Plain and Precious Parts of the Book of Mormon

BOM is very consistent and clear about what it teaches.

Repentance is a step forward.

Lehi- Affliction for gain

2 Nephi 2- 4... And the way is prepared from the fall of man, and salvation is free.
5 And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.
6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
9 Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.
10 And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—

Romans 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed

when there is no law

Must be opposition in all things. Otherwise righteousness could not come to pass.

2 Nephi 2:16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and call things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

Jacob

2 Nephi 9 -5...for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.
6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.
12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
13 O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.
14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness.
15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.

26 For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.
27 But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation,

51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.

King Benjamin

Mosiah 2- 17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

38 Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.
39 And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Law of Moses only served to point to the Atonement of Christ.

19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

25 And if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls.
26 Therefore, they have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice could no more deny unto them than it could deny that Adam should fall because of his partaking of the forbidden fruit; therefore, mercy could have claim on them no more forever.

Chapter 4: 2...And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified

Alma 36: 18  ...O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am bin the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

Luke 18: 38 And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. (the blind man requesting to be healed.)

Mosiah 4:3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.

This leads to charity

Jacob says it, King Benjamin says it, Alma says it, Amulek says it, Mormon says it, Moroni says it.

Abinadi

Mosiah 5:13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

Mosiah 15: 7 Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.
8 And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—
9 Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.

Mosiah 16:5 But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God.
6 And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.
7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.
8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

10 Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil—
11 If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation—
12 Having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent.

Alma the Younger

The lord can deliver us from immense and deep darkness.

Alma 5:14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption braised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

We must be stripped of pride.

The arms of Mercy are extended to all Men.

40 For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil.
41 Therefore, if a man bringeth forth good works he hearkeneth unto the voice of the good shepherd, and he doth follow him; but whosoever bringeth forth evil works, the same becometh a child of the devil, for he hearkeneth unto his voice, and doth follow him.
42 And whosoever doeth this must receive his wages of him; therefore, for his wages he receiveth death, as to things pertaining unto righteousness, being dead unto all good works.

57 And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people;

Alma 7:
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Law of restoration.

Alma 11:39 And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and ball things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last;
40 And he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else.
41 Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, the day cometh that ball shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works.
42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.
43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.
44 Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is cone Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

An Open Heart is necessary to grow Spiritually and to be found Spotless.

12:9 And now Alma began to expound these things unto him, saying: It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.
10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.
12 And Amulek hath spoken plainly concerning death, and being raised from this mortality to a state of immortality, and being brought before the bar of God, to be judged according to our works.
13 Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.
14 For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to chide us from his presence.
15 But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our everlasting ashame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.
16 And now behold, I say unto you then cometh a death, even a second death, which is a spiritual death; then is a time that whosoever dieth in his sins, as to a temporal death, shall also die a spiritual death; yea, he shall die as to things pertaining unto righteousness.

Temporal death and Spiritual death

18 Then, I say unto you, they shall be as though there had been no redemption made; for they cannot be redeemed according to God’s justice; and they cannot die, seeing there is no more corruption.

29 Therefore he sent angels to converse with them, who caused men to behold of his glory.
30 And they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore God conversed with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption, which had been prepared from the foundation of the world; and this he made known unto them according to their faith and repentance and their holy works.
31 Wherefore, he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as Gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good—
32 Therefore God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption could have no power, for the works of justice could not be destroyed, according to the supreme goodness of God.
33 But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;
34 Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on amercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.
35 And whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest.

Serving God brings us to enter into his rest. See Hebrews 3,4,6,9, and 10.

13:I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.
2 And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.
3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
4 And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.

Chiasmus "center" of BOM is abt Alma 24-26. Story of Anti Nephi Lehis and Ammon glorying in the Lord.

Worshiping the Lord is a full venture.

Faith requires experimenting. We have to nurture our spiritual growth.

Turning to the Lord is as easy as casting your eyes.

Amulek

Alma 34:10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

14 And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit
pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.
15 And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.
16 And thus amercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.

28 And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as ghypocrites who do deny the faith.
29 Therefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under foot of men.

Restoration again:
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.

Turning to God is as simple as looking.

Alma 37:46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. My son, farewell.

Also mentioned in 1 Nephi 17:41, Alma 33:19-20, and Helaman 8:15.

Alma the Younger again:

If you keep the Commandments you shall prosper in the land, and be guided by the Lord. Lehi says it, Nephi, Jacob, King Benjamin, Alma the Younger, Amulek,

The fruit of Obedience is precious above all.

Scriptures are of great worth.

The perils of Secret Combinations.

Sexual sin is next to the shedding of innocent blood in grievousness.

Alma 39: 8 But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God; and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day.

Spirit World

Alma 40:23 The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.

Alma41:

Restoration again.

5...good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil

7 these are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own judges, whether to do good or do evil.
8 Now, the decrees of God are unalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be saved.

10 Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
11 And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.
12 And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?
13 O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.
14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.
15 For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.

Alma 42 - (This is one of the best Chapters in the Book of Mormon. Lots on Agency and the Plan and Atonement.

God has to punish or He would cease to be God.

The Agency of Man.

(Glory and Power and fulfillment of Godship come about because of the success of the plan and the Atonement. We thwart God when we disobey.) God would cease to be God.

21 And if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?
22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the claw, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.
23 But God ceaseth not to be God, and amercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the batonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the cresurrection of the dead; and the dresurrection of the dead bringeth eback men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be fjudged according to their works, according to the law and justice.
24 For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also amercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.
25 What, do ye suppose that amercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.
26 And thus God bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world. And thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men, and also their destruction and misery.
27 Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds.
28 If he has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God.

This is Helaman speaking:

Helaman 5:
9 O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.
10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.
11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

This is Moroni:

Mormon 9:3...Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws?
4 Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.
5 For behold, when ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you.

Judgement First and Second Death and Restoration

13 And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death.
14 And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.

He is a God of Miracles.

This is Moroni:

Ether 12:  4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an eanchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in fgood works, being led to gglorify God.

7 For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.
8 But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.
9 Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.

Faith, Hope, and Charity, not just a list of virtues. But, a progression path through the Gospel.

This is Mormon:

Moroni 7:

5 For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also.
6 For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he boffereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
8 For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
9 And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with areal intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.
10 Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift.
11 For behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth bitter water; wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil.
12 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to csin, and to do that which is evil continually.
13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
14 Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.
15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the alight of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.
20 And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?
21 And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing.
22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.
23 And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come.

28 For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.

41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.
44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

Moroni 8

Young children not accountable, alive in Christ.

26 And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by fdiligence unto gprayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God.

This is Moroni

Moroni 10

Book is self proving. Spirit will testify of all truth.

Deny not the gifts of the Spirit.

31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.
32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

The Light of Christ.

Hearkening words and phrases:
Arms of Mercy
Enter into His Rest
Remember
Lifted Up
O Jesus Thou Son of God, O Have Mercy
Look to God and Live
First and Second Provocation

Lehi and his family are an example and type of family relationships. It is a story of being separated from your brethren to insure your spiritual survival.

Bruce Hafen Motherhood and The Moral Influence of Women

"Motherhood and The Moral Influence of Women"
World Congress of Families II, Geneva, Plenary Session IV, November 16,
1999
Elder Bruce C. Hafen, Member of the Seventy and Australia/New Zealand
Area President, The Church of Jeus Christ of Latter-day Saints

My topic is motherhood and the moral influence of women. I
begin with a personal perspective that lets me put my gratitude for this
World Congress into the frarnework of my own experience with the
United Nations' recent involvement in family law.
As the traditional home of UN treatymaking about human rights,
Geneva has become the modem headwaters of thought about I-N family
policy. This week's grassroots World Congress of Families will add to
those headwaters a crucial new stream—the mainstream. This group is
sending to the UN, and to people everywhere, a family message of the
heart from people representing the international heartland of democracy.
Farnily policymaking in the I-m and elsewhere now emphasizes
dysfunctional and alternative family types, while the traditional family
withers as an endangered species. Exceptions have become the rule, as
self-appointed lobbyists have replaced the UN policy agenda with their
personal agenda, like a rebellious child seizing the steering wheel of the
farnily car while at full freeway speed. I find it incredibly ironic that
now, when democracy is more widespread than ever before, the United
Nations — a very undemocratic forum that is far from the world's homes
and families — would have allowed this adolescent style rebellion.
Here's how I came to this view. I have long believed that the UN
has value. I applaud the original declarations on Human Rights and
Children's Rights adopted here in Geneva many years ago. But I
discovered that today's UN had lost the plot about family life when,
during my days as a law professor, a Japanese legal scholar asked my
opinion of the UN's new 1989 Convention on the Rights of the

Child—the "CRC." He prompted my study of the CRC that led to my
1996 article in the Harvard International Law Journal entitled,
"Abandoning Children to Their Autonomy."
In doing that work, I found in a UN Publication this description of
the CRC: "A new concept of separate rights for children with the
Government accepting [the] responsibility of protecting the child from
the power of parents." Hello? Did anyone notice that this "new concept"
uproots one of the most ftndamental natural rights about family life--
that parents may rear their children as the parents see fit, as long as the
parents are fit?
The 1989 CRC was written primarily by American lawyers whose
trendy arguments about child autonomy were ultimately rejected by the
U.S. legal mainstrearn in the 1970's and 80's. The U.S. still hasn't
adopted the CRC, and probably won't—even though most other countries
have. This odd outcome reflects the herd mentality of naive
govemments who fear being criticized for not embracing an international
treaty that has the word "rights" in its title.
The CRC shows how political activists who have lost their
arguments in such democratic forums as parliaments and courtrooms
have leamed to use the UN to exploit the naivete of local governments.
Ifthe activists can clothe their extremist visions of personal relationships
(note that this term is different from the word "farnily") in the vague but
lofty language of intemational law, they've built a trojan horse that lets
them slip like an undetected virus into a country's legal system and,
hence, its culture.
The IN's current approach to motherhood and women reflects this
very problem, because recent UN documents have accepted the extremist
claim of radical feminism that motherhood is an oppressive concept
designed to perpetuate male domination. For example, many countries
still want to protect motherhood as intended by the original UN
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948: "motherhood [is] entitled to
special protection." But today's Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) criticizes these protections as

"patemalistic," promoting a supposedly outdated concept of motherhood
that discourages women "from seeking greater fulfillment in paid
work."l This bias misses the fundamental point that, as Harvard's Mary
Ann Glendon has said, "There can be no authentic progress for women
without respect for women's roles in the family."2
Let's place this issue into its historical context. We are now living
through the biggest change in attitudes and laws about the family in five
centuries. Writing recently in the Atlantic Monthly, Frances Fukyama
regards today's farnily disintegration as a central part of what he calls
"the Great Disruption," a wave of history as significant as the shift from
the age of agriculture to the industrial revolution.3 Essentially, people
have become skeptical about the very idea of "belonging" to a family.
After centuries of seeing family bonds as valuable ties that bind, people
now see those ties as sheer bondage.
What is happening to us? Broad scale forces are eroding our
foundations of personal peace, love, and human attachments. Whatever
held mother-father and child-parent relationships together suddenly feels
weaker now. This strange disruption feels like an ecological disaster, as
if a vital organism in the environment is disappearing.
Patricia Holland has said, "If I wanted to destroy society, I would
launch an all-out blitz on women." What did she mean? Men and
women share all of the common traits of human nature and often
perform the same tasks. But some of their strengths are gender-specific.
And we are losing what women have traditionally contributed to cultural
cohesiveness. Like the mortar that keeps a brick wall from toppling
over, women have held together our most precious relationships—our
marriages and child-parent ties. But now we're seeing cracks in that
mortar, which reveals some things we have too long taken for granted.
A salesman walked down a street past a group of boys playing
baseball. No one answered the door at the house where he was to call.
Through a side door, he saw a boy the age of those playing in the street,
dutifully practicing the piano. Baseball gear leaned against the wall. He

called, "Excuse me, sonny, is your mother home?" The boy glanced at
his baseball gear and said glumly from the keyboard, "What do you
On a broader scale, studies of third world development show that
of all the variables that affect social, economic, and political
development, perhaps the most significant factor is the literacy of
women. Women have always impacted entire cultures. Their influence
begins in each society's very core--the home, where women have always
taught and modeled what Tocqueville called "the habits of the heart"--
the mores, or civilizing habits, that create a sense of personal and civic
virtue, without which free and open societies can't exist.
Shakespeare's MacBeth teaches us powerfully about the moral
influence of women. He first uses his phrase, "the milk of human
kindness" when Lady MacBeth is persuading her husband to murder the
king and take his throne. As MacBeth hesitates, his wife sneers, "Thy
nature [is] too full o' th' milk of human kindness. " Then in a haunting
passage, Lady MacBeth pleads with the evil forces of the universe to
take away her own milk of human kindness, her life-giving, nurturing
female nature: "Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex
me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe topful/ of direst cruelty!
Come to my woman's breasts,/ And take my milk for gall, you
murth'ring ministers / Come, thick night."
Take my woman's milk for gall, she cries; unsex me here.
Shakespeare's mastery of human nature shows us that Lady MacBeth's
womanly heart made her incapable of taking a life unless she renounced
her nature. A woman naturally gives and nurtures life. To take life, she
had to reject the distinctive essence of her female being. Later, after she
and MacBeth have killed the King, Lady MacBeth goes insane, then
dies--notjust from guilt, but from her symbolic renunciation of nature.
"The milk of human kindness" is a symbol of female nurturing
with many shades of meaning, but especially it means the moral
influence of women. Consider now four ways in which modem society

has begun to devalue female nurturing. Seeing more clearly what we're
losing will help us regain it. Let us talk first about the devaluation of
motherhood.
For most of Western history, the very word "motherhood" meant
honor, endearment, and sacrifice. Victor Hugo wrote, "She broke the
bread into two fragrnents and gave them to her children, who ate with
eagerness. 'She hath kept none for herself,' grumbled the sergeant.
'Because she is not hungry,' said a soldier. 'No,' said the sergeant,
'because she is a mother. '4 Yet this spirit of self-sacrifice has become a
contentious issue in recent years, thus making contentious the very idea
of motherhood.
For exarnple, a recent feminist essay entitled "the problem of
mothering" tells us that, "Explorations of women's oppression [look at]
the social assignment of mothering to women [because] women's
oppression is in some way connected to mothering."5 Others have
attacked the sacrificing mother whose selflessness has allowed and even
encouraged male domination. They argue that stereotyping the
motherly role forces women to accept a sexist "division of labor in every
area of existence, most especially in family relationships."6
These critics do have a point, but they have swung the pendulum
too far. As Newsweek magazine reported a few years ago, the radical
feminist critique has "sometimes crossed the line into outright contempt
for motherhood. "7
Still, at its best, feminist criticism is justified against
those who have exploited women's willingness to accept the relentless
demands of motherhood. And some women in the past did feel undue
social pressure to conform to overly rigid roles that denied women's
sense of self.
If being "selfless" means a woman must give up her own inner
identity and personal growth, that understanding ofselflessness is
wrong. That was a weakness in some versions of the Victorian model of
motherhood, which viewed women as excessively dependent on their

husbands. But today's liberationist model goes too far the other way,
stereotyping women as excessively independent of their families.
A more sensible view is that husbands and wives are
interdependent with each other. For example, the Proclamation on the
Family issued recently by the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles
in our Church states that spouses are "equal parmers" who "help one
another" in fulfilling their individual roles. And a good marriage surely
enhances each partner's opportunity for personal development.
For instance, I once said in frustration to my wife about one of our
children, "The Lord put Adarn and Eve on the earth as full grown
people. Why couldn't he have done that with this boy of ours?" Marie
wisely replied, "God gave us that child to make Christians out of us."
That is an equal opportunity blessing for the personal growth of both
parents.
The critics who moved mothers from dependence to independence
skipped the fertile middle ground of interdependence. Those who
moved mothers from selflessness to selfishness skipped the fertile
middle ground of self-chosen service that conüibutes toward a woman's
personal growth. Because of these excesses, debates about the value of
motherhood have, ironically, caused the general society to discount not
only mothers but women in general.
In an essay called, "Despising Our Mothers, Despising Ourselves,"
one writer found that, despite many victories for women in the last thirty
years, the self-respect of American women is at an all time low. Why?
Because we've experienced not just a revolt against men's oppression,
but a revolt against women: "Heroic women who dedicated their lives to
the welfare and education of children, as mothers, teachers, nurses,
social workers, have been marginalized and devalued, made to feel
stupid and second rate because they [took] seriously the Judeo-Christian
precept that it was better to do for others than for oneself." Devaluing
motherhood devalues "everything else women do." When society

devalues "the primary work of most women throughout history," we tell
women "that it is really women who" aren't worth serious
consideration.8
Then what happens? Society's bricks begin to collapse. Consider
the unprecedented appearance of child brutality. American schools have
recently witnessed several cases of children shooting other children,
something the world has never seen before. The forerunner to these
events was the world-shocking 1993 British case of James Bulger, where
two ten year old boys murdered a two year old child.
Some British researchers were so stunned by the Bulger case that
they probed how children learn the difference between right and wrong.
They found that a child's ethical sense emerges emotionally long before
it emerges rationally. Thus the orientation ofa child's conscience begins
with its earliest relationship with its mother.
A child is an echo charnber. If he hears the sounds of love from his
mother, he will later speak those same sounds of love to others. But if
the mother's signals are confusing and hateful, the child will later feel
confused and hateful.9 Whether a mother feels support from her
husband, her family, and her society profoundly influences whether she
feels like a mother of hope—who values herself enough to nurture a child
of hope with the milk of human kindness. And children of hope create a
society of hope.
A second area in which social devaluation is endangering the
species gift of women is that of sexual behavior. The keystone of the
archway to sexual fidelity was historically the intuitive sexual self-
control of wonien. Most women's sexuality reflects an inner moral
compass that can point true north, like a natural magnet. Of course, just
as a natural magnet can lose its power through damage or
women can also lose their natural moral magnetism. And many men
have demonstrated the capacity for moral self-direction. But throughout
history, women have tended to be society's primary teachers of sexual

mores.
As Leon Kass put it, "A fine woman understood that giving her
body, even her kiss, meant giving her heart, which was too precious to
be bestowed on anyone who would not prove himself worthy, at the very
least, by pledging himself in marriage to be her defender and her lover
forever." Thus, "It is largely through the purity of her morals, self-
regulated, that woman wields her influence. Men will always do what is
pleasing to women, but only if women suitably control and channel their
own considerable sexual power.
This view of female sexuality abhors sexual abuse of women. It
also celebrates the spiritual and emotional fulfillment of marriage for
both women and men. At the same time, women have too long endured
the unfaimess of a cultural "double standard" that tolerated promiscuity
in men while condemning it in women. Sociologist David Popenoe
writes that "men the world over are more sexually driven and
'promiscuous, ' while women are more concerned with lasting
relationships." Moreover, he says, "men are universally expected to
initiate sex, while women are expected to set limits on the extent of
sexual intimacy." As another researcher put it, "Among all peoples,
everywhere in the world, it is understood that the male is more likely
than the female to desire sexual relations with a variety of parmers."ll
A double standard that winks at this male tendency enough to
excuse it is unequal and, hence, unfair. Society might have responded to
this inequality by demanding sexual fidelity of men. But instead, our
generation romped into history's most staggering sexual revolution,
seeking male/female equality by encouraging women to imitate the
habitual promiscuity of men. This unprecedented combination of sexual
liberation and women's liberation has, with incredible irony, now
liberated men--not only from a sexual conscience, but also from the
sense of family responsibility that women's higher sexual standards once
demanded of men. And the biggest losers in this process are, sadly,
children and women--the women who have lost their former power to
demand lasting commitments from their children's fathers.

Despite the apparent unfairness of the double standard, our concept
of marriage made serious demands of men. Men are simply not as
"biologically attuned to being committed fathers as women are to being
committed mothers."12 As Fukuyama put it, "It takes a great deal of
effort to separate a mother from her newbom infant; in contrast, it [takes
great] effort to involve a father with his "13 That is why George Gilder
defined "civilization" as the time when men began learning from their
women to care about their children.
Marriage was our culture's answer to this crucial need, because it
taught men to provide for and protect their families. But our current
culture of divorce shows us that Margaret Mead was right: Because male
commiünent tends to be a learned behavior, it "is fragile and can
disappear" when the culture no longer expects or teaches it.14 Thus, said
Mead, men won't stay married in any society unless they are culturally
required to do so. 15
By expecting men to marry, our culture sent men a message that
cormlled the damage of the double standard. But in the rush toward
women's sexual liberation, we seem no longer to expect men to marry.
Thus we've given up not only the double sexual standard, but the power
of marriage to tame the male wanderlust. And the losers in this hasty
bargaining were not men, but women--and even more so, children.
This brings us to the third area of devaluation: we have stopped
prizing women's innate yeaming for permanent marriage bonds. Ours is
becoming an anti-marriage culture that literally throws out our babies
with the bathwater of resentment toward the very idea of marital
commitment. The social wreckage produced by today's confusion about
sex, women, men, and marriage is well known. Rates of divorce and
illegitimacy have been raging out of control for years, with nearly a third
of all American children now bom out of wedlock, and over 50% of all
new marriages expected to end in divorce. Æ'1d many adults have
essentially abandoned their children by "liberating" them from parental
commitments.

Two experts describe all this as a "remarkable collapse of
marriage, leading to growing family instability and decreasing parental
investment in children."16 After surveying the gale-force damage to
children in this messy scene, Popenoe has concluded that our only hope
today is what he calls "the female predisposition toward permanent pair
bonding." That phrase sounds like a sociologist, doesn't it. What is he
talking about?
One short answer to that question is in a terse phrase that most
young women once uttered with forceful moral authority when first
propositioned by a young man: "Not until you marry me." A more
complete answer may be found in new evidence that women have innate
qualities that differ from men's. One of these attitudes is women's
stronger preference for permanent pairbonding. "Women, who can bear
only a limited number of children," and who must nurture them through
lengthy gestation and dependency, "have a great [biologically ingrained]
incentive to invest their energy in rearing [their] children, while men,
who can father innumerable offspring, do not."17 And especially because
of the demands of childrearing during a child's early years, women
traditionally managed to find ways to keep their children's father nearby
for long term protection and support.
Because women invest themselves so completely in their
offspring, they also exhibit "greater selectivity in their choice of
mates, meaning they want a mate who is committed enough to their
children that he will stay with them for the long term. This sarne female
instinct, with the social benefits that flow from raising secure and
healthy children, has led women and civilized cultures to find ways of
enticing fathers to share the yoke of family responsibility with mothers,
primarily through the bonds of marriage.
The chain of being that moves from a mother of hope to a child of
hope to a society of hope gives society an enormous interest in
permanent pairbonding. Thus the woman's greater desire for marital
permanence really is the mortar holding together the bricks of social

stability. Wendell Berry wrote, "Marriage [is] not just a bond between
two people but a bond between those two people and ... their children,
and their neighbors." When this bond weakens, we face "an epidemic
of divorce, neglect, community ruin, and loneliness." That is why
"lovers must not ...
live for themselves alone. They must tum from their
gaze at one another back toward the community.... The marriage of
lovers joins them to one another, to forebears, to descendants, to the
community, to Heaven and earth. It is the fundamental connection
without which nothing holds, and trust is its necessity.
The core of this connection is the female predisposition toward
permanent pairbonding. When that core is secure, a wife stands at the
center of moral gravity for her family's universe, holding her husband
close with the gravitational pull ofa natural magnet. When he moves to
the perimeter of the home and community to guard and to sustain his
family, he is like a falcon and she is his falconer. If he strays too far, he
will no longer hear her voice, ever calling him home. William Butler
Yeates has told us what happens then: "Tuming and tuming in the
widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/ Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold,/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." Sadly,
society's recent devaluation of the female center of moral gravity has
created just such anarchy.
The image of the falcon and the falconer suggests an important
distinction between the roles of fathers and mothers in pairbonding and
childrearing. The distinguished psychiatrist David Gutmann has found
that in all successful human societies, fathers have been "creatures of the
perimeter" who provide for and protect their families (I note that
"providing for" and "protecting" their families describe the male role in
the LDS Proclamation on the Family) while mothers nurture young
children ("nurturing" describes the mother's role in the Proclamation).
"Strong mothers build secure homes; fathers and father's sons maintain
secure neighborhoods "20
Ideally, mothers first nurture children 's
feelings about right and wrong, then fathers teach them the law of the
family and community. This places fathers and other men into

disciplinary roles that teach sons with loving firmness to separate
psychologically from their mothers until they internalize community
norms within their own conscience. By this process, young men
transform their aggression and resentment of authority into a conscience-
based sense of duty to protect and provide for their family and
community. Then they can form their own homes as mature husbands,
rather than childishly needing wives who behave like mothers.
Gutmann is distressed about radical feminist criticism of male
authority in this longstanding pattern. That criticism has undermined the
masculine role, relegating fathers to being "second fiddle mothers." This
demeaning of men has driven them from marriage into the "masculine
default habitats" of "the bar and the adulterous bed," where they "feel
like men, rather than failed mothers." When this happens, men tragically
turn their aggression againstwomen and community, becoming the
enemy of their families instead of the protector and provider.
It is beyond the scope of my remarks to explore more fully the
distinctive influence of men, but we must at least note that sound,
permanent pairbonding requires us to value the complementary
contributions and roles of equal partners to the pairbond.
We have now considered the past generation's devaluating of
motherhood, women's instinct for sexual fidelity, and women's desire
for perrnanent marriage bonds. There is a fourth category of women's
contributions — women have a gift for nurturing all human
relationships. Recent research shows that women will often sacrifice an
achievement for the sake of a relationship, but men will more likely
sacrifice a relationship for the sake of an achievement.21 And
relationships are the stuff of social and interpersonal mortar.
Other studies tell us that the much cliched "feminine intuition" that
values human relationships is clearly of genetic origin, showing up in
females more than males. And women's capacity to develop and nurture
personal relationships is needed in all intersections of community

activity. For example, a British economist recently praised this female
strength as an asset in the economy of the future, with its emphasis on
personal neovorks. 22
Our Church has long involved women across the world in decision-
making processes and the personal ministering of local congregations.
We sponsor one of the world's largest women's organizations--the
"Relief Society," whose motto is, "Charity Never Faileth." This is a
sisterhood for all adult women through which mothers and other women
learn to strengthen not only family bonds, but an endless multitude of
other relationships that are nourished--sometimes kept literally alive by--
the milk of human kindness.. Our experience is that women's
perspectives can profoundly influence and enrich many fields of human
endeavor without compromising the primary value of home and family.
Consider now, in summary, a ü•ue story from Australian history
that illustrates the power of women's moral influence as mothers of
hope, women of fidelity, wives of commiünent, and nurturers of human
ties. In its early decades as a British colony, Australia was avast
wilderness designated as a jail for exiled convicts. Until 1850, six of
every seven people who went "down under" from Britain were men.
And the few women who went were often convicts or social outcasts
themselves. The men ruthlessly exploited them, sexually and in other
ways. With few exceptions, these women without hope were powerless
to change their conditions.
In about 1840, a reformer named Caroline Chisholm urged that
more women would stabilize the culture. She told the British
government the best way to establish a community of "great and good
people"in Australia: "For all the clergy you can despatch, all the
schoolmasters you can appoint, all the churches you can build, and all
the books you can export, will never do much good without ... 'God's
police'-- wives and little children--good and virtuous women."
Chisholm searched for women who would raise "the moral

standard of the people." She spent twenty years traveling to England,
recruiting young women and young couples who believed in the
common sense principles of family life. Over time, these women tamed
the men who were taming the wild land; and civil society in Australia
gradually emerged. Also, the colonial govemments enacted policies that
elevated women's status and reinforced family life.23 As one historian
said, "the initial reluctance of the wild colonial boys to marry was
eroded fairly quickly." Eventually, thousands of new immigrants who
shared the vision of these "good and virtuous women" established stable
families as the basic unit of Australian society more quickly than had
occurred "anywhere else in the Western world."24
This striking story of women's moral influence grew from a
conscious design to replace "the penal colony's rough and wild ways"
with "a more moral civilization." The reformers intentionally capitalized
on women's innate "civilizing" capacity. 25 These women made
Australia a promised land that flowed with a healthy ecosystem of milk
and honey. And the milk, literally and figuratively, was mother's milk--
the milk of human kindness. That milk nurtures those habits of the heart
vithout which no civil society can sustain itself.
Most radical feminists, which includes many of the people on the
UN's current CEDAW committee, would reject for today's society the
concept that women are civilizing agents. They resist this concept
because they believe that acknowledging any inherent differences
between men and women will lead to negative gender discrimination that
will somehow place women in subservient roles. However, the evidence
shows that, despite many similarities, men and women do differ innately
in some crucial ways. Hence the title of one popularized book, Men
Are From Mars. Women Are From Venus.
Psychologist Carol Gilligan's 1982 book shows how women and
men perceive the sarne things in different ways, and they speak In a
Different Voice from one another. Gilligan found that women possess
an ethic of care that is inherently stronger then men's. If society can

value and encourage this gender gift without allowing it to cause
discrimination against women, we just might experience, as Australian
Anne Summers put it, "a genuine breakthrough in our thinking about the
qualities contemporary society now has the greatest need for."26
The women's rights movements of recent years opened many
valuable doors to women and pricked the conscience of many man who
had exploited women's willingness to give their bread to others and keep
none for themselves. But the gender equity pendulum of the past era has
moved our attitudes too far, devaluing and damaging the culture's
support for motherhood, sexual fidelity, marriage, and women's
distinctive voices.
It is now time to swing the pendulum of attitude back to magnetic
north, the point in the compass that will nurture our children and the
future society with the milk of human kindness. Surely society can
restore the confidence of today's women in their own instincts without
coercing them into being non-entities. Surely we can invite men to
emulate the ethic of care they see in their mothers, their wives, and their
daughters. We have already learned the hard way that women, children,
and the entire culture are worse off when we seek gender equality by
encouraging women to adopt permissive male lifestyles.
Therefore, as this World Congress sends a message from the
mainstream into Geneva's headwaters of thought about family policy
across the globe, let us call for a more responsible form of gender
equality that celebrates and preserves the natural moral influence of
women. It is time to equalize the sexes by asking men once more to
follow the moral leadership of women, by honoring the equal yoke and
lifelong commitnents of marriage. That kind of progress will make the
civilization ofthe 21st century not only more equal, but infinitely more
civilized.

l. Kathryn O. Balmforth, Human Rights and the Farnily, Remarks at
World Farnily Policy Forum, Brigham Young University, January 15,
1999, pp. 8-9.
2. Mary Ann Glendon, "The Pope's New Feminism," 1995/96 Crisis
magazine.
3. Francis Fukuyama, "The Great Disruption," The Atlantic Monthly,
May, 1999, p. 55.
4. Quoted in Jeffrey R. Holland, "Motherhood," Ensign, May, 1997.
5. Quoted in Kathleen S. And Howard M. Bahr, "Another Voice,
Another Lens: Making a Place for Sacrifice in Family Theory and
Family Process," Virginia F. Cutler Lecture, Brigharn Young University,
Nov. 13, 1997.
6. Anne Summers, Damned Whores and God's Police (Penguin Books
Australia 1975, 1994), p. 70.
7. "Feminism's Identity Crisis," Newsweek, March 31, 1986, p. 58.
8. Orania Papazoglou, "Despising Our Mothers, Despising Ourselves,"
Eirsühings, January 1992, p. II.
9. Richard Whitfield, "Sensitive Directions for Children's Moral
Development," Presentation to World Congress of Farnilies, Prague,
Czech Republic, March 20, 1997.
10. Leon Kass, "The End of Courtship," The Public Interest Winter
1997, p. 39.
I l. David Popenoe, "The Essential Father," from Life Without Father
(The Free Press: 1996), p. 12 (manuscript version).
12. Popenoe, "The Case for Marriage and the Nuclear Family: A
Biosocial Perspective," unpublished manuscript, p. 6.
13. Fukuyama, at p. 72.
14. Quoted in Ibid. p. 72.
15. Cited in Popenoe, note II above, at p. 25.
16. Jean Bethke Elshtain and David Popenoe, "Marriage in America,"
the Institute for American Values (1995).
17. Popenoe, "The Case for Marriage and the Nuclear Family," at p. 6.
18. Wilson, quoted in "The Essential Father" at p. 13.
19. Wendell Berry, Sexa-E.CQ.nomy.a-E.redom-&-CQmmunity (1993),
125, 137-39.
20. David Gutmann, "The Paternal Imperative," The American Scholar,
Winter, 1998, p. 118, 124.
21. I first heard this phrasing from Jeannette Hales Beckham. It is
supported by studies reported in Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice
(1982).
22. Paul Gollan, "How Feminine Intuition Can Help the Profit Margin,"
Sydney Morning Herald, July 28, 1993, p. 13.
23. Summers, note 6 above, at 355.
24. Ibid. at pp. 337-53.
25. Ibid. at pp. 354-57.
26. Ibid. at p. 46

Tangents Greg Bear Omni Jan 1986

Cycling 2013

2013 was a very good year for my cycling. This sport seems to be one that even older guys can do pretty well in.

At the beginning of the year I set some goals. Mainly, I wanted to go faster than before. And mainly, I figured I would accomplish that if I included some more climbing in my rides. That almost seems counter-intuitive, because you go slower when you climb (even when you include the subsequent donwhill, at least I do). But, I theorized that the climbing would make me stronger. I think it worked.

I had my second highest year mileage total at 4041.99 with an average speed of 19.83. And I did the most climbing with 92,818 feet of climbing.

I would have liked to break 20 mph for the year, and for a while I thought I did. Then I realized that Bike Journal doesn't figure the monthly and yearly ave speed correctly. My speed throughout the year goes in an arc that starts low and then gets highest in July through October, even into November. It came down a little right at the end.

I had seven top ten solo rides in speed this year. Now all of my top 10 rides are over 22 mph. My best average speed for a month was September 2013 with 21.3 Mph in just over 400 miles.

Other noteables:

I had a streak of 843.31 miles from 3 September to 27 November where my average speed stayed over 21 mph.

I had 29 rides in a row over 20 mph from 3 September to 2 November (719.33 miles).

I had 4 rides in a row over 21 mph (103.01 miles) 9 through 12 July.

Between 27 May and 29 June I rode every available riding day, 5 weeks straight.

I was stung by bees 4 times this year. Three while on the bike or shortly after ending the ride, most likely passengers I picked up along the way. And once at the beach in San Clemente. That more than doubled my total lifetime bee stings. I thought that was kinda weird.

Jensen Costume Drawings

911 Memorial on 16 Sep 2001

Hillcrest Ward  16 Sep 2001

My Shepherd will supply my need; Jehovah is his name;
In pastures fresh he makes me feed, beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back, when I forsake his ways,
and leads me for his mercy's sake, in paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death, thy presence is my stay;
One word of they supporting breath drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes, doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows, thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days;
O may thy house be mine abode and all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest while others go and come,
no more a stranger nor a guest; but like a child at home.

--Isaac Watts--

In the ninth through the fourteenth chapters of Alma in the Book of Mormon, Alma the Younger and Amulek preach to the people of Ammonihah.  After several chapters of the best doctrinal preaching we can find in the scriptures some of the people of Ammonihah are converted. The unbelievers cast out the converted and then subject their wives and children to death by fire. When Alma and Amulek are brought forth to witness the scene they are greatly pained. Amulek wants to use their power to save the innocent. But, Alma is restrained and tells Amulek that the martyrs are received up unto the Lord in glory.

I believe that the mass of humanity who passed through the veil together Tuesday morning were greeted with tides of Joy and Hope and Release that many times overshadowed the horror and vulnerability and despair that we felt as we watched those buildings crumble.

There can be no doubt of the level of anguish our Heavenly Father feels at such times:  "And the king was moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33)

God can prevent senseless loss of life and suffering and often does. We constantly solicit and enjoy the covering of his almighty protection. He does not always step in to shield us from the machinations of a temporal world.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."  (Isaiah 53:5)

The origin of the word in Semitic languages that most often is used to communicate the concept of the Atonement refers to an ancient custom in which one fleeing for his life in the desert would seek refuge in the tent of a great sheik by crying out "I am thy suppliant". Whereupon, the Lord would accept the suppliant with symbolic embrace by placing the hem of his robe over the shoulder of the kneeling guest and declare him under his protection. (Nibley, Approaching Zion)

Thus Nephi declares  "The lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love" (2 Nephi 1:15) and "O lord, wilt thou make a way for me to escape before mine enemies!'" (2 Nephi 4:33).

Following this analogy further, when we invite others to come unto Christ, we enlarge the borders of Zion, adding "stakes" to her "tent", increasing the circumference of her skirt, bringing more children to seek protection from the "covering" of the atonement.

In times of despair the Gospel gives up hope. But, hope of what? The hope of glory and resurrection, of an inheritance with God. No more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child at home.

When Aaron teaches the father of Lamoni, the King of the Lamanites, it seems the point at which the kings decides to put to test the words of Aaron is when he is taught that "...since man had fallen (he) could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory..."

This is nearly the same concept that Paul strives to teach to the Saints in the New Testament.

Colossians 1:26-27

"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hopes of glory:"

1 Thessalonians 5:8

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation."

The despair and grief of the passing week can only be overcome by the fruits of the Gospel, the hope of glory and resurrection through faith in Christ.

When we come to this realization and conversion then we can be led to exclaim as Paul:

" For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Romans 8:38)

May we seize upon the clarity and galvanization produced by these events and help others to come unto Christ through the prospect of the great hope of glory and resurrection and an inheritance with God that is its greatest gift.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure; One mighty word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers. No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.

--Martin Luther--

Testimony (from May 2005)

Our Stake has recently been admonished to bear "Pure Testimony"
frequently, taking a cue from the October 2005 General Conference talk
of Elder M. Russell Ballard. This suggestion includes learning more
about the function of bearing Testimony. I had a good friend in
college who talked of rating testimonies each month, whether the
bearer's words qualified as a "real" Testimony or not. One danger in
scrutinizing this uniquely LDS phenomenon is that we start judging the
testimonies of others and disdaining them as inadequate. In the
sincere Spirit of avoiding that evil I offer some observations.

I had the opportunity to meet one on one with our Stake President in
preparation for our Ward Conference and we discussed in some detail
this topic, partly because my own understanding was not clear. He was
trying to prepare me for our first Ward Conference four days later and
wanted to make sure that the Bishop understood this concept and could
set an appropriate example for the ward. I believe I learned something
from that meeting that I would like to share.

There are two areas of my Testimony bearing that I have changed since
this instruction. I learned something that I'm sure must have been
pointed out to me before: The Holy Ghost bears Testimony of Gospel
principles. Thus, while it may be true and good that I love my wife
and family, it is really not part of a Testimony. Also, saying you
love the Savior or are deeply grateful for his sacrifice are not
actually bearing witness of Him. We should spend the valuable time we
have in Testimony meetings bearing pure Testimony to invite that
strong Spirit and edify everyone. Children and people who are immature
in the Gospel may not understand all of the words and concepts. But,
they will recognize the Spirit.

I explained to the Stake President probably by way of rationalization
that I often felt I needed to relate an anecdote or some Gospel
related story to work myself into the Spirit so I could bear my
Testimony. I explained that most people were probably following that
same pattern for the same reason. The President taught me that is not
the "job" of the Testimony bearer. His job is to open his mouth and
allow the Spirit to come. Anecdotes and uplifting spiritual accounts
are more a characteristic of a proper talk.

We recently studied the gifts of the Spirit in our Gospel Doctrine
classes. I believe that a Testimony and the ability to invoke the
Spirit through bearing a Testimony, are gifts of the Spirit. It is one
of the most important and sacred things we can do together. If we set
out to do it and try to "do the Spirit's job for him," we are denying
the Gift of God. In the "old" entrenched pattern the speaker usurps
the Spirit's function by trying to "bring" the Spirit with a nice
story.

I learned that a lot of what we hear in our Fast and Testimony
meetings we could actually hear in most other churches as well. Let us
step up to our task and do that which we are uniquely enabled to do
because of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and because of our Testimonies.
That is literally to be bathed in the Spirit in a way similar to the
occasion of King Benjamin's famous discourse and Christ's appearance
to the Nephites.

I took a look back at the talks of the Apostles at the October 2004
General Conference. I found that in the closing/Testimony portion of
their talks they rarely use the phrase "I know." It is most common for
them to simply state the facts. We refer to D&C 46:13-14 (To some it
is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others it
is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal
life if they continue faithful.) and make a distinction between
believers and knowers. I would guess that there are many who feel
inadequate in their Testimony because of this distinction. This is
unfortunate because the scripture clearly states that each is a gift
from God, not one above another. It very well may be that many who
feel inadequate would be able to bear a strong Testimony, and be
edified by doing so, if they had a better idea what it entails and
what the bearer's function is. I now refrain from using the words "I
know." Let me be clear, it is important to know and it is important
for us to be assured of one another's testimony. But, let's not allow
it to be a hurdle that hinders Gospel growth.

Now, often when I hear the phrase "I know" in a Testimony, it can
almost be a distraction. It can sound to me as if the bearer is trying
to convince me that he has a Testimony. That seems almost tangential
and beside the point. As a bishop, of course I care if someone has a
Testimony or not. But, in a Fast and Testimony meeting the point is to
bear witness of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Ghost, to testify of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of his role as
Savior and Redeemer, and to declare the restoration of the Gospel in
these the Latter Days. Convincing the congregation that you have a
testimony is secondary.

While it is not necessary to go beyond the facts, it may be helpful to
the audience. If you were called to be a witness at a trial and said,
"I know the defendant is innocent" a good judge or attorney would make
you explain how you knew. What makes you a credible witness? Well, I
have read the book and it rings true. I have felt the sweet Spirit
that its study brings. I have seen the fruits of living its principles
in my life.

To summarize and reinforce:
Stay on point, stick to Gospel principles especially core Gospel principles;
Your job is to open your mouth and let the Spirit flow;
State the Facts;
If you feel inclined, tell us how you were led to your conviction; and
Sit down, Let someone else do the same.

Since coming to a greater understanding of this great lesson I have
enjoyed much more the opportunity to bear Testimony. I have felt the
Spirit more and my Testimony has been strengthened. I see this gift as
one of our most important duties as members of the Church. We have
been taught for years that bearing your Testimony strengthens it. I
have found this to be true.

I spoke to the Priesthood Brethren and the Relief Society some weeks
ago on this topic prior to our Fast and Testimony meeting. I could
tell that some of the members were afraid to make an attempt after my
remarks. This saddened me somewhat. But, there were several who seemed
to have taken my ideas to heart and who bore powerful testimonies. One
sister in particular followed the pattern set by our Church leaders
and bore one of the strongest and most inspiring testimonies I have
ever heard.

It is true that we are beset with years of habit and tradition. People
who are speaking spontaneously and from the heart rarely have the
presence to say exactly what they want to say in the way they mean to
say it. Also, it is difficult for little children to learn these
concepts instantly. We can teach them correctly and let them take baby
steps to get where they ought to be. I can assure you that if we
follow the pattern of the Apostles and the admonition of our leaders
we will be strengthened and when we bear Testimony we will be the true
witnesses of the Gospel that we are meant to be.