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Backstory: My husband is a new bishop (worst calling for me, btw).
I just finished my first year of seminary with the BOM (loved it).
I have a tiny (tiny) seminary class and I assume I will teach again this fall. I teach out of my home and one of my students is also my own child. It’s a nice arrangement b/c then I don’t have to drive him to seminary with my little ones in the car and then wait around for class to be over.
Problem? This fall will start us with D&C.
I struggle with D&C b/c I don’t believe it is all revelation and even the doctrine is sometimes iffy in my mind.
I can’t tell my bishop (I don’t really have a bishop) about my concerns and I can’t tell my husband about them, either.
🙄 Do I ask to be released (transportation for my own kid to seminary is then an issue)?
Do I find a way to make seminary work for me?
If I should find a way to make it work, HOW do I do that?
:think: Example: Section 132.
I would probably totally skip teaching a lesson about this section. No, I know I would. The good new is, the D&C is the most convoluted, messy “testament” in all of scriptures. No one understands what half of it means, which means it’s WIDE open for you to interpret however you’d like. I figure, if they can skip or whitewash the Old Testament, you are free to skip whatever sections you’d like in the D&C, and put your own twist on everything else. So long as you don’t reject the authority of the Church, you can say whatever you’d like and get away with it. You can even break out some non-D&C Church history, and be absolutely fine. There is almost literally no oversight to what is taught in seminary (last I checked). I’d say stick with it. If it becomes too much to cover some sections, break out a movie (Bill Nye, I dare you), or have a scripture study research session project, or something. You’re going to have fun!
Stick with it. My wife and I taught in our home once, and it was ideal – since you don’t have to worry about what is taught. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Focus on little portions of each lesson – whatever you can like or not reject – and go deep into that portion.
When we taught seminary, our faith transitions were just beginning, we decided to make it a church history year. We were careful not to bring up super troubling stuff, because we still weren’t sure about our positions, but we loved the story of an intrepid people building a life on the edges of frontiers. We could easily tie scripture in to it. We showed the movie Legacy and told less known stories. If I did it now, I would stick to the same thing, but bring in the essays. They are viable. Elder Ballard told seminary teachers to learn them and use them. Go for it.
There is a nobility in our founding heritage that we overlook, bring that in. Apply it “Pioneers” of today as the church grows.
And remember, no one ever asks “what did you learn in seminary.” Or if they do, they want a one word answer.
You are in a cool spot for future generations. Hang in there.
I agree with Dande and Mom. The lesson material is pretty wide open for what you want to teach (provided that it is not faith destroying). The church website for “Revelations in Context” gives some interesting (yet still decidedly apologetic) back story for what was going on at the time of the revelations.
https://history.lds.org/section/revelations?lang=eng I personally feel that it is worthwhile to do some “inoculation”
For example, I would teach the first vision as a vision and discuss how for a long time in the church is was taught as a visitation but the original documentation does not support that.
I feel it is important to recognize that some ideas can be prominent and popular in the church and still be wrong … and that does not make the whole church wrong.
Quote:Roy wrote – I personally feel that it is worthwhile to do some “inoculation”
I concur with Roy on this. Don’t feel like that is your job or an objective. But with Revelations in Context and the Essays, you can open up the stodgy story and breathe some life into the times, the history, and still be under the radar if you will.
My reference to future generations merely meant that every time we use the the safe tools to retell the story we do bring health and vitality to others. Who knows which students will go on to places where they can continue to help the church and society find good in the story or peace in it’s conflict. And FYI – every churches story has conflict.
I’ll join the chorus. I’m not saying I might not have a tough time with some of it but I do think there’s a fair amount of leeway on seminary. And what are they going to do, fire you? Go ahead. Like Curt says, they called you so they get you. An additional resource might be some of the material included with the online version of last year’s SS curriculum. The “revelations in context” stuff (on LDS.org) does offer some cool insights and helped me make it through some SS classes as I silently read them (and sometimes offered stuff I learned from them).
My advice probably isn’t going to help much. We’re on different wavelengths, I think seminary teacher is one of the few callings in the church I’d accept. :crazy: I haven’t read anything on ‘revelations in context,’ in fact seeing that it’s hosted on lds.org makes me leery (sorry church, you earned it), but that’s exactly the approach I’d take with the D&C. I’d dedicate a portion of each lesson to address what was going on in the lives of the saints at the time, what challenges they faced, which problems the revelations were meant to resolve… or not. Maybe even look for the section in the original Book of Commandments. That takes a
lotof preparation and that approach would be better suited for a once per week class, it would be harder to swing on a daily basis. And in the spirit of you call me, you get me, I’d teach until they released me. I imagine it wouldn’t take the parents long to insist that seminary go back to being boring again.
:angel: I think one good way to stay involved with church is to always keep a good perspective on gospel principles, and apply those things to all things church-related. Church is the attempt of humans to put into practice the mystical teachings of the universe…and in doing so, the well-intentioned humans make things messy and imperfect. But they also try with honest hearts to keep repenting and have course corrections until they get closer to the truth. D&C is all about JS and others repenting and getting things wrong. They were not perfect from the start…which means these D&C scriptures are all over the map from our perspective today. D&C is a bit of narrative on them doing that. They were figuring things out as they went along. We don’t have to agree with everything they did in the D&C because many of it was part of their story, not ours.
I get the impression that Boyd K Packer was alluding to that when he said this in the Seminary instruction manual:
Quote:President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught why this doctrinal method of study is also beneficial: “Individual doctrines of the gospel are not fully explained in one place in the scriptures, nor presented in order or sequence. They must be assembled from pieces here and there. They are sometimes found in large segments, but mostly they are in small bits scattered through the chapters and verses”
Church leaders are telling us that truth is found in small bits scattered here and there in the D&C. Not the entirety of it.
I think we can learn to separate out the narrative we hear at church and from others, from what the scriptures (including the D&C) actually truly say, and find ways to look for truth in proper context…and also realize some things are to be wrestled with God on our own about. That is what makes scripture useful to us. Remember…just because others claim the D&C says something specific…doesn’t make it so. It depends on what is really being said, not the traditions of our fathers that taught it a certain way. We can open our minds to see the D&C in a new light if we open our minds to the spirit to teach us.
You may have a unique view of this, and be the very best person to help the small class of students you can reach out to, and possibly even learn along side them as you study scripture and seek the divine. I’m thinking some days with the D&C will be harder than others…but as Pres Packer said…it’s not all in one place…and not all of it is of equal importance, so you can put the puzzle pieces together as you go…and let go of having to believe verse by verse everything printed. Navigate the buffet with your child and the other students, while staying true to gospel teaching.
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