On Members Saying That I'm Following Satan

I've discussed this in a previous blog post, but some people in our community have continued to verbally say that my family is being lead by Satan.

Some of what I write below, I've said before.  Some of what I write below is additional food for thought.

What does it mean when someone is under Satan's influence or being lead by Satan?

If I were to walk in the door of all the local Christian churches, sit down and tell the pastor about myself and be completely honest with him or her, I would be willing to bet they would say I'm not being influenced by Satan.

For me, if someone is being influenced by Satan, it means they are immoral.  Immoral, to me, means:

• committing murder; attempting to commit murder; war-mongering; genocide
• stealing, robbing, tax-evading, swindling, bilking
• cheating on a spouse; wrecking families; committing adultery
• being abusive; physically, sexually or psychologically
• lying, not being honest or truthful; intending to deceive; cheating
• embracing, supporting or giving cover to any behavior above, when you are in a position to stop or prevent it, within reason
• embracing vice; being corrupt, foolish, selfish, prideful, slothful, licentious or acting cowardly
• lacking any virtue; such as justice, wisdom, courage or temperance

I'm not perfect, but I don't have any habits of any of the above.  We all may have lied or have dabbled in vices at some point, but for me, none of those vices have turned into a habit and therefore is not part of my character.  I don't think I'm being influenced by Satan.  In fact, my striving has always been, and continues to be to:

• support life; mine, my family, those who benefit from my charitable contributions and taxes
• live honestly, in work and personal life; try to be transparent as reason permits
• being faithful to my wife and children; I've never physically abused them and I have tried to parent productively, without emotionally abusing them ... anyone can ask them how I've done and I won't be fearful of the answer
• I try to ensure justice is pursued where I can influence it; if someone has committed a crime or done something morally wrong, I try to help them or if needed, report it to the police/authorities
• I strive to live a life of virtue every day; I'm not 100% successful all the time, but I am striving to be more just, more wise, more courageous and more temperate

I think it should go without saying, but I will make it explicit.  I do not worship Satan.  I do not participate in black magic, voodoo, Satanic rituals or anything of that kind.

Now, to a member of the Church, what they mean when they tell me I'm being influenced by Satan, is that I won't believe or say that Joseph Smith was called of God or that the Mormon church is the one true church on the earth today and all other religions are an abomination before God or that the current prophets, seers and revelators of the Mormon church are the only men who speak for God on the earth today.  Because of that "thought crime" people believe and verbally say I'm being influenced by Satan.

What confounds me, though, is that there is plenty of evidence Joseph often stepped into immoral behavior as listed above.  Some members will try to ignore it or rationalize it.  This is moral relativism.  It wasn't moral in 1835, it isn't moral in 2019.  If we are going to give Brother Joseph a break, then I would suggest to anyone who thinks I'm being influenced by Satan, to give me a break too.  If Joseph passes the judgement bar, I think I will too.

Also, at the heart of this issue, for me, is trust.  I believed my leaders and teachers.  I trusted them to tell me the truth.  I believed my leaders and teachers when they said the peep stone was an anti-Mormon fabrication designed to make us lose our faith.  I believed them when they said that Joseph practicing polygamy was false and an anti-Mormon lie or that he made up the Book of Abraham.  I believed them when they said it was God who cursed wicked people with black skin.

When I later learned the truth, I realized my leaders and teachers, either wittingly or unwittingly, didn't tell me the truth.  That hurts and I lost trust in them.  How can I have faith in leaders where there is no trust?

In my search to understand why people are saying my family and I are under the influence of Satan, I came across this conference talk by James Faust: The Great Imitator.  One passage stood out to me.  I share this passage to those who think or say I'm following Satan.

Let us not become so intense in our zeal to do good by winning arguments or by our pure intention in disputing doctrine that we go beyond good sense and manners, thereby promoting contention, or say and do imprudent things, invoke cynicism, or ridicule with flippancy. In this manner, our good motives become so misdirected that we lose friends and, even more serious, we come under the influence of the devil. I recently heard in a special place, “Your criticism may be worse than the conduct you are trying to correct.”

I do not have any bad or ill feelings towards people who say this of me or my family.  My deepest desire is that they would take the time to understand what I've been through - to walk in my shoes - to ask questions and get to know me, then to exercise empathy.  If we have to agree to disagree, so be it.  But please make the effort to know me before you judge me so harshly and say that I and my family are following Satan.  We simply are not.

May Week 3 - Discerning Truth from Error and the Pure Doctrine of Christ

Truth vs Error ... Pure Water vs Fake Water
Prepare 5-6 cups of water (1 with chlorine in it, 1 with salt, 1 with sugar, 1 from the tap, 1 from a purified water bottle)

Bring the class in the kitchen, explain the situation and then ask for a volunteer to see if they can find the pure water.

Talk about what the person did to test the water before they tried it.

How is this like trying to discern truth from error and the pure doctrine of Christ?

N. Eldon Tanner once said, "Freedom is based on truth, and no man is completely free as long as any part of his belief is based on error, for the chains of error bind his mind. This is why it is so important for us to learn all the truth we can from all the sources we can." (source)

The Woman at the Well - Living Water
Next, take the class down the hallway to the Woman at the Well painting.

Ask them if they know what this picture is.

Tell the story (John 4); the purpose of this is to state that Christ could give her living water - water that never ends; that keeps on providing forever.

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

What is this synonymous with?

If you were given a pill that gave you the capacity to discern truth from error forever, would you take it?  I think the answer is yes!  This is essentially what Christ told the woman - that endless truth could be found by listening to his teachings.  And what were his two greatest teachings?

1. Love God
2. Love neighbor

Some Absolute Truths vs Nots (Plus some Indifferents)
If you agree with the statement, thumps up; if not, thumbs down.  If it doesn't matter, make a flat hand.

Having self-discipline is good.
Being courageous is good.
Black kittens are good.
Having lots of money is good.
Volcanoes are bad.
Lying is good.
Helping others is bad.
Love is good.
Money is good.
Integrity is good.
Being famous is good.
Humility is good.
Perfect health is good.

What matters in this life is accepting what God sends our way - be it disease, poverty, a flood, wealth, health, certain people (i.e. choosing to accept our fate and be in harmony with it) AND

Helping others with a focus on developing virtue within us and instilling it within others.

That is 'living water' - water that will bring you contentment and peace.

April Week 4 - Recognizing Truth

The Importance of Compasses and Reliable Instruments

Play a couple of guessing games with a "standard" and then the right "standard":
1. How much does it weigh?
2. How long is it?


Is it important to have reliable instruments when building a house? cooking?  flying?

Then what about living your life and people telling you how to live it?

You are ultimately responsible for how you live your life

While you may receive guidance from your parents, your teachers, your friends, the prophets and any number of people and voices in the world today, at the end of it all, it is up to you to decide.

My goal today, is drive this single point home: You (each of us) wholly own our thoughts and actions.  As such, each of us has to take that responsibility seriously.  At the end of the day (or this life) we can't say, "my parents made me do it" or "I was just trying to follow my leaders."

Nuremburg Trials
After WWII, the Allies put many of the Nazi leaders and industrialists on trial for their war crimes.  Many tried to use the defense, "I was only following orders."  But in many cases, that defense was not successful, because the crimes they committed were so egregious - essentially the Allies were saying "you should have known better as a human being."  The Wikipedia page on "Superior orders" does a good job explaining this.

Mark Hofmann, the Prophet and Forgeries
Everyone can be deceived; which is why it is so important for each of us to really check our assumptions and underlying philosophy.  We simply cannot outsource our personal philosophy or religion.

As primary kids, we sang the song "Follow The Prophet"; the chorus goes:
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; don’t go astray.
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; he knows the way.

Each of the verses talks about how people regretted not following the prophet.  Unfortunately, "the knife cuts both ways."  There have been times when people did follow the prophet and regretted it.

It is wise to remember we all, including prophets, are fallible and subject to deception.  Again, this underscores the fact that we need to be responsible for our own beliefs and philosophy - we can't just delegate this responsibility to others.

Case in point is a man by the name of Mark Hofmann and how he deceived many of the leaders of the LDS church.  It all started, if you recall, when Joseph Smith and Martin Harris attempted to get a professor to vouch for the reformed Egyptian characters.  The professor's name was Charles Anthon.  Martin Harris took a paper with some of the Egyptian characters on it and asked Anthon if they were legitimate.  Supposedly Anthon said they were, and he signed a document stating as such.  But upon further inquiry, Harris told him all about how Joseph found and translated the Gold Plates, at which point, Anthon asked back for the paper and ripped it up.  What became of the paper that had the Egyptian characters is up for debate.  No one really knows if it still exists today or not; it is called the Anthon Transcript.  Under this cover, Mark Hofmann created a forgery and claimed it was the real transcript.  He took it to Church leaders, who evaluated it, were deceived by the excellent forgery, and then proceeded to purchase the forgery for $20,000.  Thus began Mark Hoffman's career in forging Church History artifacts.

He continued to create forgeries and the Church continued to collaborate with him and purchase them.  Hofmann was secretly trying to make the leaders look bad.  He created what was called the Salamander Letter, which basically tried to make it sound like the angel Moroni did not visit Joseph Smith, but instead a spirit in the form of a white salamander, appeared to Joseph at the time of him obtaining the gold plates.  The Church bought this letter, which caused many members to stop believing in Joseph as a prophet.  Many top Church leaders, including President Oaks, defended the forgery.  What is even more fascinating is that two avid critics of the Church (Jerald and Sandra Tanner) readily criticized the forged letter, saying it was fake, despite the Church saying it was real.  At this point in the story, you may begin to feel a bit of vertigo yourself.  Who can you trust?  Who is right?  Who is telling the truth?  And you'd be right and justified in asking those questions.

Eventually Hofmann was caught in his lies and, sadly, killed people who were catching on to his lies.  To this day, he sits in a Utah prison.

Who can you trust?  What measuring stick or instrument can you rely on?  What is constant and unchangeable and undeviating?  That is the real question we must all try to find.

What is the 'measuring stick' for life?

Again, each of you will need to decide what your moral compass is.  You may find that what you think is right, is actually not.  You may find that after going down a path - a way of life - you conclude it was not right for you.  Many claim to know what the correct philosophy is, but it is interesting that on some points they agree and on some points they disagree.

For me, personally, I think it all boils down to the two great commandments:
1. Love God with your whole heart
2. Love others

If we do well in those two commandments, we can comfortably stand before God at judgement day, and honestly say we've lived those two commandments, then that is the best we can do.

Focus on finding contentment and happiness in things you can control.  Accept the things that are not in your control.  After repeated practice, you will begin to find that virtues such as self-discipline, courage, justice and wisdom are indeed in your control and are also the attributes, which if you develop, will bring you contentment in your life.  Other things that may worry you, such as pursuing money or lucrative career, seeking a life of ease and pleasure, indulging in excess, selfishness, dishonesty, fear, anxiety or general worry - these things are not important and are generally out of your control - so why set your heart on them?

Heart Failure

Why would our hearts fail us?  Read this post to find out.