Praise To The Man

Key Takeaways

Kyle, in 2018 in Books: BYU Speeches put together this book of some of the best speeches that have been given at BYU on the topic of Joseph Smith, the first President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I won this book by doing a trivia challenge about Mormon speakers. I then lost the book I won, was late for class, ran back and gave the right answers to someone else so that they could win me another copy of the book, then ran back my class, and on the way met the girl who I went on my first date with at BYU after my mission. It wasn’t a great date, and I didn’t see her again. But hey, the story is great. Specifically, I’ve carried this book around for 5 years and never read it. I finally set out to read it and what I was struck by was the different ways in which people have identified the importance of someone like Joseph Smith as it relates to the whole of religious thought. If what Joseph Smith said happened to him actually did happen, it’s the most important thing to happen since the life of Jesus Christ. If there really is a prophet on the earth today like Moses, it’s probably important. The Power of the Everyday Missionary

While this book is specifically about helping members of the LDS church, or Mormons, share what they believe, I think the concept of being missionaries of our causes is something that has been lost. If you have something in your life that you think offers you value, whether it’s a religion, a product, a service, a practice, a habit, anything — if you really care about someone, shouldn’t you want to share that with them? They may not accept it, it may not work for them, and that’s okay. But the act of sharing something you care about should be seen less as intrusive, or inappropriate, and more as a sign of love and caring.

Many thanks to Gary and Sherry Neuder for exposing me to this book.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Camden and I first saw this movie on a plane on our way to Hawaii. We watched the movie, and Camden had a very emotional reaction. She lost a brother to cancer, and the movie is hard to watch. I felt awful for having had us watch it, but afterwards Camden was grateful to have watched it. She is a strong person, and has born her grief with a lot of perspective. Afterwards, when we got to Seattle, we bought this book and she read it, and enjoyed it. It took me a long time to finally get around to reading it.

Many thanks to the Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle for giving us our copy.

Blink

Malcolm Gladwell was once described by my behavioral economics professor as muffin top research, just taking the sweet interesting tidbits off the top without any solid foundation. Pop culture psychology is another example. I think what Gladwell provides exceedingly well is anecdotes; illustrations of principles that have true concepts behind them, but may not always be aligned in exactly the right way. For any serious student of the ideas he writes about, he provides a valuable addition to your understanding, but probably wouldn’t base your entire theoretical base on him.

*In those moments, our brain uses two very different strategies to make sense of the situation. The first is the one we’re most familiar with. It’s the conscious strategy. We think about what we’ve learned, and eventually we come up with an answer. This strategy is logical and definitive. But it takes us eighty cards to get there. It’s slow, and it needs a lot of information. There’s a second strategy, though. It operates a lot more quickly. It starts to kick in after ten cards, and it’s really smart, because it picks up the problem with the red decks almost immediately. It was the drawback, however, that it operates — at least at first — entirely below the surface of consciousness. It sends its messages through weirdly indirect channels, such as the sweat glands in the palms of our hands. It’s a system in which our brain reaches conclusions without immediately telling us that it’s reaching conclusions.” Quote from Sigmund Freud — “When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.”

Weapons of Math Destruction*

Everything about the world can be summed up as data. What isn’t as cut and dry is what that data means. This book is a great introduction to the ideas behind algorithms and how inherent bias can be built into even the most seemingly benign system.

Special thanks to Folio Booksin San Francisco for exposing me to this book.

A BYU devotional collection on Joseph Smith — sixteen talks by church leaders and scholars, indexed in full below. Kyle’s marked passages cluster on inquiry as the precondition for revelation:

• The Lord teaches inquiring minds. Russell M. Nelson, quoted here: “The Lord can only teach an inquiring mind” — the collection’s throughline, and why the Joseph Smith story starts with a question rather than an answer.
• Joseph’s method with criticism. “When I have heard a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it” — deliberation before response.
• Authority amid drift. “Where is the clear voice of authority on right and wrong? Divided and drifting churches supply religious philosophers but no prophets.”
• What actually matters isn’t in the news. “What are the most important things in the world today? Do not look for them in the media.”
• Christ as the meek volunteer. The Great Council framing — Jesus “the prepared but meek volunteer” when the Father described the plan.

The talk index itself is the other value here: Richard Lloyd Anderson on Paul and Joseph Smith as parallel prophets, Leonard J. Arrington on the lighter side, M. Russell Ballard on Kirtland, Hugh B. Brown’s “Profile of a Prophet”, Neal A. Maxwell’s “A Choice Seer”, David L. Paulsen on the problem of evil, and Gordon B. Hinckley’s title talk.

Connections

Books: Rough Stone Rolling and Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet — the historical treatments alongside these devotional ones. Approaching Zion on the same tradition read critically.

Concepts: Religious Intellectualism · Revelation — “the Lord can only teach an inquiring mind” is a good anchor quote for both.

People: Joseph Smith · Gordon B. Hinckley · Neal A. Maxwell · Russell M. Nelson.

• Joseph Smith — the subject of the book; the title derives from the LDS hymn celebrating him as a Prophet of the Restoration.
• Mormonism · Restoration — the doctrinal and historical context the book inhabits.

Highlights

• “Parallel Prophets: Paul and Joseph Smith” by Richard Lloyd Anderson
• “Joseph Smith and the Lighter Side” by Leonard J. Arrington
• “What Came From Kirtland” by M. Russell Ballard
• “Joseph Smith: The Chosen of God and the Friend of Man” by Ivan J. Barrett
• “The Profile of a Prophet” by Hugh B. Brown
• “Joseph Smith: The Mormon Prophet” by James A. Cullimore
• “Joseph Smith’s Christlike Attributes” by Jack H. Goaslind
• “Joseph Smith The Prophet” by David B. Haight
• “Praise to the Man” by Gordon B. Hinckley
• “A Choice Seer” by Neal A. Maxwell
• “Joseph Smith: A Revealer of Christ” by Bruce R. McConkie
• “Joseph Smith and the Problem of Evil” by David L. Paulsen
• “But For Joseph” by Katherine D. Pullins
• “Stand by My Servant Joseph” by Cecil O. Samuelson
• “Joseph Smith: Lover of the Cause of Christ” by Heidi S. Swinton
• “Where is the clear voice of authority on right and wrong? Divided and drifting churches supply religious philosophers but not prophets. Yet Latter-Day Saints testify that Joseph Smith and his successors were called to rescue a world adrift in its own conceits and problems. Such a claim can be tested by the Bible, the record of prior prophets.”
• “What are the most important things in the world today? Do not look for them in the media, for the three best historians of the first century barely mention Christianity as a disreputable superstition, and no one mentions Paul.”
• “It was in such an environment that Joseph Smith grew up. But before he went through the stage of rebellion, before the development of a guilt complex, the Lord granted to him, at the age of fourteen, that glorious First Vision. The Lord got to him, in other words, before the religions of the day were able to deaden his youthful exuberance and openness, his capacity for enjoying the mental, cultural, and physical aspects of life. He thus avoided the artificially severe, ascetic, fun-abhorring mantle that contemporary religion seemed to insist upon. He was pious, but not inhibited; earnest, but not fanatical; a warm, affectionate, and enjoyable personality — a prophet who was both serious and playful — a wonderful exemplar of the precept “Man is that he might have joy.”
• “Elder Russell Nelson recently expanded on this important principle. He said, ‘The Lord can only teach an inquiring mind.’ What an important lesson. The Lord doesn’t generally come to us — he waits for us to come to Him and ask. Then he gives us the answer. How many times have you said, ‘I have not received direction lately’ or ‘I feel a void in my life.’ Do we inquire of the Lord? Do we ask, seek, and knock as the Savior directed? As you have problems and questions in your lives, do you follow this principle? I testify to you that as your minds are opened and as you truly inquire of the Lord, he will answer you. As we humble ourselves, he will lead us by the hand and give us answers to our prayers.”
• “Joseph Smith said something like this: ‘When I have heard a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it, and I ask myself the question, ‘Did I say something or was there something about my manner to give some basis for that story to start?’ And often if I think about it long enough, I realize I have done something to give that basis. And there wells up in me a forgiveness of the person who has told that story, and a resolve that I will never do that again.”
• “Ages ago in the Great Council, Jesus was the prepared but meek volunteer. As the Father described the plan of salvation and the need for a Savior, it was Jesus who stepped forward and said humbly but courageously, ‘Here am I, send me.’ Never has anyone offered to do so much for so many with so few words.”
• “Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in his last visit to BYU in the spring of 2004, shed some significant light on this matter. In his comments he included our excellent faculty and generous donors, as well as you special students, in his expressions of gratitude for what has been and is being accomplished here. Listen carefully to his words: “In a way, LDS scholars at BYU and elsewhere are a little bit like the builders of the temple in Nauvoo, who worked with a trowel in one hand and a musket in the other. Today scholars building the temple of learning must also pause on occasion to defend the Kingdom. I personally think this is one of the reasons the Lord established and maintains this University. The dual role of builder and defender is unique and ongoing. I am grateful we have scholars today who can handle, as it were, both trowels and muskets.”