The Word For the New Year

A few years ago, I found myself tired of making New Year’s Resolutions. They were always the same, and I’d end up breaking them right away and feeling like a total failure.

Again.

Then I read a post in a blog somewhere that changed my perspective on the idea. Instead of a goal or an ideal to work on or a promise to avoid this or that thing that I happen to really enjoy, the idea is to pick a word that you want to focus on for the year.

That first year, I had been particularly depressed, so I chose to work on “Joy”. Then, throughout the year, I would remember the word, contemplate it, think about it, read and write about it, and hopefully find more of it in my life. So, at the end of the year, I could look back and see its impact.

Gone is the guilt of failure. If I have an unjoyful week, I’m fine with that. I just continue my focus and let it grow.

Other words I’ve used in other years have been “Gratitude”, “Creativity”, and “Spirit”.

So this year, I’m going to focus on the word “Prayer”. I’m feeling a real need to re-connect myself with Heavenly Father, and to feel more divine, myself. One way to do that is to simply take a quick moment to pray whenever the thought crosses my mind. To take that thought as an inspired reminder, and to think thoughts of gratitude to God, and to ask for blessings for those around me.

I know that we’re taught that there are certain times of the day when we’re “supposed to pray”. I’m OK with that, but I don’t always remember at those times. So, I’ll take advantage of the times I do remember.

In Alma 34, Amulek teaches that it’s good to pray whenever the desire or the need strikes you, and it’s good to pray over temporal as well as spiritual things:

 17 Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you;

 18 Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.

 19 Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.

 20 Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.

 21 Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.

 22 Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.

 23 Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.

 24 Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.

 25 Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.

 26 But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.

 27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.

So, that’s gonna be my focus this year.





Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

The Grass and The Willow

A Fable For Our Times

So, the story goes that there was a big, tall, full willow tree atop a small rise, surrounded by a grassy meadow.  It had been there for years.  Many who traveled the roads by the meadow would stop and rest in its shade before moving on.  They used the great tree as a landmark to know where to travel and how far they had come.  It seemed like it had always been there and always would.  It was fixed in place, immovable.  The idea that it had once been a weak little sapling was long forgotten.

Below it the grass also grew tall, but not so much as the tree, obviously.  As the breezes and winds blew the grass would sway and swing, bending to the slightest shift and motion in the air.

Not the tree, of course.  Oh, the leaves might swish a little, but the tree was strong against even harsher winds.  It stayed, sturdy and tall.

Until one night a storm arose like no other before it. The winds and the rains hammered the hilltop, whipping the grass and the tree in its frenzy.  Wave after wave of harsh force smashed against them.  The tree strained to hold together as branches snapped and tumbled.  The tree held on with all its might, but finally, its shallow roots were unable to stand against the force of the wind, and with a loud crackling, it toppled over, smashing to the ground.

In the morning, the winds were again calm and the sun rose, drying the raindrops off the dying tree and the grassy meadow.  The grasses rose up and again danced and swayed in the breeze.  Their roots were deep and intertwined, and their blades flexible to move with the winds but still remain in place, still growing, still alive.

OK

So, I was reading yesterday an old response to Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s many anti-Mormon and anti-Joseph Smith books, and I started to see a trend. The more I read, the more I realized that the reason many good, faithful church members fall to anti-mormon propaganda is, in fact, our own fault, culturally.  We cling so rigidly, dogmatically to details that we think are facts, when those “facts” are, in fact, not certain.  Then, when those “facts” are challenged, our roots don’t go deep enough and so, aren’t strong enough to adapt and flow with those winds, and we fall.  Maybe our roots aren’t intertwined enough with others, strengthening each other, and so, we fall.

For example:  Detail Dogma might say that the Book of Abraham was the literal translation of the exact writing on the scrolls that Joseph Smith acquired. Some experts, cited by the Tanners, claim that the writings translate differently, and are not at all what Joseph wrote as the Book of Abraham.  But do we REALLY know what happened?  Do we REALLY know how it happened?  Is it not possible that Joseph Smith saw the texts and had a visionary experience that brought about the revelation of the Book of Abraham?  Is it possible that Joseph, with God’s eyes and inspiration, saw more in the drawings and text than others have?  What is the difference between “translation” and “revelation”.  There is so much that we don’t know.  So, should we rigidly cling to the superficial dogma, or should we sink our roots deeper to the underlying belief that the Book of Abraham is sacred scripture, however it arrived?

Another example: For years and years, we were told that the native american tribes were descendants of the Lamanites.  Some scientists did some studying and claimed that DNA testing disproved that theory, saying that the DNA of native americans was more asian.  We took a look at our beliefs and we said, essentially, that maybe there were other groups here, too, and they mixed.  Then, further DNA studies showed that it's not so cut and dried, scientifically, anyway.

We often want our histories and our stories to be clear, to be black and white, but life isn’t that way.  It’s often messy and our heroes aren’t always so heroic.  That doesn’t mean we stop believing in them, though.  We just have to be flexible.




Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

An Update on The Mormon Malian

A lot of folks are talking about the troubles in Mali and Algeria these days.  It seems that Northern and Saharan Africa are the next big trouble spots, taking their places alongside the Middle East, and Afghanistan.

Not long ago, as I was listening to the news about the hostages and the attacks against the kidnappers, my thoughts drifted back.  “Wasn’t there some report once about a Mormon that was running for president of Mali?”  At first, I wasn’t sure if I had confused Mali with some other country there on western Africa.  There are a lot of countries there that I’m vaguely aware of, but unable to properly identify on a map.

I looked it up, and, sure enough, that was the report.  I’m not quite sure of the details, but apparently the election was interrupted by a military coup.  Yeah Samake (the Mormon in question) has been still pressing the current government to step down and to allow the civilian election to proceed.

You gotta believe, though, that if he somehow manages to get into the top spot there, he will have inherited a pretty big mess.  In the meantime, he’s still the Mayor of the community where he started, and is still advocating for his country.  I also found it interesting that although he's the only documented Mormon in his country, a nation that's 90% Islamic, he says he's not been persecuted for his faith.  The most recent thing I was able to find on his story was this interview dated Dec 5, 2012.  

You know, I wish him well.  It will be really interesting to see what opportunities for national service come to him in the current crisis.  I haven't met him, so who knows what he's like up close and in person.  But reading his words makes me think a bit about King Benjamin, and his political treatise in Mosiah...  Time will, tell, and I know I’ll be paying attention.






Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Some Thoughts on Revelation and "The Word of God"

A friend of mine (who isn't a Christian, BTW) had this to say on his blog:

"Was this really a problem that the Bible isn't conservative enough? I have to confess to not having heard of Conservapedia - The Trustworthy Encyclopedia before. Apparently they have decided the Bible is too liberal in its language and so on. So they are instituting a "retranslation" effort of the Bible to purge it of its liberal bias. Apparently they are starting with the KJV to remove anything they assume to be too liberal in terms of language, ideas etc.

"So now, if you are looking for the actual, unvarnished literal Word-O-God, you will have even more "literal translations" to choose from!

"Someone tell me again which literal translation is literally the Word-O-God?"

I made a few comments, which you can read if ya wanna.

But, here, in Mo' Boy, I want to talk about some of the other thoughts his comment inspired. Some of these thoughts, by way of disclaimer, are *MY* thoughts, and not necessarily canonized doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But then, most of what I write here in Mo' Boy is such, anyway...

We get our scriptures through our prophets. And that makes for a very interesting circumstance, because that means that everything that God says to us comes to us through another human. God, for some reason, doesn't directly write us messages. I, personally, would really enjoy reading that particular Twitter Feed, but He doesn't choose to work that way.

So, partly to clarify my own thoughts, and partly for the benefit of my non-Mormon, non-Christian friend, I'm gonna think out loud for a few minutes.

There are several ways that we get our written scriptures:

Taking Dictation

I read once that sometimes when Joseph Smith was receiving revelations he would just begin writing, in a sort of "automatic writing" kind of way. When you read chapters like this, it comes across very much in a sort of "Word of God" kind of Tone. It's often in (if you'll pardon the pun) first-person omniscient point of view. A really good example is the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Another good example, off the top of my head, is the whole Book of Malachi, in the Old Testament.

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Another method is when God gives a marvelous spiritual experience or a vision to someone, and then tells them to go write about it. One good example of this is the story of Nephi's Vision(That originates as Lehi's Dream), which starts in Chapter 11 of 1 Nephi and goes on for a number of chapters after that.

The experience that we Mormons all know as the "First Vision" of Joseph Smith is another good example, as is the entire Book of Revelation.

This method is different from the first because, although I firmly believe that the experiences the prophets experience are no less divine, the words themselves are not directly the "Words of God." This means that the word were written by a flawed human being, sometimes days, sometimes even years after the fact.

It's All History

The last bit of scripture we get are the stories. These are tales, stories, and histories written by an archivist using his own (albeit often inspired) insight. Another flawed human is choosing which histories to include, and writing them into the text. Almost the entire Old Testament is this kind of writing. The four Gospels were written this way.

The whole story of the conflict between Nephi and his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, is colored, I believe, by the fact that it was written by Nephi, from his point of view, many many years later. Is it any wonder he comes off as the good guy?

The whole reason we name the Book of Mormon after that ancient American prophet is that he compiled and abridged all of the records of his people.

I don't mean to diminish the spiritual nature of the scriptures, nor to imply that I don't believe that they're inspired. But I think that God allows us to learn from each other, often centuries or even millenia later.

The Title Page of the Book of Mormon, which was actually translated from the Golden Plates themselves, carries this clarification: "And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ."

And none of these things even take into account how often the book of scripture has been translated from one flawed and human language into another, in the hope that it can be understood by people of a totally different background and culture..

So, the sooner we get past all that, and not stress out over the details of the words, and get to the real messages that are underlying, the better off we'll be.


Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: More Work on "Martyrs", Healthy Dutch Oven Recipes,

Book of Mormon Stories Go Social?

So, this morning, I was at lds.org reading the scriptures. That's how I do it in the morning: I wake up, check my emails, read my webcomics, and read my scriptures. Today I also checked the going price on my son's Yu-Gi-Oh cards on eBay, but that's a whole other blogstory...

I got to thinking how cool it would be to be able to do all of my Book of Mormon reading and scripture studying online. I can really do it anyway, but imagine along with me, a website where:

• I could read and bookmark my place, for linear, start-to-finish reading.
• When I have an insight on a verse that I read, I could open up a "stickynote" window and write my thought down. That stickynote would be "stuck" to that verse.
  
• While I'm writing in my sticky note, I could jump to another window, search for a different scripture and add that reference to the initial sticky note. That connection could appear in both verse A and verse B.
• I could tag both verses with keywords that help me to identify the topics and thoughts on them.
• In the stickynotes, I could even include external links to net resources, like articles, documents, blogs, videos, etc...
  

Pretty simple stuff, so far. But what if I'm not reading from Genesis to the Articles of Faith? What if I'm studying a topic? Or preparing a lesson?

• I can access scriptures from the existing Topical Guide. Those could be tagged with stickynotes, just like the others.
  
• I could look up scriptures based on keywords in the verse itself, based on topics like the topical guide, and based on keywords and tags in my stickynotes.
  
• I can create my own "Topical Guide" lists of scriptures around topics of interest to me.
  
• I can connect and interweave all of these lists, tags, and stickynotes to the myriad of publications of the church
• The scriptures
• Conference Talks
• Magazine articles
• Lesson Manuals
• Church History Documents
• (with proper security) My own Patriarchal Blessing
  

Still pretty simple. There are possibly existing software packages that do things like this. But BaBAM, let's kick it up a notch! What if we take this whole thing social!?

• I can have a profile page that shows things like:
• Where I'm currently reading
• My most recent stickynotes
• Some of "Topical Guide" lists
• blogs, lessons, and articles I've written
• My written testimony
  
• I can make any of these and more bits be public, or shared.
  
• I can have a list of friends and see some of the study points that they've made public.
• While I'm reading, or looking up scriptures, I can have access to the stickynotes my friends have left on any particular verse, maybe I can even comment on them.
  
• I can message (via email, internal messaging, or even internal chat/IM) any of my friends and ask them questions or talk about any of their stickynotes, blogs, or lessons.
• I can make any of my stickynotes, lessons, or blogs even more public by sharing them in twitter, facebook, digg, delicious, or any of a number of other social networks.
• There could be moderated topical forums and groups formed that would discuss certain topics from a scriptural point of view.
  

It'd be, like, the ultimate Mo' Social Network! More than just hangin' with friends in the ward, or playing Mafia games on facebook! This is like a Book of Mormon Book Club!

Whatdya think? It would take some serious back-end programming. Any programmers out there willing to take on a project like this one? I'd be all over promoting it!



Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Socialism? Mormonism?

I'm getting bombarded by lots of emails, facebook postings, etc. decrying the evils of socialism. They are warning me of the downfall of this great nation and end of the constitution.

That may well be. I'm not fully convinced, but I'm not decided yet, either.

What worries me is some of the rhetoric being thrown around by a lot of the church members I'm hearing. They're all supported by this quote, or that wise and pithy saying.

I know I'm going to catch &@%$ for saying this, but I think that every Mormon should take a moment, open up their Book of Mormon, and their other scriptures, and read these verses:

Alma 30:17 The gospel of Self-Sufficiency, as taught by Korihor. That's right. The BAD guy.

Moses 7:18 In Zion, there are no poor.

And here's the really scary one: How about reading the entire book of 4th Nephi? I put particular emphasis on verses 3, and 25 (well, really 24-26).

Now, if you want to, you can all post angry comments, and tell me how that's not what those verses mean, and that's not what's happening in today's world, and you may even be right. Honestly, I think there are serious problems with socialism, capitalism, and communism. All I'm asking is that before you scream about welfare states, and before you vote to cut funding for the poor and the disabled and the elderly (they don't really need it anyway), read those verses. And then read them again.

Then you can come back and flame me.


Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: New Song! "The Third Time"

The Zeezrom Syndrome

Since I wrote that last blog post on the Book of Mormon story of Zeezrom, I thought it would be interesting to see if there were any other bloggers/writers out there who had shared some insights into the man and his life.

I found that one man, Rod J Vessels, had actually written a whole book about him, called, "The Zeezrom Syndrome"

Immediately I was fascinated, and I started to look up some of the references there in the Google search. Even though there were a lot of mentions of the book at various sites, there was precious little information about it. A few pages gave me some basic hints, but none of them actually told me what "The Zeezrom Syndrome" actually IS.

I was, however, intrigued. I love the story (I mentioned it's one of my all-time favorite Book of Mormon stories). It turned out that I had some Affiliate money stored up in my account over at Amazon, so I went ahead and bought it. When it arrives, I'll read it and review it here.

In the meantime, here are some other references which I found interesting:

• A review over at Irreantum (The Association of Mormon Letters)
• A transcription of a radio interview with Bro. Vessels. Very enlightening and interesting, but it still didn't really explain the Syndrome (not in my mind, anyway).
• An article at a psychic website (yes, you read that right) that compares it to the "Eye of the Needle Syndrome" (whatever that is).

Based on my brief encounters with second and third hand information about the book, I'm guessing that the Zeezrom Syndrome has something to do with being caught up in pride and materialism, bringing on lessened spirituality.

But that's just a guess.

More to come on this great Book of Mormon Mystery!


Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: A Birthday Dutch Oven Gathering, and Keyword Analysis Research,

Book of Mormon Story - Save the Lawyer!

"Martyr", the song I wrote and posted last week, was inspired by the story of Alma and Amulek, from the Book of Mormon. As I was reading it, researching the song, I was reminded of the story that bookends that one. It's one of my all-time favorite Book of Mormon story. That's the conversion of Zeezrom.

Zeezrom starts out, in chapter 11 of the book of Alma, as a lawyer trying to trip up Alma and Amulek. He tries a few strategies to try and trick them in their words, and at one point, even tries to buy them out of their testimonies.

But Alma and Amulek can sense, by the Spirit, his trickery and they call him on it. And this catches him off guard. Before long, his questions start to get sincere. Pretty soon the crowd is getting more and more angry at Alma and Amulek, and as Zeezrom starts to stand up for them, they get mad at him, too. Pretty soon they haul the two missionaries off to jail.

In what I imagine is their "trial" they are accused. Because Zeezrom is a lawyer, I imagine that he was working for their defence. Who knows what the Nephite due process was at that time in the Book of Mormon, but there must have been some set order to things. In the end, the bad guys run Zeezrom out of town. At that point, he's pretty much a believer.

He travels to another town, where another family of believers takes him in, feeds him, and cares for him. It turns out that he's so wracked by guilt over all the things he'd done over the years, persecuting and (I imagine) prosecuting the righteous, that he's in bed, sick with a fever.
I wonder if he was there at the scene of the martyrdom, of the burning. For him to see the righteous being burned a live, with their scriptures, and knowing that he'd played a role in inciting the people to that point must have eaten away at his soul. Small wonder he lay in bed.

Then, after Alma and Amulek tear down the walls of the prison the come to the town where he is. When Zeezrom hears that they're alive, he takes courage and sends for them. He must've wondered if they'd harbour any resentment for him. It must've taken some courage for him to send for them.

They come to Zeezrom, and with no recrimination or anger at all, bless him and heal his illness. Zeezrom jumps to his feet, praising God, and "...went from that time forth, to preach unto the people."

So many of the stories of the Book of Mormon are about armies, generals, leaders, and history. This is one of my favorites because it's very personal. One man makes a complete turn around. It just gives hope for me, too.


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com


More by Mark: Mark's Black Pot: Dutch Oven Swirled Bread

Faith and Works

Another common point of contention between Mormons and other Christian religions is the nature of the balance between faith (or grace) and works. The Christians say to us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” -Eph 2:8-9

And we say back to them: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” -James 2: 17

And the problem is that we mormons tend to forget that we can do all the good works that we want, but we’ll never be good enough to make it back to heaven, that’s why we need the Lord’s Grace. And the Christian world tends to forget that Jesus wanted everyone to be “Doers of the word, not hearers only”.

So, with that in mind, I recently noticed some interesting quirkiness in a couple of bits of religious pop culture.

One is the recently produced children’s story called “The Parable of the Bicycle”, and another is a number of CD’s currently out on the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) market, particularly DC Talk’s “Jesus Freak” CD.

The “Bicycle” story is an adaptation of the story that forms the basis of the book “Believing Christ”. It talks about a little girl who wants a bike. Her dad says, “Save as much as you can, and we’ll see about the rest”. So, she does, but in the end falls hopelessly short of the amount needed for the bike. And her dad buys the bike anyway. The comparison is made with the atonement. No matter how hard we try, we can’t make it alone. But Jesus steps in and makes up the difference. The story has a very strong tone of “believe, and everything will be OK”. Which is a very orthodox Christian approach to the gospel. But the book is written by and published by Mormons.

And there are several songs by DC Talk on this CD that talk about how important it is to be kind to people and treat them well, and help them and act like Christians instead of just claiming to be forgiven. Which, to me, sounds a lot like emphasizing works, which is a very common Mormon approach to the gospel.

The reality is, of course, not so polarized. We do need to follow Christ’s teachings. We do need to do good. We do need to live well. But we also need to put our faith in the Lord, and not try to do it alone. Remember: “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.” 2 Ne. 4: 34, (Book of Mormon)

I guess, in a lot of ways, we Mormons and Orthodox Christians aren’t so different after all, eh? Shhh… Don’t tell…


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com