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This quote from ETB manual from ch 9 on the Book of Mormon, I think, is the core reason behind the motivation and fear that drives members to remain orthodox, to willfully ignore facts, refrain from reading the scriptures objectively and to lack empathy when someone else refuses to do so: “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness” (Ensign, May 1980, p. 67).
Thoughts?
That’s a long list of promises. (skeptical) But yes…that is what is promised and that is what many hope for.
I think it is part of faith…doing something. It is better than sitting and watching TV. It is better than criticizing others and doing nothing else. It is better than not reading anything.
My concern is that I don’t know that all those promises are correlated with reading the BoM. It is HOW you read the Book of Mormon and HOW you act as a family that takes the BOM and gives it power to develop those blessings you hope for. Substitute the BOM with the New Testament, and I think you would get the same results if the approach is the same. Substitute NT with Torah or bhagavad gita, and I think you get the same thing.
That doesn’t mean the BOM is false or bad. It is a tool we can try to increase harmony in the home.
Quote:D&C 109
7 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith;
I agree with that principle.
And I think Pres Benson used that principle to emphasize the Book of Mormon with members. I agree that is one application of the principle. Others may take it as specific to the BOM from a living prophet. And so, yes…they use that to warn their children not to look elsewhere. That part I don’t agree with.
Warning: good-natured snark ahead. ETB is welcome to come to my home and try.
I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of complaining bitterly about having to read scripture will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein.
:angel: More often than not announcing scripture reading time in our home turns the kids into groaning little eye rollers. I suppose all the promises only come true where there’s extreme consistency and where parental authority has been sufficiently flexed. In homes where kids know just how red dad’s face can get should they attempt to advocate their way out of scripture study time.
nibbler wrote:the spirit of complaining bitterly about having to read scripture will come to permeate our homes
😆 bwahaha…nibbler, you’re awesome.I share Heber’s skepticism and Nibbler’s realism. I know I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but I remember these talks by Pres. Benson and didn’t believe all those promises then (even as a TBM). Others eat them like candy though. In the interest of full disclosure, ETB is my least favorite of the prophets in my church lifetime (which started with SWK), and possibly of all time. I blame him for too much focus on the BoM at the expense of the teachings of the life of Christ contained in the Bible. I was actually a bit perturbed yesterday during this lesson. I was in a different ward and a member of the stake presidency happened to be there too, and he happened to sit next to me in priesthood (it was admittedly a small room, and we do know each other). Besides the fact that having a counselor in the SP sitting next to me made it hard to distract myself with things such as visiting this site, I was pretty much dumbfounded by the audacity of the guy teaching the lesson. He repeated these same promises as if he were a bishop, stake president, or prophet himself and actually had authority to make such promises. He did all of this while looking directly toward the SP member (and by default me), as if trying to prove to the counselor that he actually believes and does the things. Fact is we both know him, too, and we know he doesn’t do those things and his family shows no evidence of those promises being fulfilled.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent, Startpoor.
What works for some people doesn’t work for others – but most people don’t understand that, even some prophets. In his defense, he did say, “I feel certain . . .”
That isn’t a promise, no matter how much too many members think it is. I don’t defend Pres. Benson very often (okay, almost never), but there is NOTHING inaccurate in what he actually said. He did feel certain about it – and he was right for many members but wrong for many others.
Also, to be as blunt as possible, I think the title of this post is just as inaccurate as the accuracy of the quote being discussed. I think to say that Mormonism boils down to being blessed for reading the Book of Mormon is incredibly simplistic and wrong – kind of the polar opposite mirror-image of the quote in question.
If we condemn or criticize hyperbole from others, we ought not use it ourselves.
I was admittedly a bit grumpy earlier (I live in the northeast where we’re supposed to have these temps and humidity in July, not May). I do believe the BoM to be a good book that can bring you closer to God. I also believe reading the Bible, particularly the gospels, can bring you closer to God and that the statements made by ETB can apply to virtually all scripture reading. nibbler wrote:Warning: good-natured snark ahead.
ETB is welcome to come to my home and try.
I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of complaining bitterly about having to read scripture will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein.
:angel: More often than not announcing scripture reading time in our home turns the kids into groaning little eye rollers. I suppose all the promises only come true where there’s extreme consistency and where parental authority has been sufficiently flexed. In homes where kids know just how red dad’s face can get should they attempt to advocate their way out of scripture study time.
INteract all that with my inability to do the same thing at the same time of day more than two days and a row, and you have a recipe for failure in my family. Not to say I’m undisciplined, but not disciplined in the way ETB needs me to be, for that promise to come to pass.
I was going to write that my family would do as well with Kahil Gabran’s The Prophet. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the book that would really inspire my family would be The Hobbit. Poems, songs, great battles, an epic journey, and great lessons. If my family sat down and read 5 minutes of The Hobbit every night, we would be better people for the experience. I’m not trying to be ugly about the BOM, but my family is hard to herd together for scripture study. Although I am less than proud of the fact, I do deal with the cool hard facts and realities of life. Next time we have some sort of scripture study, I am going to suggest a chapter of scripture and a chapter of Hobbit. I’ll see which one is more inspirational for my family.
amateurparent wrote:I was going to write that my family would do as well with Kahil Gabran’s The Prophet. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the book that would really inspire my family would be The Hobbit. Poems, songs, great battles, an epic journey, and great lessons. If my family sat down and read 5 minutes of The Hobbit every night, we would be better people for the experience.
I’m not trying to be ugly about the BOM, but my family is hard to herd together for scripture study. Although I am less than proud of the fact, I do deal with the cool hard facts and realities of life. Next time we have some sort of scripture study, I am going to suggest a chapter of scripture and a chapter of Hobbit. I’ll see which one is more inspirational for my family.
I find reading specific, short scriptures and discussing them is of far more value than reading chapter after chapter. Bring it to life with personal experiences. REading chapters is for personal study, in my view, not group study. Full chapter reading, without discussion, doesn’t leverage the power of groups.
The last time I tried this, my kids were rolling on the floor laughing at some of the clunky language and stories. Admittedly we started in Ether, but still. These kids have no respect, even less than I did at their age. DarkJedi wrote:I share Heber’s skepticism and Nibbler’s realism. I know I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but I remember these talks by Pres. Benson and didn’t believe all those promises then (even as a TBM). Others eat them like candy though.
I know even when I was closer to being a TBM I remember hearing that some GA said, “if you go to the temple very regularly I can promise that even if your child wanders from the church he or she will return in the end.” I thought about that and I said, “what about the freeagency of the child? It seems like the parents and God are taking away the child’s freeagency.” I just couldn’t agree that this was a true promise.DarkJedi wrote:In the interest of full disclosure, ETB is my least favorite of the prophets in my church lifetime (which started with SWK), and possibly of all time.
I also have SWK as the first prophet I remember (I do remember pictures of David O. McKay). Having studied a bit more of ETB the last few months, I think I will also need to use this picture as it shows it better
[img]http://callyjackson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/shocked-monkey1.jpg [/img] The guy was certainly self confident. He seemed to be willing to go against the 1st Presidency and all of the Q of the 12. Next month we are having Lesson 11 in High Priest group that goes over the 14 fundamentals of following the prophet. The amazing thing is that ETB got in all kinds of trouble for this with SWK and even had to ‘splain himself to the 12 and even some of the 70’s. I won’t even mention how right wing he was (and I consider myself a conservative). What puzzles me is how this has now ended up in the curriculum. I generally keep my questions that I know are not safe to bring up to myself in church, but this is one lesson I am going to prepare for (I already have been for weeks).
I don’t want to derail too much, but the things that bother most about the 14 Fs are that it wasn’t a GC talk and it doesn’t appear to have been universally accepted among the Q15 – yet as you point out it gets referenced as “doctrine” more frequently than it should. I’m thinking as lesson 11 approaches (it’s still over 3 weeks off) we’ll probably have a thread about it. DJ wrote Quote:I’m thinking as lesson 11 approaches (it’s still over 3 weeks off) we’ll probably have a thread about it.
So we can share the parts we like most, right?
I don’t dislike ETB. On my mission, he was a huge source of inspiration for me, and the talk on Pride was outstanding, and his emphasis on BOM was good for the church and moved many people to good actions. I don’t love everything he said. But at least he wasn’t boring and never said any opinionated things. As a leader, he had a job to do, and sometimes did it.
Brigham Young doesn’t seem like a warm guy either…idk…but he had to keep the church together after JS and move the masses to a new place. He was successful in somethings he had to do (although I didn’t care for the polygamy or Adam-God stuff).
I am not sure what Mormonism boils down to. At different times it seems to have different things it needs to be to benefit people. Not necessarily what people want it to be, but what it needs to be.
I think it needs the Book of Mormon. It is a big part of what makes the religion different. And ETB kicked the church in the pants and said to everyone…”Read it! This is our scripture…we need to know it!”
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