Posted by:
smirkorama
(
)
Date: August 31, 2016 10:44PM
When I was teen, there was a member of our stake presidency that lived in our ward. He had a special photograph. After church meeting, he could be seen very carefully showing this photograph to people on a limited basis. He would single out a couple and get them off to the side and let them have a look. That way he could concentrate on the people viewing the photograph to monitor and control their reaction. finally, after a few weeks, it was our family's turn to view the photograph. People had to be told the warm up story first. The photo had been taken by a person who was at a funeral, at the cemetery. It was cloudy and overcast at the cemetery that day. According to the story, the person had received a prompting to take a photo of this cloud bank that had settled in over the cemetery. According to the story, they did not really know why they had been given the impression at the time. When photograph was finally developed, the reason why was manifested. There in the cloud bank, caught by the magic of photography and promptings of the spirit, Jesus himself had magically been captured /caught in action at the cemetery, apparently in the very act of taking the deceased person's soul to heaven. People would have a very dramatic reaction to the photograph, much the same as people's reaction to the shroud of Turin, because the photograph had captured the image of Jesus, it was an actual picture of Jesus. This photograph was a real religious relic of Jesus caught in the act, giving proof that Jesus was real. In my estimation, this photograph was a better relic than the holy grail or the shroud of Turin. Others who had seen the miraculous photo felt the same. Seeing the image of Jesus standing there in the middle of a cloud bank was stunning. This relic was something that would be very precious. This relic was something that should be shown to the MORmON prophet and apostles, as it was about the best most compelling evidence of Jesus since Joseph Smith's first vision and the book of MORmON coming along. People could only try to imagine what the prophet's reaction to the photograph of Jesus would really be, once he had seen the special photograph, but they did not have to imagine what Jesus looks like because they had just seen an actual photograph of the Savior! That super special experience made a person's bosom and faith swell with pride and satisfaction and confirmation.
Several weeks had gone by. I was at school. I went to band class. I was quite surprised, stunned again, when I found this same photograph just lying on the shelf in front me in the instrument storage room when I was getting my instrument for band class. I instantly recognized the super precious picture of Jesus, even though I had only seen it one time before. My mind raced. How could anyone let such a precious item slip away from them. That would be worse, much worse, than a person losing their waller or purse. It would be like Joseph SMith losing the gold plates ....... and There I was, the very person who had the precious relic fall into my possession. One thing was certain, I was not going to carelessly lose track of the relic the same way that the previous person who had it had done. I had a pretty good idea of who that person was -the wayward son of the counselor in the stake presidency who had jr high band class just previous to my band class. I quickly stuffed the sacred holy picture of Jesus into my pocket. Then I went and got seated for band class.
I tried to concentrate on band class but it was very hard to do with the holy relic photograph burning a hole in my pocket. Finally when there was a little bit of a break for my instrument section, I was compelled to pull the relic out of my pocket for a quick peak, to confirm to myself through my disbelief that the relic really had fallen into my hands. My action proved to be a huge mistake. As soon as I could get a glimpse of the photo, the person sitting next to me wanted to know what I was looking at. That was NOT what I wanted to have happen. That person was a close friend. I tried to put the photo back into my pocket and downplay it as nothing of significance. That Ploy of mine completely failed as that action only made my friend demand to see the item. Hopefully, once he had seen it, he would be satisfied and I could put it back, safely into my pocket. I turned the photo toward him so he could see it, trying to keep the stir to a minimum. He betrayed my trust and instantly snapped the photo out of my grasp. There was no such thing as a casual reaction to the relic. It had been less than 20 minutes since I had gained possession of the relic, and completely against my strong intentions, I had now lost possession of the object. Now the person on the other side of my friend was demanding to see the photo. True to its religious relic nature, The Photo attracted attention like crazy. A photograph of a nude girl could not have caused more of a stir. IF I had lit a cigarette there in band class, and I did NOT smoke, or set off a fire cracker, it could not have garnered more attention. With in a matter of seconds there was a crowd gathered around the photo, hoping to get a glimpse of it. Soon after that, the attention of entire room was focused on the object. My indiscretion of taking the photo out of my pocket turned out to be a huge mistake in the context of hoping to maintain possession of the item. The item might as well have grown wings and flown away, it could not have left my control any more rapidly.
The band instructor had become aware of the stir. He asked what was going on. When he finally had some indication of what was causing the disturbance, he responded: "Oh that !" His response completely divulged that he had some previously establish familiarity with the relic photo. It was also a very strong indication that the current situation was a reenactment to one extent or another of a very similar scenario in the jr high band class in the previous hour.
"I don't believe that is real" the band instructor quickly added in totally skeptical form, revealing even more of his established familiarity with the relic photograph. Even as the designate intellectual superior in the situation, the teacher's skeptical comment was met with resistance and even open direct however subdued objection from various students who had a penchant for believing. This was a manifestation of public sentiment. Most people want to believe, just as they have been taught to by their parents, including NON members. The teacher felt compelled to confirm his contrary, skeptical stand in the face of disappointment and resentment that had so automatically and reflexively came back to him.
" I don't!" he responded. Then came the natural question from some of the class members : "why not??" The teacher had stated his skepticism in raw form in reaction to the interruption to his music class. He knew that he had already probably said too much. He was not going to refine his skepticism for the class or delve into the issue, after all this class was supposed to be a band class, a music class, Not a philosophy class, not a referendum on the existence, or not, of Jesus. " I just do not" the band teacher said to cap off the discussion, then he followed up with instructions to go back to the musical score at hand.
Even in his skepticism, the band teacher had acknowledged how the relic was readily and commonly perceived by people including himself -as an article of faith, as some indication on the reality of the existence of Jesus Christ. He had insisted on rejecting the indication as presented by the photograph because he was NOT a believer. He could / should have been better served by his skepticism. I had my own instantaneous reaction to his skeptical comments on the relic. It hit me like a hammer. Of course the photograph was real. It was as real and genuine as any photograph could be. So the band teacher was wrong when he said that the photograph was not real. The very real photograph had captured the images of very real objects in one single layer shot just as those objects stood before the camera. Those objects were a very real cloud bank that surrounded a very real statue of Jesus at the cemetery, which was perfectly centered in the photograph just as the original photographer had lined up the photograph to take it, which also explained why "Jesus" was so perfectly captured so perfectly posing in a classic open armed "come unto me" form just as the original sculpture was intended to display. And of course, that very genuine photographic image of that statue had zero bearing on whether or not Jesus really existed as a deity. At that point, I could only wonder IF or when the same thought had dawned on the counselor in the stake presidency. Perhaps he had known the true nature of the photograph all along, and he had intentionally played with every person that he had shown the photograph to. To this day, 40 years later, I still do not know. I will never know. However, I am grateful for some aspect of objectivity that managed to prevail in my mind on that day in band class as the relic so quickly passed into and then out of my possession. I just wish that my objectivity could have managed to kick my ass out of the MORmON cult much much sooner.
Some one in the band class asked me IF I wanted "my" photograph back. "NO" I said, "It's not really mine, anyway". With that comment, I turned lose of the relic, an object that I had only possessed for some very memorable fraction of hour, that just a few minutes earlier had been of incalculable precious value and that even more quickly, so miraculously with a sudden turn of events, had become basically worthless. And yet, the thing, wherever it currently is, in whatever condition or form that it is presently in, is still quite remarkable for the reaction that it evoked and the thoughts that it provoked at one time.