Looking for a New Mythology -- Mamusz' Restoration Forum

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Date Posted: 11:30:22 07/02/11 Sat
Author: George
Subject: Looking for a New Mythology

Looking for a New Mythology

Since 1966, the hierarchy of the Communitarian Church (aka "Community of Christ) has become dissatisfied with the original mythology of the church. The term "The Communitarian Church" is a less prejudiced and bigoted description of the church, since the church's official name "The Community of Christ" implies that it is the only faith community of Christ. This is the same reason that the United States of America was forced to take down the sign "American Embassy" in Mexico City, and replace it with "Embassy of the United States," because Mexicans bristled at the idea that living in North America did not make them Americans, too.

The original mythology held that Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the church, and commissioned him as a prophet. Later, an angel appeared to him and told him of the location of an ancientliteral sacred history of the Americas, (the equivalent of uncovering the preColombian Josephus) which confirmed Christian beliefs of America's manifest destiny as held at that point in the 19th century. This written history was literal proof that Jesus is Divine, that the Bible is literally true in all its parts, and that Jesus literally, physcally returned from the dead. As was common in the 19th century, the Divine instructions given to Joseph specified that this was a restoration of original Christianity, and that all other sects and denominations of Christianity were so degraded as to be false. The Book of Mormon is this history, and it doctrinally divides the human race into the dark-skinned (evil) and the white-skinned (divinely blessed)

The last fifty years has shed doubt on these points of doctrine. The leaders of the church have cast about for a new mythology to blend into or supercede the original mythology.

Currently there are several popular mythologies.

Afrocentrism or "black liberation theology -- similar to Mormonism, with the exception of the fact that Africa is substituted for the "promised land" America, and rather than the white man being exterminated by native Americans, Afrocentrism claims that the white man stole civilization out from under the black man and enslaved him. The current president of the U.S. and Oprah Winfrey are members of this cult. IN an exact reversal of Mormonism, Black Liberation Theology (like Black Islam) divides the human race into white (evil) and black (divinely blessed) Since virtually the entire leadership of the Community of Christ, along with its financially supporting members are white, it is unlikely that the communitarians will adopt this theology.

Geocalorianity -- Very similar to Christianiy is some respects. Mankind is axiomatically evil because his physiological imperfections require him to exhale carbon dioxide to exist. (original sin). The actions of mankind are solely responsible for the superheating of the earth. Geocalorianity looks toward a temporal salvation, involving subjugation of all nations and principaliies on the earth in order to force mankind to reduce its CO2 emissions. Otherwise, the earth will become a burning, waterless hell, similar to the place described by Jesus in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Since all humans exhale carbon dioxide, Geocalorianity cannot artificially divide the human race into "good" and "evil." It settles for the concept that some humans are less evil than others, because they produce less carbon dioxide; those less evil should rule and dominate those that are more evil in order to save them by using political and military force to make them less evil. Geocalorianity is would theoretically be attractive to the Communitarian leaders because of its recognition of man's stewardship over the earth. However, unless massive numbers of the leaders' offspring join GreenPeace, it is unlikely that the Communitarian church will adopt Geocalorianity.

Homocentrism -- An elitist religion. Its doctrines are similar to those of primitive cultures -- that the individual with crossed gender is somehow a magical creature or a shaman, i.e., "big medicine." As such, the homosexual, transgendered, or gender-confused person is not only created so by God, but is blessed with artistic talent and sensitivity far above those of other mortals. In Homocentrism, any criticism of the practices of homosexuality is considered blasphemy, and is punishable by death -- or will be as soon as enough countries adopt Homocentrism as their state religion. Homocentrism is attractive to the leadership of the Communitarian church because so many of their offspring are unrepentant homosexuals, and the leaders do not want to contemplate any role they may have had in bringing that about.

Creationism -- a subsect of Christianity that proclaims that not only did God actually create the world and is lord of it, he created the world exactly as humans described Him as having done it. This paradox, latent in Creationism, is similar to those in other cults. The creationist considers it heretical to accept the world as it is, and to accept the lordship and mastery of God over the world -- without specifically expressing a literal belief in the Genesis account of God's demonstration of that lordship.

Liberation Theology -- This is an offshoot of marxism (a la the bloody French Revolution) in which all humankind is divided into "rich" (evil) and "poor" (good.) The paradox in this mythology is that its leadership is almost always composed of rich people who have become rich by robbing and exploiting other rich people who are not liberationists. Thus, it is theologically sound for the poor to become rich by robbing the rich, but once the poor become rich, they are not subject to this same looting by those who remain poor. At one time the Communitarian church found Liberation Theology attractive. For example, in the mid 1980's, the communist regime in Nicaragua was persecuting all the Christian churches there while promoting a state church that taught Liberation Theology. The the president of the Communitarian church, Wallace B. Smith, invited Richard Barnet, (who had helped the Nicaraguan communists set up their secret police) to speak on "peace" at the only temple that the church possessed at that time. The communitarian church's lead offical designated in charge of "peace and justice" wrote a book insinuating that the inhabitants of western countries were comparable to the French aristocracy in 1789, or to the Czarist aristocracy in 1918. This theology is attractive to Communitarians, because the Communitarian Bible (a revision of the KJV produced by Joseph Smith, Jr.) contains a unique passage about Cain and Abel, in which Cain, immediately following his murder of Abel, exclaims, "I am liberated! Surely the flocks of my brother fall into my hands!"

Orthodox Christianity This is a religious cult that insists mankind is not what God intended it to be, and is irretrievablly lost without the grace given by God through the intervention and living sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. Mankind is freed from perdition as an unearned gift from God. On the surface, Othodox Christianity would seem attractive. However, those ready to accept God's free gift of grace are often very upset at being told that once they accept the gift, they are expected to work, pray, and make every effort day and night to become more pleasing to God, and more obedient to him -- out of love and gratitude to Him for His gift. Since most would-be Christians today are like young women who want an engagement ring and wedding band, but don't want to acknowledge the existence of their husbands as persons of sacred worth, most seeking Christian salvation are turned off by the fact that accepting the gift of salvation automatically necessitates a response. Since thieves don't want to give up stealing, adulterers adultery, homosexuals homosexuality, nor murderers murder, Christianity ultimately proves a disappointment to them and pushes them off in search of new and different cults with different theologies.

At any rate it is interesting to see how popular new mythology gets kitbashed to produce the new theology of the Community of Christ.

George

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