Paradigm Shift

I have probably written down some thoughts on this before, but the whole, trying to get a stagnant church to grow and evolve thing has me thinking again. Every single time God as issued a change for humanity, he/she has done it through a person. Let's keep it simple and take a couple major personalities for examples. Jesus claimed he came representing the "Father." Everything he said he did, we were watching the Father (also, for simplicity we will assume these were Jesus' actual words). So the changes came from him, even though we took his word that he was aligned with "Father," who we will assume to be the God of this world. Moses was a prophet who was called reluctantly. Everything we got in his time from God came through him. He somehow set up a very detailed, lower law after he received the higher law from God. That law probably had more lasting effect on Judaism than anything else. Now comes Joseph Smith, Jr. Plates or no plates, coming up with a story that is, at its minimum, inspirational (if you can stop thinking about the literal for 2 minutes). It is a representation of free-flowing inspiration. Authors are familiar with this, same as many artists trying to start or continue something they are working on. That "mantle" died with Joseph. If you don't agree, one could hopefully at least see where I am coming from. Something changed when Joseph died and left the untested process to sort itself out. I am also assuming here that some sort of organized religion was supposed to happen. In many ways I disagree with that idea, but again, for the sake of argument... So everything is hunky-dory until an external, unstoppable force meets an immovable object: Polygamy vs. the U.S. Government. At first, the church took a page from Joseph's book: magic, or in their case pretended magic or illusion. They tried convincing the government for a few years that they had stopped while having no intention of stopping. They were finally forced to come up with something. They thought Joseph's inspiration would carry them through. Inspiration had to come again...or at least a solution so they wouldn't all have to move again, this time probably to Mexico. They had been in "Deseret" for over 50 years. It wouldn't be that easy this time. This forcing of the issue lays it out very simply: the church came up with something after meeting an external force. Many will not agree, but that is the way it has been ever since. Blacks received Priesthood eligibility in 1978 after years of the prophet "prepping" all the apostles. He didn't want to present it and not have everyone agree to it. So he may have been inspired by MLK and the whole movement in the early 60's, but he didn't think he could throw that at the church without some sort of unanimity with leadership. If you notice, the general membership didn't shift drastically at either of this moments. There wasn't a massive uprising or leaving as thousands saw this as a moment where the mantle had left the man. On the contrary, membership will keep believing the prophet talks to god. Depending on who you ask, the prophet may have a weekly or monthly meeting with god/Jesus in the temple. So even though inspiration can come from external sources (as it has done), we can choose to view it in any way we wish (and we will continue to do so, even if it is explicitly explained to us). With this in mind, let us consider for just a moment the concept I mentioned earlier with Jesus: god residing within us. Jesus implied no special requirements to be aligned with god (like having a prophet after he left). He merely told us to watch and believe. His big things were loving each other and following the spirit of the law rather than the letter. If love was what we would "hang" everything else off of (his word), followed by the concept of following the spirit rather than the letter, we may have a lasting church to be proud of. The crux of what I wanted to convey here though was our concept of talking to god and getting something in return. I think this has largely been a concept that has grown out of proportion over time. If you just look at people's stories as stories, you could see that inspiration came from within. Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., inventors, scientists that were jailed or killed for proposing crazy-new ideas...If a church isn't careful, they get caught trying to lead from behind, then using 20/20 hindsight to explain how all this inspiration is somehow connected to a church that has nothing to do with it. The same will happen in the future. Whether it is human rights, or inventions, or a global event either for good or for bad, a religious organization that touts spiritual welfare of not only individuals but of the whole world ought to be leading from the front, trying to anticipate things to prepare the members, and trying to make this world as good a place as possible for humanity. This is not happening. "Zion" hasn't been properly attempted since Joseph, even though he wasn't fully prepared to attempt it either. Something else that affects this lackluster movement toward "prosperity for all," is the concept that Jesus is returning any day now. "Any day now," has been the phrase since he left 1982 some-odd years ago. How about we try making a "second coming" type environment on our own, what is he going to do, get mad at us for trying to improve humanity? This isn't like the tower of babel where we were going to knock the pearly gates down by force and storm the castle.