So I'm sitting at this computer at 7:40 pm after our theory club meeting. I'm having a bad day (or at least I'm in a bad mood) and this post may unintentionally reflect some of all of this. I apologize. (Or as Charles Tilly would say, "Sorry, buddy. I'm just plain awkward." Excuses, excuses.)
In reading Erin's post from today's meeting with our revered academe, I contemplate some of the hour spent with those wholesome folks as well as our debriefing on our walk back to school. I spent some of our time with said Prof not actually listening to what he was saying, but staring at the many books in his library. I found myself looking over certain titles, but always coming back to the Jewish section. Jesus's Jewishness, Jewish Thoughts something something, and etc. I kept thinking, Yes. Jew preceded Christian. My people only ever studied Old Testament, God was only "God" (never "he"), we're still waiting, and our culture is, for the most part, very different. I claim very little understanding or knowledge of Jewish religion, but these basic tenents of Judaism are unquestionably a part of my upbringing. I can approach other, much different religions, with a more distant viewpoint because they are so "other": I get Hinduism, I get New-ageyism, I can maybe even get Scientology. But the fact is Jews are so damn close to Christians in so many ways (and so far in others) that I have a really hard time "getting it." So I guess the motto would read as follows: you can take the girl out of Jewish, but you can't take Jewish out of the girl. How many Christian services would I have to attend to get it? I guess that's part of our mission.
Moving right along... Since we were pressed for time (aka I made sure to mention my very unimportant meeting), Said Prof took us into a classroom and showed us the very linear map of the plan of salvation (as shown above). It is pretty eye opening to Mormonism and their basic tenents. We then watched a video about Joseph Smith that they show to investigators. It was an 18 minute video, and the first 3/4 of the film were about Joseph's seeking of truth as a child-his wide-eyed wonder of all things on earth and in heaven just served to reaffirm the importance of child-like qualities in the Mormon faith (which was mentioned in Sunday's service visit). They sort of rushed through the most important part of Joseph's life (having visions of God, finding sacred texts, translating sacred texts, being a teacher, and etc) and may have left me wanting to know more about what these teachings are. I'll leave the home teaching visits up to Erin and I may just rely on Jon Krakauer.
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