Unto Every People

Moving Forward

Many of you have asked that I comment regarding the 1978 Revelation of Priesthood and the history of racism in Mormon scripture, doctrine, and culture. For the past several weeks I have been contemplating how I may add productively to this conversation. There is certainly no shortage of material to inflame modern sensibilities on the subject.

Individuals must be allowed to change. Organizations, even religious ones, are a collection of individuals. It is sometimes tremendously difficult for an individual to accept responsibility for error. It is even more difficult for a collection of individuals. Mainstream Mormonism has chosen to reinterpret or de-emphasize some of their history instead of fully acknowledging it. They are a hierarchal society dependent on a perceived line of authority from the first leaders down to the present day. While they don't claim infallibility, they do expect it. Perhaps this is why it is so difficult for them to view this subject candidly.

I am not going to attempt to itemize a historical case for racism in Mormonism. The evidence is there plain enough to see... if one chooses. I find it disturbing and vulgar. Racism always is. But our collective history is replete with disturbing chapters. America institutionalized racism. None of us escaped unscathed. It affected our families, our communities; the very moral fabric of our nation. It stands to reason our faith was also adversely affected. Mercifully, our sensibilities continue to evolve.

Mainstream religion has always played a stabilizing role in society... binding us to the past as we march head-strong into the future. Rarely is it a catalyst for social change.... that's not its traditional role. If anything, it goes kicking and screaming. As societies evolve so do our concerns and our need for answers. Religion eventually bends, reinventing itself over and over to meet those questions. If we were forced to abandon every faith with a history of intolerance and prejudice, there's no question we would be a faithless society. Ours is a world defined by evolution not by perfection. Religion need not be perfect. Every religion has a history of intolerance and yet every religion has principles for over coming it.

Like many conservative religious sects in 19th century America, Mormonism was guilty of racial injustice... and the echoes of that injustice reverberated clear into the late 20th century. Doctrine and practice conflicted with gospel ideals. It was problematic and painful for those who chose to see it for what it was. To try and call it something it wasn't would only demonstrate the extent of our ignorance. I will not do that but I see more benefit in exploring what Mormonism has become instead of dwelling on certain troubling elements of what it was.

It's comforting to think our chosen traditions are free from all the unpleasantries of error. I'm not saying we must necessarily acknowledge that fact... just that it's sensible to be fair. Do not hold another's tradition to a higher standard than your own. If you haven't examined your own unpleasant and deficient past, don't obsess over someone else's. History provides invaluable perspective by giving us an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. Often those lessons were hard earned. But as individuals, we must be firmly planted in the present. As evolving beings, we are only responsible for our own thoughts and actions. We comprise the religions of today... not the specters of the past.

All this said, it's worth noting that had Joseph Smith survived to lead his followers west, I believe we wouldn't be having this discussion now. He wasn't perfect in any sense but I do believe his views on race better match our 21st century sensibility than most any of those who came after him.

EDIT---

The Prohibition of Interracial Marriage in Utah, 1888 - 1963

A Utah Historical Society Essay by Patrick Q. Mason

Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons
on the DocumentaryChannel

Q&A: Perfection in Imperfection

The Great Salt Lake

Part One

I never expected this blog to attract attention.  I assumed it would remain largely undiscovered except possibly by my family and closest friends.  Unsurprisingly, they remain mostly uninterested.  What is surprising is the level of interest shown by complete strangers.  

I've been collecting some of your email.  Several of your questions are quite provocative.  I'm not quite sure how to or even if I should tackle them.  That's not to say I don't have an opinion... I certainly do.  I want this to be an inclusive place where we're all served.  Focusing on divisive issues is counter-productive without mutual respect.  It may take some time for me to find just the right way to share my thoughts.  So until that moment comes, we'll hold off on the more incendiary material.  That said, there are some reoccurring themes I am prepared to answer more fully even though I have already touched on them here in the past.

Do you consider yourself a Mormon?

While I don't embrace much of their more creed-defining philosophies, I do share their expectation of faith and find some of their unique and intrinsically Mormon beliefs helpful.  This is understandable since they were my introduction to mysticism and faith.  Non-Mormons may pick up on certain "peculiarities" in my more Christian beliefs and wish to classify me as such but Mormonism does require a level of orthodoxy I fail to embrace.  So no, I do not consider myself a Mormon.

If not the Mormon Church, which church do you affiliate with?

Does it really matter?  We're human.  We aren't designed to be perfect.  Our perceptions aren't perfect.  Our memories aren't perfect.  Our reasoning isn't perfect.  And our understanding is unequivocally not perfect.  Our imperfections define us as much as they challenge us.  Our chosen faiths are no different.

All traditions suffer from error and inconsistency... including my own evolving faith.  In fact, I believe faith to be a philosophical exercise to conceptualize our imperfect existence without the need of it to be perfect itself.  It's the act of struggling with and working through faith's imperfections that actually give it any meaning at all.  This differs irreconcilably from a principle tenet of Mormon belief know as the Restoration.

To clarify this point, I would go so far as to say from the fantastical perspective of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god, there would be no sizable difference between a Catholic and a Hindu.  A Buddhist and a Mormon.  A Jew and a Muslim.  Or even an Atheist and a Spiritualist.  God would look at all of us as effectively the same given our stupendously limited development.  And so, I regard sectarianism with both amusement and concern.

The idea that at some future point, humanity will bask in a singular religious utopia is quite unsettling because it would negate the principle of agency.  I envision a world embracing the pluralistic ideals of peaceable coexistence where none reign supreme and the chaos of diversity is its own reward and its own beauty, where we learn from one another and compete in good works.


Do you support Church leaders?

It is in the context of pluralism that I emphatically reject the need or benefit to any ecclesiastical authority.  I consider it a potential evil and a distinct danger to the advancement of humankind.  That said, I recognize many Mormon leaders to be good, decent, well-intended individuals.  I support them in their roles as fallible mortal beings struggling to find meaning and purpose in this life.

This brings me to two related topics.

(Continued...)

Q&A: Faith-Science Equivalence

The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1487

Part Two

(Continued.)

How would you define yourself religiously?

The short answer is, I really don't.

I have dedicated an entire blog to faith and belief.  I use terms very familiar to the religious.  I speak of the spirit, priesthood power, resurrection, life after death, perfection, and even God.  As unsettling as this may sound to some of you, I probably have more in common with an atheist than the emotion driven spiritualist.  Faith allows me to conceptualize mysteries I struggle to understand.  I sense the profound correlation between "faith" and the tightly bound mysteries of the universe.

There are principles of quantum physics being explored to explain the mysteries revealed in the Global Consciousness Project that I find easier to contemplate if encapsulated in philosophical terms like "soul" or "spirit."  The concepts of complimentarity, quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, and mass-energy equivalence likewise, can take on spiritual connotations when discussing the nature of "reality."  I don't have the scientific vocabulary for that.  To contemplate consciousness, existence, immortality, and purpose, I turn to philosophy... but the various fields in physics also explore these very same concepts.  I see a faith-science equivalence where contrasting reasoning and vocabularies are applied in the exploration of analogous issues.

This brings us to the million dollar question; 

Who, do you believe, is God?  

The short answer is, I don't know.

My god is not the Mormon god.  In fact, he's not even the Christian god.  He's not just some bigger better version of me.  He is something profoundly different.  I guess a more important question would be; "What is God?"  To me, God is a philosophical construct of something yet to be identified in physics.  Maybe it is something so far beyond our abilities to comprehend in a scientific context. he will always remain firmly within the protective bounds of philosophy.

Mathematics is the language used to describe the laws of physics.  The divine beauty and symmetry are evident.  I wonder if God is not author of mathematics and if the very laws of physics themselves are God.  On my plane of existence, sentience is the natural result of ever increasing complexity in a biological system.  I reason God to be a sentient derived from a similar process of increasing complexity but on a scale that transcends the multiverse.  Gnostic thinkers postulate we are but minuscule manifestations of God's own consciousness and that, in reality, the whole of the universe is God.

I really don't know if I am any closer to being right... but I find much more comfort in not knowing than in the vision of reality postulated by religious absolutists.  Their concepts seem uncomfortably small in my understanding and estimation.

Again, I hope I haven't troubled any of you.  My beliefs are my own.  I'm not here to correct or even influence your own spiritual path.  I believe, in the spirit of mutual respect, we can learn from one another and appreciate our differences.

"The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural constants were off even slightly.  You see, even if you dismiss man as a chance happening, the fact remains that the universe seems unreasonably suited to the existence of life - almost contrived - you might say a put-up job."

~ Paul Davies, The Mind of God

The Charter for Compassion

The paleontological record is pretty clear.  We are the product of behavior modification that has continually altered our social systems and spurred cognitive and technological adaptation for as long as our ancestors have been classified as genus homo; latin for human.  All species of the genus, except homo sapiens sapiens, are now extinct.  We are the evolutionary victors from among 15 known in our evolutionary family. Our emerging history of the social evolution is as astonishing as it is enthralling.  Beyond mere "survival of the fittest" shared with all life on earth, there is compelling evidence of cooperation and mutual adaptation among our human cousin species that made us possible.  One example, we owe our amazing immune response to an incredibly rare interbreeding between homo sapiens and two archaic human species among whom our ancestors coexisted; homo neanderthalensis and denisova hominin.

Social evolution has always been characterized by gradual development... that is, until now.  Until the last two or three centuries. most of humankind lived much like their ancestors did for at least the last 10,000 years or so or since the emergence of agriculture.  We now live in a mechanized connected world dominated by rapid developments in technology and communication.  Social evolution has been replaced with social revolution.  In this escalating complexity, human society is undergoing change our biology could scarcely prepared us for.  Some say our very survival depends on how successfully we adapt.

The psychological strain of this unprecedented rate of change can not be overstated.  The fact our populations increasingly struggle to cope is self-evident.  Today, the fastest growing segment of the burgeoning mental health industry is the phenomenon of "pop" psychology and its companion; self-help.  This product is not necessarily esteemed for its credentials as vetted theory by accomplished psychologists, anthropologists, ethologists or neuroscientists but for their widespread reception by the general population.  It is often tailored to appeal directly to the prevailing "common sense" aesthetic of its intended target audience.

Self-help is not always incontrovertibly without value... but caution is advised.  Unchecked, some consumers find themselves running from one popularized concept to the next in a desperate search to find that single silver bullet to right everything wrong in their lives... often in a near addictive state.  However, considered and consumed in a thoughtful manner, some of this material can enhance our understanding and enlighten our perspective.

Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) is a nonprofit dedicated to "Ideas Worth Spreading."  This past June, author Karen Armstrong made her TED prize wish known: The Charter for Compassion.  It has already been affirmed by tens of thousands including His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, His Eminence Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the esteemed Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and many many others.

I've long thought of Karen Armstrong as a sort of religious anthropologist; combining spirituality, history and human psychology.  Her book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, is proving to be very thought provoking.  It presents a stunning fact based argument supporting the biological evolution of compassion and human altruism.  But more importantly, it focuses attention on the widening psychological disparity plaguing modern society in the 21st century.

As a solution, Ms, Armstrong suggests a concerted effort to advance the principles of compassion.  She speaks of a collective exploration to achieve a higher level of compassion beyond the generally passable, every day expectation of today.

While the steps outlined seem somewhat obvious and even cliché, I am impressed with her sense of urgency.  It compels me to look more closely at what she is proposing.  Sometimes the best solutions are the most straightforward... even in a complex world.  Cliché or not, I see value in her idea and the necessity for practice.

It may be too idealistic to hope for but lasting change is rarely immediate.  Any transformation, even on a personal level, would be promising.  I have no doubt I will walk away from this experience a little changed.

Good and Evil: Distinctions Blurred and Benefits Realized

Liberty Park - Salt Lake City Utah

Part 2

Moving forward two days; Independence Day!  My recent experiences still never too far from my thoughts, I attended two family functions; my own and that of my dearest friend.  I took great satisfaction enjoying the diversity of personalities.  Some call the quirky jostling "dysfunction" and "harmful."  I imagine unchecked it could be.  It certainly isn't always easy but difficulty isn't a reliable measure of harmfulness.

When we are injured and suffering either emotionally or physically, our ability to recognize and appreciate the miracle of family is often tremendously diminished.  Patience and understanding are always the first to be sacrificed in such situations.  I am all too guilty of this and know this to be true.

I know my family... and in optimal condition, I understand and appreciate them the way they should.  This holiday was nearly optimal for me.  I so enjoyed their company.  Yet, as we said our goodbyes, I regret not all of us were feeling optimal and a poor choice of words set into motion hurt and suffering.  I left beleaguered; not knowing how to help make things right.

Then something extraordinary happened.  For maybe the first time, I found myself in a very familiar setting; comfortably enjoying family... but not my family.  I'm usually quiet and shy and maybe, to a certain degree, I still was but I experienced something unique... at least to me.  I noticed a familiar dynamic.  The players were different yet they shared the same identical personality characteristics I grew up with in my family... except there, they were totally redistributed as if like a deck of cards where they were shuffled and all dealt new hands.  I could see aspects of my parents, sisters, brother, nieces and nephews all represented in unique combinations.  The reactions and interactions played out in familiar ways... right down to the moments of hurt and suffering.

I think what was so extraordinary about the experience was which personalities acted and reacted.  Like watching a familiar movie shot from completely different angles, it provided some much needed insight into the inner-workings of my own family because I wasn't emotionally vested in any of the outcomes. Too often we take for granted our abilities to weather criticisms and judgements.  Too often we take for granted our abilities to read and anticipate the moods and reactions of those so near and dear to us.

Our most intimate relationships are our families.  They are both the safest and most dangerous of all relationships in an emotional sense due to their profound nature.  Mormon doctrine teaches we foresaw our lives, our living conditions, our life companions, and we "lept for joy" in anticipation for our earthly existence.  I share that belief.  But I also have the nagging suspicion that these intimate relationships we call family are far far more complex and older than we dare imagine.

I believe in a cyclical process of life and learning where we live again and again until all of life's lessons are learned; perhaps not reincarnation in the common sense but something.  Those we know as family follow us from probation to probation.  We continue to play profound roles in each others lives... because we have unique lessons to learn from one another.  Our bond truly is eternal.

Popular psychology likens healthy living to cleaning out one's garage.  In their opinion, it is a garage filled with the junk of our own making where choice pieces may be dusted off and repurposed but the majority of seemingly broken and useless trash should be quickly and unceremoniously tossed in the garbage and carted off for disposal.  Some even espouse, for the sake of a clean garage, to just torch it and all its contents and move on rebuilding a new garage without looking back.

I view my garage differently.  It's something inherited where I was promised I could find all the needed tools and supplies for successful and healthy living.  Sure, I may have added a few things in my time as owner... the dust bunnies, a few discarded burrito wrappers and the occasional cup and straw but the shelves remain relatively untouched.  You see, the previous owner was something of a MacGyver.   In his case, he had eons of creative experience and an intimate knowledge of who I am.  Turns out those shelves of seemingly eclectic trash aren't worthless after all... and the act of sorting and cataloguing the multifarious collection provides me with the increased ability to respond effectively and creatively to all of life's challenges.

Our families, for good and especially bad, help us learn to respond effectively and creatively to life's ups and downs if we but take the time to properly sort and catalogue.  We glean real experience and practical knowledge from the high pressure interactions of such an intimacy that only family can provide.  Only then will we not take for granted those tools and supplies we were given.  It is a difficult task that takes a lifetime of struggle... with no hope of complete success.

In short, we inherit a pile of junk from our parents.  Spend a lifetime trying to sort it all out.  Then end up passing it on to the next generation.  Like it or not, this is the beauty and continuity of cyclical progression.

"If you don't have the right equipment for the job, you just have to make it yourself." 

~ MacGyver

Good and Evil: Where do we place the bar?

Pražský Orloj - Prague Czech Republic

Part 1

"Are there, infinitely varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression -- hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation?"

~ William Wilkie Collins

I had a very thought provoking holiday weekend.  It started Saturday at my building's swimming pool with my nephews noticing something at the bottom of the deep end...

The actual act of swimming down, turning over, noticing the near severed tongue, staring into the wide lifeless eyes of someone still 9 feet below the surface, then cradling his cold discolored body, pushing through to the surface cheek to cheek, feeling no pulse or life... there was something oddly peaceful and reassuring in that moment; a palpable sense of the continuity of both life and spirit.  The imagery was uncomfortable at first... because it was unfamiliar.  I've had to process it and accept it.  However, the accompanying behavior and reaction from the poor man's family continue to trouble me.

As we broke the surface of the pool, I called out for help.  They snorted and asked if I was kidding yet still couldn't be bothered to pull themselves up from their lounge chairs.  I struggled to push him out onto the deck.  They looked on with only mild interest letting two young men rush in to help.  As my friend and mother approached to start CPR only then did one of them venture close to curb her morbid curiosity.  Realizing it was her brother, she went completely bizerk hysterical.  Soon the man's adult daughters and his wife joined in.  In all my life, I have never seen such a transformation from complete indifference to human life to an unspeakable level of insanity.  Wailing, pounding, screaming, howling, pushing, flailing, tossing things about... it caused indescribable panic and fright among the small children present.  So horrifying in ways no dead body ever could be, the young had to be whisked away in states of shock and disbelief.

I watched my mother, whom I adore with all my heart, struggle in her failing elderly body to do what she could to save that man.  I imagined in that moment it was her lying there and asked myself if I could ever have reacted like this man's family... to scoff at pleas for help, to decline involvement in a stranger's moment of desperate need, and then have a complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the young in a moment of grief.  I realize these people were under extreme duress but does that excuse their actions?  Like someone who instinctively hides behind a child during a shootout, there's something not quite right... something fundamentally broken.

It seems such behavior is now considered the norm... and excusable.  "We all react to emergency situations differently."  "They were in shock."  "You can't really blame them given the circumstance."  And my personal favorite, "How would YOU feel?!!!"  Really?  Is this really ok?  Are we excused to act like this now?  What does this say about our evolving human sensibilities?  What does this say of us as a civilized people and of our culture?

I am terribly troubled by ordinary acts of compassion and human decency being considered extraordinary while shameful acts of cowardice and selfishness are considered acceptable and even normal.  Returning someone's lost valuables isn't noble... it's proper!  Pulling someone from a pool isn't courageous... it's decent!  Protecting those who can't protect themselves whether they be young, old, infirm or just unaware isn't heroic... it's humane! We shouldn't be astonished by good behavior.  We should be horrified by bad.

(To be continued)

Bloom Where God Planted You

Illustration from "The Conference of the Birds"
Photographer Unknown

Embrace Fate

"Since love has spoken in your soul, reject 

The Self, that whirlpool where our lives are wrecked; 

As Jesus rode his donkey, ride on it; 

Your stubborn Self must bear you and submit - 

Then burn this Self and purify your soul; 

Let Jesus' spotless spirit be your goal. 

Destroy this burden, and before your eyes 

The Holy Ghost in glory will arise." 

~ Farīd ud-Dīn ‘Attār (Persian Muslim Poet, 1145 - 1221 CE)

I'll be quite honest.  I'm usually not one to enjoy "marathon" poetry.  Penned in 1170 CE, the Mantiqu 't-Tayr, or The Conference of the the Birds, is an epic Persian poem of about 4500 lines.  While translations differ, I found the story extraordinarily insightful.  As the best known allegory in the West next to The Thousand and One Nights of Aladdin fame, it really is worth a read.

It recounts the arduous journey of a large group of birds desiring to go and know their beloved king, Simorgh in the far off land of Simorgh.  (Simorgh being a well known flying creature in Iranian mythology.)   The birds are led by the passionate and enthusiastic hoopoe who answers the many objections and questions the other birds have regarding their journey.  Often, the birds are identified by species and have a corresponding human type.  For example, the nightingale symbolizes the lover and the finch, the coward.  Many of the hoopoe's answers include several stories to illustrate the particular point being made.  At first reading, these illustrations seem very obscure.  This is intentional.  The reader is being asked to look at some problem in an unfamiliar way.

Eventually, one by one, the birds abandon their journey.  Each giving particular excuses as to why they can not go on.  Ultimately, the group numbers thirty birds.  In Persian, "thirty birds" is si morgh.  These thirty meet the final challenges represented in the seven valleys traversed; Talab (Yearning), Eshq (Love), Marifat (Understanding), Istighnah (Independence and Detachment from Desire), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Bewilderment) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God).  Ultimately, they arrive in Simorgh.  They find no mythical king.  They only see each other and their reflections in a vast lake... they, the si morgh or thirty birds, are the Simorgh!  They now understand the true nature of God, their king.

I suppose God could have kept those birds close at hand... in the land of Simorgh but without the struggle to reach him, those birds would never have recognized him.  We are all placed where we are for a reason.  Particular struggles, designed to teach us exactly what it is we need to learn to reach our required level of understanding, have been provided by the Almighty.

Instead of regret for things we didn't have the foresight to change, or dissatisfaction for things we hadn't the power to make different, we need to embrace our fate and, as the fundamental Pentecostal motto goes, learn to "bloom where God planted you."