Evil is unnecessary. We should all be very happy about beauty salvaged from the wreckage, but we should all have been much happier if the original thing hadn't got wrecked.
Hi! Found you via From the Narrow Desert and binge-read everything on your sub. I’m a vaguely orthodox Christian with a lot of appreciation for aspects of Mormonism, and you do a great job explicating the overlaps and differences.
This post is similarly excellent, but in my experience Protestants (and quite a few Catholics) are almost without exception lacking the ears to hear this message. I used to attend a church where two of the pastors had been drug abusers. They loved to tell their stories and everyone loved to hear it, but for me the stories were totally devoid of wisdom relevant to my fairly strait-laced life. Of course I’m delighted that Jesus sometimes saves such people, but mostly I want my kids to not need that kind of saving. I’ve taught Thomistic-type virtues to my 8-year-old and she got the importance of temperance in like five minutes, no staggering amounts of wisdom required. I totally get that different people experience temptations differently and it makes sense that an ex-druggie might be a good mentor to someone who’s really tempted by that path. But it’s never that, it’s always “Oh wow, a tatted up ex-druggie with charisma? Make that guy our youth pastor!” And then half the congregation ends up with druggie teens and wonders why.
Its a lot less glamorous to showcase someone who's lived a mostly virtuous life and been mostly untempted, but those are exactly the kinds of lives we want people living. I'm incredibly grateful for the many, many bullets I've dodged basically just from being boring. That's the kind of thing we should idolize in people if we want more of it!
Thanks you for reading, it is honestly always flattering.
You're welcome! Thanks for writing even when you're not sure anyone's reading (I know what that's like).
I thought I would request a topic, actually, because one of the areas where I come into conflict with basically every Christian I know is about marriage ending at death. I don't personally find Jesus's teaching on that topic abundantly clear, but probably more significant to me are questions like "Then what is the point? What does it even mean if it just ends?" I'm not convinced that laypersons historically believed this as everyone in old books looks forward to being with family in heaven. That would be super awkward if all the families are like heaven-divorced or something. And while truth is not strictly determined by its consequences, we are told to judge by fruits, and it doesn't surprise me at all that the "no marriage in heaven" Evangelicals have 50%+ divorce rates. Things aren't perfect in Mormon land, but I am curious what you've observed consequent to LDS's unique teachings on marriage.
I used to cringe at people who liked Dilbert, because it seemed to me they were implicitly saying they hate their own life. Similarly, every time I hear this teaching, it seems to me people are admitting they don't really love their spouse. If you did, how could you want that to end? (I'm almost 20 years married so this isn't some doe-eyed newly wed asking). If you don't, fair enough, but surely some people do, so why would God break that up (even if procreation specifically ends in heaven)?
My dad can beat up your dad. --Your Dad
"Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, it is forbidden because it is hurtful." --Benjamin Franklin
Evil is unnecessary. We should all be very happy about beauty salvaged from the wreckage, but we should all have been much happier if the original thing hadn't got wrecked.
Hi! Found you via From the Narrow Desert and binge-read everything on your sub. I’m a vaguely orthodox Christian with a lot of appreciation for aspects of Mormonism, and you do a great job explicating the overlaps and differences.
This post is similarly excellent, but in my experience Protestants (and quite a few Catholics) are almost without exception lacking the ears to hear this message. I used to attend a church where two of the pastors had been drug abusers. They loved to tell their stories and everyone loved to hear it, but for me the stories were totally devoid of wisdom relevant to my fairly strait-laced life. Of course I’m delighted that Jesus sometimes saves such people, but mostly I want my kids to not need that kind of saving. I’ve taught Thomistic-type virtues to my 8-year-old and she got the importance of temperance in like five minutes, no staggering amounts of wisdom required. I totally get that different people experience temptations differently and it makes sense that an ex-druggie might be a good mentor to someone who’s really tempted by that path. But it’s never that, it’s always “Oh wow, a tatted up ex-druggie with charisma? Make that guy our youth pastor!” And then half the congregation ends up with druggie teens and wonders why.
Its a lot less glamorous to showcase someone who's lived a mostly virtuous life and been mostly untempted, but those are exactly the kinds of lives we want people living. I'm incredibly grateful for the many, many bullets I've dodged basically just from being boring. That's the kind of thing we should idolize in people if we want more of it!
Thanks you for reading, it is honestly always flattering.
You're welcome! Thanks for writing even when you're not sure anyone's reading (I know what that's like).
I thought I would request a topic, actually, because one of the areas where I come into conflict with basically every Christian I know is about marriage ending at death. I don't personally find Jesus's teaching on that topic abundantly clear, but probably more significant to me are questions like "Then what is the point? What does it even mean if it just ends?" I'm not convinced that laypersons historically believed this as everyone in old books looks forward to being with family in heaven. That would be super awkward if all the families are like heaven-divorced or something. And while truth is not strictly determined by its consequences, we are told to judge by fruits, and it doesn't surprise me at all that the "no marriage in heaven" Evangelicals have 50%+ divorce rates. Things aren't perfect in Mormon land, but I am curious what you've observed consequent to LDS's unique teachings on marriage.
I used to cringe at people who liked Dilbert, because it seemed to me they were implicitly saying they hate their own life. Similarly, every time I hear this teaching, it seems to me people are admitting they don't really love their spouse. If you did, how could you want that to end? (I'm almost 20 years married so this isn't some doe-eyed newly wed asking). If you don't, fair enough, but surely some people do, so why would God break that up (even if procreation specifically ends in heaven)?
I'll write on that immediately.