Approaching Christ with Reverential Awe

Posted on December 24, 2011 by ldsphilosopher

Thomas Jefferson, the classical liberal thinker who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States of America, had a problem with the Bible. He liked many of the things that Jesus taught in the New Testament, but he just couldn’t believe in miracles. He couldn’t believe that a man, by a humble command, could calm a stormy sea or change water into wine. He couldn’t believe that a man could come back to life after he died. And he couldn’t stand the fact that the Bible’s excellent moral teachings were interspersed among tales of such preposterous nonsense.

Jefferson concluded that all the miracles recorded in the New Testament were added after the fact. So Jefferson came up a simple solution: he took a razor blade to his Bible and cut out the parts he didn’t like. He wrote to John Adams that what Jesus actually said (as opposed and what was added there later) was “as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill,” and constitute “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” That is, so long as you leave out anything that Jesus said about being the embodied son of the Living God, or about His power to heal the sick and raise the dead, or about His resurrection and His conversations with His followers after His death.

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More proof that Republicans are stupid

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Geoff B.

The fact that any Republican is even considering voting for Newt Gingrich should be proof enough. But here we have a classic case of Republicans being outmaneuvered on the tax issue by big-spending Democrats. Oy vey, the humanity! This is a no-brainer! How could this ever have happened?

Here’s the background: a year ago President Obama, reeling from the shellacking in the November 2010 election, handed the Republicans a gift. First, he signed an extension of the Bush tax cuts. They are no longer the Bush tax cuts. They are the Obama tax cuts. But second, he signed a law giving all working Americans a one-year break on the payroll tax. This is that hateful tax called FICA that you see on your pay stub. The government takes 6.2 percent of your salary from you and another 6.2 percent from your employer and supposedly invests in the chimerical “Social Security Trust Fund.” Well, that tax was cut to 4.2 percent.

If you are like me, you thought this was a wonderful thing. I have hated that FICA monster ever since I was a teenager and I thought I was going to get a check of $100 for my first job, and it turned out to only be about $90. Now, finally, the Republicans won the House, and they forced President Obama to lower that tax. Genius!

There’s only one problem: lowering the tax costs more than $100 billion in revenue. Trying to sound sober and businesslike, the House Republicans were concerned about balancing the budget and worried about replacing that lost revenue. So, some of them said continuing the tax break for another year (remember, it was only a one-year tax holiday) would increase the deficit. They also pointed out, rightly, that a temporary tax break does nothing to stimulate the economy in the long run because it does not change people’s behavior for long-term investments.

But enter the scheming machiavellian Harry Reid. While Republicans were mumbling about the deficit and abstruse concepts like long-term tax policy, Harry was, as always, thinking about politics. He convinced the Senate to pass a two-month extension of the tax cut. No matter that a two-month extension does absolutely nothing to stimulate jobs and is very difficult for businesses to plan for, Harry had found a way to put money in workers’ pockets!

Harry looked like the tax cutter and the sober Republicans looked like Big Government tax raisers! The fact that Republicans fell for this is a sign that they are a)very bad at politics and b)not reading the mood of the country very well.

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An Awful, Good Enough, and Great Movie

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Jettboy

Forgive me for indulging in a subject not directly related to Mormonism or Politics, but there are some thoughts about movies that I wanted to put down. My love of movies started when I first saw Star Wars as a small kid. There were others I had seen before it in the theaters such as a double feature of Pinocchio and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for children, and at another time a King Kong remake that is both better than and worse than the original (don’t get me started on the overlong and pretentious Peter Jackson version). However, it was the space epic that inspired me with the power and potential of the silver screen. It was such a wonderment to me that watching what is considered the boring original Star Trek: Movie was fantastical and exciting to me at a young age. I was hooked, and the later Stephen Spielberg films sealed the deal. As you can see, it also locked me into what genre I would like the most. Science Fiction is my thing.

Having established a baseline on what I wanted to talk about, I now want to compare two movies recently seen from this past year. One of them was loved by critics for the most part while the other generally panned. The movie going public wasn’t impressed by either of them. I can see why and want to explain the reasons. Both have ties to Stephen Spielberg, one of them directly and the other tentatively. The first is Super 8 and the other Cowboys and Aliens, both billed as science fiction blockbusters turned relative duds. why these two instead of the myriad Superhero movies? Because they are essentially the same movie about aliens invading small towns in past American history.

Be warned, I am not afraid of giving out spoilers in my reviews. Having seen so many movies and read so many books in my life, I don’t find spoilers threatening personally. Tell me the twist and I will be more interested in how they come to it than that it has one. Endings? There are only so many ways a story can conclude and a synopsis often gives the hint. Warning finished. Continue reading →

Over-doing “Likening the scriptures unto us”

Posted on December 23, 2011 by rameumptom

In the current Biblical ArchaeologyReview magazine (Jan/Feb 2012), Amy-Jill Levine discusses “The Many Faces of the Good Samaritan – Most Wrong”.

She tells of sermons she’s heard regarding the Good Samaritan over the years and how some have likened the story in very strange ways. Some view the robbers that hurt the traveler as “freedom fighters.” Some have taught that the parable teaches the importance of providing “free medical services to foreign nationals.”

One that many LDS try teaching is that the Levite and priest walk past the injured because they do not want to be unclean. However, the Torah and Mishnah teach the importance of helping others, and even the high priest should “attend a neglected corpse.”

She explains that the focus is on a common Jewish hero story, where first comes a Levite and priest. But the true hero is the common Israelite, who comes to the rescue after the first two. The surprise comes, when instead of telling of the hero Israelite, Jesus brings in the Samaritan, who is an enemy of the Jews (see Luke 9:54, John 4:9). Here we have an enemy treat the injured, and being the hero of the story.

How often do we over-do Nephi’s teaching to “liken the scriptures unto us”, and in so doing take the teaching into an entirely different direction? In my lifetime, I’ve heard people explain that Jesus was a communist, or libertarian. Many members read the stories in the Book of Mormon and believe that all kings are evil, that the Nephites under judges were libertarians, etc. For decades, many taught that entrance into the Telestial or Terrestrial kingdom was akin to hell, even though D&C 76 tells us otherwise. Others have tried to interpret the scriptures to explain the curse of Cain, justifying either slavery and Jim Crow laws, or at treat many as second class citizens.

How do we get the members of the Church to lessen up on the “likening unto us”, and seeking more the real intent behind the scriptures?

BAR Article from Amy-Jill Levine