Part 2 Parallels - Jos. Smith and Brigham Young
The Core of The Problem - Part 2
Parallels with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young
The basic mind-set underlying the Omission of Love in Mormon doctrine as reinstated by
Joseph
The Shepherd-Wolf
and
Brigham
The Avenger-Lion
It is interesting to note that as Joseph Smith identified himself with the animistic Roman god Jupiter, Brigham Young was his later, anthropomorphic Greek counterpart, Zeus; we might say that the "mantle" of Jupiter (Joseph) "fell" on Zeus (Brigham). One of the attributes of Jupiter/Zeus is "ruler of men;" two of the animals associated with them were the wolf and the lion.
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The Omission of Love
Introduction
The Core of the Problem in Mormonism peaks in Stage 7 ... that of the "Wolf " killing what the "Shepherd" professes to love ... Love as the foundation of a quality marriage and personal family relationships. This "killing" of Love is based on default. The ancient Mosaic admonition to love one's neighbor as one loves oneself was listed under the sundry Laws of the Code and, at the same time, omitted from the 10 Commandments and Book of The Law, which Joseph Smith reinstated and upon which Brigham Young enlarged.
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Prologue
How this Omission of Love is Effected in Mormonism
Stage 7 - The Shepherd who points to the future with "Yes / No / Yet, will be."
and
The Wolf who points to the past with "Not this / Not that / and Never."
On the unseen abdication of this greatest of all commandments, Mormonism, following the "Shepherd" of the future, implicitly says, "Don't see this as evil, see it as good; i.e., see it as a postponement;" "All mankind must be saved first, through obedience and sacrifice, before members can know Love; it is one of the mysteries of Godliness which can only be known in a future life." Members are told to "stay as little children in this life ... obey your leaders, who will not lead you astray." Members, therefore, pretend they are adults and play the roles and follow the scripts prepared for them ... roles of father and mother, the only roles allowed, the goal being to produce the greatest number of children possible; children having children.
A Brief Overall Description of Omission The implication, "Don't see this as evil, see it as good" (Stage 7) in Mormonism, is the extension of the "Yes" of Stage 2, the New Testament Agreement that Love is the greatest of all the Commandments that fulfills the Law ... ("Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:8-10; 2 Nephi, 25:27), ... and the "Yes, But," the ("positive") love that "Is / Is not" of Stage 3, which obscures Love by obfuscation, yet leaves hope. This stage is the basis for the reversal of the Agreement in Stage 4. After the repetitive "Yes" and "No" Zig-Zag oscillation between Stages 5 and 6, the euphemistic fusion of "Yes and No" in Stage 7 occurs. This ostensively causes the original Love Agreement to disappear through fusion, by way of the (negative) love of "Not this / Not that," both, at the same time. This pseudo Love goes through a confusing, mysterious and incomprehensible cloud of guilt and fear that one can never see clearly, identify, nor reach. It becomes the blending together of black and white ... as one; it creates the Gray dis-ease of depression, which leads to the Black Hole of despair (Stage 8).
My Awakening to this Omission My first awakening to this conflict came during my search for answers in the church; especially, I questioned how could I find the love that was lacking in my life. "Love" in Mormon doctrine was mainly presented to me in the framework of a command, "Thou shalt love," yet, at the same time, love was supposed to be "voluntary;" in this context, love was equivalent to an unconditional surrender ... on my part. As a result, this command was accompanied by "obligation," a duty, and a sense of "guilt," i.e., if you have not love "you must have sinned," or, "you left something undone" ... this projection created a self condemning feeling that one "should" be able to love if only one could be more obedient, or work harder. However, the numerous impossible requirements to be met kept the freedom and spontaneity of love, without fear, always just beyond reach. I went to the Bishop and asked him, "Where can I find Love in Mormonism's teachings?" (It had not been taught in the previous forty years of my membership in the church.) The answer I received was, "The church's mission in this life is to teach the Law of Obedience and Sacrifice only." He said, "Love is one of the mysteries that will be revealed in the next life. It is not taught in the church; you will have to search that out for yourself."
This admission is the reason why Bishops and leaders of the church cannot help their emotionally and mentally depressed members ... the core ingredient that can heal is missing ... Love, and with it, Understanding. Love begins with loving oneself, which makes possible the ability to love others. We cannot love ourselves when we are never found to be, nor see ourselves as "worthy;" Mormonism fosters self-hatred. To "love thy neighbor, as thyself," in this case, means just the opposite of what it purports to mean. When there is self-hatred, to "love" our neighbor as we "love" ourself, is to see our neighbor as we see ourself ... as sinners, with hatred. One can only give what one owns; love begets love, hate begets hate. When the command is to love others when we hate ourself, the result is the tangled emotion of "love"/hate ... the "Whited Sepulchre."
The Result of the Omission It comes down to loss of individual identity; we cannot love "our self" if we have no self to love. Mormonism destroys the self-identity of members by reprogramming individuals into acting the same identical rote-roles assigned to each member generation after generation; in this case, it begins in the cradle; the self of the child is never allowed to be known fully because the real world the child is born into is constantly turned upside-down by parents and by church doctrine. Identity, as a member of the Mormon church, is to be as one who has merged, and identifies with the generic many. It is a classificatory, general identity which excludes the individual by being absorbed in the all. One example of this is the "new name" one is given in the temple. Most members do not realize that everyone that goes through the temple that day receives the same name. It is the so-called secret name which is presented ostensibly as a personal name. It is the name that must be remembered and is necessary for the husband to bring his (one) wife through the "veil." (Which woman? ... with the same name as all of the other women, which (one) woman will be pulled through the veil by which husband? ... who also has been assigned a generic name that all the other men have been given on that same day?) Personal identity disappears by deception and absorption. The name is presented as "personal," "Yes," "But," it turns out to be "general," ... at the same time. The personal is the "milk" (what is said) ... the general is the "meat" (what is done) ... it negates the self ... eliminates personal identity.
The Negative Pseudo Identity Fosters the Double-Standard Behaviorally, this negative identity boomerangs into an upside-down value system that condemns a "moral sin" at the same time it requires an obligation that results in the "moral sin" that is condemned! ... Pride. It fosters the double standard. The individual is "sinful" when expressing pride in a positive, individual, new creative sense. The generic identity is "righteous" when it expresses Pride in the repetition of the general negative requirements of one undeviating Pattern.
How This is Expressed in Mormonism The individual creative energies of children and parents who have been deprived of recognizing their true selves, transfer and express these diverted energies into a "one-up-manship" attitude, the comparative competition with others, such as; Who can obey the law of replenishing the earth with the most children; Who can make the greatest sacrifice; Who is the greatest sinner who can qualify for being the most humble penitent (the greater the sin, the greater the reward). Quantity replaces quality. Fast Sunday "Testimony" meetings, where confessions of shortcomings are expected to be publicly announced to the congregation, is a forum for this kind of competitive "righteous" "pride," and, at the same time, it is a form of flagellistic self-humiliation. One must humiliate oneself ... be unworthy, in order to be "good" ... to feel "worthy." The cause (unworthiness) becomes the "cure" (worthiness).
An Example of Negative "Righteous Pride" in being "Priestly" Latter-Day Saint Israelites
Brigham Young: Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, p. 77.
"We can produce the best men and the worst, the best women and the worst, and thus prove, according to the sayings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, that this is the kingdom of God, or at least answers to the Saviour's description of that kingdom.
"I have many a time, in this stand, dared the world to produce as mean devils as we can; we can beat them at anything. We have the greatest and smoothest liars in the world, the cunningest and most adroit thieves, and any other shade of character that you can mention.
"We can pick out Elders in Israel right here who can beat the world at gambling, who can handle the cards, cut and shuffle them with the smartest rogue on the face of God's foot-stool. I can produce Elders here who can shave their smartest shavers, and take their money from them. We can beat the world at any game.
"We can beat them, because we have men here that live in the light of the Lord, that have the Holy Priesthood, and hold the keys of the kingdom of God. But you may go through all the sectarian world, and you cannot find a man capable of opening the door of the kingdom of God to admit others in. We can do that. We can pray the best, preach the best, and sing the best. We are the best looking and finest set of people on the face of the earth, and they may begin any game they please, and we are on hand, and can beat them at anything they have a mind to begin. They may make sharp their two-edged swords, and I will turn out the Elders of Israel with greased feathers, and whip them to death. We are not to be beat. We expect to be a stumbling block to the whole world, and a rock of offence to them."
The Requirement to become "Worthy" Emptiness of self is the goal of Mormonism in order to become "worthy." However, this emptiness is a vacuum ... a void that must be filled. Not being allowed to fill ourselves, with ourselves, the filling must be of something other than and from outside ourselves. The less one is allowed to own of oneself, the more one tries to fill this undefined emptiness, which is a futile attempt; the "filling" comes in at the same time we are emptying ourselves! This creates an insatiable thirst, as when water is poured into a sieve. This thirst for more ... for quantity ... further destroys discernment and quality; quality can not be ... without discernment, and discernment is not possible without an individual self. We cannot solve the problem of emptiness and the mystery of love until we dis-cover what we have lost ... our individual identity. The pseudo identity, with its upside-own love and upside-down pride, can never quench the thirst for authentic needs ... our own identity as an individual.
The First Step - "Milk" before "Meat" The leaders of the church begin this destruction by their "milk" advertising, which gives "lip-service" promises of authentic Love and Understanding. They promise the core needs of the individual in this life and then insidiously eliminates them. Once hooked by the White "milk" of promises, members are later told that Love and Understanding are both "sacred Meat," not attainable in this life; they are mysteries that can only be known after we die (postponement). In the meantime, one must prepare oneself through Obedience and Sacrifice (of self) to receive them ... maybe ... if ... one is found "worthy" (through self-humiliation).
No member will know whether they have passed these "tests" of obedience, or not, until "Judgment Day." However, if the same rules are supposed to apply then as they are applied now, no one will be able to pass the tests. There will always be the "Yes," you obeyed this, "But," you failed that. You were not "perfect" in your obedience. It's no wonder so many members have recurring dreams, or nightmares, of having failed a test, or an examination of some kind.
Faith against Reason The "reason" given members why they must not have "meat" before the "milk" is that it would not be "faith promoting;" the truth might "damage their testimonies" ... and that is true! The truth would set them free from The Pattern ... Mormonism's "meat." The truth is, that "love" in Mormonism, is the upside-down love of projected self-hatred. This kind of love is filled with fear of abandonment, punishment, and helplessness which fosters the need to be taken care of ... i.e., "charity," and for "mercy" ... to be constantly "fed" a substitute for self, which cannot satisfy one's real need to be authentic (neither the Binder nor the Bound can be "fed" from outside themselves). At the same time, this pseudo identity is told it is "special" because it is one of the "elect" and the "elite." All a member's pride is vested in this image of being one of the "chosen" in the political body. At the same time, we are told that "You have not chosen me, I have chosen you...." There is no individual strength allowed; there is only strength in the numbers that comprise the political body. This substitute for self is then pitted against the real self; members are taught to love the substitute and to hate the real.
Love and Hate become Enemies - A Circular War between the Shepherd and the Wolf
Both love and hate are energizing forces that need to be channeled and released. In the case of the latter, hate needs an enemy to fight and love becomes the target; this is the "Shepherd/Wolf" syndrome; the Wolf kills what the Shepherd professes to love ... purity; the Shepherd then says to the Wolf, "If I can't have it, you can't have it either." They castrate each other. (Back to back they face each other, draw their swords and shoot each other.)
In Mormonism, one must hate what one would otherwise love, and at the same time, love is espoused to be the goal for which members are seeking; this creates a circular pattern ending in futility and a form of madness ... not unlike "all the ills of the world" that flew out of the box in which Jupiter/Zeus had put them. As long as this Pattern remains hidden, this war between love and hate, of killing what one loves, will continue; Zeus's box will be refilled and released, over and over again.
Tracing these Beginnings in Mormonism - "Backwards to the Future" This tangled web of contradictions in Mormonism began with one of the sundry Laws, contained in Lev. 19:18, which said "Yes, love thyself," ... "But, no," it was not mentioned in the Law, in the 10 Commandments; "Yet,... it is," i.e., it is in the New Testament's "gospel of love." However, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young (and now, Packer) with their "advanced history," i.e., the imposition of the ancient Mosaic law over Christianity, have regressed backwards to ancient, barbaric laws, minus one of the "sundry laws," ... Love. Members are to look "forward" to love, in the future. Joseph and Brigham obscured Love, yet claimed to be the Church of Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Mormonism still claims that "Love is," and, "is not." At the same time it says, "It yet IS."
The Pattern is madness. It's no wonder that faith is welcomed; this way of "thinking," this illogical logic (yes/no) is un-reasonable; it is the incomprehensible mystery, the "meat" that members are not ready for ... and, never will be, because as members of the church we are not supposed to question the "mysteries of God." Faith is the cloud of unknowing and filled with fear. Without reason, The Pattern cannot be seen. Truth then becomes a mystery that is dangerous and forbidding! It, too, must be kept a mystery, because if the truth were known, the Pattern would collapse along with the power the church has over its members. It is the church that is filled with fear of the truth ... of it being revealed, and if revealed, it would cause a very real revolution; our mental and emotional world would be righted ... from upside-down, to right side up. That is why Mormonism teaches us to be afraid, to fear and fight the truth, which it has labeled "evil."
This War is Alive Today Mormonism, through the Double Bind, turns us against our personal selves and for the church ... towards a substitute general group identity which can be manipulated en masse. Only a few general authorities are required to control the obedient indoctrinated rank and file masses in this Latter Day Israelite army that Packer is encouraging.
In the following essays I intend to show the parallels and ramifications of this ancient Law as it has been, and is, applied in Mormonism, and how it continues to kill what it professes to love, ... Love ... by the very Omission of Love.
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Next:
The Core of The Problem - - Part 3
Next Page: Part 3 The Omission of Love
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