Day 26 #TeslaRoadTripUSA

Moab, Utah. Hiking. Meeting anti genocide protestors

Andrew Brel

May 18, 2024

The Index of all 30 posts from day 1 of our #TeslaRoadTripUSA is HERE.

Video of Hike. The Longbow arch trail. 1.2 miles each way with some elevation that is similar to mountain climbing.

Ten minutes later in the hike, terrain looks like this. My iPhone video on the hike.

Pictures from the hike.

Utah is the home of Mormonism. Location of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake Tabernacle was designed for large gatherings and events for The Church. Construction on the Tabernacle began in 1863 and was completed in 1867. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle is a (residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation. The main source describing the tabernacle is the biblical Book of Exodus, specifically Exodus 25–31 and 35–40.

Those passages describe an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, created by the veil suspended by four pillars. There is a lot of Gold in the Tabernacle. A great location for tourists visiting Salt Lake City.

The Mormon Religion was established by Joseph Smith in 1830 with incalculable assistance from the Angel Moroni. The Angel Moroni is an angel who Joseph Smith, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith the angel Moroni was the guardian of the golden plates buried near his home in western New York, which Latter Day Saints believe were the source of the Book of Mormon.

Moroni is an important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement who features prominently in its architecture and art. Besides Smith, the Three Witnesses and several other witnesses also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829.

Moroni is thought by Latter Day Saints to be the same person as a Book of Mormon prophet-warrior named Moroni, who was the last to write in the golden plates.

According to the Book of Mormon, the angel Moroni was a pre-Columbian warrior who buried the golden plates. After he died, he became an angel who was tasked with directing Smith to their location in the 1820s. According to Smith, he then returned the golden plates to Moroni after they were translated and, as of 1838, Moroni still had the plates in his possession.

Joseph Smith, the first president of the Mormon Church, organized the new religion on April 6, 1830, in Fayette Township, New York. The Church adopted a resolution in 1834 to change the name to the Church of the Latter Day Saints to distinguish it from other Christian denominations of the time. Then in 1838, the Lord Jesus Christ personally revealed to Joseph Smith that the name of the Church is to be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Not everyone gets a personal visit from Jesus.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focuses its doctrine and teaching on Jesus Christ; that he was the Son of God, born of Mary, lived a perfect life, performed miracles, bled from every pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, died on the cross, rose on the third day, appeared again to his disciples, and now resides, authoritatively, on the right hand side of God.

In brief, some beliefs are in common with Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. Teachings of the LDS Church differ significantly in other ways and encompass a broad set of doctrines. As a result the above-mentioned denominations commonly place the LDS Church outside the bounds of orthodox Christian teaching as summarized in the Nicene Creed. Others refer to Smiths mormonism as a cult of polygamy and fraudulent deception best suited to the most needy.

The church's core beliefs, circa 1842, are summarized in the "Articles of Faith", and its four primary principles are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin, and the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Smiths Church teaches that a Great Apostasy occurred. It teaches that after the death of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, the priesthood authority was lost and some important doctrinal teachings, including the text of the Bible, were changed from their original form, thus necessitating a restoration prior to the Second Coming. That restoration, according to church doctrine, began during the life of Joseph Smith.

By creating demand for a new and improved version of the ‘Good Book’ Smith opened up a new market share that targeted a specific group, struggling in America in the early 19th century.

According to church theology, the restoration began through a series of visions and revelations, including Smith's First Vision in 1820, visits by various angelic messengers including Moroni from whom he received "the everlasting gospel". But thats not all. Smith also had visits from John the Baptist,Moses, Elijah, and the apostles Peter, James and John. Just in case Moroni was not convincing to all denominations.

Smith saw a gap in the market. One that would at the same time keep him one step ahead of fraud law.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (Calvinist), states:

The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to his will.

Both Smith and Oliver Cowdery, the first baptized Latter Day Saint, an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, and one of the crucially important Three Witnesses, testified that these last messengers came to them while they were together and conferred upon them the priesthood authority with its various "keys", so that mankind again possessed the "fullness of the Gospel" with authority to administer in the ordinances thereof.

”God doth speak and truly he speaketh only to me and not the unholy apostates who defile his truth with their apostasy and satanic reinterpreations of Jesus suffering on the Cross. For mine is the only truth he wishes shared.”

The restoration also included the re-establishment of the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830. The LDS Church teaches that it is the successor of this Church of Christ and that the current President of the Church is Smith's modern successor. Today in Utah that Man is Russel Nelson. An elder if ever that word were applicable, Nelson had a good career as a Doctor. Nelson was called as an apostle by church president Spencer W. Kimball, whom he had served as a personal physician for many years.

Nelson was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 7, 1984, during the church's general conference. He was ordained an apostle on April 12, 1984, by Gordon B. Hinckley. Nelson's assignments as an apostle included supervisory responsibility for the LDS Church in Africa.

In 2009, he, along with his wife and others, were attacked while in Mozambique. He also made several other visits to that continent, including one to Kenya in 2011, bringing Mormon ideology to the poor and needy in Africa where they need more God.

With the death of Monson on January 2, 2018, Nelson became the anticipated successor to the church's presidency. Nelson signed 1,150 mission calls as the presiding apostle. After being ordained and set apart as church president on January 14, 2018, Nelson was introduced to church members and the media two days later, along with Oaks as his First Counselor and Henry B. Eyring as Second Counselor

On April 14, 2022, Nelson surpassed Gordon B. Hinckley to become the oldest president in the history of the church.On August 8, 2022, Nelson became the church's oldest apostle ever, surpassing David B. Haight.

When did Mormonism rebrand as LDS?

When the messages come during the dark of night, Russell M. Nelson reaches for his lighted pen and takes dictation from the Lord.

“OK dear, it’s happening,” the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tells his wife, Wendy Nelson.
“I just remain quiet and soon he’s sitting up at the side of the bed, writing,” she said in a recent church video.
Sometimes the spirit prompts the prophet’s wife to leave the bed, though she’d rather sleep. One such morning, Wendy Nelson told Mormon leaders, her husband emerged from the bedroom waving a yellow notebook.

Russell Nelson has instituted several changes based on revelations since becoming church president in 2018.

“Wendy, you won’t believe what’s been happening for two hours,” she recalled Russell Nelson saying. “The Lord has given me detailed instructions on a process I am to follow.”
Nelson’s nighttime messages have “increased exponentially,” his wife said, since last year when the 94-year-old took the helm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.
“One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church,” Nelson said, “is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will.”
Through a spokesman, Nelson declined an interview about his revelations. But more than any Mormon president in recent memory, he speaks openly and often about his divine communications, some of which have significant consequences for the 16.6 million-member church. Last year, Nelson announced that God had told him the church should drop the moniker “Mormon,” a nickname that has stuck since the 1800s.
“The Lord impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He decreed for his church,” Nelson said, “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
The church has changed its websites, social media accounts, email addresses, even the name of its famous “Mormon” Tabernacle Choir based on Nelson’s revelation. Church leaders have also lobbied the media to stop referring to Latter-day Saints as “Mormons.”

Many church members say they are energized and inspired by Nelson’s prophecies, and reassured that God directs their church through a chaotic and confusing time.

Most people think of Mormons as Polygamists. In 1852, leaders of the Mormons acknowledged that Smith had practiced plural marriage and produced a written revelation of Smith's that authorizes its practice. Smith's lawful widow Emma Smith, his son Joseph Smith III, and most members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) attempted for years to refute the evidence of plural marriages.

They pointed to the historical record that Joseph Smith publicly opposed the practice of polygamy;the suggestion of the RLDS Church was that the practice of polygamy began in Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young.

In 2014 the Mormon church said for the first time that its founder Joseph Smith had up to 40 wives. In an essay published on its website quoting "careful estimates", the church said the wives included a 14-year-old and others who were already married.

Was Smith a fraud?

In January 12, 1838, a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on a charge of banking fraud. Rather than submit to arrest, Smith fled the jurisdiction, escaping Ohio into Missouri. In Missouri, he was accused of threatening a public official.

Christians through the ages have long regarded Smith’s Mormonism as a cult. Here’s a summary of the underlying dishonesty and willful misdirection Smith’s behavior represents, from a Christian perspective. Three Irrefutable Reasons Why Joseph Smith Was a Fraud.

Later I’ll link to the Magic Pants and other peculiarities that led to Mitt Romney almost becoming U.S. President, possibly because of his enormous support for the NRA gun lobby.

In 2023 I wrote a song called Gun Law and the NRA in which I learned Mitt Romney (UT) received $13,647,676400 from NRA lobbyists while Utah has some 400 gun deaths a year. I learned a great deal from my American friend Logan Twain about Gun Law and the NRA.

Mormons with 40 wives and deeply confused religious misdirection of the type Smith promoted are always unlikely candidates for gender equality. In the words of one Mormon male;

Deep sexism and misogyny, explicit and implicit, permeate literally every aspect of LDS theology and culture.

In so many ways, I mirrored this in my own life as I strived to practice “benevolent patriarchy.” I’m sad to say under this model, I unintentionally harmed family members and loved ones (usually with the best of intentions) while convinced I was “following the Spirit.”
Mormon women are frequently discouraged from intellectual pursuits or interests related to a career. Mormon men are frequently discouraged from embracing and understanding emotional aspects of themselves which help foster nourishing and empathy. Sexism discourages Mormon women and Mormon men from becoming whole, complete and healthy individuals. That is unless “whole and complete” is defined as a co-dependent relationship lacking in healthy boundaries. In addition, sexist roles and concepts permeate Mormon ideas of sexuality and child-rearing, often damaging in many ways to all involved.

Read Jason’s voyage for more about his recovery from Mormon. A not unfamiliar account by many raised without any choice in what to believe, who then question the underlying principles behind Joseph Smith and all he represents. Epistemology and ethics are both concerned with evaluations: the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

In behavioral science the moral epistemology of those forcing falsehoods of made up gods on small children is always going to lead to an unhappy outome. In the end. According to 2014 Pew data, around 1/3 of adults raised LDS no longer adhere to the faith (up from around 10% in the 1970s and 1980s) and in 2008 only 25% of LDS young adults were actively involved in the Mormon church.

After our Hike in Utah we had a most excellent lunch by the pool in a balmy 88 degrees. And then drove through the Arches National Park. Here’s a two minute video from the car.

Pictures of the Arches park

Andrew Brel

Day 26 #TeslaRoadTripUSA

Moab, Utah. Hiking. Meeting anti genocide protestors

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