harmony wrote:Sometimes I'm known here for being extremely critical of certain aspects of the church.
Today, I can say I'm proud to be part of my ward. We're having a community clean up day today. The Mutual is at the home of a widowed sister (and cleaned up all her heavy stuff outside), Primary is picking up the trash on the main street of our village, the Elders Quorum and High Priests are moving from neighbor to neighbor, cleaning up debris and such, and the Relief Society is helping a sister who is in treatment for cancer by cleaning her house and washing her windows. The missionaries are at a nonLDS widow's home, raking her leaves and pruning her roses.
I'm lucky enough to have a dozen of them here right now, using a huge loader to push down my dead trees and pick up 15 years accumulation of heavy debris. Because I am resigned to using a cane now and cannot negotiate uneven ground, I cannot go out and help them, but it is my privilege to have them here. They're leaving now, after 2 hours, and will go on to the next neighbor on their list, after doing amazing things that I would never have been able to accomplish.
Would they do this, if we weren't members of the church? Yes, they would. Would they do this, if they weren't members of the church? Maybe, but it's the organization (and the willingness of the members) that makes it possible today.
You know what else you might find interesting, harmony? There were probably quite a few men in that group who are either just like me, or who would consider me to be just like them.
Kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?
... every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol ...
William Schryver wrote:You know what else you might find interesting, harmony? There were probably quite a few men in that group who are either just like me, or who would consider me to be just like them.
Kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?
Is that supposed to scare me? I don't know you well enough to know if you are the same as the men in my ward or not.
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.
I don't know you well enough to know if you are the same as the men in my ward or not.
That hasn't proved to be an impediment to you in the past when heaping condemnation upon me, and I'm sure it won't in the future.
Nevertheless, it is a quote that will find a prominent place in my folder entitled: "Words that could come back to haunt ..."
... every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol ...
You're going to have to do better than that, William.
That hasn't proved to be an impediment to you in the past when heaping condemnation upon me, and I'm sure it won't in the future.
Stung, did it?
Nevertheless, it is a quote that will find a prominent place in my folder entitled: "Words that could come back to haunt ..."
Are you suffering from regret, William, and projecting again?
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.
I think people helping others is always a good thing. And not that the deeds weren't done, but I have it from a reliable LDS insider that the push and publicity around these Mormon church sponsored "service days", and the extra push to get publicity about and for them, is in direct response from the church for all the "ill will" Prop 8 brought to the church -- especially in California. The LDS church is and has been scrambling to stem the tide of bad PR from the Prop 8 fiasco and is going overboard to get as much PR out of staged service events to accomplish this.
Nonetheless, good deeds are always welcome. Even if the primary motivation is masked.
"It's not so much that FARMS scholarship in the area Book of Mormon historicity is "rejected' by the secular academic community as it is they are "ignored". [Daniel Peterson, May, 2004]
Joey wrote:I think people helping others is always a good thing. And not that the deeds weren't done, but I have it from a reliable LDS insider that the push and publicity around these Mormon church sponsored "service days", and the extra push to get publicity about and for them, is in direct response from the church for all the "ill will" Prop 8 brought to the church -- especially in California. The LDS church is and has been scrambling to stem the tide of bad PR from the Prop 8 fiasco and is going overboard to get as much PR out of staged service events to accomplish this.
Nonetheless, good deeds are always welcome. Even if the primary motivation is masked.
Granted, the other applicable New Testament teaching could be Matthew 5:16:
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Were they ALL Mormon, or did they have any NON Mormons in the mix - including EX Mormons?
After I left the Cult, I noticed the local Mormons across the street one day taking out a tree. I went over and helped, and told the Bishop that just because I had resigned did not mean they could not contact me to help my neighbors. He just smiled at me wryly.
They are in the know, not I. And because I'm not part of their Cult anymore, I am not privy to neighbors in need, particularly elderly ones and therefore, I am left out. Our neighborhood does not have a watch or gathering that is non religious to set this kind of thing up.
Course everywhere else that Mormons jump in to try and show how wonderful they are - they put on loud t-shirts that show the name of their Cult. And they get upset when members who are there to help refuse to wear them.
Mormons don't work well outside their own troop. They recruit only their own kind. They don't work well with other religions, and rarely call upon anyone who isn't part of their Cult. They prefer to be in the spotlight so that they can show the world that the Cult of Joseph Smith really isn't all that bad - and oh yeah, we're Christians, see?
WjExMo wrote:Were they ALL Mormon, or did they have any NON Mormons in the mix - including EX Mormons?
After I left the Cult, I noticed the local Mormons across the street one day taking out a tree. I went over and helped, and told the Bishop that just because I had resigned did not mean they could not contact me to help my neighbors. He just smiled at me wryly.
They are in the know, not I. And because I'm not part of their Cult anymore, I am not privy to neighbors in need, particularly elderly ones and therefore, I am left out. Our neighborhood does not have a watch or gathering that is non religious to set this kind of thing up.
Course everywhere else that Mormons jump in to try and show how wonderful they are - they put on loud t-shirts that show the name of their Cult. And they get upset when members who are there to help refuse to wear them.
Mormons don't work well outside their own troop. They recruit only their own kind. They don't work well with other religions, and rarely call upon anyone who isn't part of their Cult. They prefer to be in the spotlight so that they can show the world that the Cult of Joseph Smith really isn't all that bad - and oh yeah, we're Christians, see?
I think that there is a certain sense in these service projects that part of the goal is to prove the worth of the religion by showing how service-oriented and selfless it makes its adherents. When someone with no religion or a radically different set of beliefs wants to join in or demonstrates similar attributes, this can be difficult for the members of the group to reconcile.
The missionaries just stopped by to meet me yesterday (as my records just arrived in my new ward). I'll have to call them and/or the bishop to extend a similar invitation to involve my fiancee and I in such service opportunities. I think that how they respond will tell me a lot about the sort of mentality they have.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains.
harmony wrote:Sometimes I'm known here for being extremely critical of certain aspects of the church.
Today, I can say I'm proud to be part of my ward. We're having a community clean up day today. The Mutual is at the home of a widowed sister (and cleaned up all her heavy stuff outside), Primary is picking up the trash on the main street of our village, the Elders Quorum and High Priests are moving from neighbor to neighbor, cleaning up debris and such, and the Relief Society is helping a sister who is in treatment for cancer by cleaning her house and washing her windows. The missionaries are at a nonLDS widow's home, raking her leaves and pruning her roses.
I'm lucky enough to have a dozen of them here right now, using a huge loader to push down my dead trees and pick up 15 years accumulation of heavy debris. Because I am resigned to using a cane now and cannot negotiate uneven ground, I cannot go out and help them, but it is my privilege to have them here. They're leaving now, after 2 hours, and will go on to the next neighbor on their list, after doing amazing things that I would never have been able to accomplish.
Would they do this, if we weren't members of the church? Yes, they would. Would they do this, if they weren't members of the church? Maybe, but it's the organization (and the willingness of the members) that makes it possible today.
I wasn't going to open this thread at first, I was afraid your ward had done something incredibly insensitive or rude--something to provide more grist for the mill here at MADB. I was glad to be wrong. Thanks for sharing, Harmony.
Every man is a moon and has a [dark] side which he turns toward nobody; you have to slip around behind if you want to see it. ---Mark Twain
