What the bloggernacle means to me

With the Banner of Heaven retrospective going on over at Bloggernacle Times it has made me reflect somewhat on what the whole bloggernacle might mean to me.

Historically I came to the bloggernacle later than most.  After being heavily involved in political blogging I had only read a few LDS blogs once in a while and mostly read the FAIR website for its semi-once-in-a-while articles.  I ended up reading blogs in earnest in the spring of 2006 because I got thinking that if there are so many blogs about so many subjects then there must be a large LDS blog populace.  I was not wrong.

At the time I had no desire to start my own blog I just wanted to get a feel for what other Latter-day Saints thought in the world.  It was then that I found the Mormon Archipelago.  Using its links I was able to find a number of blogs.  Some I found were ones that were easy to gravitate to and others were sometimes thought provoking and others were, well, not my cup of tea.  I am not alone in this discovery nor particularly new at it.

Most of us I think find the Bloggernacle in similar fashion.

For me commenting on issues was fun, I thought after a while if I got invited to a bigger blog I would probably be willing to do so.  But mostly I did not know the crowd so I supported the ones I liked and commented as often as I could.

After leaving my political jobs and returning the university I felt like starting my own LDS blog would be a good way to share some of my history research with everyone, LDS history I found was a popular topic on the blogs I read.  It was about that time that the Juvenile Instructor started up.  So we were kind of kin to one another as same era blogs.

I have over the past couple of years floated around blogging very inconsistently due to just being too busy or less interested in LDS blogging.   This burn out phase has hit more often than I would admit but at the same time I am writing for a number of things so after a while I just found myself getting burned out and not having a lot to say on some issues.  Again this can and does happen.  Lots of rich writers and commentators on the bloggernacle have fallen off and in some cases gotten back on.

After four years I can say that I know what I appreciate about the bloggernacle.   It is a two fold thing that I want to express.

1.  I think the LDS Blogs offer perspectives and thinking that at once can be revelationary and on another side can be mundane or hostile.  Each of these have their place, I know some blogs I have read have challenged me from all three and some that bored me from all three.   Yet each category has reached me at different times when I was looking for different things.  Blogs I do not normally frequent, Feminist Mormon Housewives and Mormon Mommy Wars have both offered me something I can think about.

2.   The intellectual contributions and out of the box thinking, this is something the blogs can do to help develop ideas of faith.  They are out growths of Dialogue and Sunstone magazines, where some of this began.  In some ways it reminds me of the ancient and medieval philosophers who helped to set ideas about religious institutions.  Often I see Thomas Aquinas, Moses Maimonides and Al-Ghazali in some of the discussions about the role of God, the foreknowledge of the Father, and in the role and place we have in the afterlife.  In some ways these discussions are mind blowing but in others they advance religious understanding and conformity which is more developed than your garden variety Sunday School meeting.

In ways the bloggernacle has added to my understanding of gospel topics, and has blown some of my own preconceptions away.  I love it when it does that and this more than anything else is the reason I return to understand and grow both in intelligence and in faith.    That for me is what the bloggernacle has meant to me.

Blood, water, and spirit

This week in Elders Quorum we were discussing Adam and Eve.   Funny last two lessons have disproved my concerns over the use of the Gospel Principles book for our lessons.  Last month we got into a discussion about creation and evolution which was mildly respectful.  This time we discussed Adam and Eve, the discussion was the usual story with the usual info.

Then our teacher sprung this scripture on us:

Moses 6: 59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the ^aspirit, which I have made, and so became of ^bdust a living soul, even so ye must be ^cborn again into the kingdom of heaven, of ^dwater, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and ^eenjoy the ^fwords of ^geternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal ^hglory;

 60 For by the ^awater ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are ^bjustified, and by the ^cblood ye are ^dsanctified;

He demonstrated this idea of being born by blood water and spirit and how each of these things are key to your eventual death and return to God through a second birth.

Water = baptism
Spirit = the way that we are made holy though the Holy Ghost
Blood = blood of Christ and the atonement

The concept is a facinating one because it compares rebirth and birth as parts of the same whole.   The circle of life, to misuse a saying.   I think that is the key for the story of Adam and Eve, that whether we take the story literally or not the lesson we learn from it is eternal in nature. 

We all must enter this life to meet our second estate.  To go beyond that second estate we must meet the conditions in a way which has symbolic unity with the previous entrance.  In a way it is beautiful in its simplicity.

Pilgrimage sites and their significance in Mormonism

Above are four of the major religious centres of worship for Christians, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism.  These sites have significants for different people.

For followers of Islam making the Hajj is seen as important part of fulfilling religious observance.  For various reasons people go to these sites seeking to build a relationship with their deity, or with an enlightened state.   In each case worshippers have their ways of showing that devotion.  In the Hajj one of the important points is to stone the devil or Ramy al-Jamarat as a part of their purification ritual.

In Judaism praying at the Western Wall of the temple, the Wailing Wall, is seen as a way to achieve more purity, the prayer there is worth more than a normal prayer.

In Christianity, especially in Catholic and Orthodox circles, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has taking on a holy pilgrimage point since the early medieval period.  It is considered the traditional site of Jesus Christ death and burial place.  (in Protestant and Mormon circles the Garden Tomb is more popular)

This Sunday while sitting in Priesthood one person brought up the idea of following the pioneer trail.  I know there are other mentions of the sense of pilgrimage for Mormon sites.  The way this person described the ideal of touring the pioneer trail, it reminded me of this need for pilgrimage.  I am not ridiculing anyone who wants to visit these sites or find meaning in them but I recognized within them the beginnings of a similar process created by other faiths.

In Kathleen Flake’s book there was an active discussion about the concept that the First Presidency in early 1900s began this process of focusing on the places of early Mormon history as sites for holy places.  In a way they became modern versions of these other places, though my example of the Great Buddha was put up in the 1980s apparently.

I think of Carthage jail and see similarities to the visiting of the St. Thomas Becket’s shrine and relics by medieval pilgrims in England as having a similar sense of relation.  The idea of visiting the sites of martyrs is a ancient tradition.  In this people find a sense of meaning and purpose which transcends the death of the martyr, it builds of sense of unity with that martyr to visit the place.  Certainly as a youngster I still remember the visit I made to the Carthage Jail and to the hill Cumorah.  They left indelible impressions on me in how I feel towards Joseph Smith.

So if one was to project this forward will these significant sites develop within the church that it becomes critical site for pilgrimage in the same way that the more ancient sites have been for other faiths?   Will it be seen as a test of faith to go see the grave of the prophet?

In North America the repeating of the pioneer trek has been something of modern pilgrimage given for youth to experience.  We talk often of the times we have gone to the early church sites, in Britain this is also been developed with the Preston site.   For me this confirms the argument that the dedication of the monument in 1905 to mark Joseph Smith’s birth 100 years previous brought the church out of its beginnings and into the a different more establishment phase.  With it created a series of marking points of pilgrimage which Mormons across the world could develop a sense of unity.

In the end is that very different that the establishment of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Constantine in 325.  It too was used to mark the place of Christ’s death and create a point for Christian pilgrims to travel to from across the Roman world.  I see in these parallels a sense of unity, and a sense of purpose for the faithful.

Connecting with the past or stealing the future

If you have any interest in History you have seen for sale at places like ebay Roman coins and other ancient treasures in many other varieties.  If you haven’t just type Roman Coins in the search and you will see hundreds on sale in various conditions.

In some cases these are fakes seeking to dupe the unsuspecting.  A few years ago I bought a signed Bobby Thompson baseball which I am still not convinced is real, though the novelty of having a possible signed ball by the player who hit the “Shot heard round the world” makes it fun to have.

So if you bought a fake, sorry, it is ebay after all so you take your chances.  Much like our purchase of Sailor Moon Dvds for our daughter which obvious came from Chinese knockoffs.  The first big clue was on the packaging it was called Sail Or Moon… yeah that is sooo official.

While you might be miffed I am somewhat gladdened if you got a fake.  It means you are not supporting those who are selling history online for a few dollars.   While Roman coins are plentiful in many areas of Europe they can still be significant and important if they are in the ground.  In archaeology this is called stratification.  This means that the layers of soil can tell a story  of the area.  Much like tree rings soil can be found layered and each layer can represent a specific period in time.

When items like coins, broaches, clips, arrow heads or anything like it is moved it destroys the story associated with that object.

The Flu and me

Last Sunday I woke up feeling really ill.  I was dizzy and sleepy and off and on really hot.  I fell asleep about 1pm and woke up around 4pm, yet I still felt myself exhausted.   So at 9pm I went to bed for the night.

Feeling that way I called in sick the next day for work.  Then feeling a bit better that night I went to a meeting and Tuesday I went to work.  By Wednesday it was obvious I was still feeling the effects of some sort of flu, in fact each day until Friday I felt ok in the morning and awful as the day wore on.  By wednesday just sitting at my desk I broke out into a sweat like I was running a marathon.

So I went home early and stayed away from work for the following day.  Only on Friday did I feel good enough to go back into work and actually do normal things.

At this point if you have not tuned out I will explain why all this description is so significant.

Our local hockey team the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday announced that at least one player had come down with the H1N1 (aka the swine) flu.   At the same time many other players on the team had gotten the flu over the past week or so. 

End of the line for FLDS in Canada we are going to appeal to the Constitution

Ok lets be honest.  An appeal to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is probably the stupidest thing a government wanting to stop something could do:

The British Columbia government will not launch an appeal after criminal charges against two polygamist religious leaders were recently thrown out of court, the province’s attorney general announced Thursday.

Instead, Mike de Jong said he will ask the B.C. Supreme Court to clarify the controversial polygamy laws, and rule on whether they violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The announcement comes a month after a B.C. court threw out the charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler.  Read the rest of the article here.

That sounds good in theory, but the record of the Charter on ruling on these things is well pretty poor.  Courts have ruled in favour of the following:

1. Same Sex Marriage – see in Canada it is a civil right, sorry Elder Oaks

2. Group sex um parlours – yeah less said here the better

3. Abortion laws and other moral laws get thrown out often

So asking the BC Supreme court to rule on the whole of Polygamy and charter rights sounds like a land mine waiting to be stepped on.  I get the impression they just do not get it.  Of course I could be wrong and maybe the court will rule against them but I suspect the FLDS will be head over heels at present.  Unable to bring a charter challenge themselves they have goaded the BC government to do it for them.

British Columbia the new home of Polygamy, just in time for the Winter Olympics, maybe that Egyptian bobsled team can bring their wives now.

Nauvoo temple commitment

Just reading the latest John Whitmer Association journal.  In it is an excellent article on the Cutlerites.

For the second time in the last few months I came across the idea that the church wanted to get the Nauvoo temple finished before they left because if it did not it would be under condemnation.

the specific verses are in Doctrine and Covenants section 124: