The Essence of Rebirth

                                

                                                                       Divinity

   
Mention the word divine and people immediately think of what; cathedrals, crucifix, Mary, God, Jesus, candy? Mention the name Jesus, and what comes to mind? Religion? The cross? Pain, suffering, guilt, salvation? Revulsion? This mental process indicates an assumption; symbolic mental connections previously stored in our minds drawn upon in communication by word in print or vocalized. Of course it is our assumptions that get us into trouble. In Mathematics, the equation that represents a relationship doesn’t care about the validity of one’s premise.  It will allow confidence in a wrong solution. In demotic speech, people are familiar with the utterance: To assume makes an ass of you and me. And when a person stops to ponder this aphorism, it is soon apparent that assumptions are the cause of humor, embarrassment, and in severe cases spiritual and/or physical harm to other living beings. It is not a place we like to be for long, unless everyone concerned is having a jolly good belly laugh. Laughing relieves the tension built up inside, whether from feeling inadequate, or feelings of unexpressed love.

In the album Octave, the Moody Blues versed this simple aphorism: “Remember when you smile, love’s in your eyes.” Smiling and laughing are love’s expression. Laughter is bonding, providing a sense of community whether with one, or a thousand. It connects human souls together, bypassing the usual defenses, inhibitions, and assumptions we bury ourselves with, which we do not to hide from being seen by others, but to avoid revealing ourselves to ourselves. As Eric Hoffer observed, it is the attaching of oneself to a mass movement that allows us to displace the identity of who we are, with the identity of the group. Sometimes we join a group to find expression of those things we enjoy and wish to share with others. Other times we join a group in order to find meaning in our lives; to give it purpose, and definition. In this, we run from our feelings of inadequacy, impotency, mediocrity, and the mundane. We look to the group to give us what is lacking, to fill the hollow vacancy within. The drive for personal expression, the need to define ourselves is the energy that fuels mass movements, whether in associations, politics, or religion. When the creative expressions of natural love are inhibited, whether alone or in a group, we become frustrated, and start looking for substitutes to release that energy, or satisfy the hunger.

Mass movements go through developmental stages, just as humans do, and indeed are a manifestation of human development at the social level. These phases are the creative, the practical, the stagnant. In a movement’s beginning, there is opportunity for creative expression, for recognition, the natural realization of self-confidence and self-esteem. Self-acceptance is afforded, and the soul finds a measure of fulfillment. But the practicalities of moving forward and accommodating the creativity of additional members tends to suppress and over-ride creativity. Ultimately practicality drives the movement into stagnation; for the exigencies of managing movements inevitably lead to the suppression and destruction of individual expression, the loss of individual spirituality in the corporate whole. Then, rather than being the vehicle of personal change, it becomes the instrument of rigidity. Thus, Mass Movements, whether religion, politics, or business, tend to be instruments of stagnation and infantilism, rather than growth. Michael Ellner, president of HEAL summed up this condition: “Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religions destroy spirituality."

The seeds of a movement’s dissolution are sown in its founding, for they are the very substance of the individual’s questing hunger. Said Hoffer: “The estrangement from the self, without which there can be neither selflessness nor a full assimilation of the individual into a compact whole, produces, as already mentioned, a proclivity for passionate attitudes, including passionate hatred. There are also other factors which favor the growth of hatred in an atmosphere of unity and selflessness. The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breed pride and arrogance. The true believer is apt to see himself as one of the chosen, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a prince disguised in meekness, who is destined to inherit this earth and the kingdom of heaven, too. He who is not of his faith is evil; he who will not listen shall perish. … when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgment. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom, freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement.” Mass movements are the breeding ground of the True Believer. When they enter the stagnant stage, a vacuum is produced in the absence of creativity which is filled by the True Believer, who inevitably becomes a tyrant when acquiring the reigns of leadership.

True Believers are frustrated people who fill the internal emptiness with purpose, meaning, and self-validation by external means. The natural love experienced as an infant atrophies, and substitutes of all kinds replace that void. Faith is substituted for self-esteem, pride for self-confidence, certitude for understanding, enforced loyalty for love. For those members who have a long history with the Morg, these characteristics should be evident. Mormonism officially entered the stagnant stage when Harold B. Lee instituted the correlation program. It is at this period in the church’s long decline of creativity that policies, programs, and practices were substituted for the spiritual core of its religion. By this time, the mandate for its top leadership to obtain special witness of Jesus’ divinity and approbation had been absent for over fifty years. In such a spiritual vacuum, these men had no choice but to implement increasingly mundane practices and rules, just as the chief priests had done in ancient Israel. Today the member is compelled to outward conformance via the most trivial rituals and performances, such as itemized by Paul Toscano, as related in my previous blog. The list of incantations, observances, blessings, cursings, spellbinding, and divination increase as substitutes for the loss of spiritual vitality absent in its movement and movers. Of course in such an environment of spiritual destitution there is plenty of opportunity for mendacity on the part of the leadership, as Reinhold Niebuhr describes: “Extreme orthodoxy betrays by its very frenzy that the poison of skepticism has entered the soul of the church; for men insist most vehemently upon their certainties when their hold upon them has been shaken.  Frantic orthodoxy is a method for obscuring doubt.” The act of insistence in blind faith produces misrepresentation.

Said Charles Moore: "If you base a religion on faith, and believing what somebody says, then you are vulnerable to believing a lie. And if you believe a lie, you are constantly in conflict with yourself, because your heart knows better. Your heart and mind are divided. Consequently, your whole life is in hostility, anger, striking out. Faith based religions are the basic cause of war. Liars silence the messenger because liars are threatened by the truth. People who tell the truth, are willing to listen to any opposition because it doesn't threaten them. People who lie get very angry with any opposition, because they feel threatened, because they know they are lying, even if it be unconsciously." So when Boyd Packer says some truths are not very useful, and threatens to excommunicate truthsayers, that is, spiritually kill the member who attempts to declare the truth, he is a liar and knows the church history IS a fraud. When Gordon Hinckley spiritually kills members who refuse to be silent, he is a liar, and knows the church founding is a fraud. When Jeffrey Holland metaphorically pounds the pulpit in General Conference, using body language that expresses anger, with covert threats against those seeking to declare the Book of Mormon is a fraud, he is a liar, and knows that the book is indeed, a fraud.

When members of Morgdumb awaken to this mendacity of its leaders, their sense of purpose and confidence is shattered. At some point they cast about for a means of exit. Often such people cannot be reconciled to any religion, for Morgdoc asserts there can be no other genuine Church. The doctrine of Apostasy precludes it. If the genuine organization was not restored, then in truth it never existed, and the entire house of cards of Faith implodes. Many become agnostic or atheist. But in gravitating to another “ism” there is one inherent component fueling it: the need for a substitute. If they were a True Believer, they remain one. If they were a fanatic, they continue to be fanatical. When a person leaves Mormonism (or any other form of “ism”), the Church seldom leaves them. They often retain the attitudes, behaviors, and mentality that captured and held them in it, not realizing the defect runs deeper than faulty dogma and mendacity. This behavior manifests itself in divorce, addiction, or any other transition out of dysfunctional behavior. The need for substitutes remains, and they begin looking for another familiar forum to fill the social void. Even in the few who recognize their own complicity in allowing the spiritual abuse, few continue the journey of self-restoration. Hence we see the ex/post Mormon gravitating to others in forums and conferences and movements of various kinds which provides a new identity. In various ways it is proclaimed they are “recovering”, but it isn’t really recovery, it is validation of the individual’s new identity, and the acknowledgement of the spiritual deprivation experienced in a tyrannical, controlling organization. Atheism becomes a dominant, driving force in these environments, and often the True Believing mentality wages the same kind of spiritual warfare that was waged upon them by the 15 Apostates. As Eric Hoffer wrote:

“The fanatics of various hues eye each other with suspicion and are ready to fly at each other's throat. But they are neighbors and almost of one family. They hate each other with the hatred of brothers. They are as far apart and close together as Saul and Paul. And it is easier for a fanatic Communist to be converted to fascism, chauvinism or Catholicism than to become a sober liberal. The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion. He is an atheist with devoutness and unction. According to Renan, "The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men.'' ”

There is on these forums a certain crowd of atheists who dominate the conversations of others who prefer to retain their Christian beliefs. Nothing satisfies these zealots of atheism until they have thoroughly castigated and destroyed—in their minds—the logic of the Christian believer. They delude themselves with the idea they have deconstructed Mormonism, Christianity, and God with impeccable logic. Never mind the majority never had any formal training in logic and rhetoric. And as indicated in the beginning, even if their logic is sound, that still does not prevent them from making erroneous conclusions because their basic assumptions rarely get analyzed openly where they can be examined. The certitude of some of these individuals is astounding. They will quote all manner of scientific fact, all the while being ignorant of the scientific investigation behind the scene of mainstream, condoned theory. Some of them have no idea that much of what they read about science is outdated, refuted, or is a product of a broken peer review process, which often utilizes consensus—a political methodology—rather than honest examination of the submitting scientist’s premise and conclusions. They exhibit nearly a fanatical faith in the scientific process, a process which does not have a Guardian or Overseer, nor does it have a Consciousness that guides its destiny. The altar of God is replaced with the altar of the scientific process. Many of these folks do not realize the scientific process is a seldom-honored method, employed by fallible and questing men inhabiting their own movements.

Just like the social structure of the Morg, these people are friendly and cordial when introduced to new fallout (potential converts). But the ostracism they learned as members is a ready tool, implemented with ridicule if need be, to eschew those who do not wish to part with their beliefs. Nothing changes. As Eric says, it is far easier to transition from one movement to another; to move from Nazism to Communism is a simple matter, rather than looking inward to discover the defective attitudes causing the behavior. No certitude excels the True Believer, and his big brother, the fanatic. Scientific certitude affords the True Believing atheist a substitute for the insecurity of not knowing who they are, nor where they are going. It is a form of blind faith and displacement of confidence in a different form of God they create and worship: the God of Rational Thought. The irony is, even during the Age of Reason, Deity was never eschewed.

It is heart-rending to observe the same forms of manipulation and obfuscation practiced in Mormonism upon the newly execrated. Disturbing in any setting surely, but vulnerability is acute among these souls who have lost friends, sometimes family, and a social community that will no longer grace them with their affections and humor. The devastation is much greater than with those who transition from sect to sect, or one dogma to another. The only way to end this circular carnival of dysfunction is to cease substituting human needs with cheap fixes. One must begin with experiencing divine love. Notice that Hoffer’s solution is the gentle philosopher who considers virtue the only good. But virtue finds its substance in self-love that is an endowment of divine love, whether it be as parent to child, or a gift from a celestial Being. Interestingly, Eric writes fondly of his parents, and the godmother who cared for him during his blindness and death of his mother. That love carried him throughout his itinerant life. In the final analysis, a person must begin the transition by inserting love as their driving force. When this happens, self-esteem increases, self-confidence increases, the need for certitude about the world and one's future subsides, and serene natural bonding with others fills the soul. Jesus was first a healer; a physician of the body and the soul. The two are entwined. Whether one believes He existed or was divine is no consequence. His remedy was the ancient art and doctrine of spiritual health. Following His code of behavior will maximize the harmony, peace, and raised consciousness prattled about on the Web. Casting one’s bread of love upon the water returns more than what was given. If Man created God, then the power of Godliness resides in Man, and it only requires release to attain the state of Transcendence.

For myself, I trust in the transcendent experience mentioned in earlier posts. There is one detail in the account that I have not mentioned. Those who are familiar with the Hindu Chakras will recognize the significance of this. At the termination of the 2½ day instruction by the Master Healer, He placed His finger midway between the Crown and Third Eye points of my forehead, and then again on the Heart point of my breastbone. In this act I understood He was enfusing this experience of spiritual wisdom, intuition, facility of transcendence, His love, compassion, and healing force into my soul. He was reuniting my heart with my mind and leaving His imprint there. At the time of this experience I knew practically nothing about Chakras. I had read of them briefly in connection with Yoga while on the mission to Norway twenty years earlier. I never thought there was any substance to the concept then and had forgotten all about it. Only today, more than twenty years later, in discussing ideas for this blogpost with my wife did I realize just how significant that act was. At the time, it seemed just as natural as breathing. But it was the culmination of the transformation that I experienced. For days afterward I was not sure exactly what world I was in. Often it seemed I had one leg still in that other Realm. People who have experienced Near Death, or an Out of Body state will immediately recognize the divine love I experienced, and the feeling of completeness it grants.

The sorry part of sharing this divine love is its rejection by those who have been so spiritually malnourished they have difficulty accepting their self-worth. All that can be done for them is partial infusions until their souls are revitalized sufficient to partake of its fulness. It is this infusion that generates change and rebirth.

SethSmee


REFERENCES
Niebuhr,  Does Civilization Need Religion?
Hoffer, The True Believer, The Ordeal of Change
The Laura Lee Show, Charles Moore interview, History of Western Civilization
Teachings of Jesus

Charlatans & Harlequins

                                            

                                                                 Buried in the Part

   
After discovering the You Tube interview of John & Brooke McLay, one time CES instructors who resigned their membership in Morgdumb, I came across anniversary interviews of the notorious September Six—church members who were excommunicated in 1993. I was struck by the dichotomy, and dismayed in the discovery that this latter group still considered themselves Mormons. Whereas John McClay had resigned because of his conviction Joseph Smith was a fraud, the Six retained the core conviction he was authentic.

It was an interesting and valuable experience to realize that excommunication does not inevitably lead to the revelation Joseph Smith had no actual trans-mortal experiences. The excommunicant does not always connect the insult of being severed from the church community and salvation, with the incongruity of the act as something Jesus would not, and did not do. Ergo, the men who perpetrated this “disciplinary council” are not in fact witnesses of Jesus. They do not connect such behavior as indication these men have never associated personally with Jesus. They retain the core belief that these men were, and are, authentic representatives of Jesus on earth.

John resigned because of “doctrinal, historical, moral, and logical concerns”, feeling that his integrity was in jeopardy and could not continue teaching while his personal views no longer upheld the church’s authenticity assertions. Paul conversely perceived Joseph as a man with foibles and folly, but still possessed of a divine intervention, guiding him along to his violent end. Both John and Paul, along with their respective wives Brooke and Margaret, consider the church invested with many good people, as though this somehow relieves the church of its production of evil and human destruction. For John the issue is doctrinal, historical, and moral, while for Paul it is behavioral. Paul was canned for being outspoken, obstreperous, and recalcitrant. Enter the cognitive dissonant state.

Paul was taught the same dogmas and theology I was in the 60s, not just from the CES, but from the Apostolic Rameumptom. Particularly as missionaries (I embarked the same year he returned) we were told that the church’s mission was to dispense the True Gospel along with the Restored Ordinances, and that such could only be received by those who had been bestowed authentic priesthood authority. It was the central theme of the Norwegian mission. Neither of us perceived the church’s Authorities as infallible, beyond remonstrance, or the essence of the church. A full-time mission takes the member significantly closer to the leadership of the church, and exposes the missionary to the operations behind the façade of soft-spoken, pulpit moralizing, and intoxicating stupor—often confused with whisperings of the Spirit.

Paul and I had an advantage that John did not have; we both had from a young age close association with the church’s internal operations through various hierarchical authorities. Paul however, returned from his mission not having been disabused of the assumption there was a spirit of egalitarianism within the priesthood. He had a "supportive" mission president. I did not. While I knew of the idiosyncratic and often arbitrary implementation of church power through my father’s having worked for the church, I had not come into full conflict with the power structure until the mission experience. Upon my return I saw a completely different attitude under the veneer of sanctified holiness by virtue of calling, and the disrespect, dismissal, and often disdain church authorities had toward the common member. Beholding this reverse side of Tommy Slick Monson’s effigy in the raw at various church levels as my father had, I held no illusions that anyone’s complaint of misdeed, or even outright treachery by priesthood leaders was going to be countenanced by anyone in church authority except from above them. And of course the average member would never hear about such censure if it happened. Indeed, still today, many members cannot accept such malfeasance of office among “the Lord’s Anointed.” It is simply incomprehensible and so disturbing it is difficult to conduct any dialog on the subject. They exist in a shell of “hyggelig” fuzziness, having never been exposed to the force of their remonstrance.

Paul, along with the rest of the September dross and the audience at Sunstone, seemed to believe such egalitarianism was inherent in the priesthood structure of the church. I knew differently. I was a direct recipient of the emotional and physical abuse received as a result of my father being subjected to arbitrary use of power, manipulation, scheming, and general ill-will that infested the marbled old church office building. I received at the hands and lips of my father the indoctrination that I was not to speak to my elders unless spoken to, nor to gainsay them on anything they intended to do if and when it seemed to me unfair or illogical. No, my father did not learn to be abusive as a result of intercourse with church authorities. He had issues from childhood in a broken family. But as the trite saying goes: "Birds of a feather flock together,” and such people gravitate to the center of power as a means of validating themselves where they were not as children. They grow up still looking for that approval of authority they failed to receive in developmental years. At a youthful age, boundaries are violated in people who get buried in the part. The problem was systemic in my family, pervaded my ancestry, and I saw the outward signs everywhere in the church power structure. It has become my life mission to purge such behavior from myself and my unwitting posterity.

Paul Toscano’s unwitting miscalculation of how the priesthood power structure operates is unfortunate, but excusable. He, like I, had been enthralled with the theology of Mormonism. It’s tenets explained and encompassed the world’s three major religions, giving an unprecedented view of religious history, God’s involvement with Man, and opened a vision of eternal life beyond any theology ever promulgated. It provided a relationship with Diety that was intimate, to including the passage into immortality by the direct embrace of a Supreme Being. Such enthrallment tends to focus and narrows one’s attention and makes a person blind to the larger, systemic operations. Because of such promise and theological construct of the Atonement’s power of Redemption, I with many others was horrified at Bruce McConkie’s assertion that none could approach Christ or be familiar with Him. To me, this was the sum and substance of the Five Points of Fellowship at the Veil. Redemption was personal, sacred because of the Lord’s condescension to not only purge our human frailties, but lift us up into His presence where we could complete the metamorphosis spoken of by John: “we shall be like Him.” I believe most of us knew in our hearts Bruce was way out on a limb, and the calling of his office had gone to his head.

Paul has not come to the same juncture I have. He and Margaret have been yearning for the transformation of divine love. I had the transcendent experience that is spoken of by those men in past ages ranked as prophets by the Christian world. Unlike Joseph Smith, mine was about my life, my choices, where I am going, and had nothing to do with starting a church and exploiting the acolytes for my own support and aggrandizement. It was because of this experience that the shell of my True Believership began to crack and flake off.

With the aid of my deceased parents, I was taken to a rendezvous point with Jesus. It was in almost every respect an experience like those who report having a Near Death experience. But I never died. In the space of three hour’s time, as marked off by my bedside clock, I spent three days of subjective time in another world. It had most all the familiar trappings of mortality, but none of it familiar to past experience. I spent 2½ days in the company of Jesus, of whom I discovered I had been friends with for most of my conscious existence. During that period I reviewed my life, not just in mortality, but going way back, examining all the decisions I had made about what I wanted to become and how I expected to get where I wanted to be. It extended beyond mortality into possible futures, depending on what I wanted to be, in comparison with my potential.  This review, and that which I was taught by His expert insight helped me to relinquish my hold on certain paradigms of behavior and notions of “foreordination” which were confusing the hell out me in mortality. It was an ineffable experience. I have tried over the years with numerous attempts to write in detail what I saw, learned, where I traveled, and most of all, the impact His magnificent soul had upon me. I cannot recapture it, and certainly there are no earthly metaphors with which to describe it. The heck of it is, I was not permitted to remember all that happened, except key points that would manifest themselves at appropriate junctures in my life. And if I could remember all those things I learned, it would just further exacerbate the hell I sometimes suffer trying to integrate the transcendent experience into everyday life. Sometimes the disparity is so great I yearn never to have had the experience at all. There are times when ignorance is bliss. It was not the only time we had occasion to converse.

The upshot is however, that the experience totally transformed my life, my attitudes, my perceptions, my feelings toward all living things. Along with some of the aftereffects cited by people who have returned from the dead I had one particular effect imprinted on my soul that made it ultimately impossible to continue membership in the Morg. I knew what kind of person Jesus was, and still do. Unlike many who discover the deceit, the mendacity, the manipulation, the thieving, the condoning of murder and depredation inherent in Mormon history and caused them to leave, it was not these things which was my tipping point. My wife and my sister only had to observe a small portion of Joseph’s abuse of the women (and their husbands) he married, and they were done. Not so for me. I had studied the scriptures for years, and noted many discrepancies in doctrine, the approved church history and sequestration of damning behavior, and the alarming trend of creeping change in doctrines and ordinances in my own lifetime. These important issues were repeatedly swept aside by church authorities, and still I could not remove myself from their grasp.  The basic theology had me.

Not until I concurrently read about Gordon Hinckley’s flippant attitude toward these six faithful and questing members and Joseph’s treacherous, debilitating spiritual vampirism imposed premeditatively upon his wives, did I realize none of these men were anything like the Man they proclaimed to be serving.  They were not just comprehensively corrupt, they were the very heart and soul of those people He castigated: “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” Of such characters he warned: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?   Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” A great noise was made about the possible damage to faith Paul and Margaret’s discussions might make upon members, but no peep was heard for the devastation Gordon and Boyd bequeathed to all these good people and their heirs and relatives for squashing and thwarting them for supposed insolence or embarrassment. What they did Jesus never did. A Redeemer lifts up, brushes off the dust, comforts, teaches in everlasting patience, and does not condemn nor exile any soul; certainly not because they are spiritually hungry and demand a few answers.

The incongruence is palpable and unpalatable. Gordon, speaking at a 1994 CES fireside was beside himself because he and Boyd had severed the membership of six good people and it caused such a calamity in the church he remarked that you’d think the church was unraveling. Only six people had been cutoff, while several hundred had come in to take their place! By their own doctrines they stand condemned: “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” (D&C 18:15)

But these two men, and their affrighted accomplices, did as the Lord spoke of the chief priests in His day:

“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast [him] out of the vineyard, and slew [him]. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?  They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out [his] vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?  Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” Matthew 21:33-44

These 15 Apostates, who consider themselves the “husbandmen” of the Lord’s vineyard have likewise acted treacherously toward the laborers. And this is the heart of their defect: they have arrogated the vineyard to themselves, and behave themselves as though they are the Church. They are buried in the part. The offense is not the possible disaffection of other potential laborers or newly acquired ones. The offense is to them, the effrontery in demanding of them better instruction, greater sustenance at the table, so that they can return to their labors revitalized. It is intolerable. To even suggest they are failing at their stewardships as CEOs and administrators of the vineyard’s owner is inexcusable. Only the owner can reproach them, and indeed they will be ground to powder for their reward, for they have embezzled the Master’s vineyard to their own designs.

How does a person become so buried in the part? What kind of personality becomes so invested in the movement they identify themselves as it’s chief impetus? The insecure, who attain megalomaniacal stature in their own eyes. (Look up the synonyms of megalomaniac.) Why are they insecure? Because they know they are unequal to the task. In the early days of Mormonism the men who were called to Apostolic duty were charged with obtaining their own witness of the divinity of Jesus, AND His approbation in being selected to shoulder the burden. To this was added a transformation of the soul beyond any simple feeling superceding scripture or authenticity of leadership. Being in Jesus’ presence is transcendent, it changes a person’s entire outlook on life. And it bequeaths a value to all living things that stretches the soul’s desires. In such a person there is not the slightest thought of doing anything that might cause a person to falter or self-destruct. A return from such an experience leaves the soul possessed of compassion for the least of all creatures who suffer.

One hundred years ago the requirement for obtaining this witness was removed by Heber J Grant, one of the most insecure, stunted, and incapable men to inhabit the Mormon church. Once he had attained the presidency, he no longer thought it necessary to obtain this Witness, and all men after him were never admonished to do so, even though the Mormon scriptures declared it vital to their mission. To take its place, these men, virtually all since the days of Joseph, employed a substitute. For the self-confidence they lacked, they substituted pride; and for the self-esteem they lacked, faith. As it is with all men who are given power and authority over the lives of others, it is used first and foremost to crush any whose self-esteem and self-confidence exceeds their own. It is the only way they can preserve their appearance of pre-eminence in the job. Building faith is the process of destroying self-esteem, for where that exists, faith cannot.

Eric Hoffer, the American Pauper Philosopher observed: “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves. The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.” The intensity of rebuke for insolence against the holy cause of the Apostates is the manifestation of the lost faith in their own abilities. “The practice of terror serves the true believer not only to cow and crush his opponents but also to invigorate and intensify his own faith.” When they rebuke members for destroying faith, it is not the faith of the church members, but in themselves that is destroyed. Those who are most affected by this are those who are the most vociferous and vehement of their rightness in censure. For as Reinhold Niebuhr wrote in his discourse on religion: “Extreme orthodoxy betrays by its very frenzy that the poison of skepticism has entered the soul of the church; for men insist most vehemently upon their certainties when their hold upon them has been shaken.  Frantic orthodoxy is a method for obscuring doubt.” Hence we have the dogmatic insistence of Jeffrey Holland, the purges of Boyd Packer, the spying of Ezra Benson, and so forth. The excellence they cannot claim for themselves is the knowledge of Jesus, His approbation, His condescension, and more than any other factor, His love. Mammon is their substitute for salvation. False pride is their substitute for self-confidence in knowing the Master, and faith for the lack of self-esteem that comes from experiencing Redeeming love.

It was no coincidence that Joseph Smith declared the first principle of the Gospel was faith in Jesus. Had he actually received the visitation of Jesus in the grove, he would have declared the first principle of the Gospel is obtaining the redeeming love of Jesus, which is Grace. Jesus told the Pharisees that the greatest commandment was love, and seldom spoke about faith, but trust, which is a byproduct of love and it’s attendant increase in self-esteem. When He admonished people to believe in Him, the wrong word was written. He meant they should trust in Him. With trust comes self-confidence, the antithesis of pride.

These hypocrites, rather than tossing a bone to the homosexuals, the feminists, the intellectuals, to gnaw upon and find marrow to fill their stomachs and satisfy their desires, persecute them for hungering after the true Gnosis, which is the reception of the pure love of Christ. For in the bestowal of Grace do the substitutes of faith and hope vanish in the light of confidence in the presence of God, and the promise of eternal well-being. They understand not the counsel of Peter who spoke to his cherished friends:

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. [Seeing] then [that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought ye to be in [all] holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” 2 Peter 3:9-12

True witnesses of Jesus are longsuffering, unwilling that any should perish for any reason, and strive with them all the day long, not to contain them, or to shut them up, or to sever them from the flock, but to nourish them, encourage them, strengthen them when weary, that they too might receive of their Lord’s Grace and have rest to their souls.

The weakening of the church and the faltering of faith alleged by the 15 Apostates is NOT from contact with people who are disaffected, excommunicated, or anti-Mormon. In fact, what pushed me over the edge was reading Eric Hoffer's characterization of mass-movements and its application to religion. This is blatant scapegoating, following in the footsteps of old Levitical practice. If such contact occurs, it is post injury. The bleeding the church is suffering is directly due to the 15 Apostates’ inability to not only prevent injury, but their incompetence at spiritually nourishing and guiding the “heavy laden” to God’s Grace. Each and every time such instability arises among the membership, the 15 Apostates are affronted, and blame the cries of the victim, punishing them for their outbursts of spiritual hunger, and pain. Or they blame those who have been excised from the fold. The spiritually destitute or injured are told to cease and desist, or they will be cut off from the Body.

These first-aid solutions do not, and cannot accomplish the intended purpose. A physician does not cut out that organ or tissue of the body that is hemorrhaging to stop blood loss. They don’t apply a tourniquet to arterial wounds and walk away. They perform a root cause analysis and implement a remedy that addresses the cause. The problem is, these men are the cause themselves, and they know it because they feel guilty, ashamed, mortified, affronted, offended, and cannot admit to themselves much less to the church their failure at succoring the infirm. They are like Keystone cops, running around trying to apply the rote remedies they were taught in spiritual infancy, but never advanced to higher understanding. They do not even comprehend the call of an Apostle is not just an eyewitness to Jesus’ works and His reality (which they now deny is requisite), but also to be healers themselves, as their Mentor requires.

There are Witnesses, and there are special Witnesses. The special, chosen Witnesses are supposed to be those who have mastered the art of spiritual healing, which healing derives its power and efficacy from the love of Jesus directly. They are supposed to lead the questing soul to Christ, not in metaphor, but literally by example as well as precept. That is why the church is hemorrhaging. The power they proclaim to possess is absent, and they are impostors. The power they do possess is institutional, it is organizational, it is authoritative, it is corporate, it is Levitically legalistic. They have corrupted the call of Apostleship from personally knowing the Christ and having His approbation to the legalistic right of authority by succession, wresting their own scripture to excuse their spiritual impotence.

I paraphrase what Eric Hoffer observed of those who are designated prophets: “A prophet’s shame is his failure at the mundane.  If the objective is impossible then their shame is concealed.  Universally, prophets are busy correcting acolytes while their own house is in disarray.” All one must do to verify this is read Letters, the life of Marjorie Hinckley, and observe the absence of Gordon in his family’s life; to see that it was his wife who sustained the home and children, while he was cavorting about the world or burning the midnight oil, too busy in the “work of the Lord” to follow his own counsel of presiding in the home. The children of church Authorities are universally neglected while they are out provoking guilt, despair, confusion, and obfuscating questions, rather than witnessing the powerful effects which the Lord has wrought upon their souls. Years ago, I realized that General Conference was their opportunity to scapegoat the membership, by accusing them of misdeeds which they, the Apostates, struggled with. I and my family weren't having difficulty with what they complained about. They were completely out of touch with our needs, as I suspect was true of most members.

What false witnesses of Jesus do is what blind guides do. As Paul Toscano stated: “[Church] Members are relentlessly pressured to strain at gnats: by avoiding alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, facial hair, tatoos, body piercing, R-rated movies, public displays of affection, nudity, erotica, masturbation, necking, petting, premarital sex, disrespect for questioning authority, dissent and anger; while being constantly encouraged to swallow camels by tolerating elitism, racism, misogyny, lack of intimacy, homophobias, xenophobia, moral superiority, purification by exclusion, institutional secrecy, theological correctness, spiritual abuse, class discrimination, disdain for civil liberties, and the abdication of personal judgement and responsibility.” Who was it that was convicted of omitting the weightier matters of the Law?  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [Ye] blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:23-24

Paul’s moral assessment of the 15 Apostates is perfectly on track:

“I don’t believe the authorities of the church have any right to make the extraordinary claims they make for themselves, and not deliver. They cannot claim, as Boyd Packer did recently when somebody asked the question about dating, or sex, or something: “Why would anyone ask an eighty-year old man about sex?” That’s a very duplicitous, malevolent, bad thing for him to do. The reason they’re asking him is because he is an Apostle, because he has given advice from that Apostolic office on that very subject; because he has told people how to live their lives. And the fact that he is eighty years old is irrelevant. If he doesn’t know anything about sex now, he never did, and he shouldn’t have been saying anything about it. He cannot claim to have the right to advise them, and then when they have a question, back off with that [answer]. That’s duplicitous, and malevolent.”

In Paul's video interview he claims these are good men. I disagree. To me there is an essential, corroborative difference born out in the Master’s harangue of the Pharisees. Well oiled manners, politeness, and social grace is only a veneer. It is quite easy to appear altruistic at the Rameumptom, at the desk, or in the press. Because of my early life encounters with these men I am no longer persuaded by their words, nor their social cordiality. I observe their deeds, and the consequences of their vaunted counsel. If their works tend to evil, then they are evil. To me that IS the definition of wickedness. A corrupt tree does not bring forth good fruit. It brings forth evil fruit. Fruit that looks edible, and may even taste edible, but poisons the soul.

In Hebrew, the word for priest means “he who intercedes.” The function of a priest is to intercede. The idea of intercession connotes saving, preventing, restoring. Presumably, this is in similitude of the Master who makes intercession with us. But this is not, nor ever has it been, what priests have done through the annals of time. They have confused the idea of intercession with interposition. They interpose themselves between God and mankind. Whose Plan was it, according to Mormon doctrine, to interpose himself between God and His children? Blind guides do not see this discontinuity. But it has been the very foundation of religion stretching back tens of thousands of years. The Intercession of Christ was never between God and Man. This is an error of understanding in Christianity born of those who never knew Jesus. It is an error perpetuated in the characterization of Redemption being the process of Christ paying off our debts. 

The Intercession of Christ is between Man and the effects of the Fall upon his soul. Coming unto Christ is the act of requesting Him to help us where we are incapable of helping ourselves against our own fallibility. When we invite Him into our life, to this end He is empowered to make intercession, to help us rise above that fallen state, and the errors we make because of our weaknesses are not held against us. Why? Because in the acts of His help we are “perfected in Him”; we are transformed first in our hearts to desire no evil, and from that new state flow the acts of divine love out of our own hearts. Redemption is a synergistic relationship, as well as ultimately a state of being. Sins (in the vulgar sense) are not assumed or born by action of an exalted Empath. Such an idea is incomprehensible, and precisely why the Atonement is not understood. Sin, in the original Greek means to miss the point; to miss the intended mark. It is in this context that Jesus, through His intercession, helps us aim and hit the mark. This vulgar concept of sin has it’s origin in ancient mythological thought; an explanation for why the Golden Age was brought horribly to an abrupt end, and today continued in Catholic Mass by repeating the mantra: “I have sinned, I have sinned, I have sinned,” which is interpreted by the supplicants as “I am evil, I am evil, I am evil.” The 15 Apostates do no less when they go about beggaring the membership over petty behaviors by substituting works that do not, and cannot, produce the moral vitality to perfect, much less exalt. Matthew 23 is Jesus’ diatribe against the chief priests. Mormon Apostles would do well to spend their study time between that chapter and a mirror, rather than picking at the splinters in the spiritual eyesight of the membership. Again, I have to declare it: It is not the temptations of the world that is decimating the membership. Neither is it by any influence of the departed. It is the impotence of its leadership.

Now I began this blog site with a post covering the subject of Christian church founding. I have written here as though such an authentic organization exists. But it has been with the intent to use Mormon theology and practice to convict its hierarchy of its own sins and dissimulation. History does not substantiate Jesus having created a church. Religious scholars know that the letter to the Ephesians is not the work of Paul, hence all such offices detailed there were someone else's production. Religious scholars also know that Christianity as  passed to us is Paul’s invention. The ancient texts extracted from Qumran unequivocally show that the Jerusalem “church” was not associated with Paul’s ministry and that he was told to get out of town by them because he was an heretic to their order. Peter, James, and John followed the strict code of the Essene life as did Jesus. The very essence of Jesus’ ministry, teachings, healing, bear out He constructed no organization, did not start a religion. What He instigated was his own version of an Essene sect. It is evident everywhere in his teachings, in his admonishing, in his injunctions. The HEbrews never had churches among them. The word does not even exist in Aramaic of Hebrew. They have synagogues, where the people are taught. Church is a Greek word, and consistent with the proselytizing of Paul. An organization, a mass movement, a religion, and certainly a priesthood, is unnecessary to accomplish the dissemination of Jesus' theology. All one needs is to hear His doctrine in purity and simplicity, and then seek Him individually, privately. Anciently it required bearers of the Word, for writing and reading were exceptional skills. Today we have the red-letter Gospels which, although mutilated by centuries of well-meaning monks, still retain sufficient content to begin the process.

The priesthood Morgdumb is so proud of never existed. On this topic I have written as well. Religious priesthood is a corruption of an ancient order that preceded the Flood. That order was inherent in the Royal Cult, the Followers of Horus. That was an order intended to preserve the Gnosis of all knowledge, and was passed down with the aid of temples constructed for its inculcation. There was never any Melchizedek or Abrahamic priesthood as Morgdumb proclaims. What those men had was a remnant of the original knowledge of the Creation and the scientific technology that encoded our celestial origin, and a bastardized Mythology that explicated those physical relationships with the spiritual origin. Abraham’s posterity bent it to their own purpose of exalting themselves above their peer nations, proclaiming they had the true Gnosis. They had nothing of the sort. Only in recent decades has a clearer picture begun to come forth, outlining what the actual Fall was and the Creation story that explains it.

Mormon temples bear absolutely no resemblance to those built anciently. Not those of Egypt, Sumer, Mexico, or the Orient, and certainly not those of ancient Israel. Likewise the ordinances administered within Morgdumb cannot be found in ancient history, and only in a few limited instances resemble those practiced by ancient Israel. In their temple ceremony, there used to be a preacher who would exclaim: “It is a wicked and adulterous generation that seeketh after a sign.” But I say it is a wicked and adulterous priesthood that cannot produce any. Elijah proved that point quite handsomely upon the Baal priests.

In all these matters there is no authenticity, consistency, or connectivity with the Past. They are now having grave difficulty reconciling the actual history of American aborigines with the fictional gold-plate stories. At every point of principle, doctrine, and history upon which I was instructed by the CES, I am finding the real world about us is a vastly different picture. Were the 15 Apostates possessed of divine spiritual virtue, being authentic witnesses of Jesus, they might stand a chance at preserving Mormondumb. (That they have removed this requirement, and none confess to this personally re-defining the concept of Witness. The absence of the transcendent experience is the sum and substance of their apostasy from their own founding principles.) But modern research and the equivalent of its “white stone” is quickly undercutting their authoritarian, dominating grip upon its membership. Without the true Gifts residing in its leadership, it is doomed to atrophy and become a husk of its former days. And they cannot help themselves, for like actors who immerse themselves too far into their character, they are Buried in the Part.

SethSmee

REFERENCES
Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change; The True Believer
Niebuhr, Does Civilization Need Religion?
Benson, Apostolic Testimonies www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon481.htm
Luke 6:43;Matt 7:15;Matt 23:25;Matt 21:23-44; 2 Peter 3:9-12
Barker, Temple Theology; The Temple; The Older Testament
Quinn, Extensions of Power
Erhman, Jesus Interrupted
Bauval/Hancock, Message of the Sphinx
Gardner, The Origin of God