It is with some reluctance that I grudgingly enter the blogosphere. I'm a very practical person who really doesn't care much about what I or others have to say most of the time. Additionally while I am enthusiastic about the Internet as a labor saving device, I consider most social networking devices such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. to be little more than attractive wastes of time. At the same time, I have felt the need some time to create some sort of record. I have a lousy track record with journals so I'll give blogging a try.
I read two online items that left a possibly unjustified impression on me. The first was an excerpt from the book by Larry Barkdull, Rescuing Wayward Children, posted on Meridian magazine which can be found here. It provided a cold, no nonsense analysis of the forces arrayed against us on this world complete with citations. While I enjoyed the piece and look forward to reading the book, it didn't contain anything I really didn't know already for the most part. Yes I know that this is the most wicked of all the worlds God created. Yes I know that Satan hates us on a deep, personal level and wants all of us screaming in pain and dead yesterday. Old Crackey is having a great deal of success in this endeavor which pains God greatly. What was new to me was the effect the powers of darkness here on Earth have on the rest of Heaven. This is referred to in DC 38:11-12.
11 For all flesh is corrupted before me; and the powers of darkness prevail upon the earth, among the children of men, in the presence of all the hosts of heaven—
12 Which causeth silence to reign, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned; and, behold, the enemy is combined.
In other words this place is so bad that it shocks the watching hosts of heaven into painful silence and they are all really, really itching to come on down and dispense some Old Testament style retribution on the tares infesting this miserable rock. Its nice to know that my sometimes lack of patience with the wicked or as I sometimes call stupid people is shared with a host of divine beings.
That however isn't the point that stuck with me. Later on Barkdull went on to discuss the great and abominable church found in 1 Nephi 13:4-9. Verse 5 states this entity's mission statement.
And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity.
Joy, what can Brown do for you? Anyways Barkdull goes on to analyze this scripture with the following, "In the language of war, Nephi describes an organized effort to slay the saints." Satan of course is the one doing the organizing and he does both that and the slaying by any means possible(physical or metaphsical). Once again nothing new here, but I liked Barkdull's phraseology and the thought bounced around in my subconscious.
The catalyst for today's lengthy musing arrived in the form of an MSNBC article I read titled "Mexican cartels target polygamist Mormon sect". At first I cringed as I always do when I hear the phrase Mormon sect. A lot of weird, disreputable things have been done by splinter groups and I'm honestly a bit gun shy on the topic. This group seems normal enough though and they are certainly living in a world of hurt. Its turns out this particular group decided to immigrate to Mexico 60 years ago instead of giving up polygamy. They've established a nice little, prosperous colony for themselves and have maintained their culture, language and interestingly enough their citizenship in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Well the rampant violence the drug cartels have been inflicting on the rest of Mexico lately has started to rain down upon this colony in the last few months. Members of the community are being targeted as sources of ransom money by criminal elements. Meredith Romney, one of their bishops and a distant cousin of Mitt Romney was just kidnapped as an object lesson. The article goes on recount how community leaders who protested this crime wave became the target of a grusome home invasion kidnapping/execution to silence them and teach the community a lesson.
Reason number gosh I can't count that high that I am never going to Mexico. Now I know that this is a splinter group and 1 Nephi 13:5 doesn't exactly apply here, but its close and I can easily see the same thing happening here in the urban jungle I call home. If it happened in Missouri in 1838 it can happen here. I'm afraid that I am more realistic than pessimistic when I say its not a matter of if that sort of thing will happen here, but when. Next time I go home for the holidays I think I'll look up my brother QC and get some pointers on basic firearm usage for home defense. The South Central Jungle has become home and I'm not running from nobody. I just need the proper tools for that particular job though I pray mightily that I will never need to use them. I sometimes feel like a modern day Ammon living here and look forward to enjoying the balmy climate of the 'Hood for a good long time. Jane and I have made our tiny abode into a delightsome refuge, a veritable piece of heaven on earth if you will. The more I come to appreciate what we have here, the more I want to defend and hold on to it.
Phew that was a lot to get off my chest. It feels good to write though. Maybe this blogging thing isn't so bad after all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
On your first time up at bat you hit a mighty complex ball there, my dear.
I agree with you - the quote about the anger in the heavens makes sense. Sometimes I'm shocked by how evil this world really is, and I wonder how the folks in the spirit world can bear it. We'll find out soon enough, I suppose :)
I am deeply grateful to know I live in a place without fear... I don't agree with the choices the group in Mexico have made, but to have enough hate in your bones to be able to attack them the that extent - heck, the hate that the mobs had for the Saints back in the day - I don't think I could ever hate enything that much to react like that. You can't look at behavior like that and deny the existance of Satan, in my opinion.
Wow - keep it coming!
So, Reva said I needed to comment on your blog or your self-esteem would be damaged because "he's a Kuzmich". I'm not sure I understand what that means though. I don't think i've commented on Dallin or Quinns blogs and she doesn't care.
Anywho, I think things are probably not going to get better before they get a lot worse - and you are right down the street from Satanville (AKA Hollywood) where all the crazies gather to spread their vileness. You might want to take a more proactive approach (but I'm officially advising you not to).
Hi, I found your blog through a friend of a friend of a friend of Reva's. Some corrections to what you read...I figure I am qualified to comment on this since I grew up in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico and know Meredith Romney. He used to be my Stake President. The article you read is actually talking about two separate places. Meredith Romney lives in Colonia Juarez (where there is an LDS temple and he was the temple president at that temple a couple of years ago, and the second place (where the home invasion/murder occurred), was in Colonia LeBaron, which is about an hour away in Galeana. The residents of the Lebaron colony are not LDS! Many decades ago they were but broke off from the Church over a desire to continue poligamy. The only Mormon colonies still in Mexico are Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan, both near Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. I know Wikipedia is not always the best source of information, but this link is fairly accurate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_colonies_in_Mexico.
Here is a URL that better explains the LeBaron situation (this article makes it clear that polygamy was discontinued in Colonia Juarez.) http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy905.html
As a matter of fact, when my brother graduated from high school, President Gordon B. Hinckley was the high school commencement speaker. I was present for his speech to the graduating class. As he was returning home, he had the inspiration to make smaller temples with less overhead (like cafeterias and laundry services) to help the members not have to travel so far to enjoy the blessings of the temple. You can Google about that on your own if you don't trust my URL's but here is a good link to substantiate my claim about President Hinckley: http://visitmormoncolonies.com/aboutus.aspx. I hope this has helped you to better understand the Mormon Colonies. Now that you know they exist, you might find that many people are descendents of those original colonists in Mexico...especially members of the Church. At least that has been my experience :) If you have more questions, you can find me at http://chronicsleepdebt.blogspot.com/
Amiable dispatch and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you seeking your information.
Post a Comment