Government and the Church

Here,read pages 292 and 293 of The Doctrine and Covenants. It is an interesting take on todays problems /possibilities perhaps?

EXCERPTS FROM THREE ADDRESSES BY PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF REGARDING THE MANIFESTO

The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. (Sixty-first Semiannual General Conference of the Church, Monday, October 6, 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News, October 11, 1890, p. 2.)
It matters not who lives or who dies, or who is called to lead this Church, they have got to lead it by the inspiration of Almighty God. If they do not do it that way, they cannot do it at all. . . .
I have had some revelations of late, and very important ones to me, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me. Let me bring your minds to what is termed the manifesto. . . .
The Lord has told me to ask the Latter-day Saints a question, and He also told me that if they would listen to what I said to them and answer the question put to them, by the Spirit and power of God, they would all answer alike, and they would all believe alike with regard to this matter.
The question is this: Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage, with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the heads of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people (all of which of themselves would stop the practice); or, after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law, and through doing so leave the Prophets, Apostles and fathers at home, so that they can instruct the people and attend to the duties of the Church, and also leave the Temples in the hands of the Saints, so that they can attend to the ordinances of the Gospel, both for the living and the dead?
The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for . . . any of the men in this temple at Logan; for all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice. Now, the question is, whether it should be stopped in this manner, or in the way the Lord has manifested to us, and leave our Prophets and Apostles and fathers free men, and the temples in the hands of the people, so that the dead may be redeemed. A large number has already been delivered from the prison house in the spirit world by this people, and shall the work go on or stop? This is the question I lay before the Latter-day Saints. You have to judge for yourselves. I want you to answer it for yourselves. I shall not answer it; but I say to you that that is exactly the condition we as a people would have been in had we not taken the course we have.
. . . I saw exactly what would come to pass if there was not something done. I have had this spirit upon me for a long time. But I want to say this: I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write. . . .
I leave this with you, for you to contemplate and consider. The Lord is at work with us. (Cache Stake Conference, Logan, Utah, Sunday, November 1, 1891. Reported in Deseret Weekly, November 14, 1891.)
Now I will tell you what was manifested to me and what the Son of God performed in this thing. . . . All these things would have come to pass, as God Almighty lives, had not that Manifesto been given. Therefore, the Son of God felt disposed to have that thing presented to the Church and to the world for purposes in his own mind. The Lord had decreed the establishment of Zion. He had decreed the finishing of this temple. He had decreed that the salvation of the living and the dead should be given in these valleys of the mountains. And Almighty God decreed that the Devil should not thwart it. If you can understand that, that is a key to it. (From a discourse at the sixth session of the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, April 1893. Typescript of Dedicatory Services, Archives, Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.)

More Fun

I just thought I would put some more stuff about current persecution. This is the LDS news site.
CLiC and read.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/measured-voices-provide-reason-support-amidst-proposition-8-reaction

Be educated. Seek for knowledge continually.

Ain't We Got Fun

Here is a national review article I found very interesting.
Why the Mormons? I guess we all know the answer to that huh?


http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTU5MjZmMDIyMDU3NjRiMjBlNjcxYTlmOGQ2ODA5NjA=

"It ain't over 'till its over."


Here's an aside,"Where is the hope and change we were promised?" It's just an old Clinton cabinet. The economy hasn't perked up one bit in hope with the change -patience?
I will try to refrain from saying more on that in a spirit of support. No guarantees on that though.

I have been unable to access my blogspot for three days! I didn't realize how much I liked going there for a break.

Praise for Mormons

I received this in a forwarded email- I have found the original posts so I could verify. See links below.
It is nice to hear.


What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been
Posted by: John Schroeder at 07:09 am, November 6th, 2008 http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=1156271

Proposition 8 is now a part of the
California constitution!

That is probably the best news from an
otherwise difficult election for conservatives and
Republicans. In very large part, we Evangelicals must
thank our Mormon cousins for that fact. They, along with our
Catholic brethren, were better organized than us and that provided a
base from which we could ALL work together to get this job done.
What more, as we have chronicled here, Mormons took the brunt of the
abuse, derision, and even threats of physical
harm that came with this effort.
And like us, they have given thanks to the
Almighty that is ultimately in control, even if their understanding of
that Almighty is a bit diffrent than ours.
I cannot help but wonder how much more thankful we ALL might be today if
we had been more willing to embrace these religious cousins a few
months ago - but alas, politics is always about governing today and
looking forward to the next election.
Said
John Mark Reynolds:
http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2008/11/05/california-and-thank-a-mormon-day/
In the battle for the family, however,
traditional Christians have no better friends than the Mormon
faithful. It would be wrong if that support were taken for granted. We
are intolerant of the false attacks on Mormon faith and family. We
stand with our Mormon friends in their right to express their views on
the public square. We celebrate the areas, such as family values,
where we agree.
A heart felt thank you may not win points from
other friends who demand one hundred percent agreement from their
allies, but it is the decent and proper thing to
do.
Thank you to our Mormon friends and
allies!
Hard to do better than that. The
“Ruth Youth” ministry proclaimed yesterday “International Mormon
Appreciation Day.” Very appropriate, yet still
inadequate.
In addition to our thanks, Mormons deserve our
protection. They have been oppressed in ways during the
Prop 8 campaign that this nation has not seen since the 1960’s and the
civil rights movement. The rhetoric has been deplorable,
but moreover. we have seen instances of vandalism, property
destruction, and some leaders in the fight currently find themselves
with armed protection because of the threats made against them and
their families.
Our nation will not and cannot tolerate this
sort of behavior - it is incumbent on all of us to stand against it,
and the best way to do that is to stand between the Mormons and the
forces that would perpetrate such evil.
Now I am sure the Mormons can, and probably
want, to take care of themselves, but as a Christian, it is my duty to
protect the innocent and free the oppressed. To turn a
blind eye in this circumstance is not only ungracious, it is simply
unChristian.
Make all the theological distinctions you
want, but in the political arena we are yoked with the Mormons (he
said borrowing some religious imagery) and it is darn well time we
started acting like it.
Absolutely, positively thank the Mormons - but
don’t stop there. Stand up and be counted against the evil that
has been perpetrated towards them in this campaign.
As Christians we can do no
less.

Politics and Temples?

This is a friends Sister-in-law writing.


Dear family and friends,

I had a very disturbing experience yesterday that I would like to
share with those of you that live outside of California (or outside of the
San Francisco Bay Area).

This weekend we have stake conference. Our stake conference always begins with a stake temple session on Friday or Thursday night. Early
Friday morning I received a call from the second counselor in our bishopric
to let me know that there would be numerous protesters outside the
temple,and to remind everyone to stay calm and to drive carefully.

The beautiful Oakland Temple is located right across the bay from San Francisco ,
very close to the city of Berkeley.

Apparently the opposition to proposition 8, the amendment that seeks to make marriage in CA. between a man and a woman again, has realized the deep involvement of the church and begun to protest right outside of the temple and harass temple patrons.
The fastest way to get to the temple from our house is to take the 680
freeway, but the exit is a bit tricky. The off ramp is extremely
short and straight uphill. You then make an almost blind left turn, an
immediate right and another left into the parking lot.
As we approached the off ramp, I realized there would be trouble.
There was a backup onto the freeway from cars stalled on the off ramp. As we
moved forward inches at a time, we realized this was due to a large group
of loud protesters who were standing on both sides of the street,yelling,
screaming and waving signs. When we got to the top of the offramp,
ready to make our turn, one protester jumped out right in front of our car.
It took my husband all his self control to carefully maneuver around him to
the left and proceed to the temple.
I tried not to listen to all they were shouting at us, but I was shaking as I got to the temple front door.
Several of the sisters, especially the ones driving on their own,
were crying (which made me snap out of it and go into RS President mode
to comfort them).

Later, as I was sitting in the perfect quiet of the
chapel, I couldn't help but think of Lehi's dream, and the people who
mocked the Saints from the big spacious building but,"we heeded them not."
It was a truly surreal experience.

I'd never thought that I would have to go through an angry crowd to get
to the temple.
As we left late at night, the protesters had dispersed, temple security (who all looked very large and Tongan) stood by the gates.

I never saw a single police man.

Please pray for those of us in California fighting for prop 8--it's
getting kind of scary out here!

Susanne

Politcal video

I am so glad the theme of conference was, for me at least, "Hope in Perilous Times", 'cause this stuff really scares me.
Click on this link and view the video.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815825713/bctid1819819843


We really have to stand up and protect the family! It is in real danger. Voting in AZ and California is happening this election. This video adresses that issue and uses experience of just one family in Massachusetts.

"Stretchy" Week

That means I have attempted stuff way outside of my comfort zone! (Of course lately that is anything beyond the front door to my house).

Anyway, I went to sit with an older Sister in The ICU in Mercy Gilbert Hospital while her daughter got some rest. The doctors said she was probably out of danger. I was nervous. We, her friends and neighbors, but mostly the Doctors, were frankly all surprised she was still alive at the end of this week. All her organs were shutting down--heart, liver, kidneys, lungs. (I think it may have started with a heart attack). You should have seen the long list of Doctors on the wall for her care.
Miracles happen.
They had removed the intubation from her throat for her lungs that morning so she was breathing and able to talk again some, and had just finished removing the drain from her kidneys the minute prior to our walking in (I took Mom with me because Jan had asked for her particularly too, please).
Mom sits by Merlene(the sick Mom) every Sunday in RS and had also been a great comfort to Jan, the daughter, just that Sunday as she reported the miracles that meant her Mom was still alive. Anyway we both felt very good to be able to be there and help in some little way (once we got there).
Sometimes(most times) anticipating something like this is worse/scarier than the actual doing. The actual doing is a great privilege and I feel unimportant after I plunge in. It is hard to explain, but once arrived I felt no qualms and started right in with her care.
The friend who came next was scared too, took both my hands and asked me to please stay with her as long as I could,( she said she was having a panic attack). She was terrified that Merlene would "die on her watch", but soon she felt the calm Love that was there too. All was well when I had to leave her later. And Merlene was sleeping peacefully.

I don't really have the causes or details Allison, I wish I did so you could help me understand it better. It really made me wish that I had followed the dream I'd had to be a nurse. (dang chemistry fear and hangup).
I am so glad for you, Allison, That you will be a Nurse. Especially when it feels like this to care and help some one. It's bigger than can be explained? Do you feel that? It's too late at night for words to work for me very well.

The other "stretch" didn't work out quite as well,
I volunteered to help man a phone bank to help get Prop 102 passed here in Arizona. Well, anyone who knows me very well knows I really don't like telephones, and I avoid them at all times if I possibly can (which really isn't very often in todays world, unfortunately).
This proposition is to define marriage as only between one man and one woman and puts it in the constitution so it can't be over turned in the courts as they did in California recently.

Yes, me, with a list of names and numbers to call (on the dreaded phone) in an office with forms to fill out on the responses received! I must feel pretty strongly on this issue to sign up for this duty.

I lasted about 2 hours then I was so sick to my stomach I called my dear husband and he came to my rescue and finished my time. I did pretty dang good for me.

For info on the proposal go to;
http://www.yesformarriage.com/


By the way, the response was mixed.


I used to be pretty involved politically, I was even was voted as an alternate delegate to the Colorado State caucus once. It was so fun, but as an alternate I didn't vote while there unless Ted couldn't go, but he did, so I got the experience with not so much of the pressure.
I remember the year I campaigned against Clinton for Bush. Do you remember all the placards and stuff around Allison? Anyway, after it was all over, My kids got me a big Button that said, "Don't Blame Me. I voted For Bush." I guess they could tell I was pretty discouraged that Americans would reelect a lying adulterer.
Rachel did not remember so I wanted to tell you about this so you will know I think it is important! But I digress.


This activity, the phone bank volunteers, is actually coming from - our Stake. The LDS Church never (almost never, I guess) takes a political stand other than encouraging it's members to please be informed, involved, vote etc. so I figured I better step up.
LDS or Mormon info here; http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/
This is very important and I was a little surprised at the lack of initial volunteers. But it is getting rolling.
Allison, as a registered voter, you should receive info booklets in the mail addressing at least the local issues. Watch for these, if you don't get them, the libraryshould have them and I am sure they will be available on line too.

Back to my story. I called Keith after 2 hours and had him come take over for me. I was pretty nauseated and nervous.
After Keith rode up on his white Charger, I mean drove up in his white Ford Focus, I ran quickly into the over 100 degree Knight, I mean night, and bought him an anniversary present.
It is tomorrow after all. But that's another story.

Here is a link to a video on similar issues put out by the Catholic church that I like.
http://www.catholicvote.com/

Can you tell I am a conservative and a Republican? What gave me away?
(actually it is Thursday the 25th for me, it's just really late so excuse any gibberish etc.).

Political u tube from Sister Brown

This is a link to a video on u tube that I want to share too. Thanks Jeanne.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Rants Much Better Than Mine

I have been interested in the Republican VP nominee.
The immediate uproar was astounding. So she must be good.
If it couldn't be Mit, (yes, I like to consider myself on a first name basis with my favorite) then I quite like McCain's choice of fellow Idahoan and Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin. It has brought his image back up a few notches in my eyes. I was worried about him there for a while.
Here are a couple of articles I really liked. They are funny, articulate and right on. (everything I wish I were).

I found(actually Keith found) an article by David Kahane at National Review Online:
Click here to view the article: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2YzODI3MGE3OTU0Yjg5ZDY5YmFjZmE3MmFiOWE4ZjQ=


an article by Rich Lowry at the same place:
Click here to view the article: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjExNmM3ZmJiNGJmMjYyZGMwODdlMTkwMWUwODJmNzc=