We Do Rejoice With Exceedingly Great Joy (Book of Mormon - Week Eleven).

Well hey there!

I found it shockingly difficult to find something to write about today. We seriously covered so many amazing topics in class last week - some of which were controversial, and some brought the Spirit into my heart so well. I wanted to write about two especially controversial topics - one being the Godhead (for those of you who don't know, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints don't believe in the Trinity, part of the reasons a lot of Christians don't consider us to be Christians too. If you're curious, read what we think here) and the other being Christ's conception. However, the first topic will probably be covered later this week because we talked about it in a lot more detail this week, and I still have lots of questions myself about Christ's conception. It's a weird topic for sure. Maybe another time, maybe not. No promises.

Anyway, because I wasn't sure what to write about, I decided to just go through what we covered and find a verse I like and kinda just go with it. So sorry if today's post isn't controversial enough for you, is really disorganized, and/or isn't very insightful. I wanted to talk about the joy that comes so easily from the covenant we have made with Heavenly Father.

In Mosiah 5:2-4, the people of King Benjamin start talking about the joy they feel from following the prophet and staying true to his words, and keeping their covenants with God. "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things. And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy." How awesome is that? Who doesn't want that sort of happiness in their life? Then verse five goes on, saying "And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will and be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God."

I really like the fact that the joys of the covenant are partnered with the making of the covenant. Our covenants with Heavenly Father are the most important covenants we can make in this life. As far as our priorities go, our relationship with our Heavenly Father should come before anything else. Think about it - only through Him and His Son can we be saved, which is the main goal of this life. I've noticed in my own life that when I put Heavenly Father before anything else, I seem to have time for everything else. When I start my mornings off with a prayer, I feel the Holy Spirit with me more, guiding me and letting me know what I should do. When I really study my scriptures, I'm a better person, and more like the person I'm supposed to be. Honestly, I can't tell you that my whole life changed and that I never sin anymore or that I've had some big experience because I have put the Lord first. What I can tell you is that my life is overall better when I put the covenants and my relationship with God before anything else, and I know in the long run, my life will be completely changed because He has the power to help me do that.

I also think it's important to mention that we need to put our relationship and friendship with God and His Son before any other - even family. I'm lucky to have been raised in a family who believes in Christ and relies on Him. I know not all families are like that. I had a friend in high school who was a convert (meaning she got baptized into the LDS Church, she wasn't born into it) and her family was very against it. She waited until she was eighteen to get baptized because it's what her parents asked of her, they wouldn't give their consent. So she waited. The whole time, she was the most diligent disciple of Christ I had ever known. She prayed often, studied the scriptures, and repented openly - not being afraid to bring it back up and make amends when she messed up. When she turned eighteen, she was baptized. And now, she studies the scriptures with her parents. Usually, it's the Bible. But I was talking to her the other day, and she told me that her dad had outright asked her to read her favorite chapter from the Book of Mormon. She did and there were tears in his eyes. Yeah, maybe he'll never be baptized into the Church (and frankly I think that that's okay, of course he's still a good guy), but because my friend put her relationship with God even before her relationship with her own family, she has become a better person herself and is showing her parents how to find true joy. And honestly I think that's really beautiful.

There's this chart that I like a lot. I already used it in another blog post (the one about polygamy), but I'm going to use it again and explain it. We need to put God above everyone else. It's for the benefit of everyone. When we all aim to get closer to God, we also get closer to one another. That's the basic principle of the chart. Here it is: (it's from this blog post.)

Basically this chart is outlining what is necessary for a husband and a wife to get as close as possible to one another - becoming closer to God. When a husband and wife are not focusing on God and His will at all, it is extremely hard for them to become one. It's a lot of distance. However, the closer they both come to God, the shorter the distance becomes. I'm not married, and probably won't be for a couple of years, but to me, this is one of the most important aspects of marriage. Heavenly Father knows individual situations. He wants all of His children to be happy. When you are diligent in doing His will, listening to the Holy Ghost, He will help you get where you need to end up. In most relationships, He will help you maintain and become much closer if you work hard to become closer to Him.

So try it out. Do everything you can be to closer to God, and you'll love the joy that will come. Put your scripture study and prayers before your homework. Rather than giving into gossip, work to lift people up like Christ. When you get down, don't give into temptations that bring you only temporary happiness, serve others and build relationships. I know that as you do all you can, Heavenly Father will make you become the person you need to be, and by the same token, surround you with those you should be surrounded by. He's really an amazing Father to us. Talk to Him, I know He'll be glad to hear from you.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (An Analytical Summary/Review)

Analytical Summary:

In grade school, educators teach about imperialism–one country extending its hand into another to take power or influence. Imperialism was especially prevalent throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, such as the Open Door Policy in China at the turn of the 20^th century. Rarely is it considered how especially influential countries gained their power in the first place. Jared Diamond dives deep into this concept of cultural dominance in his work Guns, Germs, and Steel. One of Diamond’s main points is that European dominance is due to the geographical location of the Earth’s earliest people. He explained this success as not due solely to geography itself, but what that geography allowed to arise for our earliest ancestors – agricultural success as well as the ease at which innovation and ideas flowed from population to population. Though Diamond’s two major points were valid, he neglected to mention two important factors that played a huge part in Europe rising to power, namely coincidence and culture.

Diamond’s arguments make a lot of sense. From the very title of his account, he presents his most relatable argument – Europe has dominance over the world because of their effective use of guns, germs, and steel. From the very first chapters of his book, he dispels the racist argument that Europeans were simply more competent than non-Europeans and therefore European innovation and culture could further take over. Rather, Diamond points out that the geographical location of certain nations was an indicator of supremacy in those nations. However, sheer size and location of a civilization alone is not a telltale sign of future superiority. As a counterexample, Diamond considers the African continent; if superiority did depend solely on geographic size and location, Africa would be the superpower of the world. Rather, Diamond explains that it is specific aspects of geography that lead to more widespread influential power of a nation.

Agriculture is an important aspect of geography that determines a civilization’s influence on other nations. As figure and table 5.1 show, the origins of food production began in developments that were highly influential at one point, such as China, the eastern United States, and the Fertile Crescent. Another geographical detail is the length of the horizontal axis of the continent in which a society exists. Because Africa and South America have such long vertical axes, any group settled on this continent would struggle to spread ideas. Diamond’s idea is that those continents with longer horizontal axes are better suited to the spreading of innovation because they are in similar environments. As a result of this, the climate is more consistent in two societies of the same latitude than those of the same longitude. The idea of a longer horizontal axis leading to an easier spreading of innovation on a continent links with agriculture as well because crops and animals can dwell in similar environments. Diamond explains that using both agriculture and axis relation acts as a sort of catalyst when diffusing ideas–the more surrounding civilizations adopt an idea, an increased number of civilizations will further adopt said idea. The influence grows exponentially, thus giving the original civilization more strength and power on a continental, and eventually, a global scale.

While Jared Diamond’s ideas are clear and easy to accept, there are more ideas that are just as impactful, though he chose not to include them. First, there is the role that the culture of a people as a whole plays on their impact on the world. For example, the Orient tends to think of the individual as a subordinate member of a bigger, more important group. Therefore, individuals within the Orient tend to be submissive to the larger, more important whole, resulting in a lack of outright creativity that tends to be necessary for innovation. In contrast, the Occident sees the individual as very important. They see the individual diversity within the group as something that gives their societies an advantage in cultural dominance compared to their eastern counterparts. Compare two countries with similar geography (with regard to longitude), one from the Orient, China; and one from the Occident, the United States of America. In this comparison, it becomes clear how much culture affects domination and spreading innovation. China has not developed much further in the past few decades and has a spirit of contentment with older traditions compared to the United States. The United States is rarely content with the present and is always looking for the newer, seemingly better thing, rewarding the individual who invents the next best thing with both fortune and fame.

Diamond does mention China having its power being taken over by western cultures in chapter 20, but claims China slowed its development down because of political unification. Rather, this vast difference between the United States and China – as well as most Oriental and Occidental societies – is caused by religion, something only briefly mentioned by Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel. One of the main influences on a society’s culture is religion. The emphasis on being submissive and content that appears in many Asian cultures is because of the most popular religions there. One of the fundamental principles of Taoism is being content with life the way it is. One of the four steps in Buddhism is eliminating pain through eliminating desires. The people of the Orient are fundamentally taught that contentment leads to happiness and exaltation. Therefore, innovation is rare in the Orient because everyone is content with what they already have. Compare that with the Occident, where Christianity is about us being saved through Christ’s mercy, good deeds, and undying faith – a very individualistic approach. The religious aspects of different societies were only touched on by Diamond, when they had a much greater effect on cultural dominance than many of his larger points.

Diamond also neglects to mention the power of sheer coincidence in cultural supremacy. Diamond admits that most of his points do not prophesy which nation will overshadow the rest, but he also does not give the credit to chance, which it deserves. We see chance rear its head and dictate who gets what power throughout history. One very recent example is that of the presidential election in 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore. Bush got elected as the Executive of the United States by a small enough margin that his success over Gore’s in the election is usually seen as luck of the draw. However, those years that Bush was in office were arguably some of the most crucial in recent American history–terror struck, war broke out, and our culture as the United States changed. It poses an interesting question–what if Al Gore had become America’s Chief Executive instead? Would our country still be such a massive superpower? As this is a hypothetical exercise we cannot talk in absolutes. However, it shows that sheer chance does play a huge role in a nation’s cultural dominance. It may, perhaps, be an even bigger than those mentioned in the book. Diamond is valid in giving credit to geography, agriculture,  and domestication. However, the fact that most of these things occurred together in the right environment is due to chance, and Diamond does not mention it.

The points made by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel are valid and true. He makes it clear that cultural dominance and the appearance of technology did not occur for purely biological reasons, but claims that societal dominance has generally been influenced by geography in one way or another. It is valid that Diamond’s reasoning does go back to this main idea, and his arguments for geography are both well written and explained. However, Diamond’s argument is found to be lacking when he fails to clearly outline that both culture and chance were also large contributors to European domination today.

Patience is a Virtue (Book of Mormon - Week Ten).

Well hello there! This week, we talked about a lot of different things in my Book of Mormon class. Most of it was simple logistics or lots of academic-related stuff that I don't really feel like writing about. But, we did talk about one chapter that many of you probably claim as your favorite! Jacob 5 is amazing. It's also really long - reading it before class, I rushed through it, not going to lie. But when we dove deep into the chapter and connected it to our lives, I found my heart softened for the first time in a while, and the Holy Ghost touched me so that I could hear the answers to even the most silent of my prayers.

I guess I should give you a little bit of personal background here - it's been a hard week or so. Mostly with myself. I don't want to talk too much about it, I don't want any pity, and I don't need any cookies or hugs or anything arriving at my dorm room door (though I would be pretty okay if you did want to send me a care package;)) but it has made me feel better to ask for help with some of it and put it out there. Anyway, here it is: I'm a perfectionist and have always set ridiculously high expectations for myself. That's always been the case, and probably always will be. And honestly it's great! I achieve amazing things because of it. However, when I don't do extremely well, or falter somewhere else, I kill myself with criticism. I don't really know how to put it all out in an organized matter, so please bear with me. Basically, I feel like a worse person now than I was this time last year - I have less energy to give to other people and not enough time to feed my inner introvert so that I can continue to deal with and even enjoy others. As a result, I've been sharp-tongued, prone to gossip, and just not very willing to give as much time and energy to others (I think because really I have less to give). Basically, I've been falling short in about everything I do, and for a perfectionist, that's pretty much a living nightmare. I'm especially sensitive right now, but it's totally fine - it's a trial that I'm going through and I'll be stronger as I endure it well and continue to work on everything with Heavenly Father's help. But yes, that's the background I'm coming from here.

So we're reading this super long chapter, and it's super cool. But then we get to Jacob 7, which is where Sherem is trying to convince people not to believe Christ or God or anything else that the prophets are saying. In verse 13, Sherem tells Jacob to "show me a sign by this power of the Holy Ghost, in the which ye know so much." And basically from that point, God smote him and Sherem began to preach good until he died the next day. But then, we remembered something from Matthew 12. Verse 31 says that "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign." We wondered what the relationship between adultery and sign-seeking was. Then Brother Griffin pointed something out - both are looking for instant gratification. Both a sign seeker and an adulterer would say "I want what I want now with no work or consequence."

Okay so that's cool, yeah? But then this is where Brother Griffin's words started to touch me - in order to know that Heavenly Father is real, or that the Holy Ghost can really touch us, we need to first have faith, and then exercise that faith. Brother Griffin explained that gaining a testimony is a slow process, much like growing an olive tree (tying it back to chapter five - hollaaaa). We have to be patient. And this is where I started to really feel enlightened - I can't be perfect in a day. The sorts of habits I'm trying to establish in myself can't be done in a day, or even a month. In order to get where I want to be, I need to be patient with myself. I need to always try, stick to my goals, and soon enough I'll get there. Maybe I'll fail sometimes, but as long as I'm improving, does it really matter?

The same goes for you. As long as you're setting goals, working towards them, and asking for Heavenly Father's help, you're golden. Don't expect him to make you the person you're supposed to be overnight, be patient with him, yourself, and others.

Mormons and Polygamy (Book of Mormon - Week Nine)

So hey let's get down into the nitty gritty: polygamy. It's an ugly word to most people, sometimes seen as an ugly thing in the history of the church. But it happened. And honestly, we shouldn't be ashamed of it. For those of you who do not know, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints no longer practice polygamy, but there was a time that they did. It wasn't because they wanted to have sex with a bunch of different women - there was nothing weird or sexual about it. It was done to raise righteous seed - men would marry women and they would be sealed together. The sealing keys were used horizontally, not vertically. Polygamy was practiced in the LDS Church from 1831-1890.  It was revealed to Joseph Smith in 1831 after a prayerful inquiry about it. If you want to see the actual revelation, click here.

In class, we started talking about polygamy because of some readings we did in Jacob 2, when the law of marriage was revealed by the Lord (I believe it was through Jacob?). In verse 27, He says "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none". So, just reading this, you might say, 'Joseph Smith got the wrong revelation! Who does he think he is?' However, in verse 30, it says "raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." This means that the Lord explained the law of marriage as He would have it, but if something needed to be changed, He would command His people. And Joseph Smith was commanded!

The thing is though, polygamy was commanded to Joseph Smith, and he didn't want to reveal it. He knew how frowned upon it was. He knew that there would be some to pervert the nature of it. In fact, Joseph Smith even withheld the revelation for a while because of his fear. But an angel came to him after it had been revealed to Smith and basically told him that if he didn't reveal the revelation he had received about polygamy, he would be replaced. So he revealed it. It's even said that Brigham Young - a notorious polygamist - dreaded the commandment of practicing polygamy, according to Mormon Newsroom (also, this article super rocks, I recommend it if you're curious about polygamy).

The biggest attack about Mormons and polygamy that I have heard involved Joseph Smith being sealed to a 14 year old girl. Let's get a couple of things straight - it's true, Joseph Smith married Helen Kimball at the very young age of 14. Also, let's make it clear that Joseph Smith did not have a sexual relationship with this young girl. Smith was sealed to Helen Kimball at the consent of her father, Heber C. Kimball. Why would they do this? Well, back in the early days of the church when the sealing power was first introduced, members weren't quite sure how it worked yet. It's clear that the prophet will make it to the Celestial Kingdom (think of it as LDS Heaven, though there's much more to it than that), so many people thought that if they got sealed to the prophet, they would also be assured a place in the Celestial Kingdom. By Heber Kimball asking Joseph Smith to get sealed to his daughter, Kimball thought he had assured his family a place in the Celestial Kingdom to be with Heavenly Father again. You gotta love them for their strong desire to do what the Lord wants for them, even if they don't know the details! I can't imagine Heavenly Father looking down, saying something like, "You fools! Obviously that isn't how you use my power." Rather, I like to think he looked down, laughed and said something like, "Well, you gotta love the enthusiasm! Let's show them how my keys are supposed to be used."

Anyway, in 1890, while Wilford Woodruff was the prophet and president of the LDS Church, the United States government threatened Woodruff - if his church members didn't stop practicing polygamy, the LDS temples would be taken from them. So Woodruff was stuck and needed to make a decision - would he give up temples, or polygamy? He prayed, and it was revealed to him that the LDS members would stop practicing polygamy and would keep their temples instead. Interestingly enough, in the next year (and a bit), children began to be sealed to their parents - the sealing keys began to be used more vertically, and less horizontally.

Why does this matter to you? If you're a member of the church, it explains polygamy so you can be less ashamed of the history of the church. If you aren't a member, maybe this helps you understand how Mormons view polygamy now, and why we practiced it in the first place. I know it was really nice for me to know. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Don't take any of that anti-mormon stuff for more than a grain of salt. A primary source is always more accurate than a secondary.