Sunday Ramblings….
Happy Easter! The weather forecasters were wrong YET again, and we awoke to a blue sky and not totally frigid temps. Spring in Utah. What will happen next is anyone’s guess. Since we stayed home for the weekend (because the WEATHER FORECASTERS SAID IT WAS GOING TO SNOW! You KNOW who you are.)I’m just going to ramble on here about bits and pieces of things that are running through my mind. Aren’t you lucky?
In a conversation this morning, a friend told me that she’d read an NRA official said that teachers should be allowed to carry guns. She made this statement after the recent Minnesota school shooting.
Holy Hell. The answer to rampant violence is to give MORE crazy people GUNS?? Speaking as someone who actually works as an educator, and has young children in school, can I please suggest that we do NOT embrace this idea? As my friend said, “Instead of No Child Left Behind, we’ll have No Child Left Alive.”
Teachers have been known to snap when they’ve heard “But you didn’t tell us the test was TODAY,” for the millionth time.
Parent/Teacher conferences would take on a whole new light. They’d require armed guards and body armor! Strip searches! Metal detectors.
Lord have mercy. Teachers with guns. No thanks.
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I just finished reading Martha Nibley Beck’s book, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith. Unless you live on a deserted island, you’ve heard about this controversial book by the daughter of one of Mormonism’s most beloved figures, Hugh Nibley.
Mostly, the Mormons are pretty damn angry at Martha for her allegations. There’s been a campaign, spearheaded by the siblings of Martha, to discredit her entirely. The family even set up a Web site, and is asking for donations. Not one brother or sister is siding with Martha.
So what’s the truth? Unfortunately, as in most of these cases, only those involved know. And one party–Hugh Nibley–passed away last month.
Nibley, while deeply respected within the Mormon community, was not well-known or respected outside of Utah. He was the Mormon apologist’s apologist. Years ago, I read his defense against the Fawn Brodie book, No Ma’am, That’s Not History.
He never really dubunked any part of Brodie’s book. He just attempted to put words in her mouth, and change the way the reader looked at her, by intimating that she was simply not smart enough, or qualified enough, to write a biography of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Brodie’s task is to fit the recorded words and acts of one Joseph Smith to her idea of a well-meaning but not too reliable oaf. To do this the words and acts in question must be changed around a bit: there must be a good deal of critical interpretation and explaining in the light of the answer she wants to get. All this is pardonable if it does not go too far. But how far does it go? That is the all-important question which can be answered only by consulting the book itself.
There is hypocrisy here in Nibley’s words, as HE puts words into Brodie’s mouth, and changes what SHE said, to fit HIS purpose. Never in her book did she call Joseph Smith, Jr., an oaf. Of course, this is what an apologist must do.
After reading Beck’s book, I felt profound sympathy for Hugh Nibley, much as Martha herself does. How does one defend the indefensible? The entire LDS Church is set up on a foundation that requires absolute belief in things that cannot be proven. Losing your “faith” is, in the eyes of the Saints, the worst thing that can happen. For those who actually go through it, however, it is very freeing. Martha’s book title is very apropos. She did not lose her faith. She lost the Mormons, instead.
Hugh Nibley did the best he could with what he had. And that was not much.
Martha alleges that this, in the end, is what led him to lose grasp of his sanity, and what led to his abuse of her.
I found Martha’s book lovely, well-written, and she treated MOST of the Saints with deep respect and love, even while knowing most of them most absolutely do NOT love her back.
I’ll post more on this book throughout the week.
