RWW - This one's for you!

... and for the rest of those who have been wanting to hear from me again. Thank you all for your concern, your prayers, and your support. For better or for worse, I have found that blogging specifically to a Mormon audience is utterly not worthwhile. The Mormonism of today has its truth already, and is not looking for any innovation whatsoever. Innovation would separate it from mainstream Christianity, and favor with mainstream Christianity is that which the Saints of today most deeply covet. Strong words, perhaps, but true: If not individually, then collectively.

I am forever the heretic because I believe that Jehovah is the Father, as Joseph Smith did, and because I side with Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff on certain issues which, according to Bruce R. McConkie, implies that I "have the intellect of an ant and the understanding of a clod of miry clay in a primordial swamp" and that I "do not deserve to be saved." Why won't "our" apologists apologize for statements such as this?

(Side note: 2,555,000,000 years old. Hmm.)

And yet I believe! Well, I believe in something, and my beliefs are deeply intertwined with Mormonism. They may not be the Orthodox religion, but they are Godly, or, if they are not, then I have been deceived. But, I choose to believe that the Holy Ghost I have felt is real, that the answers to prayer I received about Joseph Smith are true. But I am not part of mainstream Mormon culture. They look at me funny. I scare some of them. They just don't know how to deal with me. And the more I endure, the more sick I feel when I hear their teachings. I mean their pet teachings, their naive teachings, not the truth. When they preach the truth it is still sweet, but the other things, the naive assumptions and philosophies of some of their most prominent men which they have blended with the gospel offends my spirit in subtle ways, and I would rather be in an environment more facilitative of my spiritual growth.

Is this selfish of me? I'd like to help them grow. I'd like to pitch in and teach, but I can't. My teachings are not permitted. So I feel saddened by it all.

If you like my posts, my thoughts, and want to hear more from me, or speak with me, please consider reading and commenting on my Masonic blog: Lodgical. Nearly everything I write there and elsewhere has personal religious significance to me. Even the articles I write for other organizations. If you have comments or questions to share with me of an overtly Mormon nature, or just want to chat, please contact me directly by email at jeffREMOVE_THIS_PART@storago.com

I want to talk. I have very little religious fellowship now. I am currently accepted as a sort of sojourner ("on the path") in the Jewish community, but that is not a place to deeply discuss my Latter-day Saint beliefs.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Guestbook

I'm curious what type of people are actually reading this blog? I'd encourage you to check-in by commenting on this post and telling a little something about yourself. Even if you do it anonymously and just let us know something about the type of person you are, that's great. Come on now, don't be shy...

What to do with the humor...

In order to keep my theological thoughts separate from my humorous and perhaps very commercially minded self promotion regarding the T-Shirt business, I have created a separate blog/site for the LDS T-Shirts. Future designs will go directly to that site instead of here, although they may perhaps show up in the rotating shirt display at the top. If anyone is really interested enough to keep an eye on the shirt designs (and would such an interest call one's mental sanity into question?), new additions are also available via an atom feed.

The advertisement of T-Shirts does now humbly bow-out of the post topics here, keeping this site pure for those looking for our classic thought provoking and ocassionally controversial posts.

T-Shirts

To my regular readers: I hope you don't mind the T-Shirt display at the top of the blog now. We've been trying our hands at doing some unique Mormon-themed shirt designs, and want to share them with you because we feel you will be genuinely interested, so we have replaced one of our sponsored link blocks with this instead. I wish it were a little smaller, but it's not too bad... plus, it is listing genuine products designed by your friends here at Mormon Gnostics which makes it less of an advertisement and more of the thoughts and attitudes you are used to finding here.

Let me know if it seems too unruly and we'll move it somewhere else. And, if you like any of the shirts, please buy :)

Recent Comments for Blogger

I've just upgraded my Recent Comments tool in the sidebar to a better system. You can now click on "more" to get the complete history of comments so that you aren't limited to only the last few. There's also a link at the top of that screen where you can sign up to put this Blogger add-on on your Blog as well.

Mormon Gnostics Podcast

I've just started a Mormon Gnostics Podcast to go along with this blog, and the first episode is 001 - Theology, Moses 1:1-23. Enjoy!

New Comments Feed

I've hacked together a new comments feed mainly so that I can put a real "recent comments" in the sidebar. Blogger doesn't natively support this feature, so if anyone is interested in how I did it, please ask.

Welcome Nicholas!

Our newest member of the Latter-day Gnostics team is my friend Nicholas. I wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce him. He has just made his first two contributions to our blog, "Psychic Spheres" and "Golden Candlestick" and we hope to be hearing more from him in the future. He tends to focus more on meditation and inner work (studying the microcosm, I suppose) where I tend to be more interested in forms, ritual, doctrine, and exterior cosmology, although we both cross to the other side on occasion. This should make for an interesting and diverse team.

I hear that one of Nicholas's main motivators--like most bloggers--is feedback, so if you enjoy his posts be sure to add your own thoughts to his work.

Blogging is so Fragile

I was just a bit saddenned because I went to visit a blog where I had posted a few comments previously, and I wanted to see what the author had to say in response to my comments, only to find both comments mysteriously vanished. Instead of intelligent discourse, and some type of understanding correspondence, it was as though I had never been to the blog to begin with. Belonging to the blogger, it is of course their imperative to remove any comments from the site that they deem unseemly. However, my comments were not intended to be unproductive, nor were they spam, nor do I see them as outside of the topic, or even broader than their own range of views presented on the blog. I am mystified as to why I have been squelched in such a manner, my only regret is that I did not save the text of my comment somewhere else, so that I could now refer to it and try to analyze why I was knocked down. One of my comments even agreed strongly with the original author of the post.

I want everyone to know that they may feel safe and free in commenting on this blog (Mormon Gnostics). I will not delete any comments, unless they are spam, contain excessive swearing, graphic sexual references, or purport to contain specific items which are supposed to be held secret under covenant. And EVEN then, I will try to censor the post itself, and re-post it with a note to explain what I did, rather than just delete it.

I encourage all LDS bloggers to adopt a similar policy for your own blogs. I used to work for a man who implemented censorship on some forums he administered. They were at first alright, but before long, his censorship began to reach a point where he would censor any person who disagreed with him in any way. The forum turned into a bland place, where no discussion really took place because there was no debate of any form, and the problem solved itself by the forum ending up in disuse.

People are social creatures. We desire interaction. Even if you think something I do or someone else does is wrong, censoring it only gives us the chance to react with initial impulses of anger, whereas addressing the problem verbally creates the chance to achieve true reconciliation and come to a unity or at least to help the person avoid making the same mistake again.