This episode, dropping at 10 pm Mountain Time, is a kind of reflection in response to a funny episode of Mormonism Live, "Laughing at the Ridiculousness of Mormonism."
In response to a funny episode of Mormonism Live with Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon, I explore what I think is potentially problematic about focusing on the "ridiculousness" of Mormonism and explain why I choose to geek out about Mormonism instead. Subjects such as the gold plates come up, as well as that time I was interviewed by Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune. In a way, Stack is the inspiration for this response.
Hope you guys enjoy it. I do my bad impersonation (for a few seconds) of Radio Free Mormon.
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
There is more to Mormonism than being a well-used couch by JD Vance. Please think of the ingenuity of its defenders: How many other religionists would see that the horses mentioned by Joseph Smith were tapirs? Well, RFM may have gotten it while he was called to be an apologist, but Dr. Dan Peterson hit upon that answer.
To this date, even Dr. Scratch has taken a hands-off approach to tapir history! Why? because they are cute and loveable critters who tried their darnedest to pull the Nephite chariots. They do not deserve any additional burden.
Tapirs are what is right with Mormonism. Keep up the good work Kish.
There is more to Mormonism than being a well-used couch by JD Vance. Please think of the ingenuity of its defenders: How many other religionists would see that the horses mentioned by Joseph Smith were tapirs? Well, RFM may have gotten it while he was called to be an apologist, but Dr. Dan Peterson hit upon that answer.
To this date, even Dr. Scratch has taken a hands-off approach to tapir history! Why? because they are cute and loveable critters who tried their darnedest to pull the Nephite chariots. They do not deserve any additional burden.
Tapirs are what is right with Mormonism. Keep up the good work Kish.
Thanks for that thought, Moksha! I needed that pickmeup.
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
You mentioned not caring for the way some people approach Mormonism. I have found myself having similar thoughts. I think people sometimes forget where they came from to where they are now, and can be rather harsh at times, neglecting that they didn’t arrive where they are now overnight. Then, not allowing others their own pace along their own spiritual journey. There have been times I have taken heat from my evangelical contemporaries with regard to Mormonism. I have appreciated over the years the mutual respect fellow posters have shown one another as they have navigated Mormonism, and the respect those of you who have known me since the early 2000’s have demonstrated toward me.
I’ve learned a lot in the past 22 years, and much of that has to do with what I do not know. While I know God is at work in the lives of people, He works in ways I often cannot or cannot comprehend. I have learned who is not the enemy, and at times, I have to take a step back to remind myself of this. I think it is so easy for evangelicals to get too big for our britches.
One of the times I came to realize that I don't fully comprehend how God is at work in the lives of people is when I contemplated the following lyrics from O Little Town of Bethlehem while attending a Christmas crèche at the local meetinghouse.
How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.
Another time was when I was meeting with LDS missionaries read Acts 17:26,27, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,”
So who am I? I too am one of those persons he placed in a certain place and time as he saw fit. I too am one of those persons who didn’t hear his coming, yet for his own purposes, he breathed on me (John 20). Who am I to tell God how to accomplish his purposes? Thanks be to God.
"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” Jude 1:24
“the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 ESV
Those are lovely thoughts, msnobody. I agree with you. Thank you for sharing them.
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
