By the way, where is the farm?…

I’m sorry you’re on the road to apostasy. Actually, I’m sorry that your wife said that and for the inevitable friction that such an opinion will engender. Been there, done that.

Steve

So, it was rather odd that I saw an email come across letting me know that this post was up, on September 1st, given that it was written towards the end of May.

What made it all the more odd is that I had just finished a conversation with She Who Must Be Obeyed wherein I was told that I was certainly on the road to apostasy for a couple of things we’d been talking about.

My father has been quite sick lately. After a blessing he had at church a good family friend who owns a farm in the area and has some marijuana growing wildly in his field said that maybe my father should use some to alleviate some of his pain. He (being a former bishop nonetheless) said that it was likely one of those things God gifted us, but that had been abused. Another man in the room – an alternative thinking doctor – concurred with this assessment. A God given gift that’s been vilified. Michael Pollan’s book – The Botany of Desire – is what pointed me in the direction of the herb and looking a little more into it.

So yesterday, my wife mentioned (in joking, though I missed out on the joke at the time) that maybe my father should take some. I responded that it might not be a bad idea, and then went into explaining some of the history behind the way we currently (today) view the herb and how it became “evil”.

Because of this and a few other things, I was told I was likely being “deceived” and on the “road to apostasy.”

Then, this email comes across my box to remind me just what apostasy really means, which is odd because I used this definition to explain how screwed up our ideas of “apostasy” are.

Oddity, but thanks for posting it.

MJ, we listened to that interview with the guy who used ot be into church correlation who said that by far when bishops around the world were interviewed about what the biggest problem they are facing is…. Its not porn or attendance its overwhelmingly, ‘we can’t feed or own people’!!!

This should be a revelation and affect a complete overhaul of church dealings. We have no time for investment and growth, for expansive advertisements, when our own people can’t eat. absolutely unreal.

I shouldn’t be surprised at how openly Pharisaical the church has become, but the sartorial “counsel” given in your ward really floored me just the same.

MJ, apropo of your comment, I recently posted an entry on my own blog, “Pure Mormonism”, in which I described the missionary uniform as saying to the typical outsider “I have nothing in common with you.”

Last night someone who disagrees with my thesis left a comment saying that our missionaries dress formally “to show respect for the message & mantle they carry.” Those few ready for the message will respond.

So now we know. Our missionaries dress in an aloof manner in order to attract only a certain type of person. They dress not to attract converts but to show respect for their own message and their own authority. That’s consistent with advice to wear business attire to church. The members are there to respect each other’s clothing, and to be obsequious to those in authority.

In my day, I have to inform the bishop that I am hanging out with the apostates… my own church.

The proofreader in me took a double take at the spelling of the title.