Part 2 : New Years Day Talk on; SERVICE AND ENDURING TO THE END

I hope you are still with me here. I was too tired yesterday to type, and I just got through helping a friend put brakes on their car. And now my T.V. just died. It was a console I've had for 22 years. It was used when I got it, so I got extremely good value from it. I wanted to see Doctor Who tonight, oh well. So, I will get right into more of my main talk in Sacrament on January 1, 2012. The original was handwritten in cursive, as all my talks have been. So this is the first time I'm typing this.

Part 2:

          If we fall into the trap of developing a tiered or dichotomous system of treating people, and place conditions on whom we will respect, and whom we will dis-respect, whom we will serve and whom we will cause dis-service, trotting out our bigotries such as homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia, then we bring ourselves out of compliance with God's Commandments. It is not for us to judge who is to be a recipient of our service, our love, our empathy, compassion, charity, generosity, and liberality. It is never correct for any of us to target people for dis-service, denigration, dis-respect, mockery, dis-edification, and myriad negative outcomes resulting from the cause and effect of ones bigotries. And lets make one thind crustal clear right here, right now....Ignorance of the terribly wicked and abhorrant outcomes that ones bigotries cause, does not absolve one of the bigotry perpetrated or acquiesced to, which are sinfulness. Only service, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to those we targeted, victimized and offended, can overcome and help unlearn our narrow-minded and exclusivist tendencies. Service is a wonderful thing that can overcome a lot. Service brings us to truly have love for people.

Love all people, everywhere, at all times, are the themes President Hinkley expressed, when in 2004, speaking on providing service, fellowship and love toward others he stated, "We as Latter Day Saints are too cliquish and clannish." He went on to admonish the Saints for being too exclusionary, too inwardly focused, too closed off from other people that don't happen to be of our faith. God wants for us to reach beyond our comfortable habits and relations, and to seek out those in need of service, and to eventually become comfortable and happy about reaching out to others.

First Counselor of the First Presidency, Henry B. Eyring spoke in the last General Conference, in October, that there is a message of encouragement to us, stating, "The Book of Mormon makes the charge plain to us, first we have promised to become charitable, second, we promise to become witnesses of God, thirdly, we promise to endure. It is not a fluke that all three of these promises are directly related to service. Service is a very vital and important promise we make.

Church  Spokesman, Michael Otterman, on October 13, 2010, making an official position statement said,"to belittle, disparage, denigrate or work to the detriment or dis-service to others is wrong." I believe in absolute compliance with this Church Policy, it is wrong for us to ever advocate to withhold rights to others that we ourselves enjoy. Whenever someone trots out the Proclamation on the Family, and uses it as a tool of mass destruction, that is to say, to deny the affirmation tool of positivity for us that it is, to instead twist and pervert it into a hateful tool of mockery of those we otherize, to belittle, disparage, and denigrate others, to make assumptions of negativity what the First Presidency really meant was...this, this, and this is bad and evil, which is not and never will be part of a Proclamation or our Docrine. Such perpetration's and acquiescence's amount to a commission of bigotry, and is unbecoming of a Latter Day Saint. How could any of us ever be edified or served by a document used as a tool of dis-affirmation. The Proclamation and everything about the Gospel and the Restored Church is about positive affirmation and edification to serve one another, in love. Always look for and empower the positive in all we see. It is not for us to judge the negative, and certainly not exude negativity as a Church body, group or individual. We are a happy people, lets prove it in all we do and all we think, and all we espouse forth in our proclaiming. There is nothing happy about dissing others to affirm ourselves, and there is nothing right about it either.

Now, I understand, that hearing all this, having such a rosy way of thinking, such values, such morals, I come across as a bleeding heart liberal!......Well Duh!.....everyone knows I'm Bob, the Liberal....or That Liberal Brother Isaak. It's all true. I wake up every morning of my life, ever more liberal than the day before. Let me show you how much, by reading this poem;  People Have the Power .

     I was dreaming, in my dreaming of an aspect bright and far
     and my sleeping, it was broken, but my dream, it lingered near
     In the from of shining valleys, where the pure air recognized
     and my senses newly opened, I awakened to the cry
     That the people have the power to redeem the work of fools upon the meek
     the graces shower, it's decreed, the people rule
          People Have the Power
          People Have the Power
          People Have the Power
          People Have the Power
     Vengeful aspects become a suspect, and bending low, as if to hear
     Then the armies ceased advancing, because the people had their ear
     Then the shepherds and the soldiers, lay beneath, among the stars
     Exchanging visions and laying arms to waste in the dust
     In the form of shining valleys, where the pure air recognized
     and my senses newly opened, I awakened to the cry
          People Have the Power (repeat 3 times)
     Where there were deserts, I saw fountains, like cream the waters rise
     We strolled there together with none to laugh or criticize
     and then the leapard and the lamb lay together, truly bound
     I was hoping in my hoping, to recall, what I had found
     Well I was Dreaming in my Dreaming, God Knows A Purer View
     as I lay down in my sleeping, I commit my dream to you.
          People Have the Power (repeat 3 times)
     The Power to Dream, to Rule, to Wrestle the Earth From Fools
          It's Decreed, The People Rule
          Well it's decreed the People Rule
     Listen!.....I believe everything we dream can come to pass through our union
     Oh, We can turn the world around, We Can Turn The Earths Revolution
          We Have The Power
          People Have The Power
          People Have The Power
          People Have The Power
     The Power To Dream, to Rule, To Wrestle The Earth From Fools
      It's decreed the people rule
      It's decreed the people rule
          We Have the Power
          People Have the Power
          We Have the Power

This poem was turned into a song by Patti Smith. It is my favorite song of all time as you could tell. I have never been able to hear it, read it or sing it without crying. It really speaks to my spirit and deep within my heart. God does know a purer view, but that we should not just give up solving social problems because he isn't here yet. We do have the power and authority to wrestle the Earth from all the fools, who are a dis-service to others, who denigrate others, ostracize and belittle others. Our service to others includes much activism, in calling out the bigots for who and what they are, and to wrestle the world from them, and actively live our faith in love and be building up Zion.

So, now you know that not only am I Liberal, but I am also a Utopian, because I will not acquiesce to the social problem filled dystopia. I am a dreamer, as in the Supertramp song "Logical Song", a radical, a Pollyanna. I embrace and aspire to be such things, I am not ashamed of them.

There was a T.V. show that ran from 1978-1994, called Knots Landing. One of the main characters was Karen MacKenzie. She defended herself in an episode I still remember off the top of my head some 25 years later, "I want to be a Pollyanna", she cried out, "I desire and Like being a Pollyanna. Pollyanna's make the world go 'round. The Pollyanna's among us love and serve others before themselves. Pollyanna's want to make the world a better place. Pollyanna's have the hope and faith to make beneficial change. Heaven can be a Place on Earth because of Pollyanna's." She was such a passionate force for service, faith, hope and Charity for all, I always found myself on her side and I always could relate to her. I could always relate to her best friend Valene too.

A recent term that I feel describes what I have is "Hopium". Yhe combination of Hope and Optimism. Not that Hope and Change isn't working, it is working just fine.....but try Hopium, it will change your life.

It is my hope and desire that we all get a little Hopium, and a desire to love and to serve and to spread the spirit of Christmas throughout the entire New Year.



(and I am going to cut it off here, and the finale will be part three, okay? Okay!)