Wealth and Poverty

At some point in the past this was available on the B.Y.U. website, but has since seemed to have disappeared.  It is reproduced here for all those who might be interested:

Richard E. Johnson, Sociology Department
Brigham Young University, 1994

I regularly teach a course on Current Social Problems at BYU. As students in the class become exposed to the extent and seriousness of problems facing our nation today, many conclude that the Millennium must be just around the corner because America seems to be plagued by unprecedented evil.

I am troubled by several aspects of their reasoning. First, it seems rather narrow-minded for American students to evaluate the state of humankind and the fate of the planet almost solely on the basis of America’s social problems. Circumstances in the rest of the world just might also play a role in the timing of the Millennium. Second, the criteria used to judge the “badness” of American society strike me as rather limited. Almost every indictment I hear of the nation’s moral climate is based on observations about sex, drugs, street crime, and/or violence. I wonder why wealth and poverty almost never come to mind in evaluations of human societies. Finally, the view that “everything must be worse here and now” rings of parochialism and historical ignorance.

Testimony or Thankimony?

Some people in testimony meetings seem to think they have some to gratitude meetings.  Someone imagined what it would be like if one such person were asked to be a witnessed to an accident:

Brother Smith is called as a witness in a traffic accident. He was the only witness of the accident that happened late at night.

Prosecution: Mr Smith, can you give us your testimony as to the events of August 1st at 11:00 pm?

Mr. Smith: I was out walking my dog when the accident happened, and I am so thankful that I had my cell phone with me or I would never have been able to call 911 in time!

P: Ah, yes Mr. Smith, that was fortuinate, but can you testify of what you saw happen?

S: Yes, the police arrived at the scene. I am so thankful for the police force of our city. They are always available when we need them. I don’t know how society would function without then. Our police force is so selfless in how they serve. They put themselves in harms way to protect us. I am so grateful for all they do for us!

Judge: Mr. Smith, while we all share your feelings of gratitude for the police force, the prosecution is asking for your testimony as to the events of the accident. Can you share those with us?

S: Sure. The accident was horrible and the people in the cars were terribly injured, I am so thankful for the paramedics that arrived on the scene. They were so skilled in helping those poor people. We should all be grateful for the many lives they save. I hope and pray that if I am ever in need of medical attention, that they are there to help me.

P: Judge, I have no further questions for this witness. Clearly he has nothing to share about the accident.

http://www.ourthoughts.ca/2006/08/06/fast-and-thankimony-meeting/

In 1881, John Morgan, pioneer of education in Utah and who taught the likes of Heber J. Grant, Orson F. Whitney, Mathias Cowley, J. Golden Kimball, and Brigham H. Roberts published a pamphlet titled “Plan of Salvation.” One of the things he said in it is the following:

“Sincerity of belief does not in any way establish the correctness of a principle. Only an unimpeachable testimony can do that. Man’s belief does not affect a principle in the least. The whole world may believe a principle, and it may be untrue; the whole world may refuse to believe a principle, and it may be true.”

Theories of Atonement

The why and how of Christ’s Atonement have been greatly debated amongst Christians for centuries.  Some stood in awe of this divine act, others asked how it related to them personally, or what it meant for God Himself.  Latter-day Saints have not been exempt from these questions either.  Such views can be divided into several categories -

Starting Your Own Co-operative Community

Continued from a previous post …

Building Your Own Green Hill

If you’re feeling moved upon to bring together a community of your own, here are some approaches you might consider. I’ve divided them into two sections: organic and venture.

Organic approaches to community building grow fairly naturally out of everyday living. They may sound mundane — you’re probably already doing some of them — but that doesn’t mean the resulting relationships are any less rewarding. In contrast, venture approaches to community building take significant planning, time, and money.

Why I Want to Live the United Order

Bored in Vernal shares her disappointment in the lack of progress we’ve made in living up to our covenants of Consecration:

I have often thought that had I not joined the Church at age 19 I would have liked to have joined a kibbutz in Israel, or to have lived on “the Farm” in Tennessee (back when it was more hippie-like), or at least to have been a part of an intentional community. As I began investigating the LDS Church, and in particular reading the passages in Moses under consideration in our Sunday School Lesson #5, I was drawn to the strong emphasis on cooperative community which began under the direction of Joseph Smith and continued in Utah under Brigham Young and survived even to the present day.  I expected to be instructed in the principles of consecration and called upon to live them more and more as the “latter day” rolled on.

Thirty years later, I’ve been disappointed.

We do have our temple covenants to consecrate our time, talents and means to the Church in order to establish Zion.  Most twenty-first century Latter-day Saints would say that this Law of Consecration is very different than the “United Order” experiments which were undertaken in various ways in the early days of the Church.  We can live the Law of Consecration, they say, by generous payment of our tithes and offerings, and serving in the Church.  But here’s where my fundamentalist streak comes out.  All around me I see Mormons who are saturated in capitalism and as far as can be from my conception of the Enoch-founded City of Zion.  I long to experience an Orderville, a Bunkerville, or even a  Morley farm.  I’m inspired by early accounts of the communitarianism of Jackson County, and I share the bit of longing which resides deep in almost every Latter-day Saint heart to return there in preparation for the Millennium.  Where is our Brigham City, our Kingston, our Kanab?  Even ZCMI and most of our welfare farms have slowly passed away.  Is D&C 42 no longer applicable in our modern world?

A Potential Co-operative Community

Dane Laverty over at Times and Seasons has been writing a very interesting series of posts on a potential co-operative community called Green Hill:

The Dream of the Green Hill

About fifteen years ago, I had a dream. In my dream I saw a green hill with several people silhouetted against a cloudy sky. These figures were engaged together in various activities, some speaking, some playing or dancing, and some resting. The clouds in the sky moved quickly by, like in a fast-motion movie, which I understood to signify the passage of time. Then I woke up.

Although the dream was brief, its images — the people, the hill, and the sky — have stayed with me. The attitude shared by the figures on the hill was one of deep peace and joy. Finding no greater happiness than in the company of my family and friends, I have been working to make the community of the green hill a literal gathering in my life.

I am apparently not alone in my desire to live in a rewarding, purposeful community. Eco-friendly groups and religious fundamentalists have achieved a dramatic increase in intentional communities over the past two decades. A quick look at the Northwest Intentional Communities Association directory shows over 200 communities just here in my beloved Pacific northwest. However, I am struck by the absence of an LDS presence in the intentional community movement — this really seems like the sort of thing Mormons would do very well. What influences have acted to discourage the saints from building their own communities?