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Hi. I teach priesthood every now and then. I think I do a fairly good job and I go “by the book” but include lots of other things. I generally feel like we are all unified and uplifted when we leave the class. I don’t want them to be shocked one day when/if they find out about historical issues – and I plan on doing some of the “inaugurating the saints” kind of thing. It’s not at all going to be my main focus but just little sidenotes here and there so people can ask questions if they want.
So here is the upcoming PH lesson:
Lorenzo snow chapter 9+10: “holy family relations” and ” come to the temple”.
( a loose translation into English).
Any ideas for small topics to include? Again, I’m not going to do a whole lesson on seer stones or anything like that, but if I for instance was talking about the murder of Joseph smith, I would include the information about his Masonic cry before he died, the guns that were smuggled in and the they returned fire. – just an example.
I just want people to get little bits of information and potentially create a forum where we can discuss/ hear about these things in a protected and friendly invioirment.
Any ideas about things to include in the Lorenzo snow lesson would be great. – and just keep in mind, that the aim of the class is still that we are uplifted.
Thanks!!
(I plan on continuing this thread every time I have to give a lesson. It’s great to share brains with you cool people:)
Good luck with this. Just a few ideas. Holy family relations: JS binding himself to other families by marring their daughters. Richard Bushman goes into great detail about this in Rough Stone Rolling.
Come to the temple: How the temple endowment has had many changes over the years and how the requirements to get a temple recommend has changed sense Presidents Snow’s time. Beer was never part of the WOW until the 1920’s. JS and the others in jail with him drank wine, BY sold whiskey in Utah. The priesthood band was put in place by Brigham Young when a black person wanted to marry a white person in the endowment house.
Just some thoughts.
Great. Keep em coming everyone! Be very careful about turning a lesson on holy family relations and the temple into a lesson about controversial aspects of church history – even those that are about the temple in some way. There are some legitimate issues that can be incorporated, but, in one lesson, I would hesitate to include more than two or three, max. I might throw in a comment about how holy family relations have existed in various structures throughout time – most notably in former polygamous marriages and in our current focus on monogamous marriage, as well as our recognition that childless marriages, families with single parents, never married members, etc. can be “holy”. I would point out that the structure of “family” is FAR less important than the way the “relationships” function. I wouldn’t mention gay marriage or other homosexual relationships, obviously, in a setting like that – but the underlying principle would be there, nonetheless.
Old-Timer wrote:There are some legitimate issues that can be incorporated, but, in one lesson, I would hesitate to include more than two or three, max.
Agreed. A little goes a long way when it comes to bringing in non-correlated material.
Yep. I’m not going to dwell on the subjects. They just need to be mentioned. And I don’t think I’ll mention more than 2 subjects per lesson. Thanks again everyone!
in my opinion, THE most powerful tool the church uses to ensure retention and tithing revenue is the concept of “holy family relations”. I find it interesting that Lorenzo Snow, who had the inspiration to make tithing mandatory on the level of 10% of (gross) income instead of “interest”, is talking about holy family relations–essentially, if you aren’t worthy to go to the temple, you won’t be participating in holy family events, such as marriages and sealings. This is a powerful lock-in to the church. I don’t think it would be inappropriate to make this observation, in a positive way, as if this lock in were a good thing — totally unique to our church — and measure the reaction. Then ask, “have any of you been to a sealing where important family members are excluded, such as parents/grandparents of the bride or groom?” “what did you do and how did you feel?” “how did the excluded loved ones feel?”
measure how long it takes for someone to raise the “no empty chairs” comment.
Good idea and thanks again for the comments. I live in Denmark and the temple marriage exclusion thingie is not that big of a deal since we always have a civil ritual after the temple sealing. Usually within a couple of hours. I guess not too many people feel left out. My own dad didn’t attend my sealing and I don’t think he really minded. But thanks for the comments and insights! I haven’t read the “holy family relations” chapter but I am a proponent of relationships. I love the idea of eternal families aka eternal family relationships and I appreciate how the temple ceremonies help us to cherish and nurture these personal interactions. There is something unique and “holy” about family relationship. You don’t need an invitation to drop by. You can call in the middle of the night if you need to. They deliberatly set about to see the best in you. It can be a place for charity/love to be put in action. It went ok. The lesson was pretty uplifting. I believe everyone left the room with the general feeling that they wanted to attend the temple more often. The only thing I brought up was that there has been many changes to the temple ceremony over time but it still points in the same direction.
Had a funny line from an old temple recommend question as well. ” have you knowingly branded another persons cattle”.
There was some laughs and discussion about the changes in the ceremonies. So at least now everyone knows that the things in the temple have changed over time.
I had prepared a small something about freemasonry and the temple but it didn’t seem like the right moment to talk about that.
Thanks a lot again for the ideas! I’ll probably post again in a month (when I give a new lesson) for other ideas and thoughts.
Thanks!
We had the lesson today about family relationship. It wasn’t very uplifting. When the teacher read the quote for Eliza R Snow I wanted to mention that she had eternal relations with 3 Prophets, a secret marriage to JS and open poly marriage to Brigham Young and the sister of president Snow, but I didn’t because the group was already on edge because the teaching assignment was already messed up. Thinking about this lesson and the church making the opportunity to bring in the topic of polygamy this would have been a good time to do so. The manual could have mentioned Eliza’s marriages to JS and BY in passing and expose a little more history to the members. There is some evidence that Eliza was pregent with JS baby and that Emma pushed her down some stairs and she lost the baby. We do have some interesting history. church0333 wrote:There is some evidence that Eliza was pregent with JS baby and that Emma pushed her down some stairs and she lost the baby.
Just to be “pushy” (bad pun
😆 ), The book Mormon Enigma disputes the story of Eliza being pushed down some stairs and miscarrying a baby. It is possible that this story was later embellished to make Emma look especially bad. What seems to be agreed upon is that Eliza was forced to relocate suddenly from the Smith home. It also seems probable (based on the circumstances of this case, at least one first person recollection, and the trend form previous JS – Emma history) that this move occured becuase Emma discovered a polygamous relationship between JS and Eliza.Ok. Here we go again. I am teaching lesson nr 12 “tithing – a law for our protection and prospering” – a loose translation. Any thoughts about how I can plant some seeds in the “pupils”?(see my first post).
Thanks:)
Actually, I don’t think there is any need to plant seeds. This is pretty straight-forward. One of my two gripes about tithing is how the Church keeps a very low profile on the 1970 FP Letter. I would read it in class and let the discussion follow. That should be able to get into gross/net as a discussion, not as a proclamation of doctrine, since the the letter specifically instructs to avoid declarative statements. In fact, if anyone in the class starts to make a proclamation, I’d gently refer back to the letter and say that there is no specific law, so we can’t make one up… the point of the discussion is just to talk ABOUT it. I think it is ironic that the lesson has a section with the tagline “The law of tithing is easy to understand…” which I dispute. That section says that it is “one-tenth of their income.” That’s a perfect opportunity to ask, “OK… that’s all well and good… but just for a second, I want to get away from tithing and God and the Church and obedience, and just talk logistics of our lives out there in the real world. Can somebody tell me what ‘income’ even means?” That would be my lead-in to the FP letter. You’ve got to make the point that you aren’t teaching gross or net or increase, but simply pointing out that it’s not really so “easy to understand” in today’s world. There was no medicare, social security, or income tax when Lorenzo Snow was alive, so we need to figure out what is appropriate, and as the FP has said, it’s up to each of us to make that determination. Although the Church doesn’t typically broadcast the idea that net is acceptable, in all of my searching through conference talks, lesson manuals, etc, I did find one solid reference to this. The New Era, Feb, 2008 had this to say:
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2008/02/to-the-point/do-i-pay-tithing-on-my-income-before-taxes-are-taken-out-or-on-what-i-receive-after-taxes?lang=eng The other gripe is about the way the Church pushes to pay tithing even if you can’t afford it. I’d probably stay away from that one in this lesson, simply because it is the stated policy of the Church and saying anything else is clearly going to be contrary. If I were to tackle it, I’d say something like, “Look, this is just me talking… but I admit, I struggle with the statement that are frequently made about paying even if you don’t have enough for rent/food/bills. I’d like to just talk about it as a quorum, so I can hear your thoughts.” I’d maybe quote from the December 2012 Ensign, or from the 2012 For the Strength of the Youth, as examples of the kinds of statements I struggle with, and then I’d step back and let them instruct themselves and me.
If I’m going to bring up those two potentially lighting-rod items, I would make certain to have plenty of good to say, like how giving makes us more caring, and less money-focused, or talk about all the good that the Church does with it’s tithing money. I would spent MOST of the lesson on these uplifting aspects of tithing. In my own case, although, I know everyone here doesn’t agree with me, I do trust that the leaders of the Church are sincerely motivated, and are careful in how tithing funds are spent. I’ve seen first-hand, the importance of bringing the Church to the people in far-away lands, including missionary work, meetinghouses and temples.
For reference, you can find text from the FP Letter, the December Ensign article and For the Strength of the Youth on this thread:
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