When it appeared on television I’d heard about the 30 Days episode featuring an LDS woman, Katie, living with gay men who’d adopted children. I hadn’t been able to see the program, however, until today, when a friend forwarded me the link. It is fascinating to watch, and it seems to me that Spurlock (the man behind the 30 Days series) has done a fine job presenting a balanced picture of the issue. It is apparent that the gay couple (and their friends) had hoped to change Katie’s mind. They believed that by opening their home and showing that they are good people trying hard to be good parents to four children, their actions would at least soften Katie’s opposition. She remains steadfastly opposed, however, and she describes well how her views are too intertwined with her identity and with her understanding of God and morality to change. The program takes about 43 minutes to watch, and it is well worth your time.
Archive for the 'Raising Children' Category
Fathers come in all types. I’m fortunate to have one who is loving and is always there when I need him. Even 40-somethings can use a helpful word from Dad once in a while, y’know.
We Mormons anthropomorphize God, calling him Heavenly Father, and seeing human characteristics in deity. Of course, in doing this we are following the Greeks and others throughout history. People seem to understand God in much the same way we understand each other. Maybe this is one of my problems with God. Continue reading ‘Fathers’
The discussion surrounding the recent conference talk, Mothers Who Know, was fascinating. I read the Feminist Mormon Housewives and Exponent II conversations and other blog and bulletin board discussions, as well as the comments on the articles posted at the Deseret News and the Tribune, and found that I couldn’t help but react, sometimes in agreement, and sometimes in disagreement. Later I read What Women Know, which focuses on a broadened conceptualization of women’s many roles in life, and I found myself thinking again about the women and men in my life who have made a difference. If I have amounted to anything in life, it is largely because of the things I have learned from others. Whether from women or from men, I most value the things I have learned through nurturance and compassion. Hierarchy, commandments, and guilt have proven poor teachers in my case.
This podcast is literally one of the best I’ve ever heard. It reviews a new documentary (discussed below), and works very hard to say, “You can keep your faith and belief in scripture/revelation, and still embrace your homosexual loved ones .” A true middle way for spiritual folk caught in the crossfire between organized religion and homosexuality. And the interview is set in Utah, so it stands within the Mormon context. Please listen if you can.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2007-01-24) If you’ve listened to a debate about homosexuality, chances are you’ve heard the word “abomination” quoted from the Bible. It’s in Leviticus Chapter 20, right after Moses teaches that it’s an abomination to eat shrimp or a rabbit. In the Sundance documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, director Daniel Karslake follows five very normal, very Christian American families who all had to reconcile their religion with learning they had a gay child. Doug talks to Karslake about homosexuality, biology and scripture through the prism of the family.
- You can see Sundance screenings of For the Bible Tells Me So Thursday, January 25th at 2:30 p.m. at the Library Center Theatre or Friday, January 26th at 11:30 p.m. at the Holiday Village Cinema II. For information on tickets, call 435-776-7878 or click here
- For more information on Mary Lou Wallner’s work, visit Teach-Ministries.org
In a recent effort to avoid some pressing task, I settled in to watching an entire disk from
the 7th Season Simpsons Collection. My attention was caught by (what I later looked up on the internet and learned to be) the episode called “Lisa the Iconoclast” (Season 7 Episode 13). Here’s the TV Guide blurb for it:
Donald Sutherland is the voice of the curator of the Springfield Historical Society, where Lisa’s research on patriarch Jebediah Springfield turns up some unknown — and unpopular — facts. Other Voices: Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Phil Hartman
In an attempt to learn more about the founder of her beloved Springfield, Lisa digs deep into history in order to find out more evidence about the mysterious yet charismatic leader. She discovers facts about him that run contrary to everything she has been taught and to what everyone around her believes. First she confronts the historian about the discrepancy. Having dedicated his whole life to the subject, he is understandably eager to dismiss these findings as lies and slander.
Hurlbut: I think, Lisa, that you’ve been taken in by an obvious
forgery. Unfortunately, historical research is plagued by
this sort of hoax — the so-called confession. It’s just
as fake as the Howard Hughes will, the Hitler Diaries, or the
Emancipation Retraction.Lisa: But it explains why there’s no record of Jebediah Springfield
before 1796. He was Hans Sprungfeld until then.Hurlbut: That’s preposterous. Get out! You’re banned from this
historical society! You, and your children, and your
children’s children — for three months.
Lisa then turns to the general populace trying to pull back the curtain for those who still have a deep and passionate faith concerning the leader. The other believers are not swayed and in fact are furious with Lisa for casting doubt onto their beloved leader. Her insistence on talking about her findings eventually alienates her from friends and family. Even her father, her sole supporter, is fired from his job as Town Crier (a role he was born to play) just for standing by his daughter.
Homer: Hear ye, hear ye. My daughter has something to say about
Jebediah Springfield.Moe: Aw, look. That cutie wants to say something cute.
[barflies murmur]
Shut up, you bums, shut up!
Go ahead, angel.Lisa: Ahem. Jebediah Springfield was nothing more than a murderous
pirate who hated this town!
[barflies and Moe's jaws drop]Moe: Good God! Homer, I support, you know, any prejudice you can
name, but this hero-phobia sickens me. All right, you and your
daughter ain’t welcome here no more. Barney, show them the
exit.Barney: There’s an exit?!
Lisa wants to let the matter go but her consciousness plagues her. Can she really live in a world where everyone around her believes something she KNOWS not to be true? She searches for a way to prove to everyone that the man they worship was a fraud.
Lisa: Jebediah Springfield was really a vicious pirate named Hans
Sprungfeld. His tongue was bitten off by a Turk in a grog house
fight.Homer: No tongue, eh? How did he talk and eat [melodramatically] and
laugh and love?Lisa: He had it replaced with a prosthetic tongue made out of silver.
Homer: Yes, that’ll do.
In an effort to clear her name and bring truth forward, Lisa leads a small group of concerned citizens to the former leader’s grave. The group exhumes the body of the dead leader searching for the evidence to validate Lisa’s claims. It’s not there.
Wiggum: Well, that settles it. There is no silver tongue… is there,
bonesy?[takes Jebediah's skull and uses it as a dummy]
[as skull] Oh, I wish chief. With that kind of dough, I could
buy me some eyeballs! [laughs]That’s the spirit, bonesy. Why don’t you sing a song for
the nice people?[as skull] Okay! Camptown ladies sing this song, doo-dah
doo-dah, Camptown races five miles long…
Lisa eventually discovers the historian that was so reluctant to believe her claims had covered up the truth by removing the evidence before the group could see it. Lisa has her proof; the beloved leader was a charlatan and a liar.
Lisa decides to reveal her findings to the whole town during the parade celebrating the beloved leader. As she stands in front of the happy throngs of people who have looked to this man as a symbol of good and truth and righteousness, a man who they have based so much of their collective and personal histories on, she can’t bring herself to reveal her findings and instead gives her support to the parade. And what about Homer and his town crier role?
Ned: Well, hey, it’s Homer. Good to see you, neigh–
[Homer pushes him and takes his bell]
Homer: Get lost!
[rings the bell]
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye!Helen: He is not the official town crier! Police, do something!
Wiggum: Well, I’d like to, ma’am, but he’s too damn good!
Let him march, boys. Let the man march!
I left the details a little vague in an effort to hammer the similarity a little harder, but this episode seems to very accurately portray the path of a NOM. You replace “beloved leader” with “beloved prophet” and “exhumed his body” with “counted how many wives he had” and you pretty much have my story exactly.
Some critics (if one can refer to people who leave comments on message boards as “critics”) have expressed distaste with this particular episode on the basis of Lisa’s decision to suppress the truth in favor of a positive role model for her fellow Springfieldians. The decision of one character can never equal the moral of the entire show, but Lisa has very often been the ethicist of The Simpsons. If she decides it is wrong to steal cable, then it BECOMES wrong to steal cable (Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment Season 2 Episode 13). Her actions alone cause Homer to give up the thing he wants most in the world (for that episode, for like the rest of us, Homer’s desires will not be tethered) even though people like Marge and Reverend Lovejoy support him. In this way we can see that if Lisa had really put her mind to it, really exercised her place in the community, she could have eventually convinced a good amount of Springfield that the character upon which they had built their whole moral foundation was nothing but a silver tongued pirate.
Lisa always tries to act in a moral manner. Her actions are rarely selfish. Even in season 3 Episode 8 “Lisa’s Pony” she gives up the one thing she wants most because it requires too much sacrifice from a dad who hasn’t always sacrificed enough for hs daughter. And from time to time her decisions are decidedly misinformed and end up doing more harm than good like in the 1st Tree-house of Horror from Season 2 when the family is kidnapped by Aliens and Lisa unveils the Aliens’ plot to eat them (the Simpsons) based on the evidence of a cookbook that looks to be titled “How to prepare humans” but through a series of dust removals is later revealed to be titled “How to prepare for 50 humans”. Her accusations cost the Simpsons a life of fulfillment on a paradisiacal planet. So that was bad.
But Lisa very rarely considers the consequences of her actions. Te reason “Lisa the Iconoclast” is such a powerful episode for her character is the whole episode finds her temed up with (instead of pitted against) Homer. In the begining of the episode he says “You always end up being right about these things. this time I want to get in at the ground floor.” Lisa is happyto have the support, but her actions end up hurting and not helping the person who loves her most. Homer’s trust and accfeptance of his daughter puts agreater responsibility on her.
The question remains, did Lisa make the correct decision? Is it better to leave people in what you consider to be a blissful state of ignorance, or is it better to pull them kicking and screaming out of the cave and force them to look directly at the sun? Lisa’s tragic flaw is her hubris. As some book of scripture says somewhere, “Once men know a little something they think they are wise, but they’re not that wise.”
Lisa’s desire to know the truth and the ability to see where it should and shouldn’t be enforced make her a perfect representative of what a New Order Mormon should be. But most of all she should be admired for her love of her family and her desire to see them happy and fulfilled, be it as a well informed lover of truth or as the best daned town crier Springfield has ever seen.
Deep Mormon heritage is often listed as a significant reason why NOMs choose to stay involved in the church. It’s certainly a major factor for me. But every 24th of July, when we drive two hours South to celebrate the holiday with my in-laws in the tiny Mormon town of Kanosh, Utah, I’m reminded in no uncertain terms that in the Mormon world there’s heritage—and then there’s Heritage.
I believe that “O Be Wise,” by Elder M. Russell Ballard from the October 2006 LDS General Conference, will go down as one of the most important “modernizing” talks ever given by an LDS General Authority–if anyone actually pays attention.
This talk was absolutely groundbreaking to me. Please allow me to provide a few examples:
Continue reading ‘“O Be Wise,” or Praise be to Elder Ballard’
On a recent Speaking of Faith episode, The Spirituality of Parenting, (Read more and listen here.), Rabbi Sandy Sasso discussed the challenges of people from a variety of points on the spiritual spectrum fostering their children’s spirituality and answering the tough questions. Though I’m not a parent, I found all of it relevent to my own spiritual journey and experiences. One particular quote from Rabbi Sasso stood out to me:
“Don’t let the people who gave you a bad impression of your religious tradion be the only ones to define it. You, too, are a part of that tradition and you’re not just a descendant, you’re also an ancestor and you helped to create the future of that tradition.”
Continue reading ‘Musings From “The Spirituality of Parenting”’
Some of you may have heard of the term “The Middle Way” within a Mormon context. It denotes (to me) a rejection of the notion that you must either be a TBM (True Believing, Literalist Mormon) or an ex-Mormon. It means staying active within the LDS church, while not necessarily accepting all of the doctrinal or cultural teachings. And to be clear–for me, it does NOT denote a requirement of staying silent on the most important issues.
In this excellent RadioWest interview,
Continue reading ‘Facing East–Carol Lynn Pearson as a Pioneering, “Middle Way” Mormon’
Every week someone emails or calls me, and asks me why/how I stay in the LDS church–as a non-traditional, non-literal believer. Last week, during a dinner with 2 good friends, I tried to distill my thinking down to something very simple. Here’s what I came up with.
Continue reading ‘If you’re gonna leave the church…..and why I stay.’
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