Ideas for lesson? Help!

From the thread on the June 2018 ensign on race….

The essay on race and the priesthood states:

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.

But we’ve been too busy rehashing the same lessons written 20 years ago to ever cover something recent/relevant. At least that’s been my experience, that so far we haven’t covered essay #1 in my corner of the vineyard. I bet most members of the church have never heard the paragraph quoted above. Why would we expect the culture to change, for people to stop advancing the theories and biases to the next generation if we spend no time at all educating members and discussing the topic?

Perhaps the essay on race and the priesthood should be my lesson material?

Roy said in that thread

The essay itself spends a lot of time describing the racist environment of the time. “At the time, many people of African descent lived in slavery, and racial distinctions and prejudice were not just common but customary among white Americans. Those realities, though unfamiliar and disturbing today, influenced all aspects of people’s lives, including their religion.” and then at the end we read “Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.” We, the reader, must somewhat read between the lines to understand that the priesthood restriction was racist, was not of God, and is condemned by the church leaders today.

My question, would the article still have been chosen for publication in the ensign if she had said “I understand that past church leadership implemented and maintained the ban because they grew up in a racist time and those prejudices bled over into their religious lives.

What if I break out of passive voice and call it what it is and see where the class discussion goes?

I don’t have to agree with everyone in class or have them all see it like I do. But…it might be nice to have a discussion in church about it…out in the open.

A very controversial lesson about any of the essays (race and the priesthood would be a good one right now) might teach your EQP a lesson about straying from the curriculum. From another point of view, maybe he’s straying and giving you free reign because he doesn’t agree with the curriculum.

From Dark Jedi in a thread last December:

Monson quotes:

Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call. If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good.

(Oct. 2007)

“Love is expressed in many recognizable ways: a smile, a wave, a kind comment, a compliment. Other expressions may be more subtle, such as showing interest in another’s activities, teaching a principle with kindness and patience, visiting one who is ill or homebound. These words and actions and many others can communicate love.”

(April 2014)

I also really like this quote and have used parts of it many times.

We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellowmen if we do not love God, the Father of us all. The Apostle John tells us, “This commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”3 We are all spirit children of our Heavenly Father and, as such, are brothers and sisters. As we keep this truth in mind, loving all of God’s children will become easier.

Actually, love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. His life was a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved. At the end the angry mob took His life. And yet there rings from Golgotha’s hill the words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”4—a crowning expression in mortality of compassion and love.

There are many attributes which are manifestations of love, such as kindness, patience, selflessness, understanding, and forgiveness. In all our associations, these and other such attributes will help make evident the love in our hearts.

Usually, our love will be shown in our day-to-day interactions one with another. All important will be our ability to recognize someone’s need and then to respond.

(Also April 2014)

I think the essay would be a good way to frame either DJ’s quotes or my comment, as well.

I think the essay would be a good way to frame either DJ’s quotes or my comment, as well.

Thanks for these. I was told to pick a topic, and pray for inspiration. I wanted to do the essay, not be controversial, but to be honest…that was in the Ensign and my son and I discussed it this week…he hadn’t heard much about it before (he is 15) and didn’t know how to talk to kids at school about it.

It was what I wanted to go with.

But..after praying…the thought came to me I would be doing a disservice to the priesthood body if we did not talk about Motherhood.

But having the essays in mind…I shall switch to another essay topic:

Mother in Heaven

Susa Young Gates, a prominent leader in the Church, wrote in 1920 that Joseph Smith’s visions and teachings revealed the truth that “the divine Mother, [is] side by side with the divine Father.” And in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” issued in 1995, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared, “Each [person] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Perhaps there are ways I can tie into how we serve and minister to our mothers, wives, and women in our lives, not in telestial or terrestrial ways, but celestial as the other quotes talked about true ministry and service.

I think the essay would be a good way to frame either DJ’s quotes or my comment, as well.

Thanks for these. I was told to pick a topic, and pray for inspiration. I wanted to do the essay, not be controversial, but to be honest…that was in the Ensign and my son and I discussed it this week…he hadn’t heard much about it before (he is 15) and didn’t know how to talk to kids at school about it.

It was what I wanted to go with.

But..after praying…the thought came to me I would be doing a disservice to the priesthood body if we did not talk about Motherhood.

But having the essays in mind…I shall switch to another essay topic:

Mother in Heaven

Susa Young Gates, a prominent leader in the Church, wrote in 1920 that Joseph Smith’s visions and teachings revealed the truth that “the divine Mother, [is] side by side with the divine Father.” And in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” issued in 1995, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared, “Each [person] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Perhaps there are ways I can tie into how we serve and minister to our mothers, wives, and women in our lives, not in telestial or terrestrial ways, but celestial as the other quotes talked about true ministry and service.

How did your lesson go, Heber13? (Sorry, I just saw this thread for the first time.) I LOVE that you decided to teach on this! I don’t know about your ward, but my ward very rarely talks about anything “controversial” (still don’t understand why Heavenly Mother is treated as controversial, but whatever) and I have been nervous as I have included Her in several of my Relief Society lessons so I would be very interested to hear what your experience was.

My two cents:

We serve women best by not assuming we know how to serve “women” (plural) best. We serve each woman best by asking her how she wants to be served.

We serve women best by helping each woman be whomever she wants to be as an individual – not whom we want her to be.

We serve women best by seeing them as equals in every way and by being equal partners in word and deed.

We serve women best by accepting their adaptations of the generalized roles in the Proclamation to the World to fit their own situations and not pigeon-holing them into generalized stereotypes.

We serve women best by understanding that the root of “virtue” is “strength” (as described in Proverbs) – and by not hindering their development of any strength they want to gain.

We serve women best by not putting them on stereotyped pedestals that only deepen their sense of failure when they can’t live up to the accompanying expectations of perfection.

We serve women best by not patronizing them in any way, including accepting that we might be wrong in our assumptions of how to serve them best.

We serve women best by sharing in (or even doing) all of the traditional domestic duties, so they don’t carry the entire burden on their own.

In short, we serve women best the same way we serve men best. We accept and serve them as themselves, unconditionally in word and deed.

:clap: Yes! This is well-written. Thanks, Old Timer.