More Second Class Saints....

[deacon blues]

I was reading the new Matt Harris book Second Class Saints, and it made me think about how the Church, and the concept of three heavens makes a segregated society. I'm reminded of Jesus's Parable of the Sowers, where all the workers are paid equally. the statement the last shall be first also comes to mind. It seems Joseph Smith and his Church really resist that idea, or ideal.
I guess I mustn't forget the Parable of the Talents where each is rewarded differently.
I'm just thinking of my earthly Mother, who truly seemed to love all five of her kids equally.

[alas]

I was reading the new Matt Harris book Second Class Saints, and it made me think about how the Church, and the concept of three heavens makes a segregated society. I'm reminded of Jesus's Parable of the Sowers, where all the workers are paid equally. the statement the last shall be first also comes to mind. It seems Joseph Smith and his Church really resist that idea, or ideal.
I guess I mustn't forget the Parable of the Talents where each is rewarded differently.
I'm just thinking of my earthly Mother, who truly seemed to love all five of her kids equally.

Apparently Mormon God is more like my mother, who “loves” all her children, yet put the needs of boys ahead of the need of girls and gives all kinds of perks to only the boys. And then I guess there is my grandmother who let the boys at the very limited depression era food and they got to eat all they wanted, and then if anything was left the girls got to eat….until my mother damn near died of malnutrition and near starvation. The doctor told my grandmother flat out to feed the girl first or she was going to die! But did MY mother learn anything about feeding the boys first? Nope. She told me one thing she was sorry about how she parented was that when all of her children were hungry, she put me in the crib to scream while she cooked and fed my older brothers. But I don’t think she ever even saw that that was the pattern all along, not just when I was an infant. My brothers wants and needs ALWAYS came before mine, from giving them money for scout camp 12 times a year while we “couldn’t afford” girls camp even once, to they got new levies when needed and I got hand me down boys clothing in the 50s when girls simply did not wear boys clothing. So, I grew up pretty much hating my brothers. So, it didn’t faze me that church was the same way. Girls are just worth less/worthless.

[moksha]

I know the Church has put forth the idea that people of color and the handicapped were less valiant during the Heaven War, but have they ever suggested that women also were less valiant and that accounts for their lack of the priesthood antennae?

Do you think the women refused to shoot the forces of Satan with their phasers (even on the stun setting) or perhaps they were equally valiant in this Church fairy tale and this whole problem outlined by Alas is based on the Church not teaching the moral value of equity?

[Ghost]

How do you physically force a being who can't die to leave or not enter a place, anyway? For example, the one-third in premortal life and those in the afterlife who might want to visit family in a higher kingdom even though it's against the rules. (If they followed every little rule they'd have been in a higher kingdom in the first place, right?)

Maybe that will be a new genre of action movie in the hereafter (for those in the lower kingdoms who enjoy and have time for movies): getting past the border guard angels (who are presumably those who made it to the Celestial Kingdom without celestial marriage).

[2bizE]

Since the three levels within the celestial kingdom are so super special, does anyone know the names of those three levels?

[moksha]

Since the three levels within the celestial kingdom are so super special, does anyone know the names of those three levels?

Joseph
Brigham
Russell

[Hagoth]

The church divides us into all kinds of classes. Consider

Second Anointed
Recommend holders
Subhumans

[hmb]

Since the three levels within the celestial kingdom are so super special, does anyone know the names of those three levels?

I remember hearing that the top level is exaltation, requiring temple marriage. I don't know what the other two are called, but I remember as a kid, my father telling me that the lowest are the angels that do service, like babysitting others' spirit children. Oh yeah, paint me a picture of something to work toward. One is being in a harem of wives spilling out babies for eternity, or babysitting for eternity. I choose being cut off from hanging with God. He sounds mean anyway.

[Hagoth]

So, in the highest kingdom you get to be like Yahweh, creating countless planets and then populating each with billions of kids. Then you spend most of your time raging about how disappointed you are in them and punishing them for not constantly praising you and serving men who claim, without evidence, to represent you. Then you send them to lesser kingdoms where they are cut off from your presence for eternity. But, hey, you gave a few of them some very fuzzy and contradictory instructions in a couple of books with questionable origins and never once directly expressed any kind of love or encouragement to them personally. Why don't they love you with all their might, mind and strength, for cryin' out loud? Screw 'em, buncha unprofitable servants and unservicable prophets.