Come Follow Me: D&C 85-87

My blog post for Come Follow Me: D&C 85-87


Excerpt:
Joseph Smith’s Prophecy on War (D&C 87) is a big thorn in the side of those critics of the Mormon Prophet. Some claim that ‘everyone knew that the North and South were going to war, so it wasn’t that big of a prophecy.’ However, the evidence is against that statement. Elder Orson Hyde supplemented that prophecy in 1858, claiming the destructions and wars were about to come upon the U.S.


When he made these claims, many eastern newspapers quoted him, mocking him. There was no way the States were going to war, according to the papers. In 1862, Elder Hyde commented on this fact as further evidence that the American people did not consider this prophecy valid prior to its accomplishment.


Secondly, we shall see that the Prophecy of War goes well beyond the Civil War, and deals with events down to our own day.


https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2021/08/come-follow-me-d-85-87.html

The JD Vance truth bomb regarding the ruling class

JD Vance grew up in a poor area of Ohio, had a rough upbringing, later went on to join the Marines and eventually got a law degree from Yale law school. He wrote one of the most talked about books of 2016-2017, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was universally praised by the mainstream media. This was primarily because Vance went to Yale and was a venture capitalist and therefore was considered part of the ruling class.

Then JD Vance decided to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Ohio, and now the ruling class hates him. And he is fighting back.

“We are run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of child less cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance said.

“It’s just a basic fact,” Vance continued. “You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC. The entire future of the Democrats are controlled by people without children.”

“How does it make any sense we turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” he asked. “I just wanted to ask that question and propose that maybe if we want a healthy ruling class in this country, we should invest more, we should vote more, we should support more people who actually have kids. Because those are the people who ultimately have a more direct stake in the future of this country.”

“It hit a nerve,” Vance said about the vehement reaction to his comments. “These people recognize that they’re unhappy. They live in one-bedroom apartments in New York City. They’ve played their entire lives to win a status game. They are obsessed with jobs. They are obsessed with their wealth and their fortunes and they look at middle America, people who are pretty happy with their lives and the choices they’ve made. And they hate normal Americans for choosing family over these ridiculous D.C. and New York status games.”

“I think because of that they just get so angry when somebody calls it what it is,” he said. “It’s acceptable if they ignore that it never happens but if someone calls out that, look, if you are a miserable cat lady you should not force your misery on the rest of the country. They just get really upset about it.”

“It’s a good thing they get upset about it,” Vance continued. “It suggests they know that we are hitting a nerve. Not just in this campaign but with this message that we should invest in American families in this country. If nothing else, we should be about healthy, stable families.”

“Happier people would make for a happier country,” he said. “The most miserable people in the mainstream media are these mediocre journalists who have their entire sense of self-worth wrapped up in their crappy jobs instead of their families.”

“People who go home at night and see the face of a smiling kid, whatever their profession, I think they are happier, I think they are healthier and they are going to be better prepared to actually lead this country,” Vance said.

“The problem I have of entering this period of COVID obsession again is that we have so many people proposing we mask our children again,” he said. “The people who are proposing it, they don’t have to go home to a child at the end the day. If they did I don’t think they would propose all these ridiculous restrictions again.”

Here is the video of JD Vance’s controversial statements.

A few important points:

1)JD Vance is a populist, and I disagree with him on a lot of issues.

2)There are plenty of childless Republicans and Libertarians also, so the claim that this is just about Democrats is false.

3)It is undeniable, however, that people without children are going to have different priorities than people with children, and it is true that fewer people in the ruling class today have children, so, yes, they are more likely to promote policies that harm young people. All you have to do is look at the ridiculous attempts to mask up our kids again for school when the science clearly shows that kids are at a near-zero risk from COVID-19 and its variants. This also applies to vaccines, by the way, and even the WHO does not recommend vaccinating people under 18, but our ruling class wants them all to be jabbed.

4)I can also report that my personal experience is that people without kids do, indeed, tend to be increasingly miserable as they get older, especially if their lack of progeny is due to poor choices when they are young. Having children helps you understand that life is about more than your own selfish choices, and this is a key factor in personal happiness.

5)JD Vance is about to turn 37, is married and has two kids. He recently converted to Catholicism. Just FYI.

First endowment session at the temple in 18 months

I was extremely happy to walk into the Fort Collins temple endowment room for the first time in 18 months today. A friend’s son was getting his endowments as he prepares for his mission, and the friends invited me and my wife to attend. It was glorious.

If you have not been in a while, there are some significant changes in the endowment. Again. Over the last five or so years it seems like the endowment ceremony changes every year or so. I will not get into specifics about this sacred ceremony, but suffice to say that the endowment is shorter but still very powerful.

Most people were not wearing masks, but we were asked to social distance, and there were hand sanitizers everywhere. At most temples, if you want to participate you must make a reservation, which can be done on-line. I really hope the latest overreaction to the inevitable mutation of the virus will not close the temples again. I don’t want to wait another 18 months for the next temple trip.

Losing weight: one of the best measures to protect you from the virus

I am very happy to report that in the last six months I have lost 22 pounds. How did I do it? I completely changed to a sustainable low carb diet. I have avoided cookies, donuts, soft drinks, break fast cereals, bread, rice, pasta, white flour and potatoes. I keep track of everything I eat and try to ingest one-third carbs, one-third fat and one-third protein. Before I started this diet, I was eating 60 percent carbs, 20 percent fat and 20 percent protein. This is a pretty big change. But I am now at my goal weight.

This is not a fad diet. This is a change I plan on keeping the rest of my life. Bottom line: a lot less sugar and simple carbohydrates and a lot more meat, cheese, eggs, vegetables and fruit.

Why did I do it? Because I saw a picture of myself over the holidays and I did not like how I looked. Yes, my primary motivation was vanity. But guess what: my knee pain that caused me to limp for months has disappeared. I am in my late-50s and in great shape now. And of course there is an ancillary benefit: I am much less likely to have a severe reaction to COVID.

For some reason, we as a society have completely forgotten the basics of health. Let’s face it: most of us are overweight and too sedentary. And then the evil lockdowns came, and billions of people worldwide convinced themselves the healthiest thing they could do was to cower inside their homes and watch screens. The police in super health-conscious Boulder County near where I live staged armed police at trailheads during the pandemic so people would NOT GO HIKING OUTSIDE. Talk about fear porn.

But even if the rest of the world is living in a crazy upside-down universe, where good is evil and evil is good, you do not have to. You can take the advice of this peer-reviewed article from June 2021 and lose some weight. I quote:

Unhealthy lifestyle characteristics (i.e., sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition) often lead to excess body mass and adiposity, commonly defined as a body mass index (BMI) at the overweight (i.e., 25.0–29.9 kg/m2) or obese (i.e., ≥30.0 kg/m2) level. Previous research has demonstrated that obesity is a clear risk factor for poor outcomes in those with COVID-19.3

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Compassionate Coercion: Embrace It, or Fight It?

Happy Pioneer Day, everyone! These mighty spiritual forebears of all Latter-day Saints today came to Utah seeking freedom – a place to speak, worship, and assemble where and how they wanted.

I have to wonder this morning, in light of rapidly changing events around us: At what point would you be willing to stand up and fight against incursions on your own freedoms? That’s an interesting question for Christians of any age – but maybe especially in America with our tradition of righteous revolution.

On one hand, believers can look to the model of Jesus teaching His followers living amidst Roman oppression that the kingdom we’re working towards is “not of this world” – essentially encouraging them to side-step any confrontation with injustice and restrictions on freedom. On the other hand, believers in the United States can look to the model of the Founders rising up to say “not okay” against British limitations on their natural rights and liberties – even to the point of bloodshed. (And Latter-day Saints Christians can look to the model of Captain Moroni doing something similar against Amalikiah’s threat in the Book of Mormon).

So, when is it right to say “not okay” when it comes to incursions on our freedoms? We’ve been dealing with fairly minor issues like baking cakes and wearing masks – but the major issues are very much here, including: (1) Freedom to speak in our online public spaces openly our thoughts (NOT okay with serious resistance to public health orthodoxy and socio-political orthodoxy around race and sexuality) and (2) Freedom to assemble in public schools, spaces and venues – which is rapidly being restricted by fears around COVID-19 transmission, especially among the vilified unvaccinated.

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