Sunday, November 25, 2007

3 hours.

i went to church today. i even went for the full duration. i'm fairly sure its the first time i've been to a church meeting in it's entirety this year. it was simultaneously exactly what i anticipated and not as bad as i expected.
The priesthood meeting was about writing in journals-ugh. it was taught by your typical 'i got home from my mission recently' priesthood instructor, and was full of the expected "does anyone have an experience?" and "what do we think he meant?"questions.
then came sunday school, which brings me to the point which i hope to address in this blog posting.
a- don't spend half the time rambling about some unrelated topic as an "introduction" to the lesson. nobody gives a crap about some weak comparison to your high school extra curriculars.
b- don't spend 10 minutes on each scripture you read in class looking for examples and spiritual experiences only to determine that the scripture means exactly what it says.

c- do not tell me that there are things that i shouldn't study, or will do me no good. don't tell me that knowing about "space doctrine" isn't as important as something else. Somehow Kolob has become a slur word for "religious nonsense" in mormonese. The next time someone says that they don't have to think about "deeper theology" because all they need is faith/repentance/baptism/holy ghost- i'm going to scream. you may as well transform completely into a mainstream christian and tell me "accept Jesus" or "confess the name of Jesus and be saved- the blood of Jesus has power!"
i didn't know that certain passages of scripture had at some point been deemed apocryphal or otherwise taboo in someway. I guess no more reading Revelation, or Ezekiel and his beasts, or Isiah and all his nonsense, no more genesis-because it talks about stars and things that don't make sense to humans, or how about no more new testament, cause let's face facts- the atonement IS "space doctrine"- salvation IS deep doctrine.
where did this filter on theology come from? unique theology is what made mormonism what it was at its inception.
the example that always gets thrown around as useless knowledge/gospel trivia is "Kolob" and stars. Granted, we don't have tons of information about that and i won't be turned away from the pearly gates for not knowing constellations. However, genesis tells us that the lights in the firmament were for placed there for signs and for seasons and for days and years. Abraham studied astronomy (astrology?) and it was important enough that God revealed it to him, and then again to moses a few hundred years later. it was via stars and astronomy that God marked the birth of his son (both in the Old and new world)- at the death of his son, what was absent? stars. so is it really useless? i dunno. Joseph didn't seem to think so.
anyway. thats a bit of a rant tonight.
i suppose i will save more for later- next time: mormons- christians?

5 comments:

manda said...

saints

MackAck said...

Did Abraham study astrology?

Michelle Christensen said...

amen.

Michelle Christensen said...

that's not michelle....that's me...sam....i'm accidentily signed into her account...funny.

Version #2 said...

Here here!