22 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun – Mormons in
Have traveled about 251,000,000 miles.
Thoughts
during the week:
Revenge
has no value. Something President Kimball taught us was that there were only
two things important in the world – repentance and forgiveness.
Our
only goal in dealing with the world should be to bring about repentance.
“Getting even” with anyone is fruitless, but if we can help anyone to change
for the better, that’s progress.
“He
tried to kill my dad,” is a reminder to us that personal “feelings” taking the
place of real thought – leads to killing thousands of innocent people in an
attempt to have revenge against one man, who most likely will be eating steak
and lobster the day after the innocents are killed. Sadam
couldn’t care less; he kills innocents himself. Why would he care if we killed
some more?
In
defensive warfare for 31 ½ years (as a scientist – not a soldier), I came to
believe that we fight wars in the wrong way – and have the wrong rules. The
rules do not allow assassination (which is finding the guilty and killing
them), and the rules do allow killing thousands of innocent un-named people. This
is backwards. The last time we were in
Any
repentance we want to effect for others ought to be first by way of our own
example. We may advise against adultery if we don’t commit it ourselves. We may
advise against the possession of weapons of mass destruction if we do not
possess them ourselves. We have no dictator. George Washington was asked to be
our King, but said he would never want to be the very thing we were escaping.
We may advise against dictators honestly. We know what we’re talking about, and
we believe in it ourselves.
We are
the only country ever to use atomic weapons – and it was then to kill countless
innocent people to terrorize the enemy into surrender. Wrong
method. For the time, it may have been our only option to end the war.
(God set the example by killing the mostly innocent firstborn of Pharaoh, but I
think that scripture to be entirely inaccurate, written by those who fought and
escaped their slavery. Can’t say I blame them – but God does not kill babies to
terrorize a dictator, only humans do things like that, and then they get to
write about it and spin it any way they want. We read it thousands of years
later and think they told the truth. Gullible.)
The
visit:
David
and wife Becky and little boy Ryland and baby Rhys
are visiting us this week, so I visited at their chosen church – the Mormons.
It was a very nice place to visit.
At the
beginning of Sunday School, someone decided I was not
merely a visitor, and asked me to lead us in singing a hymn. I heard a little
good-fun snickering, but must admit, it was a pleasure.
Greetings
were plentiful – hugs and all. Home is home. None of you worry about me – ok?
This really is a sabbatical, and I’m learning more than you can know. My
negative feelings about “error in the Church,” have not increased, but I
understand them better against a backdrop of error in all the others. I have
certainly become a more committed believer in repentance – both personal and
organizational. The latter is very difficult in older established
organizations. In Joseph Smith’s time, there was a great deal of it going on.
The established valuable traditions become something worthy of protection, and
as their numbers increase, conserving them becomes more and more evident and
“important.”
The
“three whole hours of happy people of all ages” is still unique in the religious
universe. Nobody else could do it – not on a bet.
You are
a people I love – individually and organizationally.
22 of 52 Trip Around The
Sun – Mormons in