Meet Kevin Graham

[_CaliforniaKid]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Bridget Jack Meyers of ClobberBlog wrote up a great introduction to the life of one of our own, the inestimable Kevin Graham. Kevin is also scheduled to write some posts there on the Book of Abraham at some point in the near future.

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[_Trevor]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Bridget Jack Meyers of ClobberBlog wrote up a great introduction to the life of one of our own, the inestimable Kevin Graham. Kevin is also scheduled to write some posts there on the Book of Abraham at some point in the near future.

I enjoyed learning a little more about Kevin. Although I haven't always been a big fan of his style of posting, very often he makes really good points. I feel vindicated on the Sarah Palin issue, but I am sure he could, if he were so inclined, continue to offer a spirited defense of her, no matter how nuts she is. As for his criticism of intolerant atheists, very often I find myself agreeing with him. When it comes to the Book of Abraham, he remains an invaluable resource.

[_dartagnan]

That is funny Trev, I knew we had our moments in the past but I couldn't remember what it was we disagreed on. I'm not a big Sarah Palin fan (she obviously isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but neither is Nancy Pelosi) I just have a tendency to defend people I think are getting a raw deal from biased media coverage. I'm reasonable about the matter, and I'm willing to defend parties on both sides.

You might even see me slamming Right Wing media for what I believed to be unfair attacks on Obama. That seems to be the phase I'm in right now. Suffice it to say, however, I believe you and I agree more than we disagree, and I respect your views and the informed perspective in which you present them.

In any event, obrigado for the intro Chris (and Jack). I'll get around to writing something for the blog later this week.

[_Trevor]

That is funny Trev, I knew we had our moments in the past but I couldn't remember what it was we disagreed on. I'm not a big Sarah Palin fan (she obviously isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but neither is Nancy Pelosi) I just have a tendency to defend people I think are getting a raw deal from biased media coverage. I'm reasonable about the matter, and I'm willing to defend parties on both sides.

Yes, we have certainly had our moments, and I am happy you don't make a point of remembering too much about them, since it really isn't worth it. Maybe I should emulate you in readily dropping old arguments. As for Sarah Palin, my comments weren't intended to suggest that you were partisan, only that you could probably wage a pretty good struggle for even a relatively weak cause. In other words, it was intended as a compliment.

[_MsJack]

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the post.

I'm looking forward to Kevin's guest posts as well.

[_bcspace]

You might even see me slamming Right Wing media for what I believed to be unfair attacks on Obama.

Being away from the US has obviously distorted Kevin's view of socialist and media reality. Seems to have affected his ability to have his ducks in a row too.

but that was the beginning of the end.

My daughter had a civil ceremony after her temple wedding in Utah this year with an LDS Bishop conducting it.

[_Kevin Graham]

The anthropological axiom applies here, and it goes something like this.

"One does not fully understand his own environment until he completely immerses himself in another."

Americans are generally in their own world, which means they not only fail to understand other environments, but also, they don't fully understand their own. Every human being is a product of his or her environment to a significant degree. Does anyone here doubt that if Bcspace were born in raised in Somalia, that chances are he'd be a poor Muslim? Or if he were born and raised in San Francisco, that hed probably be a liberal? So it is with his current position as a Utah Republican, faithful to the Mormon Glenn Beck, adoring the Mormon politician Mitt Romney, and fawning all over their cohorts in the media. He is preciely what one would expect from someone who listens to Beck and Hannity all day. I used to be the same way.

In short, I have an advantage over people who claim to know alot about the American Health care system, compared to those in other countries. Most Americans ranting on this subject have never stepped foot into a non-American hospital. They put all their faith int Right Wing articles designed to scare and misinform for political purposes. I'm an Army brat, so I had been to government run hospitals in Germany and Spain, long before ever moving to Brasil.

People like BCspace haven't had much exposure to other societies, and it shows. I was exactly like him. Having been born and raised in SE USA, I come from a conservative republican background. I drove to work every day listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I was a faithful disciple for the anti-socialistic cause. I bought it all, hook line and sinker. Those damn poor people are just lazy. They could get a job if they wanted to, but they chose liquor and drugs. The faults could never have anything to do with faults in American society, because America, as we were constantly reminded, is the greatest country in the world. I wanted to be a great American too, so the subliminal messages that were being implanted into my brain, via Sean Hannity's repeated mantra, convinced me that REAL Americans can't be democrats. Democrats were only people with socialistic agendas. Yes, McCarthyistic paranoia is an added feature of Right Wing fundamentalism.

Like I once did, BCspace now buys into the nationalistic, divisive mentality that is personified by Fox News. People like Hannity always talk about how America is the greatest country in the world, trying to use nationalitic emotion in his favor. He is constantly meshing this slogan into his various rants as a way to fuse pride in one's country with an acceptance of his views. That to me is more Naziesque than anything Obama is doing.

I remember BCspace was a huge fan of Glenn Beck two years ago before anyone had ever heard of the guy. So his process of indoctrination goes much deeper than mine did. He has allowed himself to be completely possessed by this idiot, Beck. His posts sound exactly like Beck's rants. Fact free, yet full of arrogant confidence. His numerous posts about anti-Americanism and socialism would serve to humor most Economics professors.

The level of ignorance in American society is nothing short of scary. Recent studies show that three out of four students in Oklahoma don't know who the first President of the United States was. Experts agree that this trend probably applies throughout the entire country. The smartest people in our schools and Universities are frequently immigrants. Immigrants from India, the Middle-East, Europe and even Brazil, who are generally much more educated than American children their same age. My wife's sister was amazed when she visited the USA for a year and then found out that Calculus wasn't required in High School. Instead, it is treated as college credit. The problems are many, but one has to be that America has become a society of dead-heads, whose teachers have been replaced by television and radio.

For BCspace, perhaps the only cure for his one-sided mentality, would be for him to live in a non-American society for a few years. I'm literally the product of two different environments and I can speak on the good and bad from both perspectives, and can choose the good from each and acknowledge the bad. I'm constantly arguing with Brasilians who foster anti-American sentiments. As a result, I'm sort of a middle-of-the-road guy when it comes to politics. I disagree with extreme left wing ideas as well as what I now believe to be extreme right wing ideas. BCspace won't ever have that advantage because his education is shaped strictly by right wing literature.

You probably won't find him reading an article by Ariana Huffington anymore than you'll find him reading a book written by Dan Vogel. Instead he'll read a FARMS review of Vogel, and a Blomberg review of Huffington. Too many Mormons today have found a way to fuse their religion with their political position, and that is a dangerous recipe if there ever was one.

"Keep the government out of my Medicare" should be the slogan for Right Wing fanaticism, because it illustrates just how ignorant their position really is. But hey, Beck and Hannity are happy to have these people, even if they are too stupid to realize that their Medicare IS the government. From their behind the scenes funding of these idiotic "tea parties," to their flat out lies abot the "1.7 million" people (who, contrary to Beck's lie, never attended them). Their intent is to deceive and create this picture that America is united against Obama and a hidden "socialist agenda," and their methods are no different from those Walter Martin would appreciate.

As far as his kid's civil wedding. I don't know if he is suggesting the Church changed its mind, or whether I'm a liar. All I can say is that in 2002 I was married to my wife in the Timpanogos temple. I was instructed by the Bishop as well as the Mormon family that introduced me to the Church, that I was forbidden to engage in any type of civil wedding immediately before or after the temple sealing. This I was told, after my family had made travel plans to attend a civil service that my wife's family had already started preparing. My wife's family is Brasilian, and they have gone through this on a regular basis, because in Brasil, the Church allows civil weddings before a temple sealing. But in the USA, Church policy is different. Karina's uncle was so pissed he told us we should just go through with it anyway. I mean what were they going to do, revoke my sealing? Ex me? I was told that if I chose to have a civil wedding beforehand, then I would be forced to wait a full year before being sealed in the temple. I guess it takes a full year to repent, and get all that "protestant" dirt off my soul before being purified again for the temple.

The Mormon family anticipated that we might try something like that so they went to the Church directly and warned them. That got all kinds of people involved, including a Stake President, but no GAs.

I begged and pleaded with the Church, explaining my family's history. Even my old bishop in Atlanta said it would be insane to disallow me this privilege, because he was intimately familiar with my family situation. I explained how they felt the Church stole me from them and there has been a 20 year cooling down period, and that by allowing this ceremony to take place, it would do a world of good in mending burned bridges. By denying me, it would practically guarantee they'd always have ill feelings towards the church and my children would have to suffer for it for the rest of our lives.

Basta they said! They would have none of it.

After all, the Church only cares about Mormon family. I know you see a lot of tear-jerking commercials designed by the Church's marketing dept, but reality draws a different picture. If any of your family is not LDS, then they are dispensible. And it makes sense. They can't be sealed, so your relationship with them is only temporal anyway. Everything Mormons do in this life is to prepare them for the next. Non-LDS family have no role in any of that.

The Stake President said his hands were tied because he had to "go by the book." I still remember him thumping his manual as he spoke. Oh, but he gave us his "sympathies." We asked to speak to a GA to get permission, and he refused. So I did the stupid thing, and sacrificed my family relations once again for what I soon would find out to be a gigantic hoax. Jack said there were no more than 15 people at the reception from my side, but that is stretching it. My "side" included only her, one apologist from FAIR, his wife, and a few members of the Mormon family I already knew. Doing the math in my head, there were less than 10. When my family found out that they were only "allowed" to see a "ring ceremony," but one that could not be administered by a legal minister, they decided not to come. And I can hardly blame them. They didn't pay for the reception either, and I can't blame them for that either.

[_Trevor]

Wow. I was not prepared for that post. I am quite surprised really. All I can say about Kevin's sentiments regarding Fox News is that I agree wholeheartedly.

As for the story of his wedding, you have my deepest sympathies. My father was less active and in an unusual position in relation to his Church status at the time (no formal censure, however) when I was married. For this reason he was unable to attend my temple wedding. I still can't believe that my own dad couldn't attend my wedding. Years later I apologized to him, not because I blamed him, but because I regretted the circumstance that made this so (Church policy). It still makes me sad to consider his absence on that important day.

[_MsJack]

Endnote 1 of my post:

[1] Someone is bound to point out to me that you can have an elaborate ring ceremony after a temple sealing, although the church discourages it. However, I have heard of overbearing bishops forbidding even ring ceremonies.

I have heard all sides in this matter. For example, Julie M. Smith from Times & Seasons says that after her sealing, she had an elaborate ring ceremony at a country club complete with a walk down the aisle, candles, ring exchange, string quartet, etc. Very little difference from an actual traditional ceremony. However, she also said that she felt like "bishops have a lot of control here; I am sure some bishops would have nixed our elaborate plans." (See her comment here.)

It sounds like Kevin was not so lucky in the bishop department. I believe the most optimal solution is to get rid of the policy barring couples from waiting one year for a sealing after having a ceremony outside the temple, but if that is not possible, then I think it would be much better if the status and extent of the post-sealing celebration was decided by the couple getting married and did not depend on the preferences of the bishop involved.

[_Dr. Shades]

I was told that if I chose to have a civil wedding beforehand, then I would be forced to wait a full year before being sealed in the temple.

What if you'd chosen to have a civil wedding immediately afterward?