Mormons Are Christians Too

I am a big fan of the HBO series "Big Love", but the fact of the matter is that it rarely shows what life is like for the average 'Mormon' family in America or around the world. Led on by media depictions of fringe fundamentalists, 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' has gotten a bad name in some circles.

The fact is that the vast majority of the followers of this particular strand of Christianity are regular folks, including many famous people. Donny and Marie Osmond, stars of their own 1970's variety show as teens and now again thanks to recent appearances on the popular "Dancing With the Stars" program are part of perhaps the most famous American Mormon family.

Others who have either been raised in or converted to the faith include the man recently selected as the best 2nd baseman of the 2000's, Jeff Kent, who may one day be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. They also include the recent popular "American Idol' runner-up David Archuleta. And child actor turned adult drama TV star Rick Schroeder converted to the church of which his wife has been a lifelong member.

Perhaps the most important and influential member of the church is former Massachusetts Governor and leading Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. That importance comes from the fact of his legitimacy as a presidential candidate for a major political party. During the 2008 election cycle, Romney ran a year-long campaign during which he won the Michigan and Nevada primaries among the 11 state primaries and caucuses that he won before dropping out in February of '08.

There have been some who have criticized Romney's faith as 'fraud' and wondered how, if he truly believes in the LDS (Latter-Day Saints) tenets as a man he can be taken seriously as a candidate. That is ridiculous on it's face. It's not like he is worshiping an alien mother ship. And his faith should certainly be no more an obstacle than was that of John F. Kennedy's Catholicism in 1960 or any other Christian believer.

In running for the presidency and having his Catholicism brought up, Kennedy responded famously: "..if the time should ever come when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office." Mitt Romney has taken up that challenge and said that he would "no more take orders from Salt Lake City than Kennedy would from Rome."

That should be the end of that story, unless of course you find something mainstream about Catholicism and crazy about the LDS faith. So what do you know about 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'? It's time to take a look at some of the key elements of that faith system, explore the legends and the fringe elements, and give you a more realistic picture than what you might have currently in mind.

Let's start with the word 'Mormon' itself, which is generally accepted to mean "more good" and which was described that way first by either Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS movement, or another early church leader. W.W. Phelps. It is also the name of the narrator of the 'Book of Mormon', the Bible-esque sacred text of the church first published by Smith in 1830.

The Book of Mormon is widely regarded within the church as not just sacred scripture, but also as a history of God's relationship with His church in the Americas going back over a 1,000 year period. Smith claims that he received the book from an angel in 1827. It was written on what were called 'golden plates', the originals of which Smith had to return to the angel after translation into English.

The main theme of both the book and the faith is described in it's title page: "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations." The book teaches at one point that after his resurrection, Jesus visited some of the early inhabitants of the Americas.

It goes on to teach that Jesus is: "God himself who shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people, being the Father and the Son — the Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son — and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth."

Along with solid Christian themes, the book delves into political and philosophical areas, especially in regards to the idea of American exceptionalism. It calls America a "land of promise", and perhaps in what could be a warning to our current time it teaches that "any righteous society possessing the land would be protected, whereas if they became wicked they would be destroyed and replaced with a more righteous civilization."

Joseph Smith himself was born in Vermont in 1805. In 1823 he claims to have been visited by the angel 'Moroni' who was the guardian of and who first revealed the 'golden plates' to Smith, and who eventually allowed Smith to dig them up and translate them. The translation was completed in 1830, and the Book of Mormon was then first published and the 'Church of Christ' was first formed.

The church in it's earliest days under Smith's leadership grew through periods of drama and scandal spreading from New York through to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois among other stops. Many of it's early leaders who would go on to become legendary figures, such as Brigham Young, came to the church in these years. It was in Illinois in 1844 that Smith met his end, assassinated by an anti-Mormon group inspired in part by his embracing and teaching of polygamy.

One idea that had triggered much hatred towards the Mormons was this introduction of 'the Principle' of plural marriage, popularly known as the practice of polygamy. Smith claimed to be inspired to the practice himself, and it is thus still practiced today by fundamentalist Mormons who believe that they should practice the faith in the way that Smith did. The LDS church officially banned polygamy in 1890 after it was officially declared illegal, and any church member now caught practicing it is excommunicated.

While it is these fundamentalist sects that draw much attention from the government and the sensationalist headline-seeking news media, and while it also is the main story line of "Big Love", this relatively small segment does not represent mainstream modern day LDS beliefs. The bottom line is that the LDS church is a Christian church, it has over 13 million members worldwide, is the 2nd-fastest growing church in America, it believes in the divinity of and teachings of Christ, and is as 'mainstream' as any other Christian faith.

As most everyone who follows this little blog of mine knows, I am a Catholic through and through, and I would enthusiastically encourage every single member of the LDS church, any other Christian church, and any other faith system at all to closely explore and strongly consider joining what I believe to be God's one true church. Catholicism is where I believe the best interpretations of his Word can be found. But for all it's critics out there, the fact of the matter on the LDS church is that Mormons are Christians too.

Establishing a House of Prayer

When you were little, assuming you had a two parent family, who did you go to when you were hurt or when you needed something? If you didn't grow up in such a family take a family from Tv such as the Cosby Show, Leave It to Beaver or even the Foreman's of That Seventies Show.

When one of the children need to speak to a parent who do they speak to? Is it the father or mother exclusivly? Nope...not even in the father-led, 1950's Cleavers, sometimes "the Beave" went to his mom and sometimes to his Dad and recieved different advice from both, and different comfort from both.



So as the literal children of Heavenly Mother and Father whom do we go to when we need something, or when we need comfort? Does it not seem out of balance to always go to the Father - to always seeks only guidance and assuarance from the masculin side of the Divine?

In D&C 88:119 we are told to "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer..." So praying should be like a house. We are the children asking for love and understanding from our parents so why always go to the father for that? Why never the Mother?

Psalm 123 tells us that prayer should be like a servant to his master. The master rules the house and the servant looks to the master for guidance just as we look to God for guidance in our "house" in which we serve Him. But it doesn't stop there. Psalm 123 actually says, "Lift up thine eyes unto the Lord and plead with him for mercy. Unto thee lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us (Mollenkott).

God is both our Master and our Mistress, our Mother and our Father and we seek the direction and compassion of both just as we serve both. Should we then not be praying to both? Should we not seek out the Mother for motherly things and the Father for Fatherly things?

After Joseph Smith revealed the concept of Mother in Heaven to Eliza Snow, one of his wives, she was moved to write the Mormon hymn now called, “O My Father!” This hymn was originally called “Eternal Mother and Father”

President Wilford Woodruff, the fourth President and Prophet of the LDS church said that “O My Father” was a hymn of revelation given to Snow.
Let me repeat that, a revelation, given by a woman about Mother in Heaven, a prophet said this. So what does her revelation say?

"I had learned to call thee Father, Through thy Spirit from on high,
But until the key of knowledge Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal Tells me I've a mother there."

Let's break it down a bit further. "I had learned to call thee Father" When do we call upon God? In prayer of course! The keys of knowledge were restored through Joseph Smith Jr. and now Eliza (and all of us) know that in the context of calling upon God we have also a Mother in Heaven!

"But didn't President Hinckely tell us not to pray to Mother in Heaven?" I hear you asking through cyber space. Well, no, not exactly. So what did Hinckely say exactly? Here's the most important piece, “in light of the instruction we have received from the Lord Himself, I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven.” He went on to say that those who prayed to Heavenly Mother are, "well-meaning, but they are misguided.”

Some key words here are "I view it" and it is "inappropriate" but not outright appostesy. At no time does Hinckely say God said not too. No it's more missguided. But Hinckely did not say these famous words as the Prophet, he was not yet the prophet when he said them. So how much weight do they carry?

Should we head the words of Wilford who was a Prophet when he said that Eliza's hymn was a revelation? Do we listen to scripture that says prayer should be like a house, where we all understand that even in the most patriarchal socieities the Mother is a source of knowledge and comfort at some point too? Or do we choose to listen to Hinckely and his talk of missguideness?

I suppose the choice is yours. Red pill or blue pill?

No Hell

The recent Pew study on religion found that over 50% of Mormons believe in hell but it was the phrasing of the question that was missleading and Mormonism does have a universal doctorine of salvation. Read more here

Magick Seer Stones in the Faerie Tradition and in Mormonism

Vermont neighbors of the Smith family have said that Joseph Sr. expressed a belief in seer stones before the family moved to New York. In an open letter to Joseph Smith printed in a newspaper of the day, Vermont neighbors wrote, “you was old enough when you left here to remember a great many things about him and how he used to tell about your being born with a veil over your face, and that he intended to procure a stone for you to see all over the world with (Quinn 42).”


Joseph Smith’s sandy-colored seer stone, passed from the window Emma to descendants of her second husband Lewis Bidamon, Wilford C. Wood Museum.


From a variety of sources both friendly and unfriendly to Joseph Jr. it can be gleaned that he acquired his seeing stones on three different occasions. The first stone he dug up himself after using a neighbor’s stone to see the location. The second stone was a gift and the third stone was found during a dig on a neighbor’s property (Quinn 42).



Brigham Young reported to the counsel of the twelve apostles that Joseph Smith Jr. had obtained his very first seer stone by looking through another’s stone and seeing the exact location. He went to that location, dug, and found the stone right away in an iron kettle 25 feet underground (Quinn 43).


As we can see from the pictures above, the seer stones Joseph used contain holes and are smoothed over. In the tradition of European Pagan, and faery (fairy) magick, a holey stone -one that has been smoothed over by time and water - has long been sought as an amulet of the Goddess and in the faery faith is a great treasure. You must find your stone yourself by asking spirits to reveal it to you (Katlyn 88).


In the process of attaining this stone you may also be given a treasure or gift of another sort such as flowers, honey, colorful stones, or even treasure of monies. These magick stones are a great blessing. By holding this magick stone to your eye you are granted with the power of vision (Katlyn 88). It seems an interesting similarity to how Joseph and his father went about attaining stones of a similar quality and also how they used them.

Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost or Stumbling and Fumbling into Membership

Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost or
Stumbling and Fumbling into Membership

I went to church filled with hope and optimism. It was to be my first service as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latte-day Saints. I took careful care that morning to pick out my favorite sarong to wear and I kept the lavender flowers in my hair from my baptism the night before. I felt beautiful and at peace.

I entered the meeting house and found that due to us being a little later than normal, in addition to extra visitors for the fourth of July weekend, it was quite full. We ended up taking a seat on a bench on the side opposite the door and toward the front, which is my least favorite place to sit because I have two small boys who sometimes need to get up for a bathroom break or drink of water and I hate traipsing across the whole room.

We sat down in the bench by ourselves and I got out the church toy bag. As usual Nykki picked out a few Star Wars characters and Ronan began his nurse-a-thon. Then the bishop stood up.

“This morning we have some ward business and a few announcements.” he said.

“We have Sister such-in-such who had a new calling, we have a new member to confirm but first an announcement from the first Presidency.”

My chest tightened. Oh no, I thought that letter was supposed to be read last week I thought. The week we had the chicken pox. Oh no, they’re going to read it today? The day I’m being confirmed? Please, please, please let it be another letter, I pleaded in my head.

“As many of you know the courts here in California recently ruled that marriage….” I don’t even remember what he said after that. All of the sudden there was a ringing in my ears and tears in my eyes, not today – of all the days, not today. I wrestled for a moment. Here I was minutes from being confirmed a member - should I protest already? The answer was swift and clear in my head. The Spirit was telling me to walk out. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.

A quick glance around and I saw no one else was walking out. I firmly picked up the baby and grabbed Nykki’s arm. “Where leaving.” I said with more coolness than I felt.

“Why?” He asked, I could feel eyes start to turn our way.

“Come on.” I said. I took his hand and lifted my head and with shoulders back I begun the long walk out of the meetinghouse. I had to pass in front of nearly everyone due to our poorly chosen seat. My head was buzzing, my eyes welled with tears and my heart pounded so loudly I thought it would burst from my chest but I was clear headed enough to realize that the Spirit was guiding me, holding me up.

With a grace and poise I don’t master even when I try, let alone when I’m terrified, I managed to swiftly, and eloquently walk out of the meetinghouse. I sat in the hall and was vaguely aware of the letter being read over the speakers but I couldn’t tell you what it said.

It was over quickly and I didn’t want to miss my own confirmation so I quickly walked back into the room. Again I did the smooth walk to our bench where our toys and my purse still lay. I felt questioning eyes on me. I could almost hear the thoughts – was that intentional or was she taking the kids to the bathroom or something?

Only seconds later the bishop called my name and I walked to the front to receive my confirmation. Several men I adore from my ward stood over me and placed their hands on my head, forming a magickal circle of power handed down from our Heavenly Parents to Joseph Smith and down to these men. I should have felt the power, I should have felt the magick but other then feeling my crown chakra growing hot, I only felt the thudding of my heart, which had yet to cease from my walkout.

I wanted to break down in tears. The Goddess of Wisdom, Sophia, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit was being gifted to me yet the whole thing was ruined by the First Presidency’s overstep into state politics.

I took my seat again and despite everything I managed to beam at the sound of “Sister Serenemoon.” I had made it. Despite having out right told my Missionaries, the Relief Society President, her first counselor and several members my stance on homosexuality – despite even the fact that I had just walked out in protest of a Presidency letter – they had let me in and I was there! I was a member! I was officially a ward witch!

The RS president took her moment of testimony to be thankful of the Lords direction and definition of marriage. Should I walk out again I wondered, but decided against it. I have to say though, she’s a quiet young and liberal RS president so I was truly disappointed in her position but not shocked.

I went to Gospel Principles class not feeling bad exactly but feeling a little off, like the Spirit just wasn’t there in the church today. It felt hallow somehow. Gospel Principles was normal until out of nowhere and the teacher went off about gay Mormons. They are so “sad” and so “deceived” she said. The letter read today was from the Lord, the word of the Lord, and the Lord did not approve of homosexuality. I sat stunned. The lesson had nothing to do with the letter or homosexuality and I watched a woman I adore like a grandmother turn into a spewing lizard. I felt so sick.

Right after her pronouncement the bell rang. Feeling dizzy I walked out of the room and took a long drink of water. I wanted to go home. I wanted to run from church for the first time ever and it was breaking my heart. I was so sure I was stronger than this. I new I was exactly where I was suppose to be yet it didn’t make it any easier. I thought about leaving but I knew I couldn’t miss my first RS meeting as a full member.

I walked into a happy, chattering room full of sweeping piano music. I took a seat and tried to get comfortable again, I couldn’t. I was still so shaken. I’m going to have to grow a defense for this, I thought, some way of letting it pass over me like a river so I can stand in this ward as a peaceful and ever present witness of Christ’s love for all people.

The first half of the meeting was a talk on the California wildfires – tips and so forth on avoiding our smoky skies. I still felt different but was just calming down when the first counselor, the woman who had just the night before been my closest ally at my baptism, stood up and began a talk on – what else – that damn letter!

Now I was sure I really was going to be sick. I just couldn’t handle anymore. Enough is enough it was taking over like a plague! I pulled a sleeping Ronan off my breast and he immediately responded with indignant rage. Cries of a boobless babe rang out complete with back spasms, writhing, twisting and intense sobs. I pretended to quite him but did not return the breast, which is what would have quieted him in a second flat.

Instead I let him have one more blood-curdling scream and I grabbed my things and left the room. Usually my son is quiet as a church mouse in RS and the timing I’m sure is suspicious to many – especially since instead of waiting in the hall I dashed to primary. I was suddenly frightened that they might be discussing “the Letter” with the children so I figured I better check.

I opened the door and told them I was sorry for interrupting but Nykki had to leave because his brother and I weren’t feeling well. Nykki, to my great surprise, had no complaint. He got up and left, placing his sweat, little 5 year-old palm in mine.

“How is brother sick?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you in the car.” I replied as I pushed the door open.

“Why?” he pushed.

“In the car.” I said again as we stepped into the bright, July, midday sun and headed for the parking lot.

The ride home consisted on a very long explanation on what it means to be gay and why it’s absolutely fine to be so and how mommy doesn’t agree with church about it and it made me so sad I felt sick.

“Well, then we should go to another church.” he said matter of factly.

“Well, it’s not that simple, I really believe our church is the truest church on earth. I don’t want to leave, Mommy just has a hard time with this issue.”

“Well, we can go to another church mom, as long as it has kids.” he stated.

I chuckled. Upon entering my house I fell into my adoring husbands arms (who was cleaning the house by the way, triple bonus points for the Atheist!!). He sat patiently and listened to me cry, complain, lament, rage – and pass through other stages of grief regarding the church.

At the end I laughed at the thought that I had started my first day on this earth as a full member of the LDS church this way and I knew that this was a trial of fire so to speak for me and the church.

“You still wanna go back?” he asked.

“Yes.” I said honestly. “Just give me a week to calm down. Then I’ll be ready to ride that horse again.”

Baptism

Baptism

I started the day in the normal manner; I cooked breakfast and cleaned up around the house. I was really determined not to try and do too much this day so that the end of it wouldn’t frazzle me.

Seth really wanted to watch a movie so we watched Reno 911: Miami. It got me thinking that movies might just be the perfect way to keep me relaxed and still during the day until it was time for me to take my ritual bath, so after Reno 911: Miami I asked if the family wanted to watch Mists of Avalon of Practical Magic. Seth picked Mist’s of Avalon first and I spent a glorious 3 hours vegging-out, completely relaxed. At noon I cut and collected some flowers and herbs from the garden because today is not only my baptism day but it is also the Pecti Wittan (Scottish Witchcraft) Summer Solstice – known as Feill-Sheathain.

Quite appropriately Feill-Sheathain, or Midsummer, is a time of rebirth, cleansing and the celebration of the marriage of the Father Sky and Mother Earth. In ancient and modern times people celebrating this, and other midsummer rituals, would cleanse and bless them selves by jumping over bonfires. They would assure a good harvest by setting straw cartwheels a flame and rolling them down nearby hills. After watching the modern version of this last night, i.e. fireworks, I felt this was the perfect day to be baptized into the next incarnation of my life’s path, which is a true marriage of my Mother Goddess spirit with the institution, which currently houses my chosen path in regards to the Father.

After watching Mist’s of Avalon I drew myself a ritual bath. I added sea salt and lavender to the water. I lit candles and placed them all around, and I brewed myself a nice cup of Chamomile tea. I smugged the room with sage and settled down in the warm water and read two of the poems Eduanna, the ancient Sumerian poet and priestess wrote in praise of Inanna – the moon and earth Goddess. Inanna is one of the earliest recorded expressions of the Heavenly Mother. Her sister Lilith, once shown as the Tree of Life in ancient text (who reappears in the Book of Mormon by the way), made it into the Judaic version of the Genesis story as the first wife of Adam.

I prayed, I meditated; I washed and ended up feeling very cleansed -mind, body and spirit. I stepped out of the steamy bath, toweled off, anointed my chakras with Lavender oil and then smudged myself with sage.

I braided my hair back and placed flowers I had picked that day (Calendula and Lavender) into the braids. I then took a tube of white lip gloss (left over from Halloween if you must know) and drew a crescent moon on my forehead like the priestesses of Avalon. I then noticed it was time to go so I quickly dressed the kids and we all headed out the door.

When I first arrived at church the parking lot contained one car and I felt my stomach lurch. Had everyone forgot? Had no one come? I wondered. We got out of the car and walked to the main door and found it locked. I did a quick tally in my head – it was July 5th, 2008 at 6 PM – was I forgetting something? I found the side door locked as well but before I could figure out what to do Elder R came and opened it up. He led me to the Relief Society room were about 10 people were already gathered.

Sister G was trying to play out “O My Father” on the piano which was one of my requested hymns but which was one not regularly played. The sound of it made my heart leap and reminded me that I was in the right place.

Elder R showed me to a closet and said he would help me pick a jump suit. He reached for a small. I chuckled, flattered, but suggested we see how my hips fit in a medium. To my surprise it fit very well.

The jumper may have fit well but the polyester was hot, scratchy and just plain uncomfortable. When I returned to sit with Seth and the kids Ronan immediately demanded to nurse. I had to unzip half the front of my jumper and pull out a huge, not at all covered, boob to nurse him. I wish they made nursing baptismal jumpers. There’s and idea Beehive clothing!

We started out by singing “O My Father” and I absolutely savored the word “Mother” in that song as it rolled off all our tongues. I felt lifted up and was reminded again that I was in exactly the right place I had been led to be.

By now the jumper was starting to get a little annoying. There I was in the front of the service while a member of the bishopric, Elder H, and Sister G stood up and gave talks, directed at me, while I felt half naked with a unzipped jumper and a very demanding baby kept insisting on switching boobies.

Bless their hearts they didn’t act at all uncomfortable but I was itchy and hot and more to the point I wanted to listen to the speakers so I finally told Ronan no more “Nah Nahs” and he pitched a gigantic fit. I handed him to Seth who walked him in the hallway for a bit.

Soon it was time for me to get in the water. I walked through the door and down into the pool of water, greeted on the other side by Elder R. I have to pause and tell you for a moment that Elder R is the sweetest guy. He’s a shy, cute, young, Latino guy from Florida. Lately he has spent so much time with me, and my kids, that he feels like a brother to me. I will miss him a lot when he goes home in two weeks.

I walked up to him, a bit nervous because like I said, he’s a cutie and the baptism seems so intimate yet it’s in front of all these people. He asked if I remembered how to hold him and I nodded and grabbed his arm and placed my wrist in his palm. He recited the words and I found I couldn’t really focus – it all seemed to be happening so fast. Nykki was up close to the glass looking at me, and Seth was walking around Ronan in the back of the room.

It seemed like as soon as I took tally of my family it was time to plunge. I held my nose and went back. It turns out I came very close to the wall when I went back so Elder R had to wiggle me away at the last moment and then press down harder to get me to go completely under. When I came up I automatically kinda shook my head like a dog and then stopped as soon as I realized it.

I wasn’t sure what to do after that so I thanked Elder R because I felt very grateful to him and then walked back up the steps. I dried off and got dressed. I squeezed a few drops of water from my hair into my amulet pouch.

Let me pause and tell you a moment about my amulet pouch. I hand sewed the whole thing by hand and it’s based on the basic design of Joseph Smith’s amulet parchment pouch that I found in Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn. I filled it with the herbs collected that day, a stone symbolizing rebirth, and some chamomile. Now it has a few drops of my baptismal water to add to the magic.

I retuned to the room to find Seth (and everyone for that matter) being subjected to the really cheesy church film about Jesus – the one where Jesus looks like some guy they picked up off the BYU football field and they blended a red wig on him and had him grow a patchy beard. Oh, that movie, I have to bite my lip so hard. I love Jesus, and I am moved by the miracles but come on, a red wigged, super Anglo, Jesus with a goofy grin? It just doesn’t do it for me – I don’t know about everyone else.

It was just about over when I entered so there was just the last little bit to finish up, we sang “I Stand All Amazed” which nearly made me cry – the tune is so lovely on that one and the images of Christ it evokes are both metaphormic and elating.

After the service was concluded there were refreshments of fruit, Amish friendship bread, angel food cup cakes and water. It was very pleasant and Seth seemed at ease as we all munched and talked a bit.

The missionaries were a hoot and by the end, as everyone was leaving and they were putting the chairs away the guys were teasing each other about their astrological signs. “I didn’t know a Pisces could be so aggressive!” Quipped Elder H, “You must be cusping Leo!” he joked with an Elder. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Elder R was also an Aries, born 3 days after me.

After all was said and done we went home and I treated myself to Steven Colbert’s Americone Dream by Ben and Jerry’s and Seth, the boys and I watched Practical Magic. It all seemed simple, plain, and yet magical upon reflection.

Mission President Interview, Part Deux

Mission President Interview, Part Deux

He was a friendly looking man in his early 60’s accompanied by his wife.

“Is this the famous sister Serenemoon?” he asked with a chuckle. Elder H quickly shuffled out of the room and before I new it, it was just the Mission Prez and I sitting face to face. I felt immediately at ease with him. He had a marvelously kind and gentle spirit. It shown through right away, his aura beamed.

“Now, when I get called in to do these sorts of things,” he began, “I don’t know why. They don’t tell me so please don’t think anyone has said anything about you.” He smiled and pulled a notebook from his pocket.

“Usually what happens is that when you are asked a serious of questions there are 3 parts to the 4th question and if you answer yes to any of those they call me in. Is this what happened?”

“Yes.” I replied

“Well let me tell you a little about myself first…” he began by telling me how he grown up LDS in the Midwest, his wife was a convert and how he hadn’t gone on a mission himself was he was pleasantly surprised to be called to be the Mission President. He explained that when he was called his wife and himself met with Thomas S. Monson, before he was the Prophet, and what a kind and gentle soul he was. How he told great jokes and was down to earth yet somehow bore a presence of “other worldliness” at the same time.

I was truly moved by his description. It nearly brought me to tears. He then asked if he could go through the baptismal interview questions with me. He started at the beginning and was impressed by my answers.

“The missionaries have taught you so very well!” he exclaimed. I blushed and bit my lip to keep from smiling to big. I thought about sweet Elder R and how he’d get the credit for me being so well informed and it made me happy. He was such a dear boy and tried so hard to be a good missionary - he was truly humble and served well. He was a bit awkward and shy so I loved the idea of him getting the credit for my “knowledge”.

We then reached question number four. “Have you ever committed a serious crime and we mean a felony?”

“Nope.”

“Have you ever had an abortion?”
“No.”

“Have you ever had a homosexual relationship?”

“Yes.”

“How long ago?”

“Two years ago.” I replied thinking to myself – most recently anyway.

“So it’s been since you were married?” he knew I had two boys ages five and 1 ½.

“Yes.”

“So,” he began a little awkwardly, “ I don’t need to know the details, I don’t want to know the details, I just want to ask if the circumstances in your life that led up to the relationship have changed?” he seemed pained that he had to ask this. He seems to feel it wasn’t any of his business. “I mean,” he continued to clarify, “sometimes we sin by accident or by circumstance…” he then proceeded to tell me a story from his youth where he had stumbled into a situation more or less accidentally.

“Yes, my husband and I are monogamous now, it wont happen again.”

And that was it. He finished up the questions with me for good measure. He told me how proud he was of me and how lucky the church was to be gaining a member like me. He then asked if I worked and when I told him that I use to be yoga instructor he was so elated!

“I recently hurt my back!!” he exclaimed. “Can you help with that?” I agreed and he practically skipped with me to the next room where his wife had bought the missionaries lunch. When he explained that I was a yoga instructor everyone wanted a lesson and so there I was laughing and joking with Elders R and H, the Mission Prez and his wife, showing them yoga asanas. The conversation digressed into diet and lifestyle and for another hour we sat and talked while they asked questions and I gave answers on everything from ice cream consumption, hydrogenated milks, the best local health food stores, and proper posture while driving a car.

“Well, I better be getting home to my babies.” I finally said when I realized I had been there for three hours. I bid them all farewell and walked to the car with my head held high and my cheeks positively hurting from smiling so much!

So, yeah, it went well. And I guess I was there for healing after all!

Countdown to Baptism: Mission President Interview Part 1

I woke up stressed out, still thinking in the back of my head how ridiculous it was that they would single homosexual actions out. Going trough a list of worse offenses they don't even ask about in my head.

When it was time to go I lingered around the house, dreading taking that first step out the door. I was so afraid my levees would be breached - that this was it, the end of Ayla's great LDS experiment. He would ask if I thought homosexuality was a sin and I couldn't lie about it. I just couldn't. I was sure of this.

I decided to pull a fairy card on the whole thing and meditate on it before leaving. I drew the "Miracle Healing" card which is one I draw often. I wasn't expecting that one. At first I was a little confused and thought perhaps my deck had let me down - it's ususally right on.

But I looked at the card and let my focus drift and then I came to the understanding that this meeting wasn't only about me - it was about the Mission President - he needed healing and I was there to do or say something that would bring him peace.

I thought of Deepak Chopra and his suggestion to always bring everyone you meet a gift - whether it be a kind word, a compliment - something. So I decided I would go into my meeting in that manner, to bring to it what I needed to bring. I made up my mind not sit there like an empty shell, ready to be chastised or filled by someone else, but to be really lovingly proactive and figure out what Spirit was leading me to do this day.

As I made the 10 minute drive to church the radio blasted out a few of my favorite songs, I felt charged up with the energy of the New Moon and the sacred feminine was palpable all around me. With the windows down I drove over the country side with the feeling of flying- a trail of divine energy creasting all around me.

When I arrived at church the Mission President was running late. He was coming from nearly 2 hours away. I settled down in the room, which was the primary room by-the-way because they thought I would have my kids with me. I usually have both my kids but today was so intense I had left them with Seth.

Elder R and Elder H were there. I had heard about Elder H but not met him before. He was a large, foot player-esque, 22 year-old from Cedar City, UT! What providance! We sat and talked for an hour about all the things we loved about Cedar City and how we both miss it. We found we knew some of the same people and had really similar interests.

Elder H started talking about the evidences for the Book of Mormon and the Anthropology buff in me couldn't sit still, I straight out wiggled in my seat with excitement as we discussed with ever increasing pitch and joy all the world religions and how they tell the same stories and how it laid the ground work for Christ to come.

I was elated to find another Mormon interested in the same things I was, and we talked about paganism without him batting an eyelash, and what's more he had studied about it and had drawn very similar conculsions as me!

I hadn't realized that Elder R had stepped out about a half hour ago and when the Mission President and his wife walked in, guided by Elder R, Elder H and I were in the middle of a loud, passionate, positive and emotionally expressive talk about....what else, paganism! Elder H ended on the note that he loved comparative religion and I told him to major in it when he got home.

Then entered the Mission President.....

Countdown to Baptism: Chamomile

As I count down my week until my baptism I've been preparing myself. As I see it I will baptised and confirmed by members of the church who can trace their priesthood lineage directly back to Joseph Smith and from Joseph Smith to the Divine. It's a pretty serious deal.

Todays "countdown" is on Chamomile.

Silver Ravenwolf wrote in her book American Folk Magick, "A cup (of chamomile tea) is drunk by the Pow Wow (magickal healing arts of North America) student before power is passed or energy centers are opened....the mind of the recipient conjures up a supposed mystical essence."

One of Silver's students reported seeing fairy lights after using chamomile in this manner. I will be drinking a cup of chamomile everyday from now until my baptism. I will also be putting some chamomile in the magickal pouch that I am creating for this event. My pouch will resemble the one Jospeh Smith owned (see Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn, fig. 49)

Word of Wisdom Homeschool

Cross posted at our new homeschool site Peaceful as a River Academy

Friends

Can I be really honest and upfront for a second?

I'm losing friends over becoming LDS.

What? I hear some of you say.

Yep, and even some I'm not losing keep a steady trickle coming into my in-box of "Why are you letting yourself be brainwashed?" and "Why are you joining a racist church?" emails and even these people are more, shall we say, quiet, on the friend-front. It seems a lot of my friends are scurrying away faster than the barn cats when the door bangs.

What the heck? I've given well written, scholarly presented, spiritualy universal reasonings for joining the church and yet - for some reason - those who are very close to me, who know me very well, former members and non alike think I'm suddenly brainwashed?

Have I begun blubbering on my blog? Am I studdering? Am I suddenly being so non-coherant as to make people close to me think I've lost my faculties?

Really, let's pause and think for a moment. Those who really know me. I'm choosing to join the largest church on earth with a concept of a Goddess, an admonishment from God about meat consumption, an early pracitice of magick and natural living and a universal doctrine of salvation. Is this REALLY so out of step with the Ayla you know?

I think I can be a voice of peace and love in one of the largest choirs - heck yeah! You all know me, and I don't sit around and complain, I get involved.

Yes, I may have pushed more before - ben more "in your face". But guess what I'm learning, that doesn't convince people to think about or accept new ideas - surprise, surprise!

The younger Ayla might have gone and spray-painted a huge pink vagina on temple square to get my point across. The new Ayla feels like I make much more of an impact simply raising my hand in RS and reminding everyone about Emma's role in the attaining of the golden plates.

I don't like to use my MA in defense but seriously y'all, I have a MASTER"S DEGREE in a branch of theology and suddenly I can be so easily brainwashed? *sigh* After five years of Mormon study I am brainwashed?

Honestly, people I can handle myself. I'm joining the church that people like Black Panther co-creator Eldridge Cleaver decided was true and people think it's weird?

Seriously? Do you know me? Really?

Some of you grew up in the church and had bad expereinces, really bad, and some of you just think like the majority of outsiders, that Mormonism is a cult. Either way your expereince is not mine and I can handle myself - really and it's very insulting that after all the lengthy explination in the links on the side bar you think I can't.

I've always maintained that I'm trying to be LDS, I've stated very clearly that I have my limits and would not violate my own principles and if the two don't jive, they don't jive and I go somewhere else.

11th article of faith -right?

LDS Green Witch

OK, so here's the hat, literally, I'm trying on today. Getting back to my roots as a Witch and it's compatiblity with my LDS faith. So how's this for a concept to roll around in the noggin' - An LDS Green Witch. I'm like the term Witch better than Pagan these days because pagan is too broad for me I think, it incompasses to much and doesn't really describe me. Witch is a better fit.

Church Going Green

Church honored for green efforts
By Cassandra Crockett
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 06/20/2008 11:58:10 PM MDT

The LDS Church's City Creek development is being lauded as a model for green design.

On pleasant days beginning in 2012, the glass panels covering the retail section of downtown Salt Lake City's City Creek Center will retract, exposing a once enclosed complex to open air.
The 300-by-70-foot ceiling will act as City Creek's air conditioner on warm days but hold in warmth during stormy or windy days.
"You can open up the roof like the windows of your house when it's nice outside," said Bill Williams, City Creek Reserve Inc.'s director of architecture and engineering.
The ceiling is one way that the LDS Church is making its massive City Creek development in downtown Salt Lake City greener, efforts that the Sierra Club honored this week in its first "Faith in
Action" report. Read the rest here

News News News

My baptism date has been set! July 5th at 6 PM!




Flash Countdown

Kirby and Beer

My favorite actor, Kirby Heybourne is in a bit of a bru-ha-ha over his recent appearance in a beer commercial. Read the article here.

I'm totally fine with it, he's feeding his family, he's a struggling actor. Just wanted to throw my two cents into the bloggernacle!

Mormon Black Panther

LeRoy Eldridge Cleaver was one of the co-founders of the Blank Panther party. He was known for his radical and Marxist positions during the 1960's. He went on a spiritual quest and concluded in 1984 that the LDS church was the true church on Earth. He became LDS.

"I used to be a Marxist and I used to think all our problems were economic and political. But at the end of the day I found out that our main problems are spiritual problems. Because the connection between people and between Creation and the creator is not a political connection, it’s not an economic connection, it’s a spiritual connection. Your creator lays down markers in your life—you don’t know what all this is happening for." - LeRoy Eldridge Cleaver

"...he told me about the mystical experience that led to his awareness of the root of the world’s problems. He was in exile in France in the 70s, and one evening, while looking at the moon, he saw what appeared to be "almost like a movie." He saw images of his communist heroes—Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao Tse Tung—parade across the face of the moon. One by one, each image fell away, until an image of Jesus appeared and stayed. He realized then that his answers were not political or economic, but spiritual."

Source:

One Journey Home: Eldridge Cleaver's Spiritual Path

by Linda Neale

EarthLight Magazine #50, Spring 2004

URL: www.earthlight.org/2004/essay50_neale.html

My Conversion Story

I came to the church by very non-conventional means so this isn’t meant to offend anyone and I hope it doesn’t. This is just my story, my testimony of how I came to love the Church.

I was baptized Episcopal but after the age of eight my family didn’t attend church. Where I grew up there were a lot of people who lived in my community but whom my biological mother (Debi) would not let me hang out with. They were called Mormons and if I made a Mormon friend I knew to keep my mouth shut about it.

Debi told me all kinds of tales about them. She said they wanted to convert everyone and that they thought the end of the world was coming and that only Mormons would be saved. She told me to stay away from them.

Then the Mormon Temple was built in Las Vegas and before they used it for services they had one night were it was open to all the Bishops and their families and they got to invite one non-Mormon family to come with them to see some of the inside. My father got the “golden ticket” in the form of a friend from work who really wanted to invite my dad.

For some reason Debi let us go, I still don’t know why. She told us however to only look at all the pretty things but not to listen to what the people said. We had to wear scrub covers over our shoes and stay in a single line as we walked through, careful not to go past the roped off areas.

For years that was pretty much my only Mormon experience. I had a few Mormon friends but I wasn’t allowed to get too close to them and all my other friends seemed to think that Mormons were weird and believed strange things. When I questioned my Mormon friends about some of their beliefs their answers always seemed sane and rational but I figured, as my brother in laws put it, they had had two hundred years to think them up.

Looking back he’s a Catholic priest now….hummmm….

But I continue…
I was very religious all through childhood, trying out Judaism, Native American spirituality and finally settling on Goddess worship for a long time. I grew a strong testimony of a Celestial Mother who loved us, cared for us and brought us great comfort.

When I was 18 I moved to Cedar City, UT with my first husband to go to college at Southern Utah University (SUU). Again, so many of my friends and family panicked about us “getting converted” that I steered clear of many people in the town – keeping to myself and feeling like an outcast.

I began to believe the “hype” about the Mormon community when my then husband lost his job for not being Mormon. We moved away soon thereafter and as I practiced my pagan ways I never much thought of Mormonism.

I went on to study home birth and felt a strong calling to be an activist for home birth, midwifery, unassisted home birth, breastfeeding and attachment parenting. I attended the Ancient Art Midwifery Institute and trained with local midwives – who were mostly, curiously enough, Mormon women.

Years later, after I had been a pagan/Goddess worshiper for about 7 years or so, I began to go through a healing reconnection with Christianity. I read the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (LeLoup) and meditated on an image of Yesau (Jesus) that appealed to me. I felt a deep stirring and reconnection with the balance of the Divine Masculine.
This reconnection began in December of 2003, shortly after the home birth of my son. In March my first husband and I divorced and I found myself moving to Cedar City, UT again for many reasons. First, it was only two hours from Vegas but felt like a world away, and second, the prices there had me renting a studio apartment for only $275 per month.

My intention was to live on my child support and stay at home with my son.
When the child support never materialized and things got really bad between my ex and I, I found myself very grounded and centered by the earth in Cedar City. I felt a deep connection with the land, the people, and even with their God. I never went to the LDS church while living there but I spent many days reading Mormon history books under trees on Cedar Mountain that I had found at the SUU library.

I felt like my soul had been detoxified while living in Cedar. Las Vegas is very hard on a person physically, emotionally and spiritually, and I have lived there for nearly 25 years. In Cedar however I ate fresh peaches, hiked the mountains, swam in the rivers and felt the best I had ever felt in my life. While sitting on the bank of the Cedar River one day I looked up at a red rock cliff and thought to myself – the Mormons are right – this is where God lives.

I was dating a man in Cedar who was what I would call a New Age Mormon. He would read me passage of the D and C, and show me pictures of the Jupiter Talisman Joseph use to where.

The first experience I had with Joseph Smith came in the form of reading a Freudian deconstruction of Joseph Smith. It was very well written and researched but its basic premise just didn’t sit well with me. It basically reviewed Joseph’s life and concluded that he was a classic narcissist with a mild Oedipus complex steaming from and overly attached mother and an old childhood injury. I didn’t at all agree with the author’s conclusion.

What I liked about the book was that it told very detailed stories of the life of Joseph Smith and I found myself very drawn to this man and his wife Emma. Once while reading the book at the park, my son sleeping in his stroller next to me, I felt someone standing in front of me. I looked up and saw two feet and a pair of trousers, as I shaded my eyes to look higher at this very tall figure it faded away.

A few nights later I found myself up all hours of the night throwing up regularly. I was extremely ill and as a single mother I was very worried about not being able to care for my very young son. In the middle of the night while lying in the bed soaked with fever I had an experience of praying to Joseph and asking for help.

I saw a burst of light and what I knowwhere healing Angels because I was cured right then and there. Previously I had viewed Joseph Smith as I had been taught to, as an ego driven co-artist, but I now knew him to be, to me, holding a quality and connection with the divine.

Now, were did I go from there? I didn’t believe in the current LDS church but something had drawn me very strongly to its founder. So I began to study the alternative stories about Joseph, Emma, and the church in general, in particular the works of D. Michael Quinn and the Tuscanos. After moving to California I happened to meet and fall in love with my current partner, Seth, an inactive Mormon whose father had started an alternative Gnostic church twenty some years ago and had advanced many alternative theories surrounding the Mormon faith.

By the time I began my studies for my Master’s degree in women’s spirituality at New College of California, San Francisco, I had incorporated a belief in Yeshua (Jesus), Mariamne (Mary Magdalene), Joseph and Emma into my spirituality. I never thought I would meet someone with similar beliefs or interests at New College but my very first day I met a woman in my program who was Mormon and had done much research into the divine feminine - I knew that meant something.

I went on to write my thesis about Mormonism and homebirth. I explored many alternative stories and interpretations of the gospels and fell in love with them. I still didn’t think the LDS church was where I was suppose to be though because I didn’t fall totally in-line with their teachings. I had issues about women not being in the priesthood, issues with Brigham Young, etc. but what I liked and believed about the church far out weighed what I didn’t however I was unsure how to get over the “humps” mentally. I considered being RLDS but they no longer believed in Heavenly Mother and it was crucial for me to have Heavenly Mother.

I continued to practice my hybrid Mormon-paganism for years and then in spring of '08 I was driving home and I was thinking about the LDS temples. I thought about how the ceremonies there were handed down to Joseph Smith from our Heavenly Parents. I then had this image of me outside of a temple and everyone else was inside and I was lonely and not making any progress being on the “outside.” The message I got from the vision was that here was this church, the LDS Church, that I agreed with about 90%. It was probably the largest church on earth with the concept of Heavenly Mother. Wasn’t I just being picky and stubborn by not at least giving them a better chance?

So prayed about it. Should I join the LDS church I wondered, was there a place for me there? After I prayed I dreamed about the Las Vegas temple, that same night I also dreamed about the LDS actor Kirby Heyborne. In the dream he was a return missionary and I had been waiting for him and so much love and joy filled my heart to see him come home. I woke up from that dream at peace. I didn’t feel like I needed to fight the church or change the church I was simply and very clearly being led to the Church.

My son Nykki was really having a lot of fun at the UU church we had been attending so I was reluctant at first to leave. I wanted him to like church. I, however, wasn’t being spiritually fulfilled by the UU church, even if, as I had justified it, Joseph Smith Sr. was a UUer. One day while driving home from UU church I was looking at the rolling hillsides and valleys. I thought back to the book I was reading (Maeve Chronicles by Elizabeth Cunningham) I thought about how Jesus had taught that the feast was here, and I really believed this world was such a feast. Nykki then said out of nowhere form the back seat; “I want to go to Emily’s church.” Which meant the Mormon Church.

When I got home I saw that Thomas S. Monson had given a speech that day or the day before which essentially invited those astray to come to the church, that the feast was lain, and to taste the fruits of life with the Saints. It was an incredible sign especially since I wasn’t sure how I felt about the presidency of the church at the time. So I started to go to my local ward every week instead of sporadically as I had been.

I recognized that the leaders of the church, although all white men, were men called of God. All the priesthood holders in the church carried a lineage that was traceable back to Joseph Smith and even if in my ideal world the church would have taken a slightly different direction after Joseph’s death – that I had to be where the priesthood was because it was so important in my life and is such a blessed connection to our first prophet, our Lord and our Heavenly Father.

The signs just exploded from there. I would think about garments and my friend would mention she wears them and then another friend would mention she just started wearing them again (not friends from church either by the way), a woman mentioned Mother Gaia in GP class, I prayed to know how to help the people of Myanmar and then saw the church was on it helping them already. I would wonder about the church’s position on homosexuals and then hear that Elder D. Todd Christopherson (whom I was drawn to immediately) has a gay brother and he even chose the word “spouse” to describe his brother’s life partner. It just goes on and on.

I was baptized on July 5th of 2008 and confirmed on the 6th. I feel for the first time like I want to just *be* and not worry about some of the finer details that bother me but just learn and grown and teach my children because the LDS church is the truest church (to me) there is on earth so that’s where I need to be.

Update: 2009

I could no longer attend church after the LDS church's insane support of Prop 8 here in California. Getting involved in the politics of Babylon as well as raising church money to discriminate and historical resend rights for an entire group of people, was a direct violation of the D and C, of the commandments we have received from our Heavenly Parents. I am currently attending church on fast Sunday but that is all. I'm not sure where my Mormonism is headed but I am enjoying my local circle groups, and strive to live deep Mormonism in my home everyday with out all the gay bashing I find in the current church.