Same Sex Mariage - Religious Viewpoint

My View on SSM from a Religious Viewpoint.




Mormons are Christians just with a lot more detail.



Most, if not all the religious questions can be answered by referring to the ultimate queries. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?



God has told us to love the sinners and hate the sin. He has also stated that same sex marital relations are a sin.



We came from our real home. From our heavenly parents’ bosoms, so to speak, looking up to them and receiving guidance like babes learning how to walk. We saw all that our Father and Mother had. We desired their abilities and wanted to achieve the same accomplishments. We learned all we could in that state. In order to advance any more we would need to be added upon. The material our selves were formed out of could not do what our Parents could do. So temporal matter, flesh and blood, were added to our spirits and souls were created. We now had the ability, with our free agency, to interact with physical items. We could experience a slew of emotions and our other senses were expanded.



We were sent to an Earth, away from celestial law¹ in order to become immune to our natural curiosity of these new negative choices/actions. We didn’t understand for ourselves why they were wrong. We only desired to remain in good graces because we were only told it was better that way. We were fish in a pond, and knew not what snow really was. We only heard about it and believed it was there because we were told.



The goal of any good parent to is send their children out of the nest with all the proper knowledge and training. The desire is to create successful progeny. Any psychologist worthy of their certificate, and even dog trainers can tell you that the proper rearing of children (puppies?) includes exposure to events of all kinds. In the case of a dog this includes the sound of a vacuum, and another animal like a cat. For people it is hot and cold, sweet and bitter, and righteous and evil. This empowers that young one to learn strength and determination against trials. The youth will be emboldened to reach their highest potential. Out of all of creation, humans were the only ones to be made in the image of God. What do you really think our potential can be? This is why we are here. To learn, for ourselves what works and what fails. We can have our own freedom to do what we must without having to defer to our Parents’ guidance on every little mundane issue. This is a small part of God’s power and Glory. He knows more then us. He is good, just, and we dire to be like that. We wanted it. We can have it. Everyone is dependent on those that came before us to bring us physically into this world, teach us what it’s all about, and to properly equip us with the tools to succeed.



Let us pause for a moment to include a bit of knowledge mixed with some theory about the rest of God’s Glory. In this way we can understand the Atonement a little better and know why it was so vitally important. God’s perfection means that he does not desire to commit sin. He has been properly immunized against it so much that it is abhorrent to him. Sin cannot stand to be with him, because it knows that God’s light outshines any effort sin may try to copy it. In order for us, the children, to be immunized as well we had to live it. We had to experiment with sin and find out precisely what it does. We can’t do that in the presence of our Father. Here on a world away from His we can. However, after being tainted with sin we can never go back. The glory would destroy us if we did. God’s power comes from the fact that we worship him. We, meaning all of creation, obey like ants obey the queen. Its natural and automatic. God tells the Red Sea to part, and the atoms making up that body of water ask “How far?” Creation obeys because we trust God so much. We know to the core of our souls that he will not steer us wrong. We know, down the strings of energy that makes us what and who we are, that YWHY is exactly who we want to follow. This is his Power. If he were to betray us, even a little, then reason to doubt would be there and we’d second guess his command and like dominoes the train would wall down. The plan would fall apart. Nephi said if this were to happen, God would cease to be God. But this is never going to happen. We know this. We trust implicitly. God has all power because we are the source of it. He is our Father because we chose him.



Because he cannot do anything unjust, not even forgive us for just one tiny mistake, and because he loves us so very much, a new element had to be introduced into the equation. To top it off this third ingredient had to be from the children that it would save. God couldn’t just give us a way out, cause that would be manipulating the structure and order would no longer be perfect. The children had to save themselves in some fashion. God and sin cannot be in the same space. But God had a perfect offspring. And we had to be allowed to sin, in order to move beyond it to our own perfections. Justice demands a balanced correction in order to even the scales. A perfect child, suffering the demands of justice because someone else chose wrong is worth an infinite amount more then an imperfect child suffering for himself, simply because it is no longer “justice”. It is just suffering for no cause. God then says “Imperfect beings can not enter.” And Christ says “I am owed justice. I suffered on behalf of these people.” God says “What do you desire as payment for the suffering you have had? Nothing will balance the scales, but make your wish.” And Jehovah replies with, “I want my brothers and sisters to share with me exaltation.” Then God says, “Make it so.” See how that works? Christ saves us, and God is still predictable and perfect, and orderly.



Knowing this, we now understand how that third question is answered. Christ wants us with him in the next life. He has, as the one who purchased our debt to justice, established the circumstances in which he will accept our payment. We must live our life according to his rules and commandments in such He demands that we reach our fullest potential, in this life only, where sin may occur with salvation still within reach. Otherwise, even Christ cannot save us because it would unbalance the scales and the Godhead cannot against its perfect nature.



The entire purpose of life is to propagate the species, bringing ALL of God’s children to this world. It is up to each generation to teach the next in proper behavior, to expose them to the good and the bad, and to instruct how to step away from the bad, to be immunize against a desire to sin. It is up to the imperfect beings here, to continue this entire plan. And it is the intent of this author to set the readers’ minds accordingly in order to state this:



Same sex marital relations of any sort cannot ever fulfill the ultimate purpose of life and mortal existence. Therefore it is unnecessary, wasteful of time and talents, and an abomination to God. I love the sinner. I hope and pray the individual reaches their fullest potential. I cannot support the sin in my home, or in my life. I will have no part of it. If an individual desires to discuss it, I will. If the individual does not want to hear my point of view then I will not speak of it. I will continue to be cordial, and maintain any friendship, but the act will not be tolerated in my life or home.





¹Celestial Law: a justice system in which sin cannot physically occur without immediate repercussions. The action of sin has an immediate reaction of enacted justice. Not even sinful thoughts can exist in Celestial Law.

My beliefs of SSM ~ Societal standpoint ~

 I warn you, I love taking the easy way out. If I find that someone else has already typed exactly what I want to say, then I will copy and paste, rather then "shooting a dead horse". Its been said, so why do I have to restate it in a different way?

While religion plays an obvious role in the debate, the effectiveness of faith-based arguments is limited because most Westerners care little what the Bible or theologians say. To argue from religion will only convince those who are already convinced and will simply alienate the rest.
Life Site News

On the order of 1,400 legal rights are conferred upon married couples in the U.S. Typically these are composed of about 400 state benefits and over 1,000 federal benefits.

Lets break a large list down into just a handfull of categories. We have the child related category; we have the tax related category, and we have insurance, and legal related categories and of course, the impact on society category. There are others, but for the purposes of this blog it is not unnecessary to tire everyone out with all details when my arguments for these few easily apply to all.

SOCIETY
If the central purpose of government is to promote the general welfare, then the state must promote always what is best for society’s health, security, and long-term viability. This requires the state to make prudential judgments about various segments of our population: Those under 16 may not drive. Those under 21 may not drink. You must possess a high-school diploma to join the military. Information about paroled child molesters must be made available so parents can protect their children.

Some label these prudential decisions “discrimination,” but discriminating in such matters promotes the general welfare. The unique affirmation of heterosexual marriage operates under the same principle. Traditional matrimony is the foundation of society, and society should neither encourage nor recognize anything pretending to approximate it. Again, the reason for this relates to marriage’s primary purpose: The spousal union produces families, and such families are the building blocks of society.

Granted, many marriages don’t produce children. Most soldiers don’t face combat and yet are still eligible for veterans’ benefits. But the state rewards each institution based on its ability to provide society with a valuable function. Governments favor historical marriage and seek to strengthen it in its policies because virtually everything that happens in society, for good or ill, can be traced back to families and family life.
Life Site News

Same-sex "marriage" would undercut the norm of sexual fidelity within marriage. “Monogamy is not a word the gay community uses,” Troy Perry told The Dallas Morning News. “We talk about fidelity. That means you live in a loving, caring, honest relationship with your partner. Because we can’t marry, we have people with widely varying opinions as to what that means. Some would say that committed couples could have multiple sexual partners as long as there’s no deception.” A recent study from the Netherlands, where gay marriage is legal, suggests that even among stable homosexual partnerships, men have an average of eight partners per year outside their “monogamous” relationship.
http://www.christocentric.com/

Heterosexual marriage and complete families are the foundation for a healthier society. With the legal onset of gay marriage, governments will be in the position of forcing onto citizens a belief system that equates homosexuality with heterosexuality — through public schools, taxpayer-funded programs like charities and non-profits, workplaces and even faith-based organizations that receive public dollars. Our society is already experiencing the effects of unhealthy heterosexual marriages and breakups. Introducing gay marriages just adds to the instability that already exists in marriages.
Fox News

It is a superficial kind of individualism that does not recognize the power of emerging social trends that often start with only a few individuals bucking conventional patterns of behavior. Negative social trends start with only a few aberrations. Gradually, however, social sanctions weaken and individual aberrations became a torrent.

Think back to the 1960s, when illegitimacy and cohabitation were relatively rare. At that time many asked how one young woman having a baby out of wedlock or living with an unmarried man could hurt their neighbors. Now we know the negative social effects these two living arrangements have spawned: lower marriage rates, more instability in the marriages that are enacted, more fatherless children, increased rates of domestic violence and poverty, and a vast expansion of welfare state expenses.
christocentric.com

If we scramble our definition of marriage, it will soon embrace relationships that will involve more than two persons, or even marriages between human and non human entities.


CHILDREN
Now, to look at the child topic. Gay marriage would be bad for children. According to an article in Child Trends, “Research clearly demonstrates that family structure matters for children, and the family structure that helps the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.” Most of the child related stuff is from the Family Research Council.

This statement from Sara McLanahan, a sociologist at Princeton University, is representative:

If we were asked to design a system for making sure that children's basic needs were met, we would probably come up with something quite similar to the two-parent [natural man, natural woman] ideal. Such a design, in theory, would not only ensure that children had access to the time and money of two adults, it also would provide a system of checks and balances [woman strengths plus man strengths] that promoted quality parenting. The fact that both parents have a biological [in adoption scenarios however the argument can be made that these children up for adoption is in need of a home, and a non-biological home is better then an orphanage] connection to the child would increase the likelihood that the parents would identify with the child and be willing to sacrifice for that child, and it would reduce the likelihood that either parent would abuse the child. [my own two cents added]

A number of leading professional associations have asserted that there are "no differences" between children raised by homosexuals and those raised by heterosexuals. But the research in this area is quite preliminary; most of the studies are done by advocates and most suffer from serious methodological problems. Sociologist Steven Nock of the University of Virginia, who is agnostic on the issue of same-sex civil marriage, offered this review of the literature on gay parenting as an expert witness for a Canadian court considering legalization of same-sex civil marriage:

Through this analysis I draw my conclusions that 1) all of the articles I reviewed contained at least one fatal flaw of design or execution; and 2) not a single one of those studies was conducted according to general accepted standards of scientific research.

This is not exactly the kind of social scientific evidence you would want to launch a major family experiment.

Steven Nock, affidavit to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice regarding Hedy Halpern et al. University of Virginia Sociology Department (2001).


Fathers devote their primary efforts to character traits.. Among other things, we know that fathers excel in reducing antisocial behavior and delinquency in boys and sexual activity in girls. What is fascinating is that fathers exercise a unique social and biological influence on their children. For instance, a recent study of father absence on girls found that girls who grew up apart from their biological father were much more likely to experience early puberty and a teen pregnancy than girls who spent their entire childhood in an intact family. This study, along with David Popenoe's work, suggests that a father's pheromones influence the biological development of his daughter, and that a strong marriage provides a model for girls of what to look for in a man, and gives them the confidence to resist the sexual entreaties of their boyfriends.

* Ellis, Bruce J., et al., "Does Father Absence Place Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage Pregnancy?" Child Development, 74:801-821.
* David Popenoe, Life Without Father (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1999).

Studies show mothers devote special attention to their children’s physical and emotional needs. Although homosexual men are less likely to have children living in their homes than lesbians, homosexual men are and will be raising children. There will be even more if homosexual civil marriage is legalized. These households deny children a mother. Among other things, mothers excel in providing children with emotional security and in reading the physical and emotional cues of infants. Obviously, they also give their daughters unique counsel as they confront the physical, emotional, and social challenges associated with puberty and adolescence.
 
Stanford psychologist Eleanor MacCoby, The Two Sexes.
See also Steven Rhoads' book, Taking Sex Differences Seriously.
Eleanor MacCoby, The Two Sexes: Growing Up Apart, Coming Together (Boston: Harvard, 1998).
Steven Rhoads, Taking Sex Differences Seriously (Encounter Books, 2004).

Traditional marriages provide the natural complementary between the sexes, which benefits children. David Popenoe of Rutgers University’s National Marriage Project writes, “Both dimensions are critical for an efficient, balanced, and human child-rearing regime.” Left unsaid is the fact that same-sex couples can never provide this complementary and thus cannot provide an optimally “efficient, balanced, and human child-rearing regime.”



Acceptance of gay marriage will strengthen the notion that marriage is primarily about adult yearnings for intimacy and is not essentially connected to raising children. Children will be hurt by those who will too easily bail out of a marriage because it is not “fulfilling” to them. Awfully selfish in my opinion.

A 2002 U.S. Census Bureau study reported similar results, with 70.7 percent of women married between 1970 and 1974 reaching their tenth anniversary and 57.7 percent staying married for twenty years or longer.

The 2003-2004 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census surveyed the lifestyles of 7,862 homosexuals. Of those involved in a "current relationship," only 15 percent describe their current relationship as having lasted twelve years or longer, with five percent lasting more than twenty years. While this "snapshot in time" is not an absolute predictor of the length of homosexual relationships, it does indicate that few homosexual relationships achieve the longevity common in traditional marriages.

Brad Hayton provides insight into the attitudes of many homosexuals towards commitment and marriage:

Homosexuals...are taught by example and belief that marital relationships are transitory and mostly sexual in nature. Sexual relationships are primarily for pleasure rather than procreation. And they are taught that monogamy in a marriage is not the norm [and] should be discouraged if one wants a good "marital" relationship.[20]

While the rate of fidelity within marriage cited by these studies remains far from ideal, there is a significant difference between the negligible lifetime fidelity rate cited for homosexuals and the 75 to 90 percent cited for married couples. This indicates that even "committed" homosexual relationships display a fundamental incapacity for the faithfulness and commitment that is axiomatic to the institution of marriage.

FRC.org



I haven't even gone into the taxes, insurance, and legal ramifications.



Let us now propose the proper response  and set some goals to fix problems in our society. We must look for the real facts here. What makes a healthy society? What makes for healthy kids?


The ideal family unit consists of a marriage between a natural man and a natural woman, in which the relationship is healthy and stable. Don't focus on the fact that a staggering number of hetero marriages are unhealthy as a means to promote homo marriages. "Heteros can't do it right, so why should it matter that homos supposedly can't do it right." isn't a mature response. Instead lets aim our attention, education, and media toward making healthy hetero marriages. Hetero is healthy for society, and children, as long as its stable and correctly run, so lets teach everyone how to have a healthy marriage.
 
Society needs, among other things, children. And in order to just simply maintain the population numbers every person needs to procreate with another person and those couples must then have 2 healthy offspring that survive into child bearing age, and then that generation must also pair up and have 2 children that survive. Because there is no such thing as a 100% survival rate among infants and children, and because of the difference in the men-women ratio of not 50/50, and because there is no such thing as 100% fertility in all persons, a certain percentage of the children that must be born will need to fall to the people that are able to have children. It is said that the average number of kids that every 2 people needs to have in order to just simple maintain population is just under 3. But a society will not grow at this rate. It will just maintain  A prosperous society needs to grow and expand. The next generation needs to care for the previous generation. Protection with military is easier with more personnel  not less. The burden to support any society is individually diminished when more people are involved in contributing to said society. I could go on, but you get the idea.
 
Because healthy families are necessary to a healthy society, and because health in a society is greatly beneficial to the families, you get a "circle of life" scenario. This circle can only be supported by a hetero-sexual agenda. A government should want to promote this circle, because it will be successful and long lasting, and everyone as a whole will be happier for it. "Promotion" include things like tax breaks and rewards, joint custody/adoption policies, and all those other things that were listed at the beginning of this blog for heterosexual married couples.
 
In conclusion, the proper mindset, from a political stance, in my opinion is thus:
 
I will promote the giving of incentives to any activity that promote a healthy positive change/benefit to the society in which I live. Gays' and Lesbians' lifestyle can not offer benefits to my society. I will not discriminate against these persons on an individual basis in regards to personal and professional interactions, because its not my business what they do. But when the government that I live under passes out money and rewards to persons, it comes directly out of my paycheck. It is not good business practice to hand out goods and money if nothing is received in return, so why should i allow my government to do the same with my tax money? People are not deserving of endorsement for their choices unless it returns a benefit to the endorser.
 
This leads one to ask a few more questions:
 
Is it within the best interest of the people to intice their fellow citizens to make choices that benifit society? I think yes. It is not be the job of the government to tell its people what to do (its the people's job to instruct the government), and its within the people's best interest to promote, through its government, healthy choices that positively impact all.
 
Is there anything a gay couple can offer its society that a straight couple can't, thereby providing a benifit to said society and realizing a deserved eligibility to recieve an incintive? Straight couples can offer benifits (increase the population, provide an allover healthier environmet for children, etc) that gays can not hold claim to.
 
Is there anything that the straight community can do to overall damage its society that only the gay comminuty can avoid? No
 
Insert any other question here for descussion.

Jealousy is a sin, but God is a jealous God?

Jealousy: First how do we describe jealousy? Merriam-Webster defines it as being intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness. Lets make a comparison of the word and in an unrighteous fashion as in jealousy being a "sin" and in a righteous sense as in "God is a jealous God". 

The former description might include examples such as coveting your neighbor's 50" Plasma TV, feeling envy while listening to a friend's wonderful vacation stories, or perhaps wasting time pining over someone who is already in a committed relationship. Conversely the latter could be things such as a person desiring their spouse and children in their lives, items that they worked hard to acquire and now want to protect, and a desire for the credit of work done. 

It is a sin to be jealous of something that someone else possesses, however it is righteous to desire that which is yours to begin with. In relationships for instance, it is necessary to desire the other person within the capacity of that relationship. Lets look at a related word, covet. It is a sin to covet another man's wife, however is it a sin to covet your own spouse? What is the meaning of the word? At what point does a fleeting thought of desire become "coveting"? Would thinking about the beauty of that person be OK or a sin? Would thinking about wanting to have that person as yours be a sin? Is this where we draw the line? Would making plans to obtain that person for your own be a sin? Would following through with the plans and putting them into action be wrong? I feel that desire in which the mind is thinking about someone/thing many times and even starting plans to make that person/item yours is coveting. He who has sinned in his heart... and all that.

However, desiring what is already yours, can you sin in coveting your own wife? I believe that this is actually mandatory in building healthy relationships. If you do not make plans to keep what is already yours then you will generally lose it. If you do not show the proper respect, love and affection for your spouse then you will fall into a "parallel marriage", (living separate lives without an actual breakup) or worse, divorce and separation. Coveting your own is needed in order to protect what is your own.

This is the difference between God's jealousy and man's jealously. Its really a question between jealously over what is yours already and what is not yours.

God is jealous because he is protecting what is already his creation. It is a sin to be jealous over what is not yours because you are failing to "put off the natural man" and you are failing to rise above your baser instincts, to become better then who you were. Protection of what is yours is needed, but taking what is not is wrong.

my best friends birthday

Happy happy birthday Lisette my dear.
Happy days will come to you all year!
If I had a wish then it would be;
a happy happy birthday to you from me.

I have Internet

There was once a girl, who felt alone and disconnected. She was in the boonies, and unreachable. One day her room mate stole her phone! *Dunt dut duhh.* He abused and molested it till it did what he commanded. GIVE UP ITS INTERNET CAPABILITIES! Verizon doesn't allow tethering from a data phone to a computer without an additional $15 monthly fee. But the cheap skate roomie, found another way. Because the phone is Android run and the open source programming allows joe-blows to write whatever they have knowledge writing and offer it through the Market Place, ijiots like me can bypass the normal rules and use my unlimited data to its full extent! 


To Recap, I have internet and I am not paying an extra dime beyond my smart phone data package. ^_^

Got a well!

So I had Ballard Water Well out of Willis, TX out yesterday and today. We have (finally) installed the well. It dried up enough to get the truck half off the driveway and the well was dug. Here's a picture of one of the trucks.

Unfortunately I wasn't here at home while the digging was going on. I had to work. But afterwards, the next day they came out to set the tank up on a little slab thing and we told them to hook up the electric for us. We got some pretty cool deals that I won't go into details here.

I was told that at around 80 feet down they hit water, and they drilled to the bottom of that which ended up being 160 ft. My dad's well is right next door and his is at 175 and he thinks the water started right around the same depth as mine. His land is lower in altitude by a few feet only though so...

My tank is about is high as I am. So I'll always have quite a bit of water on hand for a good amount of pressure. I have one more step, a septic, and then I can start on my real house.

In search of the true church

You can only be of two christian faiths. Catholics and Mormons. These are the only 2 churches that claim to have a true, unbroken chain of command back to Jesus Christ himself.

The Bible teaches that true authority must be passed from Christ to his apostles to the rest of the church.

18And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, 19Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. 20But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 22Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

This all means that authority is needed. Proper channels of righteous people.

This is where Catholics come from. And they can trace their authority all the way back.

All break away churches belive that Catholics slowly started changing over the centuries and are no longer following the true teachings and lessons of Christ as it was established. (I've posted slightly earlier about how the natural course of things, if man is the only leader, is that things will become corrupted. It won't stay pure.) They believed that the church was wrong and so they started thier own church in the effort to reestablish the true doctrine. The problem with this course of action is that if you believe the original was wrong and then you broke away then you must also be wrong. You didn't start with the proper authority. Though your intentions were good its still not sanctioned by God himself. So the inevitable chain of action will lead to corruption.

If you believe that catholics are right then all others must still be wrong. So in both cases all reformed versions of faith are wrong. Only the original can be right, and that's only half of the scenario.

The Mormons believe that the truth was lost through the evil intentions of man. They changed what was established without divine authority and therefore perverted the truth.

So Joseph asked about what to do about this problem. The Lord reestablished the church in its former glory through him. He gave his sanction to the young prophet. The mormons are the only Christian fath that teach and believe this doctrine.

Mormons we given the authority through the laying on of hands by a resurrected Peter and James, and a Translated John (not yet perfected in his body to never be seperated, but only temporarily translated until the resurection of the millenium).

So as you can see here. To be Christian is to either be Catholic or Mormon. There is no other right choice, unless you think there is no right choice at all within Christianity, but that's a whole other topic.

Most people, this author included, think and understand that we are in the fullness of times. If we have need of revelation it is now. We can not get by with a silent heaven.

Working of the church of Jesus Christ

“From every point of view, therefore, it must be seen that in no other way than only from the prophets who teach us by divine inspiration, is it at all possible to learn anything concerning God and the true religion.” (Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks, Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:289 chap.38)

I take this to mean that men, on thier own, pervert the truth, and so ONLY through continual inspiration of God can the truth be kept, and passed, and learned.


Truthfully, i have no idea the source of this quote. i do not know who Justin Martyr is, as of the post of this blog, but I will no doubt learn soon enough. Nethertheless I beleive this statement by him as accurate.

Proclamation of the Twelve, April 6, 1845

We also bear testimony that the "Indians" (so called) of North and South America are a remnant of the tribes of Israel; as is now made manifest by the discovery and revelation of their ancient oracles and records.

And that they are about to be fathered, civilized, and made one nation in this glorious land. They will also come to the knowledge of their forefathers, and of the fulness of the gospel; and they will embrace it, and become a righteous branch of the house of Israel.
 
~~
 
And we further testify, that the Jews among all nations are hereby commanded, in the name of the Messiah, to prepare, to return to Jerusalem in Palestine; and to rebuild that city and temple unto the Lord: And also to organize and establish their own political government, under their own rulers, judges, and governors in that country.

For be it known unto them that we now hold the keys of the priesthood and kingdom which is soon to be restored unto them. Therefore let them also repent and prepare to obey the ordinances of God.

~~
 
The Latter-day Saints, since their first organization in the year 1830, have been a poor, persecuted, abused, and afflicted people. They have sacrificed their time and property freely, for the sake of laying the foundation of the kingdom of God, and enlarging its dominion, by the ministry of the gospel. They have suffered privation, hunger, imprisonment, and the loss of houses, lands, home, and political rights, for their testimony.
And this is not all; but their first founder, Mr. Joseph Smith, whom God raised up as a Prophet and Apostle, mighty in word and in deed, and his brother Hyrum, who was also a prophet, together with many others, have suffered a cruel martyrdom in the cause of truth; and have sealed their testimony with their blood. And still the work has, as it were, but just begun.

A great, a glorious, and a mighty work is yet to be achieved, in spreading the truth and kingdom among the Gentiles-in restoring, organizing, instructing and establishing the Jews-in gathering, instructing, relieving, civilizing, educating and administering salvation to the remnant of Israel on this continent; in building Jerusalem in Palestine; and the cities, stakes, temples, and sanctuaries of Zion in America; and in gathering the Gentiles into the same covenant and organization-instructing them in all things for their sanctification and preparation; that the whole Church of the Saints, both Gentile, Jew and Israel, may be prepared as a bride, for the coming of the Lord.
 
~~
 
As this work progresses in its onward course, and becomes more and more an object of political and religious interest and excitement, no king, ruler, or subject, no community or individual, will stand neutral. All will at length be influenced by one spirit or the other; and will take sides either for or against the kingdom of God, and the fulfillment of the prophets, in the great restoration and return of his long dispersed covenant people.

Some will act the part of the venerable Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses; or the noble Cyrus; and will aid and bless the people of God; or like Ruth, the Moabitess, will forsake their people and their kindred and country, and will say to the Saints, or to Israel: "This people shall be my people, and their God my God." While others will walk in the footsteps of a Pharaoh, or a Balak, and will harden their hearts, and fight against God, and seek to destroy his people.

These will commune with priests and prophets who love the wages of unrighteousness; and who, like Balaam, will seek to curse, or to find enchantments against Israel. You cannot therefore stand as idle and disinterested spectators of the scenes and events which are calculated in their very nature to reduce all nations and creeds to one political and religious standard, and thus put an end to Babel forms and names, and to strife and war. You will, therefore, either be led by the good Spirit to cast in your lot, and to take a lively interest with the Saints of the Most High, and the covenant people of the Lord, or on the other hand, you will become their inveterate enemy, and oppose them by every means in your power.

To such an extreme will this great division finally extend, that the nations of the old world will combine to oppose these things by military force. They will send a great army to Palestine, against the Jews; and they will besiege their city, and will reduce the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the greatest extreme of distress and misery.

Then will commence a struggle in which the fate of nations and empires will be suspended on a single battle. In this battle the governors and people of Judah distinguish themselves for their bravery and warlike achievements. The weak among them will be like David, and the strong among them will be like God: or like the angel of the Lord. In that day the Lord will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon the Messiah whom they have pierced.
 
~~
 
This signal victory on the part of the Jews, so unlooked for by the nations, and attended with the personal advent of Messiah, and the accompanying events, will change the whole order of things in Europe and Asia, in regard to political and religious organization, and government.

The Jews as a nation become holy from that day forward; and their city and sanctuary becomes holy. There also the Messiah establishes his throne, and seat of government. Jerusalem then becomes the seat of empire, and the great centre and capital of the old world.
 
~~
 
Priests, bishops, and clergy, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Mahomedan, will then have to yield their pretended claims to the priesthood, together with titles, honors, creeds and names; and reverence and obey the true and royal priesthood of the order of Melchisedech, and of Aaron; restored to the rightful heirs, the nobility of Israel; or, the dearth and famine will consume them, and the plague sweep them quickly down to the pit, as in the case of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Who pretended to the priesthood, and rebelled against God's chosen priests and prophets, in the days of Moses.
 
While these great events are rolling on the wheels of time, and being fulfilled in the old world,  the Western Continent will present a scene of grandeur, greatness, and glory, far surpassing the scene just described.

The Lord will make her that halted a remnant; and gather her that was driven out and afflicted; and make her who was cast afar off' a strong nation; and will reign over them in Mount Zion from that time forth and for ever.

Or, in other words, He will assemble the Natives the remnants of Joseph in America; and make of them a great, and strong, and powerful nation: and he will civilize and enlighten them and will establish a holy city, and temple, and seat of government among them, which shall be called Zion.

And there shall be his tabernacle, his sanctuary, his throne, and seat of government for the whole continent of North and South America for ever.

In short, it will be to the western hemisphere what Jerusalem will be to the eastern. 
 
 
~~
 
Americans! This mighty and strange work has been commenced in your midst, and must roll on in fulfillment. You are now invited, and earnestly intreated, to investigate it thoroughly, and to aid and participate in its accomplishment.
 
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The Lord has spoken, and who can disannul it? He has uttered his voice, and who can gainsay it? He has stretched out his arm, and who can turn it back?
 
 
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If the rulers and people will now inform themselves on these momentous subjects, and fulfill the  duties we have just pointed out to them, they will then be entitled to a continuation of the great national blessings and favors they have heretofore enjoyed; yea, and to more abundant favors from His bountiful hand, who first raised them to national greatness. They will in that case be prospered and enlarged, and spread their dominions wide and more wide over this vast country, till not only Texas and Oregon, but the whole vast dominion from sea to sea, will be joined with them, and come under their protection as one great, powerful and peaceful empire of Liberty and Union. Millions of people would also come from all nations, their silver and their gold with them, and would take protection under our banner, till in less than half a century from the present time we would have upwards of a hundred millions of population, all united and free, while civilization, arts, cultivation and improvement would extend to the most wild regions of our continent, making our "wilderness like Eden and our deserts like the garden of the Lord."
 
~~
 
We say, then, in life or in death, in bonds or free, that the great God has spoken in this age.-And we know it.

He has given us the Holy Priesthood and Apostleship, and the keys of the kingdom of God, to bring about the restoration of all things as promised by the holy prophets of old.-And we know it.

He has revealed the origin and the Records of the aboriginal tribes of America, and their future destiny.-And we know it.

He has revealed the fulness of the gospel, with its gifts, blessings, and ordinances.-And we know it.

He has commanded us to bear witness of it, first to the Gentiles and then to the remnants of Israel and the Jews.-And we know it.

He has commanded us to gather together his Saints on this Continent, and build up holy cities and sanctuaries.-And we know it.

He has said, that the Gentiles should come into the same gospel and covenant; and be numbered with the house of Israel and be a blessed people upon this good land for ever, if they would repent and embrace it.-And we know it.

He has also said that, if they do not repent, and come to the knowledge of the truth, and cease to fight against Zion, and also put away all murder, lying, pride, priestcraft, whoredom, and secret abomination, they shall soon perish from the earth, and be cast down to hell.-And we know it.

He has said, that the time is at hand for the Jews to be gathered to Jerusalem.-And we know it.

He has said, that the Ten Tribes of Israel should also be revealed in the North country, together with their oracles and records, preparatory to their return, and to their union with Judah, no more to be separated.-And we know it.

He has said, that when these preparations were made, both in this country and in Jerusalem and the gospel in all its fulness preached to all nations for a witness and testimony, He will come, and all the Saints with him, to reign on the earth one thousand years.-And we know it.

He has said that he will not come in his glory and destroy the wicked, till these warnings were given and these preparations were made for his reception.-And we know it.
 
April 6, 1845
Cropped portions can be found at
http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/rees/325/documents/Proclamation1845.pdf

Pericles

Open and friendly in our private relation, in our public acts we keep strictly within the law. We recognize the restraint of reverence; we are obedient to officials and laws, especially the laws that protect the oppressed and to the unwritten laws whose violation brings admitted shame. Yet ours is no work-a-day city only. No other provides so many recreations for the spirit – contests and sacrifices all year round, and beauty in our public buildings to cheer the heart and delight the eye day by day. Moreover, this city is so large and powerful that the wealth of the whole world flows into her, so that our own products seem no more homelike to us than those of other nations.




We love beauty without extravagance, and wisdom without unmanliness. We employ wealth, not as a means to vanity and ostentation, but as an opportunity for service. To acknowledge poverty is no disgrace; the true disgrace is making no effort to overcome it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect public affairs because he is too concerned with his private business. We regard a person who takes no interest in public affairs, not as quiet but useless. If few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of policy. The great impediment to action is, in our opinion, not discussion, but the lack of full information which is gained by discussion prior to action.

-In a funeral address designed to honor Athenian warriors who had died fighting Sparta, Pericles gave this choice oratorical declamation on the Athenian way of life as it then exsisted.

This was in the golden age of Herodotus and Thucydides, the famous Greek historians. It was the age of Socrates the philosopher, Hippocrates the physician, Phidias the sculptor, Aristophanes the satirical dramatist, and Sophocles and Euripides and classical Greek dramatists. Sculpture, architecture, painting, drama, science, philosophy, history, commerce and political stability all flourished during this amazing period. It has truly been called “the Golden Age of Pericles”.

It is also interesting that the famous golden age of Grecian culture occured right about the time the Jews were returning to Jeruselam from Babylon in 438 B.C.

A Day in the Royal Court

Sarah: "I don't think I could make sense of life without you."

Becky: "You can't survive without me. Gosh I have alot of power over you. Bow Down! Call me your Queen! I am Pharoh!"

Sarah: "Ha! I am the queen. You are my advisor."

Becky: "Yeah, I could live with that. But I want my own tract of land as reward for my outrageously awesom services. Myself and my family won't be disturbed by the whimsical fantasies of the royal house."

Sarah: "I did give you your own land! I haven't moved in yet have I?!" (Becky has obtained her own trailer and small plot of land in real life. She is free of rent from here on out.)

Sarah: "You're just not allowed to turn off your phone."

Becky: "You think that by virtue of your own absence that I am rewarded?"

Sarah: "I know you like your big wide space so, yes. But i do still have to come and make sure you're taking care of it and appreciating it as you should."

Becky: "Deal"

Sarah: "Dude now that I have dismissed all the men in "line" for my attentions, except for three, because they are important to my court, this is going to be my new on going joke with you."

Becky: "I think I could handle that. I keep you around for my ammusement."

Sarah: "You love me and you know it."

Pause

Sarah: "....... Um, Can you collapse some boxes at the store for Jimmy's move? I get allergy attacks after just three boxes."

Becky: "Dude what happened to those "Whimsical Fantasies", man? I'm suppose to be immune!"