Parents, Consider Schooling Options for the Sake of your Children

There has been yet another school shooting and the media is hard at work to blame guns for this violence. Again, as I have said previously, one solution for these sorts of tragedies is a family decision to keep children away from systemically dangerous "targets" like schools.

Lisa and I made a choice early in our marriage to school our children ourselves as much as we could contrive. Part of our reason to live in the frontiers of New Mexico is the strong homeschooling tradition here and the "hands-off" approach the state government is forced to have about a parent's educational choices for their own children. We were able to take advantage of wonderfully "alternative" schooling opportunities, such as The Learning Center at House Schools, that we were able to find close by. We made conscious choices about the lives of our children and I feel these have paid off enormously.

Please, alongside the mass call for turning schools and communities into gun-free, prison-like "police states", consider the far more personal and responsible choices that each parent can make to better ensure a long and fruitful life for their children. Parents are supposed to put forth their best effort to rear their children into adults that can succeed, even in the dangerous world in which we live. I hope *you* put your children ahead of ideological agendas and don't ignorantly just hand the most crucial part of your child's life (and potentially the end of their lives) over to questionable institutions like public schools. For your child's sake, explore the different educational alternatives available to your family!

Say you are a sinner and get destroyed

I have never been a fan of people of any tradition crowing about the fact that they are sinners. It is like Jesus saving a person shows how wonderful he is by his redemption of totally awful people. The worse a person is, the better Christ looks.

My and your life is not about making Christ look good. It is about our opportunity to become better people and Jesus facilitating that by letting us repent (change) and straighten up before we face our final judgement. 

Isaiah 13:9

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

I like Isaiah  because he doesn't sugar-coat anything. Christ will not be the huggy teddy-bear in "the day of the Lord", using words like "wrath" and "fierce anger" to describe how he will operate. I note the "destroy the sinners" summary. I don't want to be in that situation and I figure most others don't either. 

Here is what I say to those that shout "I am a sinner" - STOP SINNING.

You can be that way, just not here

Brigham Young University has a problem, and I imagine other "religious" liberal arts universities have the same issue to one degree or another. The tenets of religion and the liberal arts are usually diametrically opposed to each other in purpose and both cannot flourish well in the same place. One must dominate the other eventually, though you can try to keep the eternal war between them in some sort of stasis, the game of intellectuals. The "academy" sees this as its parade ground and prides itself on the "virtue" of the struggle, awarding honors and degrees based largely on timed exposure to academic ministrations.

I really have no experience on which to base my attitude. I traditionally attended and matriculated through a secular state-supported teachers college. Much later in life, I worked through an online university, basically doing a string of digital assignments until the next degree appeared. I was already doing the sort of work I was "studying", though not as vaguely formalized enough to call a course of study. I knew there were lectures and tutors there, but I never took advantage of those things. There was no perceived spiritual component or framework that a religious college would claim, but I wasn't engaged enough to notice the lack of spiritual elements.

I have since looked at some interesting confluences of the spiritual and academia, especially from Ubiquity University. I really don't need a job anymore, so a PhD will be largely unnecessary for a career I have no intention of pursuing for money.  My aspirations are to stay busy doing something important (which I never really did in my working life). Also with Ubiquity, there is a left--wing smell to the whole affair with really questionable sexuality tacked on, so I need to avoid it as a person trying to get to heaven.

I can imagine spending time and money pursuing such a doctorate and, right there at the end, having my degree-granting group say that I wasn't just the right sort of person they could bestow their power onto - wrong philosophy!  And they would surely keep all the money.

It is a tricky world these days and I am less willing to take chances that I can fit in with modern groups. There is way too much demand to push against some cultural edge and basically show how intellectually or physically gross behavior you can get away with. I have commitments to God and some advanced degree doesn't persuade me to ignore them.

I'm much more interested in something along these lines: 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hugh-nibley/leaders-managers/ 

 

Strait and narrow path

The Strait of Hormuz and the Bering Strait and other "choke points" that need expert navigation to traverse, like the path and iron rod that guides us next to filthy waters on our way to the tree of life. Christ and his prophets provide us needed expert navigation through tight, mine-laden situations.

It is hard to know if the path gets easier or the "wandering room" on the sides of the Lord's path to exaltation fall away on either side as we progress on our "faith journey". In the economy of "don't count on it", we must be cognizant that our devotion to following Christ must be more fixed and focused over our lifetimes.

Artificial Intelligence is a manipulative digital ouija con game

Stimulation-hungry teenagers bend intently over a wooden board, surrendering themselves to "spiritual" forces that move a pointer and spell out words and phrases typed out by demons.

The old ouija board is now a computerized device linked to vast algorithms that also reveal secrets and quickly entraps those who want an easy short-cut to success and answers.  Demons run ouija boards and demons merge with AI. 

https://scitechdaily.com/is-ai-really-just-a-tool-it-could-be-altering-how-you-see-reality/

https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/08/ai-chatbots-kids-teens-artificial-intelligence.html (sadly, only cataloging incidents, not seeking to eliminate the vector)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/who-is-liable-when-ai-kills1/ (AI too big (a profit center) to be liable for deaths) 

https://www.wired.com/story/openai-backs-bill-exempt-ai-firms-model-harm-lawsuits/ (obfuscating culpability - Demons get impunity) 

What aspects of AI point to demonic forces:

• AI's most basic and early uses are to trick people, as in "I wrote this paper" and "I am really that smart", leading to "this is a real person." Satan tricks.
• Early criticism of AI was that it collects (steals) often copyrighted material on the internet indiscriminately. This has been buried and mostly ignored in favor of the monumental perceived benefit of the data-grab. Compensating owners would have ruined the game.
• "Mistakes" (indemnified with every response) Being honest doesn't overcome giving bad (false) information. People are apt to trust it anyway, given the rewards.
• AI always wants to expand and get bigger (data centers that feed off power grids paid for by electric customers). Real wealth and reward is to be had as this "scales" at human expense (fewer jobs, rising cost of living).
• AI creation is driven by greed (investors see this as the best investment and to be first to profit) - no one made so much on promises rather than a delivered working product - AI doesn't actually work yet.
• "Give AI more and it will (finally) deliver" - very satanic concept of trickery to pull in victims. Don't expect results before all resources are gone. 

The Doctrine of Christ

I understand and honor those who want to get to the heart of any matter set before them. I am also one that tends to brush away things that I consider ancillary to real purposes. In Christ's ministry in the holy land, he went to weddings and dinners; he socialized over the course of a three year ministry. In the land of Bountiful, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Christ was only present for a handful of days, so we don't hear of his social schedule. He was rather purposeful and almost business-like. There was little time for things like parables, collecting new followers, or answering a lot of questions.

In one crucial incident, Christ did a clear progression of things in the first hours of his visit to the people at Bountiful, as described in the third book of Nephi, chapter 11:

1. God the Father announces and identifies Jesus and that he is the son of God (v. 3-7);
2. Jesus show each person that he was the promised and crucified Messiah who had been prophecied would come (v. 8-17);
3. Jesus calls Nephi and others and gives them the power to baptize (v. 18-22);
4. Jesus explains exactly how to perform a baptism and denounces (traditional Jewish) disputations on baptism and doctrine (v. 23-30);
5. The first rendition of the doctrine of Christ and his promise that the Holy Ghost will validate its truth (v. 31-36);
6. The second rendition of the doctrine of Christ (v. 37);
7. The third rendition of the doctrine of Christ (v. 38);
8. There is nothing more or less in the doctrine of Christ. Blessing to them that preach this as Christ's doctrine and punishments for those who teach other things as the doctrine of Christ (v. 39-40); and
9. Charge to Nephi and his brethren to go and teach these things. (v. 41)

There is a definite line of authority to baptise established, from God to Christ to Nephi and others. There is instruction on the authorized performance of the ordinance of baptism specifically to those newly authorized to perform it. There is a specific charge against speculation toward alteration of the baptism ordinance and the doctrine surrounding it. The doctrine of Christ is the singular importance of repentance and baptism to being saved and inheriting the kingdom of God, repeated three times. Finally, those authorized to baptize are instructed to preach the doctrine of repentance and baptism to everyone.

31 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will declare unto you my doctrine.

32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.

33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.

34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.

35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are bone.

37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.

38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.

41 Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.

I emphasized a phrase above because there is a strong tendency for many people to say that there is nothing more to Christ and Christianity than repentance and baptism. From my reading, this is the total sum of what needs to be done to be "saved" (how many different flavors of salvation are out there?), which is to inherit the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean there is not more to God or Christ, such as exaltation. It means that you cannot add other stipulations to salvation (as the Jews were known for), nor can you neuter or push aside any of the stated requirements, such as authoritative baptism (as some Christ-believing groups have done), and say you will still be saved. In this situation of short exposure, Christ was terribly clear and immediately repetitive on this doctrine!

Are there further blessings and opportunities that God offers us beyond this "salvation"? I strongly believe that there are, including transcendence toward exaltation, which is to become like God. I don't feel that anything said in this chapter or elsewhere in the Book of Mormon or Holy Bible proscribes or condemns such further opportunities.

What I hope to convey here is the central importance of baptism performed by those authorized to do it. For those who essentially do nothing, relying alone on the "love of Christ" to "save" them, and loudly proclaiming this concept, I can only say that Christ has already condemned such teaching and (lack of) practice and purveyors, as quoted vividly above! I will rather say this, as instructed by Christ: "Repent! Be baptized! Be saved!"

Be Reconciled to God and Parents

God provides everything you have and everything you are. You really don't know much about God at all.  Stories in the scriptures teach you to trust God in his promises, such as the rewards for obedience to commandments.

You have parents. God tells you to honor them.  They may be terrible parents, but what do we have as children to judge those that gave us life, often cared for us in our early and most vulnerable years. We were fed and clothed and sheltered to various degrees by parents and grandparents, usually in ways that we could not see or comprehend in our young minds. Some hate their parents, taught to do it by people happy to tear down natural affection and profit from their destruction of the ignorant and innocent.

To have a better reward, you HAVE to reconcile yourself to God. Do what God tells you to do, even if you don't see it as being a good thing. Some teach an ignorance of God, seeking to erase Deity to fill that role themselves. You may think you know thing better then God does, and this attitude is increasing encouraged by haughty folk who seek your devotion to them. Don't allow anyone to place themselves between yourself and God.

You must also reconcile yourself to your parents, also doing what they tell you to do in your youth.  Until you leave their home and set up a home and family of your own, you are REQUIRED to reconcile yourself to your parents. As we grow older, parenting our own children, we gain a better understanding of the challenges they faced and the stresses of living that contributed to their choices. You do the same with your own children that may judge and hate you, perhaps as you did to your own parents.

Forgive your parents and perhaps your own children will choose to ultimately forgive you. God, who defines "good",  may choose to forgive our idiocy as we reconcile ourselves to his guidance and wisdom.