual $5400 would be much cheaper than the 2006 average of $9138 per student in the US. In a K-8 private school of 500 students, $5 per hour for each student would yield an annual budget of $2,700,000. That doesn't include community donations or government help for the school. Let's say we limit class sizes to 25. In a school of 500, that would be 20 classes. That means a budget of $135,000 per year per classroom. That could pay every classroom teacher a $55,000 salary (well above the national average), give every classroom $2,000 per year for materials, and leave the school $1,560,000 per year for other expenses, like facilities and administration. This is a basic survival scenario. If local businesses and community organizations would also chip in a bit (as they already do), the schools could be very affordable for parents and profitable for investors. Or, they could be very wealthy nonprofit organizations run in the same manner as corporations. The concept is feasible.

If we're talking about LDS people specifically here, one of the high values we are taught repeatedly in the Book of Mormon is liberty. There is a huge liberty/captivity conflict throughout the book. However, we see in the Book of Mormon that when the voice of the law and the leaders of a people become corrupt, that people loses its liberty and comes into captivity by another group. Instituting just laws that maintain order among the people (no matter what their beliefs) is necessary to maintain the liberty we have.

I would be in favor IF it was an across-the-board change. If some schools privatize while others remain public, it will exacerbate conflicts between social classes and promote elitism.