The moment Charlie Kirk got through to Bill Maher and made him realize how “generous” Jesus Christ is.
KIRK: “Judgment is getting what you deserve. Mercy is getting less than what you deserve. Grace—”
MAHER: “Wait, wait. Mercy is getting less than what you deserve?”
KIRK: “Yeah, so we believe Jesus gives us grace. So you get a prison sentence, you get judgment, you get mercy, you get less of a prison sentence. Grace would be Jesus serving that prison sentence for you so you could live life eternal.”
MAHER: “Well, how is he serving that? Oh, you mean like in the big picture?”
KIRK: “Well, because we believe him living a perfect life and then suffering the death that he did on the cross was him atoning for our sins. The sins of humanity. Which is a big claim, albeit a very compelling one, which we also believe to be true. Because it redeems all of humanity of our short-falling of the glory of God.”
MAHER: “I gotta say, it’s really picking up the check for the whole table. I mean, you gotta give it to your boy. For all of our sins? It’s a very generous thing. Very generous!”
The literal resurrection of Jesus is, of course, the subject of so many scriptures that it is settled doctrine for believers of the Bible and Book of Mormon. For us, the universal resurrection is equally certain.
I wonder if we fully appreciate the enormous significance of our belief in a literal, universal resurrection. The conviction that death is not the conclusion of our identity changes the whole perspective of our mortal life.
It affects how we look on the physical challenges of mortality. It gives us the strength and perspective to endure the mortal challenges faced by each of us and by those we love.
It signifies that mortal deficiencies are only temporary! It also gives us the courage to face our own death or that of loved ones—even deaths we might call premature.
Our belief in the resurrection also encourages us to fulfill our family responsibilities in mortality. It helps us live together in love in this life in anticipation of joyful reunions and associations in the next.
#GreaterLove #GeneralConference
Artwork: “Above All” by Kelsy and Jesse Lighweave
The hardest thing that ever was done.
The greatest pain that ever was known.
The biggest battle that ever was won.
This was done by Jesus!
The fight was won by Jesus!
@thatsKAIZEN Keep going, Kaizen. Truth matters. Honest perspective matters. Critical thinking, honest reasoning, and the courage to state it on a public forum like X just might be what let's us keep our democracy.
2 months ago, a man driven by anti-Mormon hate rammed his truck into an LDS chapel in Michigan, opened fire, and burned the building down, killing 4.
One father was shot in the leg. His young daughter was shot in the back.
That same family went to the BYU–Cincinnati game this weekend, hoping for a night of normalcy.
Instead, parts of the crowd chanted “F--- the Mormons.” Not once, over and over. The PA had to warn fans 5 times to stop.
When survivors of a religiously motivated attack can’t attend a college football game without hearing slurs about their faith, it proves this isn’t “just smack talk.”
Empty apologies aren’t enough. There needs to be consequences for these actions, or the actions won't change.
Brilliant and true.
Jonah Goldberg’s thoughts about Mormons after the Michigan massacre:
“…. to the extent I can be “pro” a large demographic group without running afoul of my classically liberal aversion to talking about groups in blanket ways, I am pro-Mormon. Not for what they believe theologically, but because of how they behave morally and culturally.
What I find particularly fascinating about extreme anti-Mormonism is that it is overwhelmingly theological and abstract. I am not dismissing theological distinctions as “mere abstractions.” Abstractions can be extremely important. But there is something distinctly off-putting—one might even say evil—when theological differences morph into hatred toward a whole class of people solely for doctrines and not for what they actually do in service to those doctrines.
This is different than most hatreds that try to claim—often dishonestly, but not always—to link the beliefs to actions. Racists and antisemites will make claims about what “the blacks” or “the Jews” do. I will often disparage Communists for their beliefs, but my argument for doing so hinges on the things Communists actually do, have done, or want to do in the real world because of those beliefs. A Marxist poet who minds his business might amuse me, but who cares?
Think of it this way: If there were no such thing as Islamist terrorism, far fewer people would have a problem with Islam. Of course, animosity toward Islam because of terrorism can be very unfair to Muslims who are not terrorists and—again, as a classical liberal on these matters—treating peaceful decent Muslims as if they are responsible for the terrorist acts of others is wrong. Yes, the question of “support” for terrorism makes things muddier, but we’re going to stay clear of that rabbit hole.
The point is that Mormon haters can’t point to “Mormon terrorism” or make specious and invidious guilt-by-association claims the way racists and antisemites routinely do. Jews don’t use the blood of Christian babies to make their matzoh—a centuries-old blood libel—but at least that lie is a claim about something Jews supposedly do. Mormon haters don’t talk about “Mormon crime” or Mormon welfare cheats the way racists will talk about blacks.
Heck, I think the Amish are “wrong” about all sorts of things, but beating up an Amish person because of those disagreements strikes me as just about the dumbest thing imaginable. But even anti-Amish bigotry, to the extent it exists, seems to rest at least pretextually on things like Amish being conscientious objectors during wartime and, I dunno, slowing down traffic with their buggies. I struggle to think of what Mormons do that justifies disliking them, never mind hating them.
And yet there are a lot of Mormon haters out there. I was at National Review when we endorsed Mitt Romney for president in 2012, and the amount of email I got from self-professed evangelical Christians spewing the rankest bigotry against him, and Mormons generally, stunned me. Except for a few nasty jokes about undergarments, these notes were all about heresy, demonic this, antichrist that, and various theological “crimes”—but not anything that Mormons actually, or even allegedly, do. They just believe the “wrong” thing.
In this way, I think extreme anti-Mormonism may be the most reactionary form of hatred in America, because hating people solely for what they believe is the closest we get to ideas that powered the wars of religion in Europe, not to mention atrocities like the Albigensian Crusade. It’s premodern, tribal, reactionary, and evil.”
https://t.co/VqlpgtgejH
This is how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints respond when Broadway mocked its sacred scripture.
It purchased an advertisement in the playbill.
This morning with our burned down church still smoldering and four saints murdered, members of the Church of Jesus Christ raised $60k for...checks notes...the shooter's wife and children. Most donations are anonymous. Each Christian comment will make you cry more than the last.