Being seen eating with sinners and publicans
Jesus was not afraid of mixing with sinners and publicans to do His work on the earth. In fact, He was often criticized by the Pharisees for not being like them (self-righteous and focused on their own interests, I would say).
We read in Matthews 9: 10-13:
â€"And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.â€
Where are the sinners and publicans of our generation? First of all, we are all, at least in part, sinners and publicans, but where are those who are lost in the world and don’t really know where to go or what to do to improve their lives? Probably at least some of them spend some of their time on YouTube watching videos, even those that may not be appropriate. Also, many very good people who are not members of the Mormon Church are constantly on the Internet looking for something.
I had an interesting experience with a very, very good man. I talked with him recently about our site MormonTestimonies.org and he was impressed and said that he would take a look and perhaps help with something.
However, the next day I received a call from him. He was very alarmed, â€"You have a major problem with your site†â€" he said. Whow! I got really concerned. He continued, â€"When a video testimony ends, there are links to several inappropriate videos, even against the Church.â€
â€"This is not good, for sureâ€, I thought. I knew a little bit about this problem and we were already thinking of fixing it someway, but I didn’t think someone could be so concerned about it. I never watched those bad videos, but apparently my friend watched at least part of them. So, similarly to my friend, other people may think that we sponsor those bad videos. We don’t want to give that impression.
To fix it, we decided to â€"embed†videos from Google Videos instead than from YouTube, since we don’t have yet our own system for videos. When someone watches a video testimony from our site that is embedded from Google videos, there aren’t links at the bottom, so that there is no way to find negative content from our site, only the good testimony.
I am grateful to my friend for his suggestion.
However, I thought, what about YouTube in general, should we remove all of our videos from there because they can be listed close to a bad video?
Are we afraid of being seen with sinners and publicans?
So, should we avoid posting good content on YouTube or Google videos because we don’t want our name or face to be â€"seen†close to less positive material? Even more, are we afraid of doing anything on the Internet because â€" obviously â€" in some Google search our site can come up close to a bad site? If we go this route we are in serious trouble, since even the great Church websites show up in Google close to bad ones.
I believe that in order to do missionary work we need to lose some concern with ourselves and we need to be willing to be seen â€"eating with publicans and sinners†sometimes, because we want to help them find the truth. And the Internet is a very safe place to do it, after all, since we don’t even have to sit close to them physically, we are only sending a short video of ourselves and I don’t think we have anything to be afraid of. But others may think differently.
As obvious this seems to me, it is probably not obvious to many people. Perhaps this is because I was born as a non-member, and when I became a member it was highly socially and politically â€"incorrect†to be a Mormon. To be a Mormon in Italy â€" 20 years ago even more than today â€" it was worse than being some of those things that now, in the US, we can’t even mention without becoming politically incorrect. Let me say that it was worse than being a thief (this is probably still politically correct!).
On the other hand, to be a Mormon in Utah usually helps socially and some people here are not used to get into trouble socially because of their religion. However, perhaps some of them need to learn that to help others, and perhaps even save some souls, we need to be willing to forget ourselves and take some reasonable risk.
I know, I am always a little polemic, but, the truth is that to do missionary work requires courage, it always did.
Dangerous trend in the US
I have received this information from a friend. This is for me a clear sign (if we still needed one) that our world is really reap for destruction.
House bill H.R. 1592 and Senate bill S. 1105 would make negative statements concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a â€"hate crime†punishable by law. This dangerous legislation would take away your freedom of speech and your freedom of religion. Consider what has already happened:
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A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words â€"natural family,†â€"marriage†and â€"union of a man and a woman†a â€"hate speech†crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs!
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CNN and The Washington Post both reported that General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was fired because he publicly expressed moral opposition to homosexual behavior.
Where is the freedom of speech going in this country?
If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality.
The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class.
Whow! This is 21th century America! Unfortunately this is also true in other parts of the world such as Europe. Do we need more signs that we are getting close to the end? There is no wonder that in several Muslim countries they describe the US and the west in general as evil. There may be some true…Â
IL battesimo di Pietro
Un vecchio amico italiano mi ha mandato la foto dela battesimo del figlio, Pietro. Circa 20 anni fa Claudio si era battezzato nella Chiesa Mormone e adesso dopo molti anni suo figlio é entrato nelle acque del battesimo. Anche in Italia il lavoro va avanti. Adesso con il nuovo palo di Alessandria ci sará
un rinnovato entusiasmo per il lavoro missionario in quella regione. Spero che molti italiani saranno saggi sufficientemente e acolteranno il messaggio dei missionari mormoni!
O templo Mormon em Manaus foi anunciado de verdade!
Algumas semanas atrás eu escrevei que talvez um templo da Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias (Mormon) tinha sido anunciado em Manaus, Brasil! Eu não tinha certeza mas agora me confirmaram que um templo será construido realmente naquela cidade.
Muito bom, o trabalho vai para frente!
Swiss Mormon Temple: remembering a miracle
People may disagree about what constitute a miracle. I believe that many miracles happened in my life. This is about one of the most important that happened in the life of our family.
It happened approximately 19 years ago, and it focuses on the Swiss temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).
At that time, in 1988, my wife and I lived in Asti, Italia. My wife, Giovanna, was expecting our first child and the closest temple was in Zollikofen, Switzerland. We had been to the temple previously only a few times and we enjoyed being there. A trip to the temple would require several hours, and as new parents we were extremely concerned with all the changes that would happen after the birth of our first son. We were thinking that probably we wouldn’t be able to go to the temple for several months, at least.
Therefore, in spite of Giovanna being seven months pregnant, we decided to accept the invitation of a member of our branch to go once more to the temple. Our relatives were not active members of the Church and this idea seemed to them a little crazy, but we felt that it was the right thing to do.
The trip was good and we went to the temple. While we were there, inside the temple, I had a marvelous feeling about the joy of being father. I had never been a father before and therefore that feeling was amazing. In fact, that feeling started growing so strong that I thought: “whow, how can I expect two more months, after having such wonderful feelings?”.
Half an hour later we were outside sitting in front of the temple when suddenly my wife started feeling in pain. We were not sure what was the problem but we thought it was nothing serious.
A little later, however, the pain came back and stronger until a friend (who already had children) finally told us that probably the baby was trying to come out! That didn’t seem good. To be in a foreign country, away from family and friends, not speaking the language (German), and especially having to deal with a possible premature birth was something really scary.
However, the people who took care of the housing for members of the Church traveling to the temple, Monique and François Portellano, were extremely helpful and directed us to the nearest hospital, in Jegenstorg.
At the hospital the doctors realized that Luca, our son, was trying to come out sooner than expected. They tried for several hours to stop it, but it was impossible. On May 13, 1988, around 12 pm, he was born, weighting only 3 pounds.
That was one of my first great experiences with inspiration and revelation in the Temple. After that, I learned that strong feelings in the Temples have usually practical consequences in our lives if we pay attention to them.
To keep Luca alive, since he had a problem in his lungs, the doctors put him in intensive care and there he was for a couple of weeks. After that they decided that it would be less expensive to move him to Torino, Italy, using the hospitla plane than keep him in intensive care for longer time.
Luca was bound to stay in Torino’s hospital for another two months before he was able to come home.
In the first year of his life he needed a lot of care and it was particularly interesting for us to hear from an Italian doctor, not a Mormon, that we had been lucky that he was born in Switzerland, close to the Bern University Pediatric Hospital where they were experienced and fast enough to save him.
Coming from a non-Mormon, that was a confirmation of what we already knew, that our trip to Switzerland, to go to the Temple, was the right decision and one that probably saved Luca.
Il Palo di Alessandria della Chiesa Mormone
Il quinto palo della Chiesa di Gesú Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni (Chiesa Mormone) in Italia è stato organizzato ieri (10 giugno 2007) ad Alessandria. Questa é una notizia molto felice per me dato che ho abitato in Alessandria per alcuni anni prima di andare a vivere in Brasile e sono molto contento per i membri di quella regione, che include anche Asti, dove mi ero battezzato molti anni prima.
La presidenza del nuovo palo è composta da:
Maurizio BELLOMO: Presidente
Alessandro BIONDI: Primo Consigliere
Sebastiano CARUSO: Secondo Consigliere
Maggiori dettagli sono disponibili al seguente indirizzo:
http://www.palodialessandria.org/dirigenti.html
Speriamo che la creazione del quinto palo sia il preambolo per l’annuncio di un tempio mormone in Italia. É ora !