NeuroTypical

Hi Lovely12,One thing I learned early on, is that God doesn't really operate according to humanity's latest catch phrase we use to define behavior. So, the term 'racist' has not been with humanity long. We invented it a scant few decades ago, and assigned a definition to it, as we as humans began to grapple with 19th-20th century cultural trends. So, the first thing I'd like to ask you to do, is figure out what that term means to you, and why you think it's bad. After you've done that, let's talk about how God has dealt with His kids in the past. Yes indeed, He most certainly has dealt with His children differently based on what race they were. Jews were (and are) his most-favored "chosen people". In biblical times, you had to be related to a certain group of people to be a priest, or go into the holiest parts of the temple. If someone else's blood ran through your veins, you were out of luck. For example - Ezra 2:62 tells of a group of people who wished to be numbered among the Israelites, but their bloodlines were found to be "polluted" with non-Israelitish blood, so they were kicked out of the priesthood. God's rules of the time: "pure blood Israelites only". So tell me, do you think that was a 'racist' situation - according to our 21st century definition of the word? Was God being 'racist' back then? LM

Isn't that every single movie Ed Asner has ever been in?

Fairness nuthin'. Here's how we dig post holes 'round the LM compound: LM (yes, that picture was a set up)

Hi babywill! Go for it. Like Pam said, one at a time is best.

A Bishop's 2nd counselor is the Bishop's 2nd 'right hand man', whose duties include doing whichever Bishop's responsibilities are delegated to him. The Bishop and his counselors form a bishopric, and their basic job is to minister to ward members in love, helping "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". One is called by having a bishop recommend him, the stake president and high council approve him, the ward members sustain him, and he's set apart by someone in the Stake presidency. Does this help? LM

My own uninformed two cents: From an eternal perspective, the timing of our deaths isn't near as important as we think it is. I believe we'll eventually come to understand this. It's how you live with the time you have, that is more important. LM

I'd like to do that. Got a link?

Here's a Letter to the Editor, published in the SLTrib a few years back: --------------------- And here are some thoughts I wrote down a dozen years ago, after getting sealed in the temple, and my dad couldn't come. Some things I did on my wedding day that were shared with anyone we chose to invite: * Wedding breakfast, complete with a groom-to-be speech honoring my father and thanking him for all he had done for me. * 4 hour reception with all the shaking hands, smiling, picture taking, garter tossing, cake eating, and car decorating you'd expect at such an event. Some things I did on my wedding day that were shared only with certain people: * Getting sealed in the temple (open only to invited temple recommend holders) * Family pictures on the temple grounds (location open to public, event open only to select family members) Some things I did on my wedding day that involved totally and completely excluding absolutely every person I knew on the entire face of the planet except for my spouse: * Limo ride from temple to reception * Everything that occurred after driving off in the car with all the "just married" crap hung on it. So, out of the 24 hours in the day, I'd say 6 was spent sleeping, 2 driving from place to place, 2 wedding breakfast, 2 inside the temple, 2 pictures on temple grounds, 4 reception, and 6 nobody's dang business. (To be honest, 1 of those last hours involved a car wash and a frustrated failed attempt to get toothpaste off the side of my car, but don't tell anyone.) To summarize, only 8.3% of the best day of my life was spent inside the temple, where my Dad couldn't be. I am very grateful to him for his gracious willingness to involve himself in the 33.33% of the day we wanted him for. I'm very glad he didn't spend years prior to my even chosing a mate griping about losing two hours in an attempt to have me not get married in the temple. Because if he had, I don't know what I would have done. It's possible that the woman that eventually did say yes to me would have instead lost interest due to my negative family complications, and then I would have missed out on 7 of the most wonderful years of my life, not to mention two of the cutest kids ever. It wasn't until after his death, (when I inherited his anti-mormon library that I knew nothing about), that I realized exactly how much he loved me and trusted me. I humbly suggest that there's plenty of the "most joyous events of my life" that I was able to share with my father on that day. I owe him big for not screwing it up for me, because he probably could have by having the same problem with it that you are. LM

No need to make up stories - the real news has plenty real stuff. Sting nets an ex-LDS official

My wife has had good luck finding friends in the homeschool community. It's such a widely diverse group of people, they pretty much revel in the differences.

...like it needs a hole in the head.

There are advantages to having a bunch of EMTs and specialized heavy equipment within 10 miles of where you live. But yeah, given the chance to live away from a huge wave of people needing services, or living right in the middle of them, I'll take my extra-long commute to work, thank you. My wife's blog opines about such things. LM

Krakauer is a jerk, and also not a very bright one. He is not a scholar, and his book should not be taken seriously. He was travelilng around in Africa, and gave a press interview about how the Mormons in Utah have severe genetic problems caused by all our inbreeding. He was playing on folks' ignorance of mormons, I guess he figured nobody who knew anything would be there to counter him. I agree with john doe. Rough Stone Rolling is, by all accounts, a far superior book written by an author with far superior credentials, in a much more reasoned and factually asserted way.

Oh, man! I didn't want to laugh, I wanted my free grill!

So the question is "would you kill your family for freedom's sake". No. I would not strap bombs to my kids so they could blow up 'da man'. I would not ask my wife to go man a foxhole that would delay the advances of the bad guys long enough for some other group to accomplish some freedom-worthy mission. I'd like to think I'm a 9, but from what they tell me, you never know what you're made of until you actually are facing the situation. Idle speculation on a message board is a far, far distant second. LM

And she'd be right.Right?

Yeah, if some tornado or severe storm hits here, there'll probably be a million trees across my road home. I hadn't thought of my draft horse as part of my preparadness efforts, until I envisioned her hooked up and pulling trees out of the road.

Are you sure your question shouldn't be "what's my role as a home teacher"? You visit and bring a spiritual message, and see if the family has any specific needs. You don't have to meet those needs yourself. Sounds like she or he or they need marriage counseling - something an untrained home teacher probably should avoid trying to provide (especially when the wife is refusing it). Sounds like you can pray for, listen to, sympathize with, and bear testimony to these folks. But I'd draw the line at offering, as a representative of the church acting in official capacity as home teacher, marital advice. Unless, of course, the spirit gives you things to say. LM

Just wanted to remind you of the advice my wife gave on your other thread. It's still very much valid.

Step 1 - figure out exactly what you are preparing for. Natural disasters and terrorist attacks are not similar at all. Are you preparing to survive in your home for a period of time, or are you preparing to be able to grab things and leave? How long do you anticipate the disaster to last? When I sat down and looked at things, I discovered that the most-likely disasters we needed to prepare for, were weather related things like a winter blizzard, tornado, or other massive storm. It immediately dawned on me that both I and my family spend a heck of a lot of time 25-35 miles away from our house. So not only did we prepare to have supplies to see us through at home, we also created packs for our cars. My pack is a 'get home bag', and includes stuff like hiking boots, ponchos, food & water. My family's pack is more of a 'stay put and weather the storm' bag, and includes plenty of cash to buy things like hotel rooms. The task might seem a bit daunting, but things get a little more clear when you have a good grasp of, say, the five most-likely events you think might happen. LM

Goodness - what you described is most certainly NOT the gospel! The gospel is the exact opposite of force. Force was Satan's plan. "Doing a bunch of stuff because we're supposed to and then life will be good" is NOT the gospel. If someone forced that on me, I'd hate it also. I would suggest to you, that you need to dramatically re-think a few very basic, foundational things in your life. Like "what is the gospel". If he has made any recent threats, you should act on them, and contact a mental health organization. Has he made any threats or statements about ending his life?

Yeah, ditto what beefche and Islander said. If my parents had kicked me out at 19 and then texted me, I wouldn't have answered them either. Because I would be a selfish teenage kid with some anger to work through. The last thing on my mind would be making life easier for my parents. LM

Yep - you get nukes, your power at the geopolitical bargaining table goes up. Translation: "We now have nukes, so you people will now let us extend our influence by transporting arms". Pity Obama had other things on his mind the first hundred days. Pity the world let it's hatred for America overpower it's common-sense desire to halt nuclear proliferation during Bush's tenure. Pity we didn't have the spine to demand Clinton NOT make deals with them, allowing their program to get off the ground. (The pity's probably go back further than that, but I wasn't paying attention prior to 1992-ish.) LM

Your house, your rules. The presence of rules does not mean you don't love him, and want what's best for him. You aren't kicking him out, he's getting himself kicked out with his immature and unacceptable behavior. "I wanna" does not make something right. If someone ever figures out a way to get these lessons through the thick skulls of teenagers, I'd gladly give them a dollar for their secret. My turn is coming, I'm sure. LM

Yep - what Wingnut said. It's pretty easy. Mormons are big fans of marriage, and your average bishop will be very happy to help two people in an obvious committed relationship formalize it in the eyes of God and man.