In my recent experience, I have witnessed a young man being slandered by women in the neighborhood.  I have watched as this young person has been isolated because of the gossip and slander.  The question becomes: what would be the LDS/Libertarian/Humanitarian way to respond to this kind of slander?  I am incensed at the injustice of it all--and yet I see it all around me.  I remember it happening when I was young, and am ashamed to say that I might have been a part of it myself occasionally...which sincerely pains me now.  What would the Lord have us do in this circumstance.  Any responses?

Speaking of conversions from Islam to Christianity leads me to remember that the Lord is also working with His chosen people, the Jews, in Israel.  Although the Church cannot prosletyze in Israel, nothing can forego the Lord's work.  I have a personal example from my latest visit to Jerusalem.

 I was walking down a Jerusalem street, passing by a hotel.  I asked the doorman for directions to a drugstore (I had a killer headache).  He told me, but then said in a low voice: "Are you a believer?"  I was quite taken aback--for some reason this same question is asked of me in every country I visit (China, Egypt, Israel, Europe).  I said "Yes".  He said, "Wait a minute."  Then he went into the hotel, got his keys and said, "I'll take you to a drugstore, but then I want to tell you a story."  So, for reasons I will never understand, I got into his car....a perfect stranger who might have been a psycho killer for all I knew.  And when he took off rapidly, I did wonder for a second "What in the heck am I doing???!"

 As we drove, he told me that he was a believer in the Lord, but that he was also a Jew.  He told me his conversion story: A man had stayed at the hotel a year earlier and had struck up a conversation with him over the course of 3 days.  He gave Mordecai (my new friend) a New Testament, and told him to read it and pray about it.  Well, Mordecai was a Jewish man and was quite offended by the visitor, but he took the New Testament anyway.  That night, he read the entire thing and prayed.  Mordecai told me, "I was overwhelmed with a spirit and a voice told me that it was true....that Jesus was the Messiah I had been waiting for my whole life.  I told the Lord, I can't do this alone....my family is Jewish, my friends are Jewish....I can't do it.  But I knew I had to do it."

Mordecai then told me that the next day, his cousin called him out of the blue, and asked to meet him.  His cousin said, "Something has happened to me.  I believe that Jesus is the Messiah."  Mordecai broke into sobs and told his cousin that he also had been told the same.  They became the best of friends and joined with an underground Messianic-Jewish Christian group.  

The most remarkable thing about this whole scenario is that when my newly found friend went to find the man at the hotel who had, for three days, talked with him and given him the Bible, there was no record of that man.  I exclaimed, "You were visited by an angel, Mordecai!"  And he cried as we drove, and said, "I know". 

Mordecai asked if I would like to meet his cousin.  I said, "Yes."  He took me to a small home somewhere in Jerusalem and introduced me to his friends, all Christian, all having remarkable conversions.  They asked me to lead them in prayer; we formed a small circle, holding hands, and I prayed in English, while one of them translated it into Hebrew while I spoke.  It was an incredible experience.  They told me after that Jews are becoming Christians all over Jerusalem--because of direct intervention from the Lord.

 God is preparing his own people; we don't need to teach them or send missionaries.  It is wonderful!

There is an absolutely FASCINATING blog currently showing on Times & Seasons of the Bloggernacle regarding "Master Status".  I love any blog that makes me think and might open up new doors of understanding, and Craig's blog does just that!

 Master status refers to the ways in which we define ourselves in life--and more importantly, how we interact with others based on their chosen "master statuses". 

 Please take a look and let me know what you think!

http://www.timesandseasons.org/

 

Cyn

There was an interesting statement made in a prior post: to paraphrase "the church today is not Joseph's church".  I totally agree with that and have mixed feelings about it.  I would be interested in hearing others' feelings.

 

In the early church, according to David Whitmer, the members had actual voting rights regarding doctrine, leadership, etc., in contrast to our mere "sustaining" vote.  Every year in conference, it "appears to be unanimous".  I understand that they cannot take votes on a worldwide Church with membership in the millions, but I guess I dislike intensely the pretence that we have any measure of involvement in leadership when we give our sustaining vote.  It's more that we agree to sustain the people put into power over us....without knowing whom we are sustaining.

 

Likewise, Joseph instituted a truly pernicious doctrine of polygamy, which has haunted and hurt the church ever since.  I believe that the present day church is more "true" than the church at the end of Joseph's life.  I am grateful the Lord "steadied the ark" and got rid of that doctrine in practice.  I believe eventually, Section 132 will be relegated to an appendix, much like the Lectures on Faith were taken from the D&C and put into an appendix.  The Lecture on Faith were so much more excellent than most other sections, I often wonder why they were taken out.

 

If you want an interesting read from a member of the early church, please see the website below, and read David Whitmer's 80-page defense of the Book of Mormon.

 

 

http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/1880s-1890s/1887Whit.htm

 

Cyn