the danger or error, Stan, is in thinking that -- Notes from Zarahemla Political Forum

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Date Posted: 11:49:18 06/24/05 Fri
Author: Mary, quite contrary
Subject: the danger or error, Stan, is in thinking that
In reply to: stan 's message, "since when, can you, sperate politics and religion, the NUMBER ONE issue" on 11:07:05 06/24/05 Fri

it is the "mission" of men of God in OUR church to speak about politics at all. We do NOT know their feelings on the subject(s); it is not their job to share them. We can assume things; we can guess things--but their job is to teach of Christ. And if we assume or guess too much, we may be very wrong. I know, from personal experience, that President Hinckley has NOT spoken about some very unique opinions/ideas he has (that would surprise people on this board and others), because it isn't his "job". He is careful. He chooses his words not to offend, because it's his job to teach of Christ and encourage us to keep going, not to overthrow the bureacrats that he probably respects, if he were less "wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove" as little as we do.
Why do we race to match up his words with our ideas, only to find out, someday, that we may have misjudged him.
I'm feeling like a broken record; maybe I'd better say no more.

Maybe a smiley face would help, but I understand what Kathy is saying; why attack church leaders. Honestly, ANY church leaders. I don't want to hear/see the pope attacked on here. I am struggling with the attitude of some Christian "fundamentalists" that this "war" in Iraq is about religion. I don't agree with them, and I think their outright statements to that end are not helping at all; I much prefer the, "we must love everyone; we are all children of God" attitudes of my own leaders. But, I'm not going to waste my time finding out the names of all the Christians who are preaching that and expose them on here. I think it is fruitless; it doesn't help us; it won't help them.

If Elder Oaks asks us to be civil in our speech about people, how terrible is that? How dangerous is that? He is speaking of living on a higher plane, not blindly accepting policies.

He is speaking of the danger of getting rid of the moral base of our society. He is speaking of the danger of mobocracy and lawlessness and anarchy.

Their (apostles and prophets) job is to lead to Christ; nobody can expect perfection of them, and the one thing I see on this board, especially from men, is the expectation that all things political must come first. Some don't see the big picture. Christ Himself disappointed Judas by not rescuing the Jews from the Roman empire. Why didn't He do that; He could have. He could have called down legions of angels to destroy all the emperors in the world. He didn't. Why?

If you can answer that question, then you will understand what Kathy is saying and why criticizing LDS apostles for not calling us to arm ourselves and march to Washington against the conspirators is pointless.

I love the standard works of the LDS Church. I have read the Book of Mormon countless times, but sometimes we need to read the New Testament again. Christ allowed Himself to be mocked, spit on and scourged--then crucified. He could have gotten rid of all the evil in the world, could have exposed every rotten deed of every hypocritical Pharisee. He spoke about it in parables, almost poetry instead. And healed people--humble people.

Why?

What can we do to help? NOT criticize church leaders. If we're doing that, we have our personal reasons for doing it; it doesn't help us to learn about how we can personally protect ourselves and our families from evil conspirators or bad politicians. They aren't voted into office to save anyone from evil governments; their job is to teach of Christ, exhort us to live Godly lives, and keep the church running; that's it; that's all.

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Replies:

Thank You Mary! (NT) -- Jean, 08:53:14 06/25/05 Sat