A floodlight

  A floodlight was turned on Wednesday night. Laura received her mission call to  Florida Ft. Lauderdale.The same mission where I served three decades ago. It is her day, her call and her moment and yet for me a bright floodlight has begun to to shine on what had become a very dim time. A time so dimmed by memory as to almost be forgotten. Like a dream that hasn't been spoken of it fades so quickly. And yet in the floodlight I see it all so clearly. Not as I'm use to seeing it. While 'looking through a glass darkly' All I have seen is a shy boy. A boy asked to lead other boys when he himself needed to be led. An awkward boy void of drive, still grieving his Mom and longing for home. In the dim light I see a lack of maturity, discipline and success. I see companions who wanted to go home and people that didn't want the sacred truths we were offering.
                But then the floodlight was turned on.I see it now. I see it all so clearly. I see a boy, a baby really, for whom the gospel light was turned on never to be turned off. I see a selfish nature being chipped away by service towards others. I see so much of true friendship and pure love. I see gospel knowledge pouring into a starving soul, and a boy beginning to see the world as it really is. There are prayers that will never be duplicated, a longing to have my Father in Heaven talk to me. There are lessons that couldn't have been learned at any other time or place. There are other moments too, precious few moments, such as standing in the waters of baptism or seeing the light in a persons eyes as they become aware of who they are and what they may become.
                Yes it's Laura's day and mission and she will do things so much better than I did. But in her mission call I see what I was never able to see in my own. I feel the the Lord reaching out to me in his tender merciful way and saying Michael, here is what really happened those thirty years ago. In the Lords bright light what was a fading dream has become  life itself. A beautiful clear day.

Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan was fired from MSNBC last week. The conservative commentator and former presidential candidate was dismissed because of comments in his book "Suicide of a Super Power: will America Survive to 2025?"

The two comments singled out were "I think homosexuality is an unnatural and immoral act" and his bemoaning of the fact that by 2025 there will be more people of color in the U.S. than white people. This in reference to illegal immigration in the country. When did MSNBC become so thin skinned? I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party of free thought and expression? Apparently only when it serves their purposes.

Those of you who don't know of Buchanan might be interested in some of his story. He served in the Nixon and Regan Administrations. In 1992 as George H.W. Bush was running for re-election, Buchanan challenged him for the republican primary; this is almost never done-- imagine a democrat challenging Obama this year. Buchanan was worried about senior Bush's big spending, one world order ideas and decided to put principle over party. He knew this would cost him politically. The GOP hated him for it.  But the people loved him, Buchanan won in N.H. but Bush ended up winning the nomination. Bush really needed Buchanan's endorsement that year and Buchanan agreed, if he could have a primetime spot at the convention. His culture war talk became a classic. You can watch it on Youtube here:

Buchanan is a rare visionary. As a student of history, he seems to see things before they happen. He was speaking against illegal immigration before anyone else dared and was labeled a racist by the left. Now the republican Presidential hopefuls can discuss it openly in debates (Finally conservatives didn't cave on an issue.)

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being endorsed by all 5 living Presidents, Buchanan said it would be a disaster for the American people; that jobs would go overseas and south of the border. Twenty years later manafacturing has all but dried up and people can't find work. Our country produces almost nothing. Too bad nobody listened to the "scary" Buchanan.

Buchanan now warns of the demise of Christianity and our endless conflicts overseas. He warns of our need to bring troops home from the cold war conflicts such as South Korea where we employ 28,000 troops. He warns that Islam will overtake Christian countries because of our refusal to have children. He warns that our country will come to resemble California. Bankrupt, overrun, and without a moral compass. We ignore him at our own risk, and with the help of MSNBC.

Tolerance

Elder Neal. A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has said " Secularism so often seizes upon a single true principle and elevates it above all others. This act of isolation does not make the principle seized upon any less true, but to isolate any principle is to make it monastic....most every secular cause about which I know anything at all usually focuses on a single principle or concern, but it is an act of isolation and not correlation."

One of the isolated virtues of the secular world is that of tolerance. Indeed it is taught as the crowning virtue. It's one of the few virtues that can be taught in schools, because secularists' desire it and the religious know that it is important. Elevated and isolated however tolerance can eat away at the moral fiber of individuals and societies. If not combined with the virtues of discipline, loyalty, decency, courage and respect, tolerance runs wild. It erodes social norms, because it insists that we tolerate everything. No wonder the secularists have elevated it to the one great virtue. It allows them to do everything they want and no one should be allowed a thought or comment of opposition. If they do, they are immediately branded intolerant and judgmental.

One of the favorite phrases of the up and coming generation is "It's all good." I detest that phrase because it's not all good. Some of it is very bad. Some things are evil and some things are sin. Tolerance without teaching makes for a weak generation. 

In his last speech, Thomas Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, said the following, "I recently read an article in the New York Times concerning a study which took place during the summer of 2008. A distinguished Notre Dame sociologist led a research team in conducting in-depth interviews with 230 young adults across America. I believe we can safely assume that the results would be similar in most parts of the world.

I share with you just a portion of this very telling article:

“The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, … you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.

“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.”

The article continues:

“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal,’ the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’."

Who are we to say? Hopefully we are the courageous few.