The Ethics of an Election

Here are my thoughts this election.  Not to convince or smear, but to clarify...

Image Credit: https://stgirl.wordpress.com/

Bias and Division

Firstly, a self examination of three questions:

1. Do you find it easy to believe the bad things about the candidates you oppose, and hard to believe the bad in the one you're currently supporting?  If so, perhaps you're not as unbiased as you think.
2. Can you articulate your position on the majority of the key issues of the day?  And if so, can you express why, that is to say: can you identify the principles? 
3. Is your motive in arguing someone with the opposite view based on your desire to compare ideas, or to prove the other person wrong? If it's the latter, perhaps you're promoting division more than understanding.

Whew!  Now that the quiz is over, let's consider a few trends this election season:

AoF 1: The God Who Knows Us

This posting is part of a series of studies of principle and application of the Articles of Faith.

News has changed a bit since the Garden of Eden.  Today we turn on the TV or open a browser to get our information and learning.  A handful of millennia ago, the protocol was: 1) build an altar, 2) offer prayer, 3) wait on heavenly messengers (and a fourth step that I'll mention later on).

Here's the problem: we've lost site of God.  Adam and Eve pined after truth - they knew the Father and the Son.  They yearned for teaching and for reconciliation.  We yearn for fast food and for YouTube videos of cats.  We live in a world saturated with information that is seldom validated, and the information we seek too often distracts more than it guides.  More than ever we have to ask ourselves if the First Article of Faith is true for us.  Is it true for you?

10 Things I Loved about Elder Bednar's YSA Fireside

Here are the 10 things that stood out to me about Elder Bednar's 2-hour Q&A session with the Bay Area YSA. 

Discussion after the list.

The List

1.  Most of us worry too much.
1. Many of Elder Bednar's answers included the "don't worry about it" phrase.
2. Elder Bednar made forts in the dirt of the Oakland Temple construction pits.
1. He's a local to the bay area, and while his parents were setting up for weddings/activities at the large stake center now adjacent to the temple, young David could be found playing in the dirt.
3. "There are no jammies".
1.  Our culturally-induced perspective of eternal families is biased by mortality.  We see "eternal family" as a mom, dad, and a few little kids fresh out of the bath, in clean, good-smelling jammies.  We imagine each family in their own little hut. 
2. The "welding link" spoken of in D&C refers to the entire family of Adam and Eve.  "There's only one hut."

A Tribute to Mamma Sweet

This is my mom:

Hard to believe, huh?  She barely looks a day past 22.  But 38 years ago last month, she gave birth to Sarah Rupert Wilson (not pictured) and ever since has been wiping butts, making meals and teaching principles.  She has been the epitome of motherly love, so below is a list of 38 memories of my mom.  Let me preface the list with the following acknowledgement:

To understand Mamma Sweet, you have to know that she chose to live the "highest of all callings, that of a wife and a mother in Israel".  Her decision to serve and teach constantly sustains her greatness - which is in direct contrast to those who forgo family to chase a career or some other selfish dream.

Testimony Stock - What's Yours Worth?

"My testimony took a 20% hit when I moved to Provo."  "Her testimony stock went up three points when she got her mission call."  "Their stock tripled after being sealed."  ...What is "testimony stock" and how do we get more of it?

tes-ti-mo-ny stock    noun
plural testimony stock
Could refer to:

1. volume of tears cried from pulpit each Fast Sunday (in cubic centimeters): SPIRITUAL TEARS
2. number of generations your family has been in the church: SPIRITUAL PEDIGREE
3. current state before the Lord: OIL IN LAMP
4. the prestige of your calling (in stewardship head count): SPIRITUAL POSTER-CHILD

Ok - so clearly the third is the only real definition.  And that "oil in the lamp" reference could be an entire post on its own...