Wasted Time, Energy and Oxygen

What a waste of time, energy and oxygen for Utah to impose their predominate religion on me via their Utah State Liquor Store. Let’s say 10% Utahans visit the liquor store weekly and conservatively only burn one extra gallon of fuel.  That’s 281,722 gallons wasted per week or a total of $56 Million per year that otherwise would go into the economy instead of gasoline, thus reducing gasoline prices and foreign dependency not to mention overall air quality could be greatly improved.

I realize “their” intent is to reduce my consumption from one bottle of wine per week to maybe none! (Where would Jesus be if he had to go to the state liquor store to turn water into wine?) Now they have gone too far. In buying a six pack of “BEER” the store clerk had to ring each bottle up separately agitating us both to the extreme. My only conclusion can be “they” want me to view a six pack not as “one” but six individual drinks!

Ironically, Utah’s population could differ greatly if the legislature could have forced Brigham Young to purchase his wives at the State Wife Store. Instead of buying 9-6packs of wives, he would have had to pick up 55 individual women, who knows, maybe Steve Young wouldn’t even exist!

 Women,  I know it all seems so insensitive, I agree, I must update my views on women, Brigham Young really had 9 “binders” of women and couple extra pages poking out!

Please God, Can I have one more Gun for Christmas

Growing up my father always had a multitude of guns around the home for hunting and self protection. All were rifles or shotguns that provided much needed nutrition from wild game as well as providing a means of protecting the 10 ton of wheat, rice and beans we kept in the basement.

Upon dad’s passing each of the 12 children inherited a gun or two with many rounds of ammunition. I inherited a 12 gauge double barreled shotgun. Over the years I have chosen to have a hit man slaughter my meat and short of fishing, have not taught my children to hunt as my father did his sons.

Times are changing. Just as our forefathers had the insight to protect the right of “men” to “bare” arms (how did they know men would be shaving their arms 236 years later), we now have the opportunity to look forward as a nation and protect the civil rights of our children and grandchildren.

A shotgun lies beneath my bed (with a trigger lock and the key attached to my nipple ring) next to my baseball bat. As I have progressed over the years, I find it far too impersonal to outright shoot an intruder or a sales person at your front door when you could personalize this action to a far greater level with the baseball bat! But, I must ask myself, “What would Jesus do?” Does Jesus understand the importance of personal protection and also the need to keep high power weapon’s in the event government needs to be overthrown if our leaders take away our individual freedoms? I find it interesting depending on who is “President” you are either a “patriot” or an “anarchist” if you have ambitions of overthrowing the government by force!

During the holidays I wonder what role religion plays in my life and am always hesitant to mix religion and government. But, I have come to the conclusion that government should require all baseball bats to have the seventh commandment engraved in it. Thou shalt not kill.

Yes, I am proud of my emotional maturity, evolution if you will, and hope to continue with my progression as it relates to violence. In honor of my new found belief system, I pledge to only use my baseball bat on our Jesus piñata!

Yes, I know it’s “bear”……

Dark Skin...God's Orange Jump Suit For Sinners??

Recently I encountered a door to door salesman that deceived his way into my home. He suggested he was promoting energy saving devices, as it turns out, his company only offered one small gadget that was overpriced and readily available to the public. In reality, he was truly selling security systems and cable television. Within his misleading presentation he mentioned he was a return missionary for the LDS Church. Normally I don't believe this would have been part of his presentation, but within plain view was my mother's copy of the Book of Mormon that she carried for many years before her passing. More than likely he thought he was going to score points with me as a "returned missionary", but as he was soon to find out, his read of the situation was anything but accurate!

Being rather annoyed that this man had entered my home under what I would call false pretenses and knowing he was audaciously bragging about being a return missionary within his sales pitch, I reached for what is now my Book of Mormon and opened it to a passage I had recently tabbed, 2Nephi 5: 21-25.  The condensed passage reads,  21. as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. 22. that they shall be loathsome unto thy people 23. and curse shall be there seed of him that mixeth with their seed 24. because of the cursing which was upon them, they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. 25. they shall be a scourge unto thy seed.

Upon his obvious re-reading of the passages above, I simply asked what was his interpretation of this scripture was? He replied, "its kinda like prisoners having to wear an orange jump suit to make sure everyone knows they have committed a crime," he went on to say, " God did the same to sinners, he marked them with a dark skin so the righteous would know they were sinners or descendants of sinners." Needless to say,  I was more than taken back. I have heard or read most claims from Mormon Apologists and the Mormon Church has even gone so far as to edit these very passages, but this was a new standard of racism that truly explained to me how many Mormons feel.

With this prime example of the Mormons take on dark skin, my next questions is to Mitt Romney and it simply is, " Will everyone be white in heaven?" The truth is, Mormons believe having a dark skin is a curse and if you've made it to "heaven" then you will preside in the most perfected form and no longer have a dark skin! The most concerning part of this is the Mormon Church is sending missionaries to all regions of the world and one of their target groups is Native Americans from both North and South America, of which these scriptures directly apply. Nothing outrages me more than a racist organization recruiting the very people they have bias towards! (Keep in mind Mormons also believe that Cain was marked with a black skin and that all blacks carry that very mark. They also believe that "blacks" were not as valiant in Heaven as "white" people.  In fact, they believe "blacks" were fence sitters in the great war in Heaven between Jesus and Satan and this is why the Mormon Church withheld the Priesthood from black men until the late 1970's! Unfortunately, very few question why most religions withhold their priesthood from all women!

Mormons will work tirelessly to persuade the world their views and scripture are not racist. If they would devote as much energy into understanding the different populations and peoples of this world and accept the widely held scientific view that isolation due to natural geographic barriers and natural selection were the very  forces that created the wonderful differences within the human race, they would improve on their archaic and anthropocentric religion drastically. Only problem is, they would have to throw the Book of Mormon on its head, Joesph Smith couldn't even predict the past let alone the future and his racist views bleed heavily into his poor work of fiction!