A COMMENT ON ISLAM - AND A MESSAGE FROM THE WOOD ZONE EDITORIAL TEAM

I received this comment today:

Iraq wrote: "While I disagree with this guy on his views of my [LDS] faith, I feel that he is rather balanced in his views on Islam..." Iraq, if Pastor MacArthur mischaracterizes the beliefs and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members, then why is he trustworthy in his characterizations of Islam and Muslims? I know this comment will probably not make it past your heavy-handed review process or see the light of the day on your blog. But the fact that you'll read it is, alone, worth the few seconds it takes to compose and send it to you. In 2002, as part of the celebration surrounding the dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, the Church released a short video entitled "Between Heaven and Earth" to help explain the role of temple worship in our faith. Featured in that video was the (Lutheran) Bishop of Stockholm, Krister Stendahl. Stendahl, who passed away a few years ago, was a great friend and ally of the LDS faith. As shown in the video, Stendahl had three rules when it came to interfaith relations and discussion: (1) If you want to know what a particular denomination believes, ask a member of that denomination and not one of its critics or enemies; (2) Compare bests with bests, i.e., don't compare our tradition's bests with the other tradition's worsts; and (3) Leave room for "holy envy", i.e., recognize that other traditions can and do have elements about them that our own tradition could make good use of to bring us closer to God. Bishop Stendahl's "holy envy" for the Latter-day Saints was the temple practice of baptisms for the dead. You can see the relevant clip from the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qGv00w1zus I encourage you to begin to more thoughtfully follow Bishop Stendahl's inspired counsel for interfaith (or inter-anything, really) discussion. The world has enough rancor and division in it already. We can be true to the Church of Jesus Christ without being abject jerks to those who differ with us on whatever point. Thanks, Brock

Brock, thanks for your input.  I have stated in the mission of the blog that this is not my purpose to sit and argue with every apostate on subtleties of doctrine, etc.  This blog is to state my opinion.  If it offends someone, please scroll on by.  If I feel someone can add to my thought process, I welcome it and publish it.  If the person is what I affectionately call a bleeding heart liberal (member of the Church, who embraces everything in the name of diversity and "love your neighbor", then I can tell you up front, we will never agree.  Bishop Stendahl should have envy for the temple practices.  His religion no longer sports those.  They were eviscerated from Christianity in the first few centuries.  Islam has no doctrines that, if added to our canon, would elevate our thinking.  This is not arrogance; this is fact.  We are Christ's Church because we have the fulness (excepting true Consecration, which will be revealed to bring us into the Millennium).  Liberals think we will be better if we are more accepting of other ways of thinking - and this quite frankly, is insulting to me and to our doctrinal set.  But, the average liberal would take us right down the path to "butt sex is normal" in the Church thinking....  No thanks!  I am a hard liner and always will be.  I will not give into this cultural war.  To the last man, sir!

Fact is this:  There are a few things I admire Islam about, including their treatment of strangers as far as feeding them and caring for them before sending them on their way.  This is a cultural thing we should adopt in the West.  It was a matter of life and death in the desert....  Beyond that, I have little that I admire scripturally or doctrinally; that I could add to what the Lord has revealed to His people and other fellow descendants of Abraham who have a portion of the Promise.

In my mission, with as much love as I could muster, I admonished people to repent (after having done so myself), because I know that soft love rarely produces fruit.  I saw much fruit on my mission because the mis-guided notion that you show your love by being soft, is just simply mis-guided.

If you give a druggie cold hard cash, you do a disservice.  If you let your kid live in your basement and play video games and watch porn until they are 35, you do them a massive disservice.  The most amazing thing my dad did was to take my older brother down to Cedar City and drop him off with a place to live, a job from an uncle and an intro to the local two year college.  He pulled himself up by the boot straps and made an amazing success out of his life.  He was not harsh - but he was firm.  My dad saw him floundering.  I am a big proponent of tough/firm love.

To Islam; they do not teach that Christ is the only way to salvation - so yes, they SIMPLY will have to change.  PERIOD.  They will come crying to the Jews that they have harassed for decades, when Jesus comes and saves the Jews and wipes out the exulting Islamicists/Turks/Syrians/Russians/Chicoms/Iranians who thought they would deliver the final blow to those God said He would come to save in their dire hour.

I have another reader Bryan D. who has fallen for the liberal drivel and is extremely supportive of the Palestinian cause, the illegal immigration into the USA and so much else including the Mexican/Central American model.  Unfortunately, I have an opinion that sticks with what Joseph had to say.

I am very anti-Chicom (who seek force and coercion/mark of the beast methodology to govern and whom Joseph Smith called the "heathen Chinese"), very anti Islam (as their doctrine seeks to destroy, by force, the Christian West) and very pro-Joseph when it comes to the Central American model for the Book of Mormon (in other words, I rejected it outright, because Joseph never spoke for it and it fails the common sense factor HORRIBLY.

So yeah - I am pushing a narrative.  I you are pushing another one - please move along.  There are plenty of blogs out there that will support the bleeding heart narrative.

Are we to exercise charity?  Absolutely!  Sometimes, we focus so much on being inclusive that we are at the point that we want two raging (practicing) gay men knelt across our altars.  Over my dead body.  NOT gonna happen.  Do I hate gay men/women?  Nope!  I love them enough to tell them to repent.  The people I love the most are those who have done the hard things and told me to repent.  Spare the rod of the mouth, and spoil the child of God.

So, please do not waste your time posting comments, unless you can add to the topic at hand.  I do not mind info that provides more of a clarification than anything, I am just not here to get into endless debates.  Some people are mentally ill out there - and if you do not agree with you, they attack you and get really nasty.  There is one here in Cardston, who is just hell-bent on the idea that he is one of the two prophets in the streets of Jerusalem.  I made the mistake of saying that I believe it will be Holland and one other (in a public forum) and he started in on me.

Folks, when reading - please just tell yourself, "This is not the way I feel, I am at liberty to scroll on by or even quit reading this dog and pony blog altogether."  It is the rational way.  It is the easy way to live.

I occasionally would visit the Denver Snuffer site because I did buy into his views on 2 Nephi 28-31 that the Church is whom that diatribe was addressed to - and not necessarily the Catholics, etc.  When I began to part company with his opinions (as he began to throw Brigham Young under the bus over polygamy and much else), then I simply quit visiting the blog.

Please take note.  Thank you.