Sunday, March 31, 2013

Watching the Decline of Education in America: More Things to Lament in Our So-Called "Progressive" Universities

Mom, are you sure we can't homeschool college, too? 

That is a question I ask myself every so often-- especially when I see articles like this one from my rabbi, Dennis Prager (yes, yes, even a good Mormon girl can have a rabbi). How is it that colleges can sanction such class room devices, let alone protect professors who do little but provoke? If they were provoking deeper thought, that would be one thing, but they aren't. They are simply acting out as a fourteen year old might, showing his middle-finger to an adult in the grocery store that corrected him for using foul language in public. Oh, wait, that's right...it doesn't matter what type of language one uses or where it is used, it is just all a part of free-thought and free-expression, correct? Sure it is (not).


 

 

The Inequalities of “Equal” Marriage: that we have even come to this point in society makes me sad.

Meridian Magazine - The Inequalities of “Equal” Marriage - Meridian Magazine - LDS, Mormon and Latter-day Saint News and Views

The author of the above article makes a strong point about how genderless unions and the failure of men and women to take seriously bringing children into this world without marriage undermines the role and need of strong fathers in society.

As ignorant or idealistic women have been pushed and cajoled into embracing the welfare state as a substitute to a husband, more and more children are being brought into unstable family situations with a higher incidence of poverty. True, more women can better afford single-parenthood, as if finances were the only consideration for raising a child alone, but more than those who can afford parenthood solo, are those who cannot. Children really do deserve better. They deserve better than a father-less childhood, they deserve better than a childhood of parental/ "caregiver" fluidity, they deserve to have a greater stability and care than adoption agencies who consider what is best for the adopter than the adopted.

I believe there are good people on both sides of the debate about genderless "marriage," but I do believe there is only one union that can truly be considered marriage, and that is of the one man and one woman variety. Any thing else is a counterfeit that both sells short the traditions of marriage, the children born within it, and the society that plays hard and fast with the rules related to it.

This may be an argument that traditionalists lose in the long-term, legal sense, but it is not one that will be lost without grave consequences to morality and humanity.

Pray hard, people. Gomorrah is on the rise. 

Thoughts on Easter: What did you do to celebrate this day or this season?

LDS.org - Mormon Messages

What a special day in Christendom. I'm sad that illness kept me from going to church today, but not overwrought. After all, I am in church most every Sunday, and I am certain that my daily actions and weekly attendance mean a great deal more than missing this one Sunday.

That all being said, I am grateful that we have an Easter Sunday to celebrate, because for Christians it is Easter that gives us hope. Hope for repentance; hope for salvation; hope for returning to the side of that Father which sent us forth into this mortal existence to be tried and tested, to grow and learn, to fulfill the full measure of our creation. To be: to be all that He had hope and expectations that we could be, and to become more than our finite minds can ever imagine.  Praise be!

The Intercessory Prayer

My Easter Season

I am a Christian of the Latter-day Saint denomination. We do not, as a general rule, celebrate/ participate in Lent. However, this is my third year to do so anyway. This year, I "gave up" sodas (Coke in particular) and Facebook.

Friday, however, in seeking out some comfort from a stupid cold that caught hold of me this week, I had a Coke. It was pretty good, though perhaps not as great as I used to think. You see, I do not drink coffee, non-herbal tea, or alcohol, in any form (except that awful cold medicine I've been on this past week). I exercise regularly, I don't regularly gorge myself on sweets or smoke. Coke is really my one "drug," and I've hated feeling like I was controlled by a daily craving for anything---even if it is only 16 measly ounces of caramel coloring, caffeine, and high-fructose corn syrup! Sadly, I have felt that way for about 10 years now! Still, this fast from soda has been a good mental break for me to undergo, a mental break with a spiritual reason- to prove to myself that I can do without.

 Nevertheless, it has been a disappointment, too. Not a pound dropped in weight, and I can't say that I have physically "felt better than ever" for going with out Coke. Why did I bother? Well, I can say that my will power is better than I thought and, if nothing else, I will strive to keep its consumption to a minimum in the future.Bottom's up!

Wait! Regarding Facebook, well, I've decided to keep that one out of my life for good. I truly vacillated on this one, but I kept coming back to "No."

One of our great challenges in this life is to discern good from evil, bad from good, unhealthy from healthy- all to lead to the betterment of our spirits (and bodies). In this past 46 days, I have decided Coke is better for me to consume in moderation than Facebook is for me to "consume" at all! Who'd have thought that? In looking back, there have been countless productive hours I've wasted at the feet of Zuckerberg's monster in the years I've been on it. And not a mere few arguments produced there as well. I can truly say after 46 days: I was more addicted to FB than Coke. Sad...

I started this blog several years ago, thinking it would be a great outlet for my writing and my opinions, but then I found that  Facebook was even better for that- and I was assured that lots of people would see my posts. Now, 4 or 5 years later, I'm certain lots of people actually don't need to see my posts, though I may feel compelled to write them.

Not only that, but I'm even more certain that I don't want more than few to see what I write (and bother to respond). I want to feel compelled to do productive consequential things, not waste time arguing or discussing.

In the end, and for all its good (getting me in touch with old friends) FB became far more about emoting (particularly about politics) for me than actually writing! Ugh! Time to get back to the beginning of my online existence. I'm sure if I have to actually write more, I will, in the end, write less.

We shall see.

 

Happy Easter, Everyone!

His Sacred Name: An Easter Declaration

Meridian Magazine - Church Reaffirms Position on Marriage Following Supreme Court Hearing - Meridian Magazine - LDS, Mormon and Latter-day Saint News and Views

Meridian Magazine - Church Reaffirms Position on Marriage Following Supreme Court Hearing - Meridian Magazine - LDS, Mormon and Latter-day Saint News and Views

I'm very happy to see the church standing strong on this issue; I hope and pray they do the same thing in regard to the Boy Scouts. Private organizations must be allowed the freedom to make decisions they feel are in keeping with their principles, regardless of what "society" may decide. People always have the right to go other places, to take their business elsewhere, and both sides can be civil and respectful of the other. I do not understand the pressure to conform in these current issues. Please, do start your own organizations, with my blessing, and set the membership standards or parameters wherever you like!

Meridian Magazine - The Dangers of Gospel Hobbies - Meridian Magazine - LDS, Mormon and Latter-day Saint News and Views

Meridian Magazine - The Dangers of Gospel Hobbies - Meridian Magazine - LDS, Mormon and Latter-day Saint News and Views

Funny, I had just checked my email, scanning over a new message from the "Green Smoothie Girl," hawking her latest cure-all and all new "Meditations" (on a theme of fanatic green-foodie-ness) when I saw this article from Larry Barkdull on Meridian.

Burkdull's comments really struck a chord with me. As I ponder about people I know, and even myself, who have quite gone off the "deep end" chasing rabbits in the high weeds of Gospel doctrine topics- or just ideas in general.

Whether the topics relate to Feminists, who demand the priesthood and know "for a fact" that they are second class citizens in the Church; Social Gospel adherents, intent on liberalizing a Conservative faith; Word of Wisdom fanatics who swear vegetarianism is the key to everything that ails us; End of Timers who are certain if they have enough land and enough "stuff," all will be well, come what may; Family History mavens intent on tracing and doing temple work for everyone they ever knew- back to Adam; or my own personal issue, Political Monday- Morning Quarterbacking, i.e., spend more time worrying about the latest news out of D.C. than the words of the holy scriptures.

It seems there is something out there to drive us all one way or another. And I'm certain people in other faiths and Christian denominations, and even those of no faith, have the same challenges (like focusing on who gets to be called Christian, creationism vs. evolution, old earth vs. young earth, who is "saved," and what constitutes a Christian "Worldview," fitness, nutrition, the environment, whales, the snail darter, fast driver, slow drivers, the color of the sky, etc!)

Maybe, just maybe, Christ is who we need to focus on, not the rabbits in the bushes. We really do often spend more time looking at the individual trees in the forest, than actually seeing the totality of the beauty that makes the forest so spectacular. And even then, we fail to focus on the Creator who brought it all into existence. Maybe if we could do that, we wouldn't waste so much time wallowing about in the weeds of life...and doctrine.

By the way: HAVE A BLESSED EASTER!