Changes in "Law"

I've been reading a lot about Mormon church history, from kind of an external kind of anthropological point of view. It's so interesting to me how the Church today emphasizes certain things and totally ignores other parts of our recent history. Like polygamy. That's one of those interesting laws of God that seem to change depending on the situation and people. Abraham (Bible), be polygamist, Jacob (Book of Mormon) don't be polygamist. Joseph Smith be polygamist, Wilford Wodruff don't be polygamist. Or murder. Nephi kill Laben, 'Thou shalt not kill', Abraham sacrifice your son. And these aren't small, inconsequential laws to be brushed aside, but rather huge parts of the human experience.


Don't eat this, don't say that, say this, wear this, don't wear that, live here don't live there.... there is no end to the contradictory and consistent inconsistency of "God's" laws. Biblicaly, certain laws are applied only to certain groups of people, the priests, women, Jews, Christians, or non-believers. For example, the Children of Israel's extermination of the inhabitants of Israel, the Crusades: "God's" call to massacre non-believers, or Paul's anti-woman rants about their hair, speaking in public, etc.


Now, the only reasonable explanation for this situation is that these laws are not being transferred directly from God to men, but rather involve men's use the name of God to justify and provide legitimacy for their own personal motives and gain. Those who win the war rewrite history to their own desires.There is no fundamental truth or immovable perfect Law in these type of situation.


In fact, that is one of Christ's most important talking points in the New Testament*, that he is come to fulfill the Law. The Law is, in humanity, the ultimate impossibility. It is as simple as that. We are "fallen", imperfect on an exam which demands absolute perfection and nothing less. And we, as imperfect being,s have no right to judge any other human being by our subjective standards.


Now I'm not speaking in terms of personal spirituality, but rather enormous social movements. For example, for thousands of years the face given to God was the face created by ancient Greeks as Zeus, one of their polytheistic gods. A religion that borrows so much from heretics, and yet has the audacity to vilify and condemn those very groups from which they borrowed, that is my definition of morally reprehensible.


And yet, we are often so closed minded today, defining Christianity, defining "truth", daring to put words into the mouth of God. We so often become the very Pharisees, the religious "elites", that Christ so often chastised. We have put truth in a box, defined it, measured it, worshiped it. And any idea or practice that does not fit in that little box is violently cast off as false doctrine, it's adherents demoted to sinners.


Recently the Mormon church has altered their missionary program, implementing new policies, creating new opportunities, changing the age requirements. This is a big change. This last year also saw the first woman praying in General Conference (the biannual worldwide broadcast). I strongly believe that the church must continue to change it's practices, it's culture, it's rules, even it's Laws to stay relevant and provide spiritual nourishment for it's members. By stubbornly holding onto church tradition, faith in the important things is threatened. I don't believe the church is perfect. Or as we Mormons would say "I don't believe the church is true". This church, really any church is a group of people attempting to enforce codes of behavior and a system of belief. Which is, I believe, exactly what Christ taught against in the New Testament.







*-This is all according to the translators, clergy and those in political and religious power, of course. The Bible as we know it today is a mishmash of different writer's ideas, editor's revisions and translator's changes. Because we have absolutely no idea what this man called Jesus actually said. "His" words have been used by mass murderers, rapists, the vilest dregs of humanity to justify their actions.