preface

this is a little preface i wrote to my preceding post in an attempt to get it posted on provopulse.com

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preface

the restored gospel is something that is continuously on my mind. it's in my classes. in my drive to work. at the gym. and in my studies. i decided to jot down some of the things that have crossed my mind lately. some of you may agree with what i have to say. some of you may find it controversial. some may want to label me anti-mormon and kick me out of town.

i am far from anti-mormon. i love the gospel. i love what it teaches. i believe in it. if i didn't, i would not care about the direction much of the church has taken. i firmly believe that joseph smith wa a prophet of god. i love the book of mormon. what that book teaches can change the world if people would just open it up and really follow it. i love the teachings of god that joseph revealed. i believe president gordon b hinckley is a prophet of god. sure, sometimes i think what he is saying is the voice of an old guy who sees the world through old man eyes, but that doesn't make him less of a prophet. a prophet is not a marionette puppet dangling on strings guided by god's fingers. there is no papal infallibility in the church. the prophet is a man. a man who speaks and reasons with god and is inspired to make certain choices to bless human lives. his vision of mini-temple, the perpetual immigration fund, and such are great examples of his revelatory calling.

with all of this, i see that in some senses the church is failing (by 'church' i mean the people of the church). we are human (and yes, this includes church leaders). we make choices. sometimes we choose well. other times we don't. what bothers me at times is the beauty i see in the restored gospel being tarnished by pride, self-righteousness, selfishness, and power. this is the same problem that plagued the nephites continually in the book of mormon. unfortunately, it seemed that it usually took some pretty heavy destruction to set them right... not by fear, but by removing the power structures that bred their failings.

my latter quick notes on polygamy may seem the most troubling to some of you. to others, it may seem like nothing. the history (especially early history) of polygamy in the church is quite chaotic, i wish it were easy to settle. i've tried for several years to make sense of it. it's interesting that the dangers of polygamy are spoken of greatly in the book of mormon, yet there is also a polyamy clause as well... long before the idea crossed joseph's mind. i believe it is based on revelation. however, through studying much of it's history, it becomes quite obvious that there was much else going on and it became quite a mess. the bofm says that there is a place, time, and reason for it. i'm not sure what those are, but for several strong reasons, i do not believe that polygamy has any necessary value for salvation or glorification.

anyways... i'm posting this cuz i want to know how other college students here in happy valley feel about it. do you agree? do you you disagree? should i be tarred and feathered? why?