Automatic Ticket to Heaven

[wuapinmon]

So, apparently, according to one testimony given in church today (unrefuted by the priesthood, I might add), if you're a soldier in the Army, and you're fighting a war, but you're fighting God's war, and "you have the Bible out in front of you," if you get killed in combat, you "go to Heaven automatically."

Is there a special morbidly-obese battalion I can join? I'll go in as a buck private if I get the guaranteed ascendancy. I'll volunteer to patrol Baghdad dressed in a t-shirt with يمارس الجنس مع محمد
emblazoned on it.

[Slim]

Open mic Sunday was especially entertaining today, wasn't it?

[pellegrino]

Open mic Sunday was especially entertaining today, wasn't it?

it's the perfect alignment of the stars (and stripes) that occurs every five or six years when the nation's holiest holiday coincides with Christianity's holy day of rest.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

it's the perfect alignment of the stars (and stripes) that occurs every five or six years when the nation's holiest holiday coincides with Christianity's holy day of rest.

I learned that America is doomed, unless some of the elders of the church step up. Then we sang all 3 verses of The Star-Spangled Banner.

[Indy Coug]

Well, since according to this board even the leaders of the church can't get the doctrine right, why would we expect the rank and file members to do so?

[CardiacCoug]

My wife and I were talking about how today's open mic meeting had incredible potential and we couldn't wait to hear how Obama and friends are destroying the country, etc. I told her I was watching Fox News this morning to get some good material for my contribution to Fast and Testimony Meeting.

But nothing happened -- a couple of vague references to being thankful for the country and that was it. Kind of disappointing, actually.

[All-American]

We lucked out in Sacrament meeting. One of the counselors is being replaced. After his "testimony" and his wife's "testimony," we had "testimonies" from the incoming counselor and his wife. A member of the branch who is moving out filled the remaining five or so minutes. We then concluded the meeting.

For Priesthood meeting, we combined with the Relief Society for the week's lesson, which I taught. I started by asking whether and how it was appropriate to talk about July 4th in a church meeting, and proceeded to teach a lesson based on three points: 1. We should remember what the Lord has done for our fathers (Alma 36:2); 2. We should appreciate what our forefathers have done for us, learning also to improve upon their mistakes; and 3. We should strive to live up to the "just and holy principles" upon which our freedom and liberty is based.

I'm never sure how well lessons go over, especially ones like this, where there is so much more of delivery than discussion. Preparing for the lesson, however, was one of the better experiences I've had in the last few years of teaching lessons. Something about this nation, its dedication to principles of freedom and liberty, and the sacrifice of untold thousands who pledged their lives, fortunes, and honor that this nation might live has such an impact on me.

I had somebody read the Gettysburg address, and as he was reading it, I could remember seeing the rows of anonymous graves in the cemetery.





Those men lost more than their lives. Their names, faces, and identities were lost to history with the flash of the gun. In the Homeric sense, where having your name outlive you was of tantamount importance, these men laid everything on the altar. The only trace of their identity that remains is a small marble box with a number engraved on the surface, designating them as an individual member of the collective dead of Gettysburg. Yet, since their frailties, their weaknesses, their mortality withered away in July of 1863, having given the last full measure of devotion to the proposition that all men are created equal, they may have achieved immortality after all.

I quite like America.

[Jeff Lebowski]

We lucked out in Sacrament meeting. One of the counselors is being replaced. After his "testimony" and his wife's "testimony," we had "testimonies" from the incoming counselor and his wife. A member of the branch who is moving out filled the remaining five or so minutes. We then concluded the meeting.

For Priesthood meeting, we combined with the Relief Society for the week's lesson, which I taught. I started by asking whether and how it was appropriate to talk about July 4th in a church meeting, and proceeded to teach a lesson based on three points: 1. We should remember what the Lord has done for our fathers (Alma 36:2); 2. We should appreciate what our forefathers have done for us, learning also to improve upon their mistakes; and 3. We should strive to live up to the "just and holy principles" upon which our freedom and liberty is based.

I'm never sure how well lessons go over, especially ones like this, where there is so much more of delivery than discussion. Preparing for the lesson, however, was one of the better experiences I've had in the last few years of teaching lessons. Something about this nation, its dedication to principles of freedom and liberty, and the sacrifice of untold thousands who pledged their lives, fortunes, and honor that this nation might live has such an impact on me.

I had somebody read the Gettysburg address, and as he was reading it, I could remember seeing the rows of anonymous graves in the cemetery. Those men lost more than their lives. Their names, faces, and identities were lost to history with the flash of the gun. In the Homeric sense, where having your name outlive you was of tantamount importance, these men laid everything on the altar. The only trace of their identity that remains is a small marble box with a number engraved on the surface, designating them as an individual member of the collective dead of Gettysburg. Yet, since their frailties, their weaknesses, their mortality withered away in July of 1863, having given the last full measure of devotion to the proposition that all men are created equal, they may have achieved immortality after all.

I quite like America.

That's a great post, AA. Thanks.

[YOhio]

That's a great post, AA. Thanks.

Yes. Excellent, AA. I had a rather sobering experience in church today as our several military members stood up and gave heartfelt testimony. They expressed dedication to their country, love of their family and devotion to their Savior. It was testimony without guile and touched me to the core.

In the next few months we have four members of our EQ deploying to Afghanistan. They're all family men with children, one is leaving two weeks after his wife gives birth to their third baby. Seeing ward members leave for war is something I can never get used to no matter how often it happens. When I think of them and the real sacrifice they're making on behalf of our country I feel humbled. I always love when we sing Battle Hymn in priesthood opening exercises, but this week it was transcendent.

[CardiacCoug]

Yes. Excellent, AA. I had a rather sobering experience in church today as our several military members stood up and gave heartfelt testimony. They expressed dedication to their country, love of their family and devotion to their Savior. It was testimony without guile and touched me to the core.

In the next few months we have four members of our EQ deploying to Afghanistan. They're all family men with children, one is leaving two weeks after his wife gives birth to their third baby. Seeing ward members leave for war is something I can never get used to no matter how often it happens. When I think of them and the real sacrifice they're making on behalf of our country I feel humbled. I always love when we sing Battle Hymn in priesthood opening exercises, but this week it was transcendent.

We sang Battle Hymn of the Republic in priesthood meeting as well. Good stuff.

[happyone]

Thats a new one. I've been around the military and military wards all my life and I've never heard that

[wuapinmon]

This thread has become a thing of beauty. Thanks, AA and YO for what you wrote.

[SuperGabers]

I agree. Thanks AA. God bless America. I am so thankful I live here.

[byu71]

I am watching the Boston Pops with Toby Keith celebration. I am glad even as old as I am, I can still have things said and sung about America that brings tears rolling down my cheeks. Heck, I am so greatful to be an American right now I appreciate the liberals for not letting the country become to overly conservative. Whether the quest for greed and power seems to mess us up at times, in the long run somehow the melting pot that is America brings us around to our basic decency and greatness.

Lastly, God bless our soldiers and veterans who make it possible for me to live free. If they get a free trip to heaven, I won't complain.

[wuapinmon]

I'm almost done with Vol. 4 of Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples, and he loved America. I look at how crappy things were in England, and the liberties that we had here that some of my ancestors had to fight to protect and I'm just so very grateful for the discovery of the New World, for the hard-won freedom that better men than I fought to protect, and for the continued existence of the American Experiment.

While I'm not so sure about divine intervention in the mundane, I do believe that this continent is exactly what the Book of Mormon calls it, and I think that our freedoms here come with a price.