Nov

19

The controversy in California regarding Proposition 8 built to a frenzy in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election and then exploded into anger and violence in the aftermath of Prop 8’s slim passage into law (52.5% to 47.5%). Exit polls showed the proposition was supported by 7 of 10 Black voters, a majority of Latino voters, and by people with children under the age of 18 still at home. Clearly, it was supported by all people who believed marriage is a special and protected institution.

Many supporters of Proposition 8 were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and they worked hard to promote their cause – not out of homophobic hatred, but out of a love of Christ and a belief in the sanctity of traditional marriage.

Many of those who opposed Proposition 8 reacted to the defeat by accusing Mormon of hatred. However, Mormons simply believe that marriage was instituted by God and that should be between a man and a woman and used legal means to defend their belief (and they were not the only one, or the only church involved, by the way).

On the other hand, some of the demonstrations against the Church by supporter of gay marriage seem to be motivated by hatred and they single out the Mormon Church.

These are a few pictures taken outside the Mormon temple that illustrate well this point.

Challenges to our faith are not new. Nor are they likely to go away anytime soon. But, as Elder Hales reminds us,

True disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition. We can take advantage of such opportunities in many ways: a kind letter to the editor, a conversation with a friend, a comment on a blog, or a reassuring word to one who has made a disparaging comment. We can answer with love those who have been influenced by misinformation and prejudice – who are ‘kept from the truth because they know not where to find it’ (D&C 123:12). I assure you that to answer our accusers in this way is never weakness. It is Christian courage in action.

There are several lessons that can be learned from the current unrest:

Tolerance is not agreement and should not be a one way street. However, we must still remain tolerant of those who are intolerant of us.

Recognize the adversary at work here - making good seem bad and evil seem good.

We can only be disciples of Christ when we respond to adversity in a Christlike manner. To do less opens our actions to the influence of the adversary and hurts us even more.

We should never take for granted the opportunities we have to gather together in worship. We should never put off the opportunity to attend the temple. For these valuable things can be disrupted and possibly even closed to us - if not permanently, then at least on a temporary basis.

Pray. Often. Don’t forget to include those who are set against you.

Nov

17

Yesterday I was attending my Sunday school class in my ward (Portuguese speaking ward) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) and it was mentioned a time when, in Brazil, a school teacher had asked the students to present themselves by telling their names, interests, which church they were attending, and a few other things.

That story, to all people present, seemed to come not from another country and time, but from another world. We were all very aware of the situation in the US, where teachers would never have the courage to do that. What a different world that was!

I know that in the past people had discriminated others because of religion, and we all agree that a state religion is not good for freedom, but I wonder if people realize that currently all religions are discriminated in public schools, with the exception of the church of irreligiosity, that is presented as the only truth.

If sponsoring only one religion is bad in public schools, why can’t we make all religions welcomed in our schools, instead of completely banning them?

M. J. Sobran wrote :

“The Framers of the Constitution … forbade the Congress to make any law ‘respecting’ the establishment of religion, thus leaving the states free to do so (as several of them did); and they explicitly forbade the Congress to abridge ‘the free exercise’ of religion, thus giving actual religious observance a rhetorical emphasis that fully accords with the special concern we know they had for religion. It takes a special ingenuity to wring out of this a governmental indifference to religion, let alone an aggressive secularism. Yet there are those who insist that the First Amendment actually proscribes governmental partiality not only to any single religion, but to religion as such; so that tax exemption for churches is now thought to be unconstitutional. It is startling to consider that a clause clearly protecting religion can be construed as requiring that it be denied a status routinely granted to educational and charitable enterprises, which have no overt constitutional protection. Far from equalizing unbelief, secularism has succeeded in virtually establishing it (Human Life Review, Summer 1978, pp. 51–52)

The plan is clear. The following talk by Mormon Apostle Elder Maxwell, given several years ago is really prophetic and illuminates what we are facing and what are the challenges of the future for true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Nov

6

According to CNN,

Thousands protested California’s same-sex marriage ban in West Hollywood Wednesday night. Californians passed the measure 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in Tuesday’s general election, countering a state Supreme Court ruling in May that said the state constitution guarantees gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Passage of Proposition 8 sent protesters into the streets of Los Angeles on Wednesday.

This clearly shows how the election results for these constitutional amendments will not mean an end to the debate over same-sex marriage in the US.

Such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life - family, identity, intimacy and equality - stirs fervent and deep feelings.

There is the hope that in the future all parties involved in this issue will act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility. However, I do not expect that this will always happen, unfortunately.

I know that many have criticized the Mormon Church and other organization for supporting Proposition 8. It is important to understand that this issue for the Mormon Church has always been about the sacred and divine institution of marriage - a union between a man and a woman and has nothing to do with bigotry.

It is also important to be clear that the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage does not mean that the church condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians, including their rights regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.

The only ting that the Church is concerned about is that those rights do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.

For more information about the position of the Mormon Church on this topic you may read

Church Responds to Same-Sex Marriage Votes

Oct

14

These are a couple of very good videos about the importance of voting yes for proposition 8.

Young adults from California discuss their involvement in preserving traditional marriage.


Elder David A. Bednar and a group of young adults from California discuss Proposition 8.

Oct

9

Yesterday a friend told me that he found something interesting about me at this website:

newyorktimesbestsellerlist.org

If we scroll down we can find one very nice video about the conversion story of brother Ott Dameron (my good neighbor)

and my own conversion story. The funny thing for my friend was that they titled my video by saying

Watch The founder of More Good Foundation, from Italy:

I have been working for the More Good Foundation from the beginning, and I am still doing it, but the real founder is David Neeleman, the famous Mormon, the same person who founded JetBlue and now Azul, in Brazil.

In any case, the website also call the Prophet, president Gordon B. Hinckley,

Revered President Hinckley…

We do not call “reverend” our prophets, but what is important is that they provided a great link to a very good video, where President Hinckley shares his testimony

Oct

8

It is a very troubling time for the US economy. This is a recent comment from the “money expert” Suze Orman:

We have built an entire economy on lies and deceit…It’s like building a home or an entire building on a sinkhole. You have a foundation, supposedly. But a little crack, if something goes wrong — a little earthquake, a tremor — and it starts to open, everything starts to fall down and … that is exactly what has happened in the United States of America.

Suze says the current financial downturn started all the way at the top of banks, mortgage companies and brokerage firms.

There was greed at the top — serious greed…When you have stocks, you have individual companies that want to make money. And CEOs want to make more money because the more money they make, the more their compensation is, the more their stock price goes up.

These companies made money by selling investments like mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, Suze says (link to full article)

But is there a relationship between faith and church attendance and losing our homes? It probably depends on where we go to church and also how well we listen when we are there. According to an article on Time there may be some connection:

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That’s what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of Pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.” The results, he says, “were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.”

I am sure that among Pentecostal and other religious groups not all were “turning parishioners into prey for greedy brokers”, but I am glad that in the Mormon church, Mormon Prophets have always been clear about avoiding debts and living within our means. Those Mormons who did or do otherwise cannot blame their leaders, but only themselves, because this message of frugality has been preached over and over again. However, I believe that most members of the Mormon church have followed the inspired counsels of their leaders and are ready for the troubles. It is a blessing to have leaders that are inspired and that receive revelations for out times.

This is a link to the videos of the last Mormon General Conference

Oct

6

I have written before about my conversion story and how I became a member of the Mormon Church.

This is a very interesting picture of the day of my baptism.. I was skinnier and younger, obviously


Elder Forbes, Giuseppe, Elder Stout

Elder Forbes, Giuseppe Martinengo, Elder Stout

Now Luca, my son, is in the mission field, looking for people like me, ready to accept the Gospel and the Church. My son had an exchange of emails with one of the two missionaries who taught me the gospel first, and the one who confirmed me a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This is an excerpt from the email that was written by Lynn Forbes (Elder Forbes) about how he remembers those times:

I would be happy to share my recollection of how I met your dad…. It was sometime in December of 1984. I had only been in Italy a little over two months, so was still in the process of really learning Italian. Me and my senior companion (Elder Burton) were doing street contacting in Asti, where we would go to the busy streets and try to talk to people about the gospel, and arrange to visit them in their homes if they would let us. I actually think I remember some of our conversation with your dad on the street that morning. We would typically look for men who would be in the age range where they might be married, so your dad was younger than we might usually stop. I really believe that Heavenly Father knew your dad was ready for the gospel - so, we ended up stopping him anyway. I think I totally messed up what I wanted to say, but, somehow your dad invited us to come to his house with our message. It wasn’t until January that we ended up getting to talk to him. By that time, Elder Stout (I think you’ve met him) was my senior companion. I do remember the day that we finally spoke with your dad, because I wrote about it in my journal. That afternoon, we had been tracting (knocking doors) without much success. At one apartment building, we actually had a couple of interesting things happen to us - first, on one floor, after we knocked and told the person inside who we were, we heard a dog barking as someone who was angry was unlocking the door - we decided to leave that floor and go to another floor. On that floor, a lady got really angry with us and told us we better get out of the building or else. So, we left the building. As we left, that lady dumped a bucket of cleaning water on us from above. We talked about what we should do - and decided we would try to pass by some of our street contacting names. Your dad was the one we decided to see (he was only a name on a sheet of paper, at that time). Anyway, we went by his place (his mother’s home), and he let us in, and we taught him the first discussion. We asked him to read from 3 Nephi (Christ’s visit) and we made an appointment to return in a couple of days. When we came back, he had read all of 3 Nephi, and had started at the first of the Book of Mormon. He said he knew it was true and that he wanted to be baptized. It seems like we returned every day, or every other day for a week or so. He finished the BofM soon. The only problem we ran into was his mom. Because of her, we put off his baptism until February - she was still very angry - you probably know that part of the story from your dad. But, he ended up being baptized. Elder Stout baptized him and I confirmed him. His confirmation is still one of the times of my life that I felt the Spirit the strongest. I don’t think that Elder Stout and I were “special” missionaries. We were just out, doing our best, and Heavenly Father did the rest. That is the key to missionary work, I think - to be out “opening your mouth” and doing your best - it sounds like you’ve learned that. I’m glad you are having a great mission - seeing the gospel change people’s lives - it really is a beautiful thing. You will look back on your mission as a great time in your life - when you had the privilege of devoting all your time to the Lord. There will be times in the future when you will miss that.

Oct

4

During the opening Saturday session of the 178th Semiannual General Conference, convened in the Conference Center, Mormon Church President Thomas S. Monson announced five new temples will be built in coming years.

Currently, 128 temples are in operation, and today’s announcement brings the number of announced temples to 17. Once completed, the new temples will bring the worldwide total to 145.

The Rome Italy Temple will be the first to be constructed in the region where historic Christianity originated. It will serve church members from a variety of countries and greatly reduce travel time and expense to the Latter-day Saints living in the area, the release states.

The announcement of a mormon temple in Rome brought an audible gasp and smiles to more than 20,000 church members assembled in the Conference Center.

As an Italian who was baptized more than 20 years ago in Italy I cannot avoid feeling extremely happy and excited for this new development.

Oct

2

I like Glenn Beck and his style on TV. He is a Mormon, and he does not conceal it. Not all Mormons act and talk like him and he is a relatively new convert to the Mormon Church. Once in a while he even use words that probably would not fit well a Mormon missionary, but overall I think he is doing a good job on TV.

This is an excerpt from his commentary on CNN, about America’s chilling future (he is writing as if he was in the future, but his comments are to be applied to the present).

Looking back now, it’s pretty obvious that our trust in government declined at about the same rate as our partisanship increased. People became so concerned about getting their party into power at any cost that the truth didn’t even seem to matter anymore.

That’s probably one of the reasons why George Washington hated the idea of political parties so much. Here’s what he said about them in his 1796 farewell speech:

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

I know that George had a habit for using big words, so allow me to translate into 2008 English: Political parties that put their own success over that of the country’s will be the death of America…..

The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking in terms of left and right and start thinking in terms of right and wrong. Demand the best leaders possible, and then demand the best out of them.

This is what the American people should really do. I hope it is not too late. The way the Americans will respond to this crisis will have consequences globally. In Brazil they use to say that if in the US people sneeze, they get a flu.

Sep

24

In the doctrine of the Mormon Church progression is an important principle. In fact, Mormons believe in eternal progression.

The principle of eternal progression cannot be precisely defined or comprehended, yet it is fundamental to the LDS worldview. The phrase “eternal progression” first occurs in the discourses of Brigham Young. It embodies many concepts taught by Joseph Smith, especially in his King Follett discourse. It is based on the proposition that “there is no such thing as principle, power, wisdom, knowledge, life, position, or anything that can be imagined, that remains stationary—they must increase or decrease” (Young, JD 1:350).

Progression takes many forms. In one sense, eternal progression refers to everything that people learn and experience by their choices as they progress from premortal life, to mortality, to postmortal spirit life, and to a resurrected state in the presence of God. Personal progression is possible in each of these states, but not the same kind of progression. Progression apparently occurred in the premortal life, for most spirits there chose to follow Christ and some were noble and great, while others chose to follow Lucifer. Entering mortality affords opportunities for further progression. Obtaining a physical body is a crucial step, enabling a person to experience physical sensations of all kinds and to progress in knowledge and understanding, all of which will rise with the person in the Resurrection (D&C 130:18). Brigham Young taught that even in mortality, “We are in eternity” (JD 10:22), and the object of this existence is “to learn to enjoy more, and to increase in knowledge and experience” (JD 14:228). “When we have learned to live according to the full value of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the scale of eternal progression—for a more glorious and exalted sphere” (JD 9:168).

Life is never static. “One must progress or retrograde. One cannot stand still. Activity is the law of growth, and growth, progress, is the law of life” (A. Bowen, in Christ’s Ideals for Living, O. Tanner, ed., Salt Lake City, 1980, p. 368). A person’s attitude about “”eternal progression’ will largely determine his philosophy of life…exalting, increasing, expanding and extending broader and broader until we can know as we are known, see as we are seen” (Young, JD 16:165).

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