In another thread about LDS Easter Sunday services, derrida said:

>When one starts listing all the church talk themes and
>programs, how much is given over to Joseph Smith and LDS
>church leaders, the LDS church starts to sound cultish,
>insular, and weird, speaking so much in code and talking
>about anxiety and fear producing topics, e.g., obedience,
>anxious to serve, anxious to do missionary work, linking
>church leaders, even at the local level, to God's authority,
>harping on home and visiting teaching--a lot of themes that
>seek to make people overstep others' boundaries.

Anxious to serve, anxious to do missionary work. I suddenly remembered "men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause." I had to look it up - it's from D&C 58:27.

According to a quick scripture search on lds.org, this is the only scripture in which this phrase appears, yet I have heard it quoted a thousand times. I'm sure you all have.

However, this is the first time I've thought about that scripture without my mormon blinders on. This scripture is supposed to be direct revelation from God to JS. So it begs the question...

Does God not know what "anxiously" means?

anxiously - adv: with anxiety or apprehension; with a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

So, he wants us to do good, but only if we feel uneasy about it?

Divine revelation my ass. This sounds more like an under-educated farm boy trying to sound smarter than he is.

Can you think of any other examples from BoM, PGP, DC where Joseph's attempt to sound impressive resulted in malapropism? I'm sure there are lots.

Exactly- divine revelation my ass. When I was naive enough to try out the anxiously engaged' thing, all it did was made me need an anti-anxyolitic drug! Srsly. I felt like I was fighting a losing battle, and I was...so I gave up that battle and won the war!!!

Per D&C 132, I know what Joseph Smith was "anxious" about. He was anxious about new wives, getting his calling card calendar filled, rendevouin' with his wives, power, fame, greed, etc.

I remember a paper I wrote in HS where I used the word 'anxious' in the mormon context. I got written up for it and talked to the instructor. It was kind of a 'huh" moment for me.

Speaking of which, I remember another HS teacher enlightening us on the other utahisms like the pronunciation of "ensign' or the actual meaning of "ignorant" (hint it doesn't mean "rude'}. I always thought he was kinda ignorant for popping my bubble like that.

And I've thought of another...one day talking to my doctor about my diet. me: "Bread for man". her: 'wtf? you eat too many grains you need more fruit and vegtables". Me: 'whatever. bread is for man". yes my mormon life was a mish mash of advice across a range of topics that came from god. Mere mortals just couldn't understand that. Plus they were uneducated and sometimes downright ignernt. If only they were more anxiously engaged in reading their scriptures they wouldn't need to go to medical school for stuff I already knew.

Here you go from the true church itself:

How do you pronounce Ensign? The correct pronunciation is N’sine, not N’sun.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/01/my-favorite-ensign-article?lang=eng

It is just interesting to me that people spend their whole lives trying to destroy other peoples faith. What happened to religious freedom? If they are happy, let them be happy with their law abiding families. If anyone is under the influence of the devil it is individuals like that guy spending his whole life not seeking God but trying to prove others seeking God are wrong.

They pronounce it "EN-sign". That's how I heard it my entire life. When I finally heard it pronounced "en-sin" I thought what a pretty word it is.

When I moved to Utah and heard everybody using "ignernt" to mean rude I thought it was such a joke. Then I assumed that at least my fellow students understood the real meaning of it. They DIDN'T. I was so embarrassed for their ignernce. ;)

I think you have it even more correct--en-sin. see the mormons don't even know how everyone else says it and just assume they are right. And don't think it doesn't matter--you totally get corrected in the morridor for using the wrong pronunciation.

"Ensign" has a lot of different meanings. When it refers to the lowest rank of commissioned officers in the navy, then it's pronounced "en-sun."

However, when it refers to a sign, flag, badge, token, emblem, etc., it's pronounced "en-sine." The quote from Isaiah, "an ensign to the nations," uses it in this sense.

Mormon definition......

Anxiously Engaged: To feel anxiety or apprehension; with a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, about being engaged to someone you hardly know because you are only getting married because you want sex and are being pressured by friends and family to hurry up because at 19 - 21 years, you are to old to be single.

Good one! This ought to be in Runtu's Mormon Dictionary.

At moments like these I wish that more French speaking mormons would spend more time reading and studying their scriptures in English
If I were to translate into English the French version of that particular verse it would be : men should be working zealously(?) in a good cause

Zeal and anxiety are not actually the same thing, are they ;-)

To feel anxiety or apprehension; with a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease,

That's exactly how i felt about teaching, leading in RS, giving a talk.

Finally i decided that nursery and library were great callings because my anxiety was gone while doing them.

I could never understand how people would start off their talks by saying how 'happy' they were to be up there. I thot they were lying!

I remember an LDS church talk where someone was trying, relatively successfully, to distinguish sacred, solemn "fear of the Lord," the OT's "beginning of wisdom," from monster scary, ashen fear, and terror.

It still all amounted to the same thing: you have to be afraid for your very salvation is at stake and God may think you didn't do enough or were pure enough to receive it. You worm.

or movies?? none of them ever served in the Navy or Coast Guard?
and RJ... i really dont get the "God fearing" crap either...why should you fear a benevolent God?
Do we have anything to be "anxious" about with you sir? i am not a RJ fearing kinda guy!!
jus sayin!

I'm sure there are plenty of cases where Joseph misused words while attempting to impress, but I think this is not one of them. The second definition listed at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anxious is the intended meaning:

2. earnestly desirous; eager (usually followed by an infinitive or for ): anxious to please; anxious for our happiness.

Usage note
The earliest sense of anxious (in the 17th century) was “troubled” or “worried”: We are still anxious for the safety of our dear sons in battle. Its meaning “earnestly desirous, eager” arose in the mid-18th century: We are anxious to see our new grandson. Some insist that anxious must always convey a sense of distress or worry and object to its use in the sense of “eager,” but such use is fully standard.

My grandparents always used it as "eager," saying, "We are both so anxious to see you!"

ANa

older folk used to use it as a substitute for excited too.

translated: busy work, pay your Temple Tax.

PAY, PRAY, OBEY!

Anxious also means "ardently or earnestly wishing". You can distort all sorts of things if you only present selective evidence. God didn't mean feel worried all the time, He meant earnestly wish to be engaged in a good cause.

Anxious also means "ardently or earnestly wishing". Anyone can distort anything by only presenting selective evidence. If you were actually trying to gain insight about this revelation you would have found the other definition instead of pulling the first thing off the web you found to make it sound stupid. God didn't mean feel worried all the time, He meant to have an earnest wish to be "engaged in a good cause".

How do you know what god means? And, which god of the thousands are you referring to?