There are many reasons to be optimistic about overcoming the pandemic before us and getting our economy moving again (for example, one optimistic perspective is being offered by one of the world’s leading epidemiologists, Professor Johan Giesecke). But the impact of broken supply chains, of excessive debt, and possible massive misallocation of resources (like taking trillions out of some sectors of the economy to funnel them to favored big businesses) can have many unexpected consequences in the future. Those consequences can lead to banks defaulting and problems in cash flow and finances for companies that manage your food supply, among many other supply chain problems. The food supply chain is nothing to take for granted. There are reports of food going to waste in many regions due to problems in transport and many other factors directly or indirectly related to COVID-19. Many products are already in short supply and prices of some are rising, even as prices of oil plummet, all a sign of market chaos.
There’s no need to panic about food, just as there’s no need to keep panicking about COVID-19, but wise precautions make sense in both areas. Are you ready if there’s a shocking jolt in the realm of food? It could come from a bad turn in the weather, a broken international supply chain that creates a shortage in packaging materials, the economic collapse of major players related to the food supply, food processing plants being shut down due to disease, a trucking strike, or other events. Many items are already in short supply in many stores. When happens when something else goes wrong? Just be prepared.
I hope you will strengthen your ability to bless the lives of your family and those around you by building food storage steadily. For basics like grains, did you know that members in the United States can log into the Church’s website and use the Church’s online store to get some items such as #10 cans of red wheat? I didn’t even know that until today, when a daughter-in-law explained it to me. Good prices for red wheat, but many other products appear to be sold out. I also made some purchases at Honeyville Farms, a Utah-based operation with a good selection of grains and other food-storage items. Again, many things are sold out — we are not alone in recognizing the need for food storage, but bags of red wheat and a number of other products are still available.
Stay calm and prepare steadily.
Sound advice.
Given this a blog a squaring LDS believe with Christ's teachings, can you? Jesus clearly taught his followers not to have such anxiety for the future. In fact, LDS clarity removes doubt this was a teaching just to a people about to be destroyed by the Romans, for Jesus repeated the teaching to inhabitants in another part of the world in very different circumstances.
It seems the only way to square it, is to read the scripture differently than the way it is written.
What is this "anxiety" you worry about? "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" is a wise guiding principle for all humans. Aesop focused on the need to prepare for foreseeable need in his fable about the ant and grasshopper over 2500 years ago. Preparing for hardships that are already being warned about in the world press is the opposite of giving in to anxiety.
CT, the reference in the comment above seems pretty clearly to be to Matthew 6:25-34, in which Jesus says “Take therefore no thought for the morrow,” etc. The point seems to be that the Mormon emphasis on food prepping, while certainly sensible and consistent with Aesop, is not exactly biblical. But of course the LDS Church has little to do with either Jesus or the Bible anyway.
— OK
CT –
It is not just Biblical, it repeated in the Book of Mormon (one of your favorite books) which creates LDS clarity that this is a profound universal teaching, not just a specific teaching to one of group of people. Your quisitive "what?" displays you understand the disconnect between the LDS teaching and LDS scripture and it bothers you so you are going to play a game of playing dumb to resolve the discordance. Then you share an anecdote from secular humanist perspective, not LDS scripture, to validate the wisdom of the prevailing LDS teaching of prepping, which is exactly the point. A true believer would chose Jesus when secular humanism or Jesus conflict.
It appears the only way to square the teaching with scripture is to render scripture useless and call secular humanism and children's fables religion.
wise and foolish virgins anyone?
I only come here to laugh at Jeff, not actually take his advice. He gets off on it.
shokupanmanbo – The virgins parable is a temporal metaphor applied to eternal preparation, not temporal preparation. Jesus was pretty clear about worrying eternal preparation not temporal preparation. Stressing in order to delay the inevitable is not what Jesus taught.
The ask is for the LDS to explain what Jesus meant by not worry about tomorrow and to be like the lillies and birds who do not worry about food or clothes for tomorrow. How does Jesus's teachings square with LDS guidance to do the opposite. So far LDS have only avoided addressing and referred to other parables and fables.
Usually LDS invent a tortured explanation that Jesus was referring only to missionaries, though the actual text does not support this, Jesus was addressing all Christians, not just missionaries ambassadors.
So….grocery shopping for more than today is "unbiblical"? After all, that is taking thought for the morrow. Nonsense. As are the criticisms above.
CT, Jesus’s statements on worrying about the future make sense only in their apocalyptic context. Remember, he said he was going to return on clouds of glory, usher in the new heaven and new earth, etc., and he was going to do this “before this generation passes away” — within his followers’ lifetimes.
Of course, Jesus didn’t deliver on that promise. The sensible thing is to conclude that he was wrong about who he was and that therefore Christianity is without foundation. Instead Christians have spent a couple of millennia trying to make Jesus’s words mean something other than what they plainly meant.
Had he been right, it would have made sense to sell one’s possessions and give the money to the poor, to give no thought to the morrow, and so on. But Jesus was wrong, and Christians found themselves in a world where the promised judgement seemed endlessly deferred. So they rather sensibly started ignoring much of what he said — started accumulating treasure here on earth and giving a great deal of thought to the future — even as they hypocritically maintained they were still living by the words of their lord and savior.
— OK
CT –
Now you are calling the words of Jesus nonsense. As was pointed out, you always say what Jesus words do not mean, but never explain what they mean. If all you offer is hand waving, the you have proven the criticisms above are spot on.
To further OK's education for you, even Paul (whom the LDS insist was not an apostle,but nevertheless is an author of canonized scripture) commanded the single to stay single, because after all the end of the world was coming. If Jerusalem was going to be destroy, but the end of the world was not coming, then the command should have been get married and move to Egypt or somewhere else.
I knew a man who wanted to buy a boat, but his Mormon wife would not let him until he had a solid year's food supply. There was always one more Mormon thing the wife demanded he set aside for and he never got his boat. Looking at the barrels of wheat sitting in his garage where his boat should have been for 20 years he chuckled, "When society goes kaput, it is just going to show up with guns and take the wheat anyways." Finally when the man had to move, a small pig farmer did him the favor taking the heavy barrels of wheat out of the property.
https://bookofmormonstudynotes.blog/2014/12/05/3-nephi-1319-21-lay-not-up-for-yourselves-treasures-upon-earth/
Wow. I just read the Book of Mormon Study Notes entry linked to by Anon 7:17 above. From my Jewish perspective it seems … off.
Here’s the key passage:
I want to set my sights higher. I want to participate in righteous activities without regard for the short-term reward (without caring whether others are aware of what I have done, for example.) I want to be focused on the eternal value of righteous activities, so that I can experience their full reward.
The “righteous activities” here include charitable giving. When I was growing up, I was taught that the reason one should give to the poor is not to get a reward in exchange (say, the reward of social approval) but to alleviate the suffering of the poor. It’s about empathy: one’s focus should be on the poor.
According to the Study Notes, by contrast, the reason one should give to the poor is not to get a small reward now, it’s to get a bigger reward later. It’s transactional either way; the point is to make the transaction more personally profitable!
I was taught that charity was not about me; it was about the poor. The Book of Mormon Study Notes say it is about me — about maximizing the return, so to speak, on my charitable investment. Empathy is not mentioned at all, nor is morality.
— OK
Jeff I'm still waiting for you to lay the blame at Trump's feet, where it clearly belongs. Keeping quiet on this fundamentally important issue is akin to staying quiet in the presence of wicked King Noah, to use a scenario you're familiar with. Are you an Abinadi who speaks truth to power or are you going to sit there quietly?
I don't have time to do all the blaming you'd like me to do, but I absolutely think he has made serious mistakes. While he did shut down traffic from China that his political opponents blasted as "xenophobic", the key step that helped Vietnam and Taiwan stay healthy, I think he missed many opportunities to help us take this seriously and avert the problem. I think he was also terribly naive to trust people using scare tactics relying on highly questionable models. His assumption that he has absolute power terrifies me. His vacillations are also troubling. His choice of people to be on the committee about opening up America stuns me. His handing the Fed several trillion dollars of play money to hand to big companies and to buy stock in them is outrageous (not completely his fault, but he agreed to sign that 800-page monstrosity of mischief that will hurt us more than any previous war in the long term).
But if it were me and I had been handed trusted advisors, I'd probably make some of the same mistakes. Except I hope I wouldn't think I had absolute power. But yes, much to blame. But it's not just him, and sometimes he has taken wise steps as well. It's a mix.
No mix. NO MIX! He's all to blame. This would not have happened with any other GOP candidate in power, let alone any *gasp* DEM in charge. But we'll see that for ourselves, hopefully. He's essentially doomed the GOP party for a generation, especially since this plague is hitting mostly his very own constituents.
Today's comments about injecting yourself with disinfectant were the very last straw. Our leaders should be calling for his immediate ouster.
I dare anyone to defend him.
The GOP had its chance to vote Trump out of office at the impeachment trial. They could have gone forward with conservative Republican Mike Pence in office, but they were scared of Trump and bent the knee. Now that Trump has been so severely weakened, they’re going to pay the price in November — after tens of thousands of Americans needlessly go to an untimely death. A terrible tale of political greed and cowardice.
And stupidity, of course. Even after all the idiotic things that dotard has said, right up to today’s lunatic rambling about disinfectant and sunlight, millions continue to support him.
— OK
Yet Jeff insists "it's a mix" and keeps straining to find a shred of good for some strange reason. The comparison to wicked king Noah is perfect, but I guess Mormons have a difficult time seeing the obvious. Party over religion, especially here in Utah. If this state stays red in November, there's no longer any reason to call these people Christians. Actions > words.
Constitution Party Jeff – Are you ready to act instead of complain? Are you going to supporting a national movement to give the US president a line item veto, like your governor has? It has been record time since we had a constitutional amendment.
Whether you like him or not, PLEASE don't follow his latest advice about using bleach to treat your lungs. OK, he only said to consider calling a doctor to ask about using Lysol on your lungs, but don't even think about such a thing.
One of the problems that Wuhan apparently faced was that bleach was sprayed in many locations. But bleach is one of the worst things to expose lungs to, especially for people who may have lungs under attack from a virus or pneumonia. Chemical induced pneumonia is a very real and dangerous thing, and it's possible that excessive use of bleach may have contribute to the many cases of pneumonia that Wuhan and Hubei province suffered. Numbers are still unclear, though. But don't even get close to bleach fumes.
One of the many problems with Trump — beyond his chronic dishonesty — is his lack of clarity. It’s often hard to tell exactly what he’s saying.
So I’m not so sure we can say he only meant we “should consider calling a doctor to ask about using Lysol on your lungs.”
A lot of his speech seems mainly phatic, devoid of specific meaning and “saying” nothing more than (in this case) “Don’t worry, things will be fine, this is no big deal, I’ve got this, I’m smart and capable.”
There’s nothing wrong with phatic speech, of course, but too often when Trump uses it he also (unwittingly?) communicates literal ideas that are dangerous.
— OK
Constitution Party 7:41 — Are you really so sure a line-item veto is a good idea? It gives an already overly powerful office more power, and seems ripe for abuse (i.e. a vindictive president like Trump using it to punish states he doesn’t like).
— OK
Lots of political raging going on here but I'll take the low hanging fruit on this one:
"I want to set my sights higher. I want to participate in righteous activities without regard for the short-term reward (without caring whether others are aware of what I have done, for example.) I want to be focused on the eternal value of righteous activities, so that I can experience their full reward."
OK, you read too much into that passage. By doing the right thing, you will gain a reward. That much is clearly stated. Giving to the poor to alleviate the suffering that the poor has is the right thing. It also helps to create a sense of empathy for those who are in need. This type of charitable giving is the right way to give. Suffering is alleviated, empathy is learned. Are these not the eternal, righteous activities that get rewarded? If one is doing it for the reward, then no reward is given.
Steve
I am not sure the line-item veto is a bad idea, but it by no means ideal. Ideal is elected governors behaving like angels, but alas that is not their nature, so we need auxiliary precautions. Liberals usually claim the executive is too powerful, conservatives say the judicial is too powerful. Who says the legislative is too powerful? Constitutionalist?
I guarantee a line-item veto will be abused, but such abuse is the lesser evil. Gerrymandering is abused, but a tolerable one. Both sides do it. To make up for historical evils, the federal government has deliberately empowered state Democrats to openly abuse gerrymandering and that is not all bad. When red and blue presidents abuse the line-item veto it will balance out over the longer arc. I have fruitlessly looked for studies on how urban blue and rural red fair in the 43 states with Governors empowered with the line-item veto. States are laboratories of democracy and the supermajority of the labs like it. Maybe there is something there.
For over a century and a half, the executive had a form of line-item veto with executive impoundment. Then in 1974, the Supreme Court took that away, probably rightfully. Missing executive impoundment by 1986, both parties began calling for the line-item veto. When Clinton used it, the Supreme Court rightfully declare the legislature cannot give constitutional powers to another branch.
But what am I trying to solve with it? Accountability. The 535 members of the two chambers are mostly nameless. Aside from a dozen senators and a half dozen house members, most of us do not know who they are. When 800-page bills get loaded with pork, it is hard to pinpoint who to hold accountable. Plus despite being "US" congresspeople, they only represent their districts and their districts like pork. An executive that refused to line-out pork can't blame the sausage-making process, it is on them.
But I would be interested to hear Jeff's auxiliary precautions to less than angelic governors of the governed. Complaining is easy, what is his solution?
Actually, it was Obama who talked and went about punishing voters, states, citizens.
There's of course biblical precedence for food storage.
Of course, Anon 2:24. Probably the most noteworthy example is Joseph’s advice to the Pharoah to store grain against a coming famine. But of course Joseph did not believe the world was about to end.
— OK
Also, the instruction was given to a polytheist and by following the instruction the polytheist transferred all the nobles wealth to himself, making him nearly all powerful. Nearly, because the polytheist priests's were the only ones allowed to keep their wealth.
Of course going to Aesop or "Biblical" are all ways to capitulate there are not "Christian" examples. Christian, not Biblical, was the subject. The subject was LDS clarity of Christian teachings. Like every religion, the religion's canon has little to do with the religion's actually beliefs.
Protestants radically transformed Christianity and have struggled to rationalized their reinvention of Christianity. One suggestion is Jesus's words were to a specific people facing a unique social and economic challenges. LDS clarity requires another rationalization because the words were repeated to a people who had just ended, not about to start, their catastrophic events and beginning a long period of calm and peace. LDS clarity makes those words a universally new paradigm, just as Christianity made proselytizing a new paradigm, something that previously was not "Biblical".
This thread shows the LDS cultural can be intellectual, but cannot be involve deep thinkers. The contradictions and inconsistencies are just too massive. Jeff is really smart, but he clearly is not a deep thinker.
Anon@8:50, I am sorry that your analysis of this post and threat tells you that "LDS cultural can be intellectual, but cannot be involve deep thinkers." I'm not exactly sure what you think the problem is — perhaps my deep reading skills are even worse than my failed deep thinking attempts. Would appreciate some deep guidance for a shallow thinker.
LDS clarity requires another rationalization because the words were repeated to a people who had just ended, not about to start, their catastrophic events and beginning a long period of calm and peace. LDS clarity makes those words a universally new paradigm, just as Christianity made proselytizing a new paradigm, something that previously was not "Biblical".
Of course going to Aesop or "Biblical" are all ways to capitulate there are not "Christian" examples. Christian, not Biblical, was the subject. The subject was LDS clarity of Christian teachings. Like every religion, the religion's canon has little to do with the religion's actually beliefs.
Anon@4:47 – 3 Nephi 13 clarifies Matthew 6 with "he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them:"
Deep thinking Jeff – Surely you thought of this question when you were 10 years old and learned of the war of heaven.
https://www.quora.com/unanswered/In-LDS-theology-how-will-our-pre-mortal-personality-and-mortal-personality-merge-after-death-in-the-Spirit-World-What-will-be-the-psychological-impact-of-memories-of-two-completely-different-experiences-merging
In LDS theology, how will our pre-mortal personality and mortal personality merge after death in the Spirit World? What will be the psychological impact of memories of two completely different experiences merging?