A Curious Instrument

Viewed through the One Hundred Fifty Year Lens , a large problem over the centuries was the lack of enough food for any given population. Often enough, people "experiencing a lack of nobility" were both half-starved, if not more so, and emaciated (yes, those are different things). Remove the lens, and one gets the obvious change:  (over)abundance of food. There is so much food produced today that much of the "imperfect" fruits, vegetables, and meats are simply thrown out, choking our sewage and refuse systems.  You may have contributed by sending a steak (noble grub) back for being overcooked, a truly royal act in the past, which goes straight to the garbage. Blame modern food regulations for that fact that most imperfect steaks don't make it down a soup line person's gullet, which any past royal would have figured how to do. Now, in many developed countries, there is an obesity epidemic. Even I, who don't readily register as fat, am statistically obese ...

I had a recent chance to watch the “Come Follow Up” program on the BYU-TV channel (find it here: https://www.byutv.org/come-follow-up ) and I saw in several episodes a good model of how our second hour discussions could be better conducted.  Every week or so, the discussion leader (Ben Lomu - handsome polynesian host) brings a gospel scholar and a one or two “Random AnySaints” in front of a group of “spectators” and they chat about the week’s “Come, Follow Me” study. Although informative to just watch the episode, I urge you to take a step back from what is being discussed and see how this weekly presentation flows and who fills what role in their “class”. The discussion leader kicks things off with a very short summary of what the reading was about. I am not kidding, I timed a few of these summaries and they lasted less than two minutes. This is a good lead-in to help people recall their home scripture study and be ready to discuss what they learned and what touched them. Then, t...

I haven't met a vegan who didn't think they were more pure than others around them.  Veganism is a religion where practitioners are the gods and get pretty testy when they are not worshiped by others for their superior culinary practices. It is the ultimate worship of the self and they tolerate no other gods meddling in their self-love. The same sort of self-love informs the modern idea that remaining unmarried is the best state of being. 1 Timothy 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. This may be the most basic attitude against God in the Western world right now - rejecting what the Lord has given for our use. We are meant to marry and bear children in marriage, which brings us closer to the state of God and our relationship to him. Eating fruits and vegetables more than meats is actually a good thing, but "religiously" avoiding meat is setting u...

It's disconcerting when I hear the wisdom of Youtube, Tiktok, and other "outside" sources used in Sacrament talks and lessons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . With the sacrifice and effort put out to safeguard and translate the Bible and Book of Mormon records for our use, coupled with the inspiration and wisdom of Christ-appointed prophets and apostles , the use of such lesser sources as references in Church meetings smacks of ingratitude for the authorities that Christ has already established to give us spiritual guidance. Modern social media provides compelling voices and personalities the opportunity to reach broad audiences that only accomplished and recognized leaders and theologians could muster in the past. Although more people have the chance to be seen and heard more widely via the internet, the messages presented have a greater tendency to be tailored toward "itching ears" rather than inspired truth.  For the time will come when t...

I have been spending time in very foreign places lately and the difference in culture are stark. Although I feel this way in most situations every day, the contrast to the stranger feeling is far more stark some four thousand miles away from my wife! Santiago in Chile has no particular enemies as far as I can see, unlike the United States. Border control is a simple matter in this part of South America compared to the grilling I will get when I re-enter the USA. I suppose more terrorists are interested in attacking "the land of the free and home of the brave" as they say, rather than the longest and skinniest country around. It is interesting to see the people on the streets of Santiago, stopping often, shaking hands, pairing off and often kissing each other. if you can get past the frustrated drivers that regularly toot their horns, it is all very (in a word) peaceful . It isn't very noisy for a congested city center and I don't see a lot of anxiety in anyone's f...

Women become the most vaunted victim/heroes when they are anointed single mothers. And it is a bequeath, complete with a judge that raps a gavel to make it happen.  I was just watching a video where a single mom was talking about how hard it was to parent alone. They are beautiful and endurant and sacrificing, which means the cast-away husband/father must have been blind, abusive, and self-centered, right? That was why this most wonderous and beatified mother could ever divorce or so it seems .  It is an accepted sociological fact that men are monsters and if a woman hasn't divorced random man yet, it is only a matter of time before the monster reveals itself and a new saintly single mother is born. If single parenting is such a hard task and requires so much above and beyond mere human ability, that should speak volumes about the absolute benefit of keeping husbands around. Women shine up both mother and father badges when they say they wear them both with crushing heaviness,...

The essence of home-based church-supported gospel learning is what I call homeschooling. Parents guiding the discussion and teaching Christ and his gospel to their children. The Sunday church second hour is content review - sharing with your peers what you learned in your home study. The quarterly Teacher councils is a style review, for parent and teachers,  sharing How we teach. Again, home is for study and gospel doctrine style teaching, the What we teach.