Conference Notes - Priesthood

It was rather mellow as Priesthood sessions go. The Young Men's Chorus (I missed their official name) sounded very nice--initially I thought it was just a bunch of missionaries bussed up from Provo, but once they started singing I realized that was not the case, they were too good. I'll stick with my "best of" and "worst of" summary for the talks, with a twist.

Best Moment. President Monson's self-deprecating stories about his experience playing basketball struck a pleasant note. I don't normally resonate with the storytellers, but this time I appreciated the humility and confidence of a man who could tell a story of his athletic shortcomings to a crowd of 10,000 guys. There are some who would throw themselves from the pinnacle of the temple across the street before telling such a story about themselves in public. And I noticed he is very circumspect about the terms he uses to describe people and events he refers to: "passing" rather than death, "disease" rather than MS. He's a diplomat.

Worst Moment. I really didn't see a worst moment. If you twisted my arm (that's the twist) I might mention the story urging us to hound inactives into activity--I think we tend to honor free agency in principle but not in practice, simply not listening when people don't give the "right" answer. Or I might mention the story about a couple of beefy sailors beating up the drunken sailor who kicked the Mormon kid who was praying by his bunk. On the other hand, rules are a little different in the Navy and sometimes you get what you deserve on the spot rather than at some distant Judgment Day. I guess I'm okay with that. But seriously, nothing really set off my personal BS alarm.

New Observation. No doubt you all picked this up years ago, but while doing the group singalong for Praise to the Man (Hymn No. 27) I noticed the term "Gods" in the chorus line "mingling with Gods he will plan for his brethren" was capitalized, indicating it refers to the members of the Godhead rather than the those righteous men who have achieved god-like status in the hereafter. So "mingling with Gods" appears to refer to the Persons of the Godhead as the minglers. That is a rather blunt illustration of Mormon Trinitarianism, which by eliminating the concept of substance from the nature of God reduces the classical Christian formula, "three Persons, one substance" to simply "three Persons" with only unity of purpose. At least he was "planning for his brethren" while mingling with the Gods, rather than just enjoying nirvanna.

Comments

[Jordan]

Hey- I just added a link to your blog on mine. Just letting you know! :)

[Steve Evans]

Great comments Dave. You're putting the dog-and-pony show at BCC to shame.

[Dave]

Welcome to the Mo-blog, Jordan. After Letters of Marque, everyone expects a lot from a Michigan blogger.