stcecelia
2 nephi 2:25
sapphic || 20 || religious side blog
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I love how God created us to need so many beautiful things
I love how enjoying your food helps you digest better
I love that babies need to be held
I love that looking at plants makes us happy
I love that sunsets tell our brains when to sleep
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This reframing of christ (and the father!) as merciful, as liberating, as hopeful, rather than retributive is so, so important.
Definitely revisit this talk.
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Henry Ossawa Tanner's depiction of the Annunciation will always be my absolute favourite but I really do think there is something so ethereal and endearing about his study before the official artwork was completed.
The way Mary sits with almost no visible features but you can still tell that her hands are clasped in prayer- the angel Gabriel manifesting as a single stroke of light as the paint and room seems to contort around him. Easily one of the all timers.
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The nuns who took care of the building are thrilled that skaters saved the church. They even let the skaters push them around on the skateboards.
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I actually love when we acknowledge the radical universalist nature of our afterlife beliefs. It’s kind of punk rock of us and I wish we celebrated what makes us radical more.
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umm update…brigham and I are going on a date 😭‼️
mormon / LDS culture is having crushes on two different guys in your institute class but not telling your non-member friends because their names are Brigham and Hyrum 💀
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Paul: I murdered for years.
God: I can work with that.
Unnamed prostitute: I’ve slept with many men.
God: I can work with that.
Zaccheus: I’ve robbed my community of thousands.
God: I can work with that.
Moses: I have no idea what I’m doing in life.
God: I can work with that.
Women at the well: I have divorced many times.
God: I can work with that.
Timothy: I am really young.
God: I can work with that.
Esther: I am just a woman.
God: I can work with that.
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mormon / LDS culture is having crushes on two different guys in your institute class but not telling your non-member friends because their names are Brigham and Hyrum 💀
#tumblrstake#pls tell me i’m not alone in this#also it’s weird bc I normally get crushes on girls but every once in a while i’ll get one on a guy#just to remind myself i’m Bisexual I guess
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Women in Scripture Day One: Eve
(first off, sorry for the delay in post. We have class every Tuesday evening, but this week has been crazy with work and also starting my online college classes. anyway on to my notes ! )
It seems very fitting that for our first lesson on women in scriptures this semester, we discussed the very first woman in the scriptures: Eve
To start the class, our instructor posed us the question: "How does Eve's life and example deepen my conversion to the Savior?"
Then we began reading scripture. We bounced between the book of Moses and the book of Genesis, but I mainly used the book of Moses since it's the JST :)
The first Scripture we read was Moses 3:18, which reads, "And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him."
To be honest, I was never a fan of this verse. I didn't like the implication that God created women only to be a helper to men. That seems to be the most widely held belief in the general christendom; God created women second, and only to be subservient and submissive. Lower in rank and duty and worth.
You could say I've been a feminist my entire life, even well before I knew what the word was or its meaning (my mom tells me that when I was little, I used to constantly ask why when I turned twelve I wouldn't be able to get the priesthood like my twin brother would. It didn't seem fair to me as a young child that had been told my entire life growing up I as a girl could do anything a boy could do, and it still didn't for a good portion of my life. It was only until a couple years ago that I really grasped why, and was ok with it). So this idea that in my God's eyes I was lesser than any man angered me. I believe I wasn't put on this earth to be a lower, side-kick, passive, baby-making, subdued woman that would sit idly by while the more important men in my life made decisions and gained educations and ruled over me.
But here's the thing, that was never Heavenly Father's intention for me, or for Eve.
In the original Hebrew scripture, the word for "help meet" is "Ezer Kenegdo". "Ezer" means "help", but not in the way our modern English language would suggest. Instead of just being a passive helper, being an "Ezer" means to strengthen, protect, and provide sanctuary. "Ezer" was used twenty-one other times in the Old Testament, and was only otherwise used to describe protection against the greatest forces of evil, from armies, and for divine guidance and strength for all of humankind. Here are a few of these verses:
Exodus 18:4 "For the God of my Father, said he, was mine help [ezer] and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."
Psalm 115:9 "O Israel, thou has destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help [ezer]."
Hosea 13:9 "In me [the Lord] is thy help [ezer]."
With this knowledge we can say with absolute certainty that to be an "Ezer" is to be a stand in for God's protection and love.
"Kenegdo" is generally thought by scholar's to mean "opposite or corresponding to". Like a puzzle piece, is what my instructor said.
Combining these two words together, we know that God created Eve to be a different but important and equal counterpart to Adam, with special power to comfort and protect against evil. How wonderful is that!!! Whenever we as women serve or help protect our communities and families, we are fulfilling our God given roles as ezer kenegdos.
And this was just the first half of class!
For the second half, we discussed the story of Eve being tempted by Satan to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which led to her telling Adam to eat of the fruit, which led to their expulsion from the garden.
There are a few students in the institute who converted to the church only recently, and shared their previous religions perspectives on this scripture. That Eve was stupid and foolish, easily tricked by a much smarter man, and cursed all of mankind with the Fall that we should live in evil and misery and sin. But we are blessed to know, through living prophets and modern revelation, that the Fall was a necessary part of Heavenly Father's plan. In order for us to become more like Him, we need to have knowledge.
Lehi taught Jacob, "....wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin". It reminds me of the final season of The Good Place, which is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, where when the protagonists finally make it up to heaven they find that the constant state of happiness has become insurmountably boring, and there's no real joy to be found. We can only appreciate wonderful things if we know what it means to be miserable.
2 Nephi 2:25 (the best scripture verse, IMO) sums it up entirely for us: "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy."
Eve knew this, and she made the right decision. She was never remorseful, saying "were it not for our transgressions we ... never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient" (Moses 5:11).
So, how does Eve's life deepen my conversion to the Savior? Through her, I can be an ezer to the people in my life, and can comfort myself with the knowledge that through her's and Adam's transgression, I can find greater knowledge on both spiritual and worldly matters, and make mistakes that will lead me to grow closer to my Heavenly Parents. Through the "Fall" and the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ, I can repent for my sins and imperfections and develop into the woman God knows I can and will become
Amen!
#women in scripture#institue#lds institute class#ldsblr#pro lds#pro mormon#mormon positive#tumblrstake#queerstake#mormonism#Eve#adam and eve#The Fall#the garden of eden#scripture#this was a great class!! im so excited for the next one#I hope this is coherent for anyone who reads it haha I was kinda word vomiting#next week is Sarah who was Abraham's wife!
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tag yourselves
everyone's got that one homie who zealously adheres to his inflexible code of honor even though it has long since become a burden to him
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One of the most freeing things you can do as a Christian is start praying over EVERYTHING. And I don't mean "actually remember to pray over the important things that deserve divine attention" or something I mean the stupid stuff
"my videogame controller isn't working properly and it's messing up my game and it's really frustrating me, but I really wanted to play this right now" you have NO idea how often this actually works
"God I can't find my other shoe and I'm in a hurry, please help me find it" BOOM, found.
"I can't sleep because I'm getting myself worked up, give me peace." And it works. Consistently!
Yes we should treat God with reverence, but you misunderstand; he is our father, and our friend. Talk to him. Talk to him about anything and everything. He'll always hear it.
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Reading up on the concept of ethnic mormonism right now, which is fascinating stuff! I can really identify with a lot of what's being said about mormonism as a culture even when the doctrine is at odds. But it's also forcing me to think abt how divided our church is. Our culture is tearing itself apart by rejecting our queer members, by numbers-based fellowshipping, by our extreme black and white way of thinking and our us v them mentality. We're supposed to all be honey bees working together to build zion. Honey bees don't have infighting!! It's heartbreaking to watch the church eat itself.
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the end of the book of mormon is obviously very bleak and didactic as Mormon and Moroni fully give up on their people and talk directly to the "gentiles", but it's also kind of hilarious because they both just looked around at the world and the people around them and went. SAD! well theres other civilizations
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in my institute class this semester we’re going to be covering Women in the Scriptures, and i’m committing myself to taking extensive notes / journaling my thoughts, and also adding specific annotations to my physical scriptures as we study this. i’m also going to make a post for each lesson kinda summarizing what we discussed, in case anyone else is interested!
we’re only going over a few women, as my teacher didn’t want to have to condense or only briefly talk about them. so each lessons we’ll be covering one woman from the scripture, specifically the Old and New Testaments (he said we could do this same class next semester too, to go over women in the Book of Mormon and D&C. I’m hoping I can convince the rest of my class to agree to this!!)
last class we had a sort of Introductory lesson where we talked about why we need to have a class specifically dedicated to the women, and how we (the sisters in the class) have grown in our testimonies despite maybe feeling like “outsiders”, so to speak
all in all i’m SUPER happy excited for this class and I hope other people will be happy to see the posts I make for it! haha :)
#queerstake#tumblrstake#mormonism#ldsblr#institute#lds institute class#women in scripture#lds sisters
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Can’t get over the prominence of the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac in my childhood. Can’t get over the prominence of the moral of God above family and friends in my childhood. That always tore me apart.
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Do you think we can renew and make covenants personally, as in inactive but faithful disciple? I have an intense to desire to do so, but have no plans to return to church at least for a long while.
You ask a question for which I don't know the answer.
I want to remind you that we believe there are multiple paths back to God. Here's two examples:
Joseph Smith saw in vision the Celestial Kingdom, and saw that his brother Alvin was there. Alvin died before the restored church was established. Alvin didn't make covenants, but his desires were enough.
I also think of young children who die. We believe they are saved even though they don't make covenants.
I can't help but think God takes into account our personal circumstances. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't yet a good place for queer people. In fact, most faithful queer people can't complete the 'covenant path' because the church won't seal our marriages, which means we are not eligible to be exalted.
Does God seem like the kind who would create people a certain way which pretty much disqualifies them from exaltation? Or would God prepare another way for them? It's something to think about.
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