The Canada Geese are still flying over, making their way back over the Atlantic from Canada.
You hear them go, and know winter is almost here. You hear them come back and you know that summer is almost here. It is a truly evocative sound.
I saw one stood on the roof of the hospital last night as the sun was setting.
I hope it will be a good summer, but I fear it will not be. We have had a hot, dry spell and the rivers are starting to run very low. So low that the River Severn river cruises in the town of Shrewsbury have been cancelled as the river is too shallow.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
More on Mitt Romney, double-edged sword for Mormonism?
Is Mitt Romney a double-edged sword for Mormonism?
Whilst on the one hand, the old adage is: "No publicity is bad publicity" but does that always hold true.
Because on the other hand, for every positive aspect of Mormonism that comes up there other others that might give non-Mormons (and, truth to tell, some Mormons) food for thought.
What kinds of things am I thinking about: The fact that some rather dubious MLMs are based in Utah and are controlled by Mormons. (Along with some legit MLMs based in Utah, too, before anyone thinks me prejudiced) Mountain Meadows Massacre, the fact that Brigham Young decreed that any mixed race couple and their children should be hacked to death, that Mormons preach (or preached) that Black people had been less valiant in the pre-existence, siding neither with God or Satan, that Joseph Smith took many married lovers and had a Jeffs-style interest in very young girls and so on and on and on.
Romney has shown himself to be a total waste. No real man would put a dog on the top of a speeding car and travel with it there for mile after terrifying mile until the dog was so psychologically traumatised that it fouled itself in fear.
Do Mormons who sing the praise of Mitt really think that a man of that failed moral calibre is a fit and proper person to be the leader of the United States of America?
Whilst on the one hand, the old adage is: "No publicity is bad publicity" but does that always hold true.
Because on the other hand, for every positive aspect of Mormonism that comes up there other others that might give non-Mormons (and, truth to tell, some Mormons) food for thought.
What kinds of things am I thinking about: The fact that some rather dubious MLMs are based in Utah and are controlled by Mormons. (Along with some legit MLMs based in Utah, too, before anyone thinks me prejudiced) Mountain Meadows Massacre, the fact that Brigham Young decreed that any mixed race couple and their children should be hacked to death, that Mormons preach (or preached) that Black people had been less valiant in the pre-existence, siding neither with God or Satan, that Joseph Smith took many married lovers and had a Jeffs-style interest in very young girls and so on and on and on.
Romney has shown himself to be a total waste. No real man would put a dog on the top of a speeding car and travel with it there for mile after terrifying mile until the dog was so psychologically traumatised that it fouled itself in fear.
Do Mormons who sing the praise of Mitt really think that a man of that failed moral calibre is a fit and proper person to be the leader of the United States of America?
Monday, March 12, 2012
Is a Mormon candidate for president good or bad for the Mormon Church?
Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate is a two-edged sword for the Mormon Church.
On the one hand it gives Mormons the opportunity to discuss their faith, yet on the other hand it creates problems, rather than opportunities, at the same time.
"So, let me see... your church believes in Baptism for the dead, yet a number of Mormons keep putting the names of famous dead people from history forward as names to be baptised? They go through lists of famous disasters like the sinking of the Titanic and of awful, wicked events like the Holocaust and events like the Mountain Meadows Massacre and put those names forward for baptism?"
"By the way, is it true your church was racist up until at least 1978, that it believed that black skinned people were cursed, as they had been less valiant that white people in the pre-existence?
"And didn't Brigham Young preach that mixed marriages were not only immoral, but should invoke an automatic death sentence for both parties?"
When confronted with such information the average Mormon will say: "You have been listening to horrible, evil anti-Mormons!" not wanting to believe that such information is true.
Yet it is true. So, the candidacy of Mitt Romney not only helps other people to learn about the history of the Mormon Church, it can teach its members something about the history of the Mormon Church. Is that a good or a bad thing for the Mormon church and for the individual members?
The Mormon Church should have an historical Truth and Reconciliation Committee to look at the history of the Mormon Church, warts and all. That is what it needs. But it is the last thing the current or future leadership of the Mormon Church wants. Which is a pity.
On the one hand it gives Mormons the opportunity to discuss their faith, yet on the other hand it creates problems, rather than opportunities, at the same time.
"So, let me see... your church believes in Baptism for the dead, yet a number of Mormons keep putting the names of famous dead people from history forward as names to be baptised? They go through lists of famous disasters like the sinking of the Titanic and of awful, wicked events like the Holocaust and events like the Mountain Meadows Massacre and put those names forward for baptism?"
"By the way, is it true your church was racist up until at least 1978, that it believed that black skinned people were cursed, as they had been less valiant that white people in the pre-existence?
"And didn't Brigham Young preach that mixed marriages were not only immoral, but should invoke an automatic death sentence for both parties?"
When confronted with such information the average Mormon will say: "You have been listening to horrible, evil anti-Mormons!" not wanting to believe that such information is true.
Yet it is true. So, the candidacy of Mitt Romney not only helps other people to learn about the history of the Mormon Church, it can teach its members something about the history of the Mormon Church. Is that a good or a bad thing for the Mormon church and for the individual members?
The Mormon Church should have an historical Truth and Reconciliation Committee to look at the history of the Mormon Church, warts and all. That is what it needs. But it is the last thing the current or future leadership of the Mormon Church wants. Which is a pity.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
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