Here's my favorite pull-quote:

I do not want liberals or evangelicals to use this election as an excuse to attack the Mormon faith. I am glad there is no religious test in the Constitution, and I would be happy to call a Mormon (or a Hindu) my president. But I am chagrined to see our public square stripped of real religious conversation.

Archeologists have uncovered a small room that appears to have been the study of a Mayan scribe. It contains notations and numeric sequences that suggest that, at least in one view, the Mayans didn't foresee an end of time (end of the world or radical world transformation) in 2012. In fact, this particular calendar finding some of the dates extend to 3500 and perhaps even billions of years beyond that date.

Given the recency of the discovery and the preliminary nature of any conclusions drawn from it, I'm not sure that we shouldn't still find significance of some sort in the hundreds of examples of Mayan calendars found in Central and South America in the past decades, all of which appeared to end in 2012. It may be that the end of time doesn't happen this year (for those who were taking that extreme of the many available positions) but it still could point to a transformational event or experience.

The really important message here is simpler than any of that analysis, though. Transformation happens. For us to survive as a species, transformation of consciousness must continue. Spiritual evolution is not just important, it is essential. Whether there's something magic, mystical or important about December 2012 is less important than that we continue to be aware of the need for us to participate in the ever-progressing upward movement of life and consciousness.

 

As a former (excommunicated by request) Mormon Elder myself, I can attest to the veracity of everything Sarah Posner says about the LDS Church, its polity and its politics, its leadership and its stance on social issues. I would add that another troubling aspect of Mormonism for me is its teaching of the doctrine of blood atonement which leads to the conclusion that only an execution can atone for certain offenses. Back in the late 1970's when I was an active member of the LDS Church and living in Salt Lake City, I ran afoul of its rules by refusing to picket a local X-Rated theater as ordered by my priesthood leader and by participating in vigils protesting the pending execution of Gary Mark Gilmore. Those incidents led to my request to be removed from the Church rolls, which proved to be a long, drawn-out process during which church leaders continued to try to "minister" to my family.

I do not believe that Romney's Mormonism ought to disqualify him from holding office, of course. But I do think that given the uniqueness of Mormonism and the degree to which it governs -- or attempts to govern -- the thoughts, positions and behaviors of its members, the subject of his role in the church and his response to anti-feminist, racist and other public policy statements made by the church leadership ought not be off limits.

At my church, we are studying some of the work of a student of Viktor Frankl, a psychologist named Alex Pattakos. His new book is called Prisoners of Our Thoughts. Frankl, of course, was the famed Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camps and founded a new school of psychotherapy based on the belief that what drives us is a will to meaning. Pattakos' book extends those ideas into seven core principles for how to live our business and social lives in ways that encourage us to remember that will and to keep it in our thoughts.

I love encountering such teachings. Thanks to my daughter Heather for the pointage.

Knowledge, which when reflected upon creates

Wisdom, which can then be applied to improve

Experience and

Or:

The President, quoting from Luke 12:48, said his view of social policy coincides with the statement, "for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." That was an accurate paraphrase of the actual quotation from the King James Version but I prefer the NIV on this: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded;"  The passage goes on to say, "and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

That the largest portion of Jesus' teachings -- insofar as we have them recorded reliably -- is about neighborly love and caring for the downtrodden. So, too, were the teachings of virtually every Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) prophet,'

But Reed, of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said that for the president to tie his tax policy to Jesus’s teachings “is theologically threadbare and straining credulity.”

It's a classic clash between the Social Gospel and Socially Conservative Fundamentalist Christians. This clash, in turn, is a product of late 20th Century America. Jesus talks not once about abortion or gay rights or any of the other social issues on which the Christian Right is focused like a laser beam while ignoring most or all of his teachings about love, relationship, charity, compassion and forgiveness.

It's sad, really. This time, at least, the President got it right and the guy with a Ph.D. in history who leads a large faith-based movement got it, if not wrong, at least sideways.

Building from a childhood Christmas experience, Plumer sgues to a discussion of how Christianity is faring in the midst of deep questioning of its roots and essence by an increasing number of clearly qualified, brilliant scholars who are grounded in that faith. The column is well worth reading, but whether you read it or not, perhaps you can identify with this quotation that seems to summarize his thoughts on the subject. I know I did.

 

Pass it on?