This post was an experiment in whether concentrating on the issues in my previous post would enable me to better put forth a discussion of the atonement. Your input and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

First to give context, I recently read a blog post about a “Reductio ad Hitlerum” film put on by BBC regarding the problem of Evil [1]. At the same time, I was listening to the Book of Job on my commute to work, slowly working my way through the Old Testament for the first time. As I dealt with these two items simultaneously, it renewed my interest in the way the church has dealt with the problem of suffering and evil. It is my opinion that the Church uses its particular theological tenants regarding the Atonement and the way things are as our own theodicy, and that this theodicy is strong.

Now perhaps theodicy is the wrong word, some may argue, but here I am taking theodicy to simply mean a defense of God’s goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil [2]. And again, perhaps atonement is the wrong word, as this can sometimes be construed to mean everything between the act in Gethsemane and the entirety of the Plan of Salvation. [3] For my purposes here I am going to initially begin by framing the problem in the whole of the plan and hopefully drill down to examine the event in Gethsemane in context of that plan.
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Today I went back and read a few old posts, and a few things became apparent.
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Every 5th Sunday in our ward, the Young Women started a tradition where a member of the Bishopric comes in and the Youth can ask them any questions they have. By Way of Contrast, here are some example questions:

Young Women:
-Who is Heavenly Father’s Father, and why Don’t we worship him?
-Why is there Suffering in the world when there is an all loving God?

Young Men:
-If you could pet a panda, would you?
-Which is your favorite Star Wars Movie?

Is this just my ward, or is it churchwide?

I frankly find this disturbing.

President Clark, you have a problem.

So, I have noted that my typical habit of buying books and giving them away has once again depleted my inventory. So I have been shopping the internet tonight, and I started thinking about the fact that I should buy books that help people with their issues, which got me to thinking about what all the issues are that my lds and other friends are going through, and I thought I would posit to the group what the best “faithful”* books are that deal with these issues:

So what is the best book(and you can’t answer the scriptures) that deals with:
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So I have to teach the Young Men a lesson this Sunday on choosing an Eternal Companion, and while I was going through the lesson, I noticed a sort of lacunae.

Why do we want to get married?

The only thing the manual provides is that old chestnut “Men can’t be exalted without being married”.
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As I opened the August Ensign, and went over the prophet’s message, I found it interesting that in Aug 2008, the prophet decided to talk about September 11, 2001. Then I realized it was a reprint.

Yes I know this isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. President Hinckley did this often.

And I know Monson has been repeating Sermons for 40 some odd years now.

But seriously, does President Monson contemporize his own republishings? Does he even select them? Or is this all done by some Ensign editor who with oversight from some curriculum guy? I’m just curious. Anyone know someone in the know on what the process is here?

*- I’m not bashing the choice to republish or asking for a doctrinal reason for it. I’m just curious about the process and practice thereof.

Ok, If you’ve been around a while, you know that I’ve never had a philosophy lesson in my life, and that I am pretty ignorant on these sorts of things. But I’m trying to get better and I’ve recently discovered the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and am learning, but have some questions.
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I received the following in my e-mail today, and as I am aware that many of our friends at FPR and JI take an interest in the goings on of CES, I thought I’d put it out for public consumption.

Personally, I am glad to see local CES falling under the authority of the local Stake Presidency.

First, this enables areas where there is a stake, but no CES influence the ability to run a seminary program according to their local needs. Second, this allows the Stake more control and responsibility in the selection of CES teachers. Third, this decentralizes CES control. Fourth, I think people are much more likely to reect appointments than callings and this is in part a reaction to many people quitting seminary teaching assignments. Finally, it used to be that a channel into CES emplyment was to volunteer, and if you performed well, you could get a paid opportunity. It seems that this somewhat backward window into CES is closing.

I do have some worries though. My primary worry is that requiring all CES teachers to be called and set apart may terminate most if not all of the interesting CES courses, like Julie Smith teaching an entire semester on half of Genesis, or Kevin Barney teaching a class in Hebrew or Greek for institute in Chicago. It doesn’t affect me directly, as none of these things are offered in San Antonio, but I still like the idea that courses are being offered. I guess time will tell.

It will be interesting to see what if any this policy change will have. In any case, I am grateful for church administration, and their inspired efforts to improve the church. Now I just need to keep praying for help with this “early morning” bit of it…

I face sort of an odd situation in my life. You see, I don’t believe the future exists yet, nor do I believe it can be clearly or completely determined, and yet some of what I would consider my highest level spiritual experiences had to do with God giving me what seemed like foreknowledge of the future.

To illustrate, I will provide two examples.

1st, perhaps one of the most life changing dreams I’ve ever had was about my teenage daughter, 6 years before she was born. She’s four now. (or one depending on which girl it was I dreamed of. They look almost alike in many ways, and the dream was a long time ago.) The dream changed my life in that I fell in love with my daughter in that dream, and so decided to have children. (Which I had previously been against.)

2nd, When I was deciding whether or not to be baptised, I felt an impression of the way my life would go if I followed the path of the gospel, especially regarding who I would marry. Just before I got baptised, this woman made it very clear that she would NEVER marry me. This led me to have a momentary crisis in my fledgling faith where I was uncertain of the communication I had received or that I had even received communication. Then through a spiritual experience I have elsewhere described, and through a decison I had to believe in the communications from God those experiences represent, I went ahead and was baptised. Now that woman and I have been married for almost six years. This crisis of faith, I believe, was critical to my conversion process, as it taught me to walk by faith and how to “put things on the shelf”. Further it confirmed to me I was joining the church for myself and not just another pretty face.

So there you have it. I still don’t believe the future exists, but I do believe God does, in a way beyond my comprehension, have an understanding of my life that enables him to effectively interact with me and help me to see my future, even though it does not exist.

Last month I was “fired” as Ward Clerk and moved to be Young Men’s President. Our Ward is Small, and so we combine Teachers and Deacons. We have 6 active youth who run the gambit in family settings.

Recently an apparent issue has come up where rumor has it that someone in my ward came up to one of my young men and chastised him for having black nail polish on while blessing the sacrament. (He’s Goth, or Monster Metal, or whatever it is called these days. ). Rumor has it that the boy was pretty angry about these comments. I don’t know what his reaction really is, but I can imagine. I don’t even really know which Young Man it was (I have two Goth kids, could be either one)

Now these are good guys. One always wears a suit to church and purposefully puts his “down to his waste” hair back in a pony tail. He blesses the sacrament nearly every week, and while he has no plans to serve a mission, attends mutual every week, and faithfully helps his grandfather home teach and serve half the widows in our ward. (By help, I mean he takes them the sacrament every week and takes some of them dinner almost every night.) The other is working with me every week towards achieving his eagle scout, despite great personal obstables he has come accross. Both have committed to me to work on their Duty to God awards and Both are 80% done or better.

More importantly, I have worked with these kids for years as a Sunday School Teacher, and I have a personal spiritual witness of their vital worth to God. Before I said these were good guys. Let me not understate this. These are AWESOME young men.

These are really smart kids, going through normal patterns that really smart kids go through, rebelling against the norms of society because let’s face it, the norms of society really suck for teenagers. Sure some could argue that “Goth” culture (or whatever it is) is just another norm of society (a trap as it were so that even those rebelling from the norms would fall into a consumer friendly market that is easy to produce product for). But the real thing is, I don’t want these Young Men to confuse praxis as applied by some members as the Gospel for the Way that brings happiness in this life and the next.

Being a teenager is hard enough. You’ve got the “circus in your pants” problem, the relationships problem, the accountability problem, the “church rules now apply to you” problem. I mean, what isn’t a problem or challenge at that age?

It reminds me of another young man I know who was once given crap by someone for having painted Toe nails while doing a baptism. He had a crazy Dennis Rodman fetish and apparantly Painted Nails were part of that Fetish. That guy later went on a mission to Indiana and baptised me.

My first instinct is to paint my nails black, but I don’t want to exacerbate the problem by openly being a jerk to someone who was a jerk, and it’s only a rumor at this point, so who knows. And besides, wearing nail polish bothers me. My second thought was to have a mini lesson on hedges, based sort of on Geoff’s recent post. Or maybe a mini lesson on stupid people and the church, or even a mini lesson on social conformity and cultural misunderstanding across generations.

anyway /end rant.

Any ideas?