I find nothing to celebrate on the Fourth of July. It, like all nationalist holidays, is nothing more than the largest, loudest, and obnoxious propaganda program that has ever existed. Through all the parades, fireworks, and barbeques, people rarely ask what exactly are they so effulgently praising and whether or not the should be doing it. As a result, they reaffirm their loyalty to and love for one of the most violent, bloody, and dangerous regimes in the world, one responsible for murdering over 6 million civilians in the last 20 years. The great William Lloyd Garrison called such devotion, “the latest and the most terrible form of idolatry,” and he was correct. As this article explains, it is in direct opposition to the commandments of God and the direction of His prophets.
Tag: Enoch
What Does Mormonism Teach About The Meaning of Life and Life on Other Worlds?
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose behind Creation? Why am I here? Am I alone here? Are humans alone in the Universe? Is their life, intelligent life, on other worlds? If there is, what do they look like? What do they believe? How do they live? Is everything just one big cosmic accident, one great big empyrean joke?
These are some of the most meaningful and important questions that we ask ourselves. The Universe seems dark, chaotic, and full of impassable distances, and looming terrors. And it doesn’t give up its answers easily. But there are answers to our questions, a balm for our troubles, answers to our prayers.
There is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it answers all those questions and more. That is what this article is about.
On The Death of My Father
This is the story of two deaths. The death of my father and the death of my friend’s father.
They both died of similar illnesses – systemic cancer that ravaged their body beyond the ability of present-day science to repair. But it isn’t their cause of death that is meaningful.
What is meaningful is how people reacted to their deaths. What about the way they lived their lives elicited the reactions their deaths had and what this can teach us about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Fathership of God – this is what I find to be so instructive. In their lives and in their deaths, we can see the quiet but profound impact that living the Gospel can have not only in the life of the disciple but on all those around him or her.
This may be the tale of two deaths, but it is also the tale of two lives – one of tragedy, one of victory, and the hope to be found in Christ for us all.
The U.S. Constitution: A Covenant With Death, An Agreement With Hell
In American Latter-day Saint circles there is much idolatry over the issue of the U.S. Constitution. Most of it has to do with a particularly willful misunderstanding of most statements on the Constitution found in the scriptures, the purpose of government, the rights of the people in the face of oppressive government laws, and the supremacy of God’s law to man’s in all cases. American Latter-day Saints also tend to idolize the American Founding Fathers. Much is made of the Lord’s statement, “by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” that is for writing the Constitution. (see D&C 101:80) It is without a doubt that they were intelligent men. The writings of Thomas Jefferson are still worth studying even today. But that doesn’t justify us in not creating something better now than they could envision then; that doesn’t justify us calcifying out social, spiritual, political, and economic development because they could not imagine the next step in liberty and individual freedom. It does not justify us in idolizing the Constitution (or your respective national charter), ignoring the many ways it has been wrong, corrupt, and evil form the very start, and choosing it over that which is better now.