I started reading one of the books for Dr. Hickman's class last night. "Life Without Father" After about twenty or thirty pages of basic . . . statistics and percentages I became fed up with the book. It didn't interest me, at least not on that level. You don't have to tell me that the divorce rate has increased. You don't have to tell me that there are more children living without their fathers than there were thirty years ago. Does it really take a book to tell someone that!? I'm sure there is some substance to the book, further on, but I became tired of it and decided that sleep was more important, especially considering how little sleep I've been getting lately. I went to bed.
The presentation today went well enough. I got them to laugh, which is good, I guess. I'm still not sure how I did on the project though, I suppose I will just have to find out. I did end up making the cheesecake, but due to time constraints the game never finished and it was just a situation where whoever wanted it could have it. Some of that overflowed into the Counseling Center: Mrs. Dawson, Paula, and both Dr. Moore's had a piece as well. (The second Dr. Moore, the chairman, actually tracked me down to get a piece!) Fortunately, I had a couple left.
I learned through my time on campus today that Dr. Hickman changed the book in the last few minutes of class and said to start a different one. "Raising A Modern-Day Knight" The book has a good point. Defining what a man is, etc. and then it comes to a point where it starts talking about the "two Adams". First it talks about Adam, from the creation. It talks about how Eve was being tempted by Satan and claims that Adam was standing right next to her and let it happen. It said:
"The stage is set for Adam to intervene. After all, Adam has been given responsibility for the garden; the prohibition against eating fruit was spoken to him (Genesis 2:16-17). God has given the first man a will to obey ("don't eat the fruit"), a work to do ("cultivate the garden"), and a woman to love (Eve). These are his explicit responsibilities as a man.
"You fully expect Adam to come running with a garden hoe, cut off the serpent's head, and end this heinous approach of evil. But confronted with his social and spiritual responsiblities, Adam becomes, of all things, passive."
Following these paragraphs there is a short delving into this saying that because of Adam men all around are shirking their responsibilities, becoming passive, etc. While I agree for the most part that the role of fathers and men in general has definitely changed over the years and there are some slackers of fathers in the world, I am becoming strongly irritated with the continuous efforts to convince people that everything that is wrong with this world is Adam's fault! I didn't make it a page after that before closing the book. The next page talks about how Jesus Christ is the second Adam.
"But thank God for the second Adam --Jesus Christ! Unlike the first Adam, who stood flatfooted in the face of evil, Jesus Christ initiated. He refused to do nothing when sin encroached upon the created order. He was spiritually and socially aggressive."
I think that is the line that killed me. Can people seriously say "created order" in the same chapter where they talk about Adam screwing everything up? Are there really people out there that believe that our experiences now are some type of God's plan B?!?! Everyone is thanking God for Jesus Christ. So thankful for the Gift. Very appreciative while at the same time almost saying that it a completely obsolete thing. It's like saying that wasn't the point at all. Jesus only came because Adam screwed everything up?! In class the other day I hear Dr. Hickman say something about us all living in the Garden, growing, learning, like it was all going to be perfect. Days later we are talking about the gift of agency. I do not fully understand how someone can agree with that, just never question what everyone is saying when so frequently half conflicts with the other half!
I got so frustrated with reading that I stopped reading. Sure, I did that with "Wild At Heart" too, but to pulled me back in to a degree. Sure, I'll read it tomorrow when I have cooled off some, but seriously. After putting the book down I immediately went to my Institute manuals. I mean, if you can't check out what the Church Education System is saying about Genesis and The Fall, then where can you look? So, these are a few things that I found, just to make myself remember that there is some support somewhere for what I think I believe.
"When Adam and Eve were placed in Eden they were not subject to the power of death and could have lived, in the state of innocence in which they were, forever had they not violated the law given the in the Garden.
"The earth was also pronounced good, and would have remained in that same state forever had it not been changed to meet Adam's fallen condition.
"All things on the face of the earth also would have remained in that same condition, had not Adam transgressed the law.
"By partaking of the forbidden fruit, and thus violating the law under which he was placed, his nature was changed, and he became subject to (1) spiritual death, which is banishment from the presence of God; (2) temporal death, which is separation of the spirit and the body. This death also came to Eve his wife.
"Had Adam and Eve not transgressed the law given in Eden, they would have had no children.
"Because of this transgression bringing mortality, the children of Adam and Eve inherited mortal bodies and became subject to the mortal death.
"Because Adam transgressed the law, the Lord changed the earth to suit the mortal condition and all things on the fact of the earth became subject to mortality, as did the earth also.
"To defeat the power which death had gained it became necessary that an infinite atonement be offered to pay the debt and thereby restore Adam and Eve and all of their posterity, and all things, to immortal life through the resurrection." ~ Joseph Fielding Smith
Interestingly is the last paragraph. "Became necessary" stands out. Of course it was necessary, but we had already decided who would be our Savior (or rather, He volunteered and we agreed) <i>before</i> Adam and Eve were even sent to the earth.
"Adam's status before the fall was:
1. He was not subject to death.
2. He was in the presence of God . . .
3. He had no posterity.
4. He was without knowledge of good and evil.
He had knowledge, of course. He could speak. He could converse. There were many things he could be taught and was taught; but under the conditions in which he was living at that time it was impossible for him to visualize or understand the power of good and evil. He did not know what pain was. He did not know what sorrow was; and a thousand other things that have come to us in this life that Adam did not know in the Garden of Eden and could not understand and would not have known had he remained there." ~ Joseph Smith
These statements remind me of the whole idea of being "frozen" emotionally. No sorrow=no joy, etc. Then the last little quote:
"Eve was fulfilling the foreseen purposes of God by the part she took in the great drama of the fall; yet she did not partake of the forbidden fruit with the object in view, but with intent to act contrary to the divine command, being deceived by the sophistries of Satan, who also, for that matter, furthered the purposes of the Creator by tempting Eve; yet his design was to thwart the Lord's plan. We are definitely told that 'he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world' [Moses 4:6]. Yet his diabolical effort, far from being the initiatory step toward destruction, contributed to the plan of man's eternal progression. Adam's part in the great event was essentially different from that of his wife; he was not deceived; on the contrary he deliberately decided to do as Eve desired, that he might carry out the purposes of his Maker with respect to the race of men, whose first patriarch he was ordained to be." ~ James E. Talmage
Sure, none of these things hold to a grain of salt to anyone in my class because these are not their prophets or apostles (according to them), or their scriptures or books for that matter, but these are not my books, these ones that talk of Adam as making a <i>huge</i> mistake in his choice.
Being so extremely distraught by the book; exhausted at the idea of having all these things to back me up and nobody with which to argue my point(s), I wanted to watch a movie that would inspire me; remind me of the good in people; one that showed there are people in the world that succeed in spite of the terrible things that happen to them like divorce and "invisible fathers" and things such as that. I looked to my collection for a movie I haven't already watched in my time here (which isn't getting easy) and one that met the criteria. I skimmed past all those action movies (all of which I have been avoiding for the most part), past the animations (knocked all but one of those out over the weekend), tempted by "Tuesdays With Morrie" but I knew it wasn't quite right. Then I stopped upon "Finding Forrester". I'm not sure who of you have seen it, but I don't really care, watch it. That movie, plus two others in my collection, will most likely always have meaning to me in a roundabout type of way. I watched it with a renewed faith in society as a whole and listened to the final song. If you've seen it, you know it. You know, the one from those commercials about kids who are thinking, imagining, creating. To me, and my family, it symbolizes something completely different. It reminds me of a father. Not an invisible one, but one that does not have the chance to be the father he wanted to be to his son. He cannot screw up, change to be better, or watch him grow into a man. Not for now at least. In a matter of three weeks, Clay died two years ago. It still makes me cry. Funny how a book about knights and fathers - Adam - The Fall - a movie to inspire me - all brings me back to fathers and a child growing up to be a man. You'd be amazed at how frequently that happens to me.
[this is good]
Our men and boys are in trouble.
Posted by: foundingknight | 07/02/2008 at 11:35 AM
Our men and boys are in trouble. We need a knighthood. There is a new knighthood. Check it out at theorderofthechristianknights.blogspot.com or email foundingknight@gmail.com. No gimmicks, no books to sell, 100% free and simple. Check it out.
Posted by: foundingknight | 07/02/2008 at 11:36 AM