Unanswered Questions

[crytsprospect]

Its not just our church. I think it is normal to not want to hash over past negatives only to concentrate on the positives. Its not trying to be deceitful or anything. The past is to be learned from and then let go of. Not to forget but to know its done and the here and now is where we need to concentrate. Givin that I love history so go figure............

[MorningStar]

The church's purpose is to bring souls to Christ. When I was in seminary, we learned a lot about church history, but there always seemed to be a lesson from it rather than just being an interesting fact. We all have so many things to work on, it seems way more valuable to spend time learning about the principles of the gospel than history. And at what point do you start addressing the history? This would be kind of bizarre, "Hi! We're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We have a message for you about the Mountain Meadow Massacre! Did you know Brigham Young had 42 children? Joseph Smith was sealed to men! Orson Pratt taught that Jesus was married to Martha and Mary, but that's not church doctrine. Would you like to hear some racist phrases uttered by church leaders in the 1800's?" Our goal is to teach people with the Spirit in hopes they will come to Christ. History can be interesting, but also a distraction from what is important.

[Misshalfway]

Sometimes I wonder what all of us would look like to each other if we knew every single detail of our respective histories!!!

[Hemidakota]

Would it really matter? The past is the past and not now [current].

[Jenamarie]

The church's purpose is to bring souls to Christ. When I was in seminary, we learned a lot about church history, but there always seemed to be a lesson from it rather than just being an interesting fact. We all have so many things to work on, it seems way more valuable to spend time learning about the principles of the gospel than history. And at what point do you start addressing the history? This would be kind of bizarre, "Hi! We're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We have a message for you about the Mountain Meadow Massacre! Did you know Brigham Young had 42 children? Joseph Smith was sealed to men! Orson Pratt taught that Jesus was married to Martha and Mary, but that's not church doctrine. Would you like to hear some racist phrases uttered by church leaders in the 1800's?" Our goal is to teach people with the Spirit in hopes they will come to Christ. History can be interesting, but also a distraction from what is important.

I just spit out my Sprite!

[MorningStar]

Sometimes I wonder what all of us would look like to each other if we knew every single detail of our respective histories!!!

*whispering* My friends and I once put on our sequin jazz choir tops, more make-up than Tammy Faye Baker, and called ourselves The Idaho Hookers during our trip to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. We were doing that to freak out our director who ended up not being there when we knocked on his door, then the jazz band came out and started making noises at us. Then we ran away, had a friend take our picture, and I came out looking like a burn victim because my sequins were reflecting off my overly blushed face. Shhhhhhhh ... Don't tell anyone. I might have a high calling someday or maybe run for mayor.

[MorningStar]

I just spit out my Sprite!

Hahaha! Mission accomplished.

[crytsprospect]

Distractions boy we have so many of them. Nothing in our church history changes any fact of what I believe. Just like all the things that happened to me in my past they contribute to who I am now but they are not me here and now.......

Speaking of history----- have any of you read " The fate of the prosecutors of Joseph Smith" my mom had it when I was a teenager , wouldn't let me read it.

[Misshalfway]

Morningstar, Your secret is safe with me!

Hey Jenamarie? You ever heard of the Idaho*******?????....well.......::whisperwhisperwhisper::...

[crytsprospect]

Morning ----- oh so funny and oh so true.....

[Jenamarie]

I stole a TV Guide when I was 7 years old. I thought they were so cool and my parents were SO LAME to never buy them.

[MorningStar]

Morningstar, Your secret is safe with me!

Hey Jenamarie? You ever heard of the Idaho*******?????....well.......::whisperwhisperwhisper::...

*ahem* Secrets??? What secrets??? I have no secrets.

[MorningStar]

I stole a TV Guide when I was 7 years old. I thought they were so cool and my parents were SO LAME to never buy them.

Ew. I don't know if I like you anymore.

Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode with the TV Guides? That was hilarious.

[Misshalfway]

What is the first rule of politics? Deny! Deny! Deny!

[MorningStar]

Morning ----- oh so funny and oh so true.....

Thanks! I just wonder - At one point do you bring this stuff up? It's just not relevant to me, but if you don't teach it, then people will say they were lied to. Well I don't hear Protestants openly telling everyone about Martin Luther and how he said he liked to scare the devil away with a burst of flatulence, how he wanted to uhhhh ... do something very gross to the papal crown, and other unpleasantries. I wouldn't expect anyone to tell me that. The flatulence thing did make me laugh though.

[MorningStar]

What is the first rule of politics? Deny! Deny! Deny!

I did not. Dress. Up. Like. A. Hooker. I never wore sequins, and I never embarrassed myself by looking like a burn victim in a photograph while wearing black eyeliner for lipstick.

Didn't happen.

I also never had a really bad perm.

[MorningStar]

I never stayed up all night on a "dating hotline" while my friends laughed hysterically as they listened on speaker phone in the other room while I told a wannabe poet in my sexiest voice, "Stop the rhyming and I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?" Didn't happen. I also didn't stuff my top with socks that night while dancing to "Roxanne". And I didn't accidentally run into the TV while doing that.

[crytsprospect]

Its history it is there and we aren't hiding it and there are bad things in history everywhere and usually not advertised......... I love the obscure facts, bits of info about things so love history good or bad. I am a convert and don't find anything in our history to sway my beliefs. Honesty is the best policy. If someone is getting bad info spill the beans first openly and honestly it deflates their points.

[crytsprospect]

So much for not confessing :}

[crytsprospect]

I never tp'd a Bishops house

[MorningStar]

I never tp'd a Bishops house

I never t.p.ed our choir teachers house.

I never threw-up Shredded Wheat after running the 600 meter in gym class.

I never shut-off the electricity to our roommate's room when she refused to turn her radio off at night.

[MorningStar]

I never pretended to smoke cigarettes in the mall with the bubblegum ones that you could blow the powder out of. Then when an old lady gave me a dirty look, I didn't start eating the gum to show her it wasn't a cigarette.

[crytsprospect]

I never put everything in my friends office on his desks and buy 5$ of $ store bugs and bug his office.

I never filled a teachers car with balloons

I never hid a friend's car early morning at seminary

I also have never done multiple Chinese fire drills at stop lights in town

[MaidservantX]

Actually, all of this hilarity -- perhaps an interesting point? Do we ascribe much of any mis-steps (if we think they exist) of the early church to the fact that it was in its childhood?

True story, take it or leave it as relevant or not -- but within the last couple of years I have been praying and pondering with some degree of fervor to know if there was any way possible I could be sealed to 2 husbands. (That is highly relevant to my life.) Presto, bingo, very quickly I learned for the first time about polyandry in the early church. Now, I'm not saying I can take any doctrinal conclusions per se from that, and this is something I am just sharing about my own learning (which is not complete on the subject) and not preaching it out there for everyone. I'm just saying something about point of view or framing -- when I found out about polyandry it was a huge RELIEF not a BETRAYAL.

[Jenamarie]

Actually, all of this hilarity -- perhaps an interesting point? Do we ascribe much of any mis-steps (if we think they exist) of the early church to the fact that it was in its childhood?

True story, take it or leave it as relevant or not -- but within the last couple of years I have been praying and pondering with some degree of fervor to know if there was any way possible I could be sealed to 2 husbands. (That is highly relevant to my life.) Presto, bingo, very quickly I learned for the first time about polyandry in the early church. Now, I'm not saying I can take any doctrinal conclusions per se from that, and this is something I am just sharing about my own learning (which is not complete on the subject) and not preaching it out there for everyone. I'm just saying something about point of view or framing -- when I found out about polyandry it was a huge RELIEF not a BETRAYAL.

You know, this is one of those things I wish the church was a little more clear on. One thing I've learned about the Sealing Covenant in my search for a Testimony is that it's about much much more than the nuclear family unit. It's much more than me being Sealed to my parents, or to my husband, or to my children. It's about me and my family being SEALED INTO THE FAMILY OF CHRIST! It's not about being the Smith Family or the Doe Family for Eternity, it's about being the Children of Christ for Eternity, being heirs with Him, and doing it with those whom we love.

Somewhere along the way, probably in order to keep order in the process (because in the beginning people were being baptized and sealed by Proxy rather willy-nilly), the church had to establish certain orders in which to do the work (such as only doing work for your own family, and only being Sealed to one Eternal Companion) and a part of the doctrine was lost from sight for some people. When Christ comes to rein it will all be sorted out according to His will, but for now our finite minds are carrying out the work as best we can.