Firstly: Happy Birthday Charles Darwin, today.
Secondly: I love my wife dearly and love to "celebrate" our love around Valentine's Day,
But to heck with St. Valentine and the coupling we have made between him and our love for our spouses.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Gross Human Condition
So what is it with people today? First off, when one is reading a post, the writer is usually writing in such a way as to make the reader comfortable that the writer isn't talking to them. I hope I don't come off that way. The people I wish to address very well may be not only readers like you, but it may be you specifically.
Back to the original question. Why are the majority of Christians defaulted to hateful? The Judeo-Christian God from Holy writ is equally just as he is merciful, yet our human scope seems a few colors off, no? When someone wrongs a child, he deserves the same fate as Hitler or Judas Iscariot or Cain from Cain and Abel lore. Yet when a loved one dies, as long as they lived a life less evil than those listed above, then mercy takes hold. What happened to the beautiful doctrine of degrees of glory? Also, what happened to our view of that? Even if one utilizes it, that human scope is still a few colors off! As it stands, one can argue two ways for sons of perdition: 1. Eventually the creations that are cast into outer darkness have an end purpose in God.
2. Those creations in outer darkness are forever lost and so is the creation by the hand of God.
Number one can be argued to have justice and mercy met.
Number two cannot.
So what is your problem? Why the extremes? Every mormon funeral talks about how that person is in the Celestial Kingdom, or going there, while every newsworthy scumbag is destined for eternal fire and brimstone, even though we know nothing more than the page of journalism on their crimes. We know nothing of their personal torment, nor their side of the story. All we want is to comfort ourselves. We have our martyrs and heroes on one side and our villains and criminals on the other. Our heroes, for the most part, agreed with our sense of morality and judgment, while the one act that landed the criminals in jail, or ended in their death, their ideals and morals are realized in that single point of failure.
Not only is this the furthest thing from being Christlike, it is very far from the truth as well. The one mortal that was put on the earth worthy of judging others, was never so harsh as the insignificant followers of his that claim to know so much about Jesus and how they have been saved by grace. The only time you speak of that grace is for yourself. Nobody else deserves that grace unless they go to your church. Joseph Smith taught a principle of gradations in glory. Why does that offend? What is wrong with partaking in an infinite Atonement? Apparently Christians suck at math because if you, needing the obvious huge chunk of grace that you talk about so much, take away, say a whopping 10% of the grace available, what is 10% of infinity? I don't know, infinity maybe? By the way, if you not only deserve but need 10%, you are not only full of yourself, but you are also a very lost cause.
So hold on to your precious extremism. Hold on to your Jesus that neither agrees with you or fits into your constrictive mold. I will follow the Jesus of the New Testament who loved all and spent his time with the sinners. Not the sick and afflicted only as the hospital analogy will have you picture (and help you sleep at night), but the sinners. Mary Magdalene was sexually loose before Jesus met her. Transients and Homeless are usually not "sick" in our eyes but rather have other problems pertaining to sin, otherwise why can't they hold a job or mend ties with family? It must be that way, otherwise how do we comfort ourselves?
Back to the original question. Why are the majority of Christians defaulted to hateful? The Judeo-Christian God from Holy writ is equally just as he is merciful, yet our human scope seems a few colors off, no? When someone wrongs a child, he deserves the same fate as Hitler or Judas Iscariot or Cain from Cain and Abel lore. Yet when a loved one dies, as long as they lived a life less evil than those listed above, then mercy takes hold. What happened to the beautiful doctrine of degrees of glory? Also, what happened to our view of that? Even if one utilizes it, that human scope is still a few colors off! As it stands, one can argue two ways for sons of perdition: 1. Eventually the creations that are cast into outer darkness have an end purpose in God.
2. Those creations in outer darkness are forever lost and so is the creation by the hand of God.
Number one can be argued to have justice and mercy met.
Number two cannot.
So what is your problem? Why the extremes? Every mormon funeral talks about how that person is in the Celestial Kingdom, or going there, while every newsworthy scumbag is destined for eternal fire and brimstone, even though we know nothing more than the page of journalism on their crimes. We know nothing of their personal torment, nor their side of the story. All we want is to comfort ourselves. We have our martyrs and heroes on one side and our villains and criminals on the other. Our heroes, for the most part, agreed with our sense of morality and judgment, while the one act that landed the criminals in jail, or ended in their death, their ideals and morals are realized in that single point of failure.
Not only is this the furthest thing from being Christlike, it is very far from the truth as well. The one mortal that was put on the earth worthy of judging others, was never so harsh as the insignificant followers of his that claim to know so much about Jesus and how they have been saved by grace. The only time you speak of that grace is for yourself. Nobody else deserves that grace unless they go to your church. Joseph Smith taught a principle of gradations in glory. Why does that offend? What is wrong with partaking in an infinite Atonement? Apparently Christians suck at math because if you, needing the obvious huge chunk of grace that you talk about so much, take away, say a whopping 10% of the grace available, what is 10% of infinity? I don't know, infinity maybe? By the way, if you not only deserve but need 10%, you are not only full of yourself, but you are also a very lost cause.
So hold on to your precious extremism. Hold on to your Jesus that neither agrees with you or fits into your constrictive mold. I will follow the Jesus of the New Testament who loved all and spent his time with the sinners. Not the sick and afflicted only as the hospital analogy will have you picture (and help you sleep at night), but the sinners. Mary Magdalene was sexually loose before Jesus met her. Transients and Homeless are usually not "sick" in our eyes but rather have other problems pertaining to sin, otherwise why can't they hold a job or mend ties with family? It must be that way, otherwise how do we comfort ourselves?
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