Mormons and Polygamy

So with Mitt Romney, the Book of Mormon musical, and the “I am a Mormon” ad campaign (have you seen the “I am an Ex-Mormon” videos?) members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are getting a lot of attention nowadays. Most people know a few things about them: generally larger families and younger marriages than the national averages, no alcohol or coffee (or tea), and so on. And of course, polygamy. Most people know that Mormons no longer practice polygamy, but few people know the details. Even Mormons only really know a few details themselves, generally speaking, though everything I’ll be saying here can be easily researched.

 

Questions and Answers about the Garment from a Previous Distribution Center Employee

I used to work for the Church. Now, before you start imagining anything, it wasn’t a very important job. I worked retail at one of the Church’s now-defunct Distribution Centers; our purpose was to sell items produced by the Corporation of the Presiding Bishopric. We sold Sunday School manuals, scripture sets, Church videos and audio media, hymnals, pictures, and a host of other publications.

We also sold garments. The garment is an article of clothing given to endowed members of the Church upon their first time through the Temple rituals. The garment is produced by another branch of the CPB, Beehive Clothing, and was sold through Distribution Services.

Working a job with garments really gave me a new perspective on them and how to treat them.

 

Teaching Sunday School – Part 5

I wonder if I’ll be able to put a date to when I broke the camel’s back: will it be September 4, 2011? I’m probably over-reacting, but if that’s so, at least I’ll be happy about what I did: I got the kids some Bibles. They’ve always really liked my little pocket-sized KJV that I bring. They like the red letters for whenever an author has Jesus speaking. They like the size. They like the self-pronouncing names.

So I went and got a bunch of KJV bibles from the Internet: they were cheap and seemed like a good idea. Then, as I was ordering, I thought a bit about what I was getting them and decided to order a handful of similarly sized NIVs. Yes, I know that the NIV isn’t the most accurate translation (trying to determine what is would be an exercise in futility and argument about the purposes and limitations of biblical translation), but it’s certainly the most popular English version and one that any non-Mormon Christian is going to be very familiar with. Besides, almost anything would be better than the KJV (well, possibly not The Message, but that’s my opinion).

 

Teaching Sunday School – Part 4

Back again! I didn’t teach this week, so there’s no real new updates there. When I’m not teaching I tend to take a support role; I don’t appreciate when a team teacher tries to hijack my lesson, so I feel it’s appropriate for me to show the same courtesy. I try to give factual information when I can, however, as well as summarizations of what the kids read.

 

Teaching Sunday School, Part 3

Again, the standard explanation: I’m not really writing these posts to be read, but more because I want to just talk. Thanks for listening; I’ll try to fix the more egregious spelling/grammatical mistakes, but in the end I’m not too concerned.

So one question I have had from people who both know of my lack of belief in the LDS Church and my calling as a Sunday School teacher has been, “Don’t you feel like you’re being misleading?”

 

Teaching Sunday School, Pt. 2

Wow, I forgot that this blog was part of an aggregator (sorry, Main Street Plaza). I kinda thought my words were just flying off into the private, digital realm of the Internet. Silly me, nothing on the Internet is ever private. If you’re reading this, please understand that I’m pretty much approaching this as a rant flying off into teh intarwebs. Make of it what you will (along with the constant grammatical mistakes where my fingers fly a little bit ahead of my brain). If you have questions, go ahead and ask them and I answer them as best as I can.

 

Teaching Sunday School – Beginnings

I’ve wanted to write this for a while. I’m not sure how interesting it will be for anyone else, but I keep wanting to tell someone how much fun I’ve been having, as well as rant a little bit.

In November I finally got fed up with the crapologia and insipid approach our Sunday School was taking towards the Hebrew Bible. From the constant Book of Mormon-inspired Christological approach to texts that have nothing to do with a Messiah viewpoint to the horrible misrepresentations of Jewish beliefs I was tired of it. I study this stuff all the time; it’s not that hard to do a little research outside of the Sunday School manual. I love the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament! They’re so deliciously messy and human. They’re worn down by time and are written by dozens of real, and different, human beings. It argues against itself constantly and consistently challenges the reader to understand it both as individual works and as the artificial whole we tend to view it as. It’s fun!

So I finally did it: I asked the bishop to let me teach. I’ve got the chops for it: I’ve read the books, I know the current scholarship relatively well, and gosh-darn it (because I’m talking to the Bishop) I’ve even put the effort into learning Ancient Greek and can read the New Testament (admittedly, I can read it far too slowly to actually do any real translating in class) for cryin’ out loud. I can do this!

 

Matrix and Inception Exmormons

My Experience

When I was growing up in the Church I discovered the famous Liahona-Iron Rod belief labels. I loved the idea; I could instantly see in my mind where the various adults and friends I had lined up between these two positions. I was a Liahona Mormon, no question, and I could easily see most of my Seminary teacher and other leaders as Iron Rodders. When I got older (probably in college) I realized the limitations of this particular schema; it’s actually too limiting to place an individual into one of two groups. Everyone overlaps each position in various aspects of their life. But I continued to use the term because of its usefulness in providing a shorthand in discussions. “Liahona” may not fully describe a person, but it describes enough to give a rough picture. The same can be said for “Iron Rod”.

Since then I’ve found another separation used, with the same limitations, in regards to how Mormons approach the difficulties of their religion against modern science and scholarship: the Chapel (or traditional) Mormons and the Internet (or non-traditional) Mormons. Unfortunately, these terms are often applied by those who don’t feel they belong in either group and have some serious negative connotations. Unlike “Liahona” and “Iron Rod”, the Chapel-Traditional distinction is usually applied in a divisive fashion meant to provide a negative view of another person. For this reason I try hard to refrain from using it, but it also continues to provide a cool short-hand in describing aspects of Mormon belief and approach.

 

My Experience with Porn Recovery

Um, there really isn’t any too-long, didn’t-read.  I thought of writing one due to the oppressive length of this post, but I couldn’t think of it.  Maybe someone could do so in a comment if they feel this post needs one.  Also, feel free to ask me anything. I’ll try to respond.  If this is too long, just don’t read.