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Thanks Ray: Sounds like a neat, wonderful lesson with great kids, I trust that you will enjoy seminary.
I really doubt many (any?) people have been disfellowshipped for teaching an edgy lesson. Teaching shouldn’t be preaching. There’s a big big difference. As a preacher, we are trying to win followers to our particular viewpoint. A teacher presents different viewpoints and creates an environment that nurtures an examination of their merits. Don’t preach that evolution is true and we are just tricky apes (not saying you did, just an example). This is something that will get someone released or disciplined (perhaps).
Instead, throw out the idea of evolution and let kids talk about the pros and cons. Help them back up the ideas with sources (scripture, science, etc.). I can’t see how something like this done in a positive way is a threat, at least not one that will bring down the fury of the system.
Good advice Valoel, thanks The overall issue with facing the teaching of the Old Testament is the simple magnitude of the places where I have moved on in my thinking and where the lesson manual wants us to present a moral based on say Joshua’s ethnic cleansing of Caanan. Do I talk about the documentary hypothesis? I think I should and I think teenagers in the church should know that the writing of the Old Testament is a major controversy for Church members. Now I do have a sliding scale from pretty well absolute certainty (Moses) to a strong hope and belief (Jonah and Job) that the prophets of the Old Testament are real people, who served their missions and may well have left behind written material and certainly oral material that was later taken up and turned into their “books”. Until we get to the relatively recent past around Isaiah and those prophets after him I doubt that the earlier books have much left of the original prophets thoughts and are as the academics claim, basically religious propaganda written for specific political purposes to respond to current situations.
Ooops, sorry, too much. Must stop.
Bill, I don’t think the Documentary Hypothesis is appropriate for church, though I do enjoy talking about it as you know. It’s perfect for bloggernacle discussions. When I taught OT, I brought in possible dimensions of Noah’s ark, to illustrate how large it was (I compared it to BYU’s football stadium). I talked about other people who had been swallowed by great fish and survived when talking about Jonah. When discussing Shadrac, Meshac, and Abed-nego, I learned what that these Babylonian names were gods, and asked if Mormons were overtaken by Muslims and our kids were renamed Muhammed, Abdul, and Kazeem, how would we feel? How would we react in such an environment. Just as these 3 Biblical characters were threatened, I think living in a Muslim country would be highly threatening. How would we keep the faith in an oppressive regime?
I think you can bring in some outside stuff, but don’t go overboard. Find stuff that supplements the main points of the lesson, and keeps it on a spiritual plane. We don’t want to cause people to question too much at church, but they should be stimulated. Frankly, I found that I could never cover all the stuff in the lesson. Really, how are you supposed to cover 30 chapters in a week? You have to pick and choose key points to emphasize, but these can be really fun because there is so much material to cover.
Thanks Mormonheritic I will calm down and quit trying to solve all the problems at once. I will follow the manual kind of , sort of and find the best, most interesting, most uplifting scriptures available in a lesson outline and concentrate on them. I love the issues around the Documentary Hypothesis but recognize that kids aren’t the ones to deal with it. Singing hymns in my head I go forward into the day, calm and ready for anything.
Bill, I’m glad to help. Feel free to talk about the Documentary Hypothesis on my blog–I welcome you there. I don’t know if you saw that post about Hammurabi, but you’re welcome to join there too!
:geek: Hi MH Just to complete the cycle, I’ve posted over on your blog and will read up before much more stuff. Thanks.
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