In any case, you appear to have scrubbed my comments from your blog, just as Joseph Smith had the printing presses smashed in Nauvoo ;-)I'm not sure I understand why we are not having this exchange in the forum that you created, unless there's some aspect of your church or your belief that simply can't bear the light of day.
I apologize for deleting the previous post and its comments and then posting a private email discussion. I was trying to rectify the situation by illuminating the conversation and did not intend for it to be offensive to the original author.
5 comments:
How did my private email reply end up being posted here? And, what does it mean that it's posted under the heading "Free Speech"? All this after public comments I'd posted were deleted without explanation? Wow, what's up with the hostility?
Re your state map of the 2000 blue/red election:
The fact that Utah and Idaho joined half the country in first electing Bush in 2000 does not seem like cause for concern.
The map I linked to is from September 2006 ... Six years later, Utah and Idaho are the only states in the union still posting double-digit net positive approval for Bush.
If our values determine our priorities, what sort of priorities might be suggested by below?
I am not assuming that any other culture needs us....the opposite is true....we need them. We need their perspectives, their cultures, their influence.
Based on above, it'd seem:
Travel = Good
Learning another language = Good
Reading a Lonely Planet guide = Good
Proselytizing = Questionable
I wonder: How many Mormons travel outside the US in order to learn about other cultures (not counting missions or job postings)?
Just a thought, but wouldn't 10% of one's income pay for quite a bit of travel and study?
Stop that crow!
In Walt Disney’s classic animated film Dumbo, about the little elephant who learns to spread his giant ears and fly, there is a pivotal scene in which a dubious – indeed terrified – Dumbo is being cajoled by his friends, the crows, to leap off a cliff into the air, proving to himself that he can fly. One of the crows has a bright idea. When Dumbo isn’t looking he plucks a tail feather from one of his kind and then ceremoniously hands it to Dumbo, announcing that it is a magic feather: So long as Dumbo clutches it in his trunk, he can fly! The scene is presented in masterful economy. No explanation is provided, since small children get the point without being told: The feather isn’t really magic; it’s a prosthetic device, a belief-crutch of sorts that will get Dumbo off the ground by the power of positive thinking. Now imagine a variation on that scene. Imagine that one of the other crows, a village skeptic who is smart enough to see what trick is being played but not smart enough to see its virtue, starts trying to inform Dumbo of the truth as he perches on the cliff edge, feather held tightly. “Stop that crow!” the children would shriek. Stifle that smarty-pants, quick, before he ruins it for Dumbo!
It no doubt goes without saying that I see no need to "Stop that crow!"
I would hope that those I care for could realize that they can fly without the aid of magic feathers.
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