I am sitting in Bill McKeever’s kitchen and this is the FIRST chance I have had to update you on our 2009 mission trip at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah. This has been a weird year as I will explain in a later report.
For now, I am going to take this opportunity to post a YouTube video I made while standing in front of the Oqiuirrh Mountain, Utah Mormon Temple. We had just finished taking our temple tour last Tuesday (the day we flew into Utah) when I had the idea for this Quick Question For Mormons.
Before the temple tour, we saw a video in which Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the twelve “Apostles” of the Mormon church, states something that I find to be incredibly offensive. I’ve seen this video before, but it was just as offensive this time around as when I first saw it. Here is my video.
Dale chiming in after quite an absence.No, Keith, I'm quite sure Elder Holland IS NOT saying "God is not enough." While that might be an inference in Holland's words that Evangelicals are prone to see, really, Keith, the inference exists only in your own religious biases (be they right or wrong).As I think you know, Keith, in Mormon faith, Jesus' resurrection is not just the sign and proof of human redemption. Rather, Jesus' resurrection is the power and gateway of human redemption. Mormons, quite contrary to Trinitarian doctrine, believe that Jesus himself was not fully redeemed until he reclothed himself in the glorified flesh. Jesus' resurrected body of flesh did not just represent God's reconciliation of corrupt humanity; Christ's resurrection also represented humanity's eternal attainment (through Christ as firstfruits) of the glorified image of God first manifest in father Adam.But in Mormon belief, God manifest his image not only through the physical creation of the original man, Adam, but through the creation of both the man and woman. As Christian literalists of the physical resurrection, Mormons don't think it any infringement on God and His holy solitude and sovereignty to say something like "heaven just wouldn't be heaven without my brain, my eyes, or my fingers, nose, and toes." We expect these rather glorious things to come back to us because of the promises extended from God to us through Christ. It is our belief in GOD that puts these heavenly expectations in our hearts. We certainly don't see these things as an infringement on God, and I'd be surprised if other Christian literalists see them as an infringement. But just to be sure, Keith, I'll ask you tonight at the pageant if you personally see your expectation of a full resurrection as an infringement on God's holy and unshared sovereignty? And I'll even further ask you if you expect to joy in your mouth independent of its function as instument for praising God?As far as I know, Mormons are the only Christian literalists that unashamedly recognize that the blessings of the physical resurrection and redemption extend also to our most holy parts. That is, to our God-given gender distinctiveness.When Mormons say that sexuality is holy they put no asterisk by the statement. It is holy because it is Godly. Both the man and the woman are Godly, and wouldn't be so in isolation. That is the gist and strength of Holland's statement of faith.Your Manti bud and bro,Dale Caswell.