Prologue: My brother messaged me yesterday in comment to this mini-series. “Jon Krakauer really got you riled up.” I suppose he’s right. Krakauer did get me a bit riled.<\/p>\n
But this series of extended rants is more indicative of my current case of blogger’s block. I just don’t feel like I have anything worth saying. Narrative is out since I’m pretty much just working these days–and if I talk about my job I end up whining. Thoughtful, insightful posts are out since I don’t have time to clearly articulate my thoughts or to dig to hone my thoughts (which is why the theology of food series isn’t progressing). Heart spillage? That’s out too, since I’m currently in a “treasuring these things in her heart” season.<\/p>\n
Which means that you’re getting rants. Sorry.<\/i><\/p>\n
Bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance<\/p>\n
~Merriam Webster Online Dictionary<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So far, I have discussed Krakauer’s accusation that religion is the most potent force for inciting evil<\/a> and his argument that faith is necessarily irrational<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Readers of my discussion so far might be inclined to think that Under the Banner of Heaven<\/i> is an atheistic tract about religious abuses. But it isn’t.<\/p>\n
Instead, it is a history of evils committed by so-called “Mormon Fundamentalists”, specifically those who hold to “Section 132” of the Doctrine and Covenants–that is, to the practice of polygamy.<\/p>\n
Yet Krakauer clearly desires to carry his criticisms of these “Mormon Fundamentalists” first to all Mormons and then to all religions or religious persons. <\/p>\n
Generalizing the practices of the “Mormon Fundamentalists” to that of mainstream Mormons (of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”) may or may not be justified. If the abuses of the “Mormon Fundamentalists” can be shown to logically stem from the “doctrine” of polygamy, then mainstream Mormons still have something to answer for. The founder of their religion, and the initial “prophets” in their religion, both taught and practiced (even commanded) this “doctrine”. Furthermore, Section 132<\/a> remains in the official “Doctrine and Covenants” of the “Church of Jesus Christ for Latter-Day Saints”. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, the official position of the “Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints” is that so-called “plural marriage” is not to be sanctioned or practiced since it is against the laws of the land. Anyone within the LDS “church” who does practice “plural marriage” will be subject to church discipline. So certainly modern mainstream Mormons are opposed to the practice of the doctrine capable of such abuses, even if they have not abolished the doctrine entirely.<\/p>\n
Krakauer’s jump from “Fundamentalist Mormonism” to all other religions is far less justified. He makes assertions but no logical arguments for the irrationality of all religion and for the propensity of all religion to incite “evil”. Essentially, Krakauer is a bigot, obstinately clinging to his prejudice against religion and spewing libelous statements against all religious peoples without making any rational argument to justify his hatred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prologue: My brother messaged me yesterday in comment to this mini-series. “Jon Krakauer really got you riled up.” I suppose he’s right. Krakauer did get me a bit riled. But this series of extended rants is more indicative of my current case of blogger’s block. I just don’t feel like I have anything worth saying. … Read more Jon Krakauer: Mormon Fundamentalism = All Religion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[35],"tags":[624,1186],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}