Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Podcast 14: Wisdom

I think our exhaustion after watching the World Cup final is very apparent. Here's a fun game -- see how many "ums," "you knows" and "likes" you can count during the course of the podcast. Being tired didn't stop us from setting a new record in podcast length. Perhaps you should listen to this one in stages (or more stages than usual).

Download here.

6 comments:

  1. I can't believe no one talked about the two women and the baby.

    All I want to say is that the story always bothered me for one reason:

    The scriptures say these women were harlots, but I can't believe they were so uncaring about this kid. Obviously the true mother would shriek in horror at the thought of her child being cut in half. But what I don't understand is why the fake mother didn't accept the child when the true mother said, "give her the living child, and in no wise slay it" ? She went to all this trouble to come to the king with an elaborate lie and now she was getting what she wanted. Why didn't she just say "Told you so." Instead she said "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." Why would she do that?

    So I looked into it and I think I know. But like I just told Pete, it requires a diagram.

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  4. Long podcast, long comment:

    *BLEEP* you!

    My "missing president" guess: James K. Polk.

    When I was in the MTC and some missionary in our district wanted to sing "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today", we used to sing "Tengo sueno en mi alma hoy"...or "there is sleep/dreams in my soul today" because we were always so dead tired. Stupid missionary humor. And yes, Jon, unfortunately for us, "Scatter Sunshine" is in the Spanish hymnbook...#150..."Siembra gozo" ("Scatter Joy"). Meh.

    I taught this past Sunday, and yes, Solomon really was wise. The Lord certified his wisdom when He gave it to him at the beginning of the lesson, per Solomon's request. Solomon started out as a humble soul, realizing how big his responsibility was to be king, and the gifts the Lord gave him as a result of that request for wisdom may have seemed really sweet when they were given...that he received riches and honor in addition to the wisdom, those things ended up being the source of his greatest test, and his ultimate downfall. How often are we in danger of our greatest gifts becoming that way too? Solomon's story is the latest in a long line of cautionary tales from the OT. One of my friends and I were talking about how so many of the kings of Israel ended up frittering away the potential with which they started...Saul, David, Solomon, etc. I remarked that it seemed like being a bad example must have been part of the job description or something. Great promise lost to pride, vanity, worldly temptation, etc. over and over again.

    The second temple was built after the Israelites returned from the Babylonian captivity, after their temple had been destroyed by their captors in 588 BC. The second temple was the temple that existed in Christ's time and was destroyed by the Romans on the same date (about 650 years later, in 70 AD) as the one Solomon built and the Babylonians destroyed. It was built on the same spot as Solomon's temple. All that is left of the second temple is its western wall, also known as the "Wailing Wall".

    The "stranger" discussion about Orson Hyde is interesting. I think it has to do with being or not being literal descendants of Aaron, as it talks about in D&C. If a literal descendant of Aaron is found, they have a "blood right" to preside in the Church, but otherwise, the leadership line is passed down by ordination, since that line can be traced to ancient leaders of the Church. All leadership in 'the true church' must be sourced to "the beginning", whether it be through literal relation or 'adoptive' relation.

    And the Futurama comment is, unfortunately, inaccurate. Multiple husbands is polyandry, not polygamy.

    Continued in Part II...

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  5. Marrying women of various tribes/cultures, in ancient times, was one way of securing political alliances. Marry into as many powerful foreign families as you can, the thought goes, so you can get into the good graces of as many of your neighbors as possible. So Solomon and friends had an ulterior motive for going after 'strange women'. The results of these relationships...the worship of other gods...was warned by the Lord previous to it happening (it was warned before the Israelites even entered the Promised Land)...so, as with so many other situations in the OT, what was warned about gets forgotten/ignored and ends up happening and destroying individuals and groups.

    My idea of the Savior is what I call the "Mormon Jesus picture"...the one in the red robe. Does he look Danish like the guy in "The Testaments"? Nope. But this is one of the great questions in Christendom...what did Christ really look like? No right or wrong answer. Peter can be right, I can be right, Jon can be right, Kieth Merrill/Elder Andersen can be right...everyone can be right. We won't know the definitive answer in this life...so, in my opinion. none of us are within our rights to criticize another's idea. That isn't the Savior's essence anyway...it isn't crucial to anyone's salvation. That's all.

    And yes, I remember the "I hate Pioneers" talk. So it must have happened between February 2006 and December 2008, since that's when I was in the 41st Ward.

    And if you need further reason for why the Church is in Hong Kong, check out the article in the July Ensign about the Church in India. 900+ million people and where do the members go to get sealed? HONG KONG. If you can't get into the most populous country on earth yet, get into the second-most-populous and build a temple where the economy/society is stable and wealthy enough to support/secure it for that region of the world so that you'll have a temple ready as the Church works toward getting into China, but is able to grow elsewhere in the region right now. China will get its own temples when the time comes, but until then...Hong Kong is it...and Hong Kong does not = China.

    Historically, I have heard that vicarious baptisms were done in the Mississippi River prior to the finishing of the Nauvoo Temple. As soon as Joseph revealed the practice of work for the dead, people got on it...though they often didn't have witnesses or whatever else would be required to make it official. The formalization of the practice was a work in progress, but it started fast and it started before the Pioneers got to the Valley.

    I think, next week, you should talk about why Mormons tend to be Republicans, since you've gotten onto a politics/patriotism/etc. kick. I'll enjoy that convo for sure.

    P.S. Did you catch the random few seconds at the very end of the podcast (after the zipperings) that seem to have come from nowhere? Shotty editing job there, Jon. lol jk

    [End]

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  6. Yeah, all the spray tanned white people in the Testaments movie were distracting to me too. I agree with Pete (?) that there are plenty of hispanic or even polynesian people around they could have hired to make it all a little less weird. If they were going to do a movie about the early saints in Africa would it be done in black face? I hope not. So then which races are okay to have white people act out?

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