The Danger of Conspiracy Theories

I know that this is kind of extremely random – especially because I haven’t been able to write anything for a while but here goes. Over the weekend I had to take some down time to try and fight off a cold. I found myself on Facebook scrolling through random things because honestly Facebook is great when you feel like you have to do something besides just lie there but can’t really do much more.

In my scrolling I came across many tributes and articles about the Sandy Hook shooting that took place in Newtown, Connecticut two years ago. Although I don’t spend large amounts of time dwelling on it or researching it, it has been a hard story for me. It just hits too close to home. First of all, it’s only a few hours from where we live. Second I had just given birth to Bear a few days before it happened so my maternal instincts were a little on overload when I got the news and like 9/11 I will always remember that moment. Third because I had two children off at school that day – I had kissed them goodbye and sent them off on the bus, trusting in the simple fact that I’d see them that afternoon. Tiger was the same age as many of those children who lost their lives. I wept for the parents who had done the same thing I had that Friday but had their world shattered. Lastly because I’ve been where those Sandy Hook families have been. I’m pretty sure it was even a Friday when my middle-school went on lockdown because a student shot and killed another student. It shattered our innocence forever and that was when I was 12 and there was only one victim.

As I read through the comment sections of the Sandy Hook articles I knew I had to say something. For anyone who is blissfully unaware there are many people now who are completely convinced that Sandy Hook never happened and is completely a government run hoax. Those people are troll-like trying to take over the comment sections of articles related to what happened and prove their superior intelligence – convinced that the rest of us are mindless fools. Sometime after the first anniversary I read an article full of what it described as “proof” – it was full of the most ridiculous non-sense I could have imagined. The parents were called actors because they didn’t “look like” they could have been in a relationship with one another and they “weren’t grieving enough”. They dared to complain that we haven’t seen the pictures of the bodies on tv or had more film footage. These people never pause to consider that maybe the media for once is respecting the fact that this is tragic enough to where they should back off and respect those who died instead of showing gruesome footage (that no one sane really wants to see and for that matter these same people probably wouldn’t accept as authentic) and focusing only on the most distraught people as they interview (which I can verify from personal experience that they do). The idea of the conspiracy theorists was that it was all just a farce to strengthen evidence against gun laws or even homeschooling.

There’s another similar story I heard recently about Malaysian Airlines flight 117 – people who believed that it was another tragedy that never happened. The idea was that the plane was actually the Malaysian Airlines flight 370 that had earlier crashed into the Indian Ocean. This is another one that struck close to home as we have good friends who had just visited with a longtime friend that was going home on that plane. Their grief is real. They lost a good friend who only a short time before they had laughed with as he played with their little children.  

The idea behind conspiracy theories can be interesting. It feeds off of the concept that we know is true – there is always more to a story than meets the eye. They are especially tempting if we can believe that we know more about what really happened than the person next to us and can either engage that person’s belief or start a good debate. I’m not going to say that we shouldn’t question the reasoning behind tragic events and want to find out the whats and the whys and get our information straight so we can find ways to prevent further suffering. What I am saying is that at the very least we can be decent enough to the people that are mourning to admit that they happened. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have strangers asking for the pictures of my child or grandchild's tortured corpse so that they can prove that she actually existed. Those who do are no better than the people trying to convince us that the Holocaust never happened and deny us the chance to search for real answers.

And for all of you people still desperately searching for a conspiracy - how about this one – how about a group that goes around coming up with random judgments and outright lies that make us stop believing that these horrible things really are happening. That to me seems the most potentially harmful and frightening one of all.

General Conference Review: Prepared in a Manner That Had Never Been Known

If you’ve been following my blog or just know me very well you might know that not only do I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but I absolutely love our General Conferences. General Conference is a chance for church members and pretty much anyone else to hear the words of living prophets. They testify of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and share with us His words to help us lead better lives full of happiness and peace and love. It just doesn’t get much better! Over the next while I want to share some of my thoughts from General Conference, mostly as a review for myself but also for anyone who might be interested. So today we begin!

The first talk I’m going to review comes from the Women’s Conference Session that took place on September 27, 2014. The talk was given by the Relief Society General President, Linda K. Burton titled “Prepared in a Manner That Had Never BeenKnown”

There are so many wonderful things that come to my mind as I read through this message. Like I said, mostly I’m just reviewing and recording my thoughts and ideas so I’m just going to bring up points and ideas here and there from the things that Sister Burton said.

First she brings up the idea of a young woman being prepared to enter the temple and make sacred covenants on her wedding day. To know my thoughts on this one I should share a bit about myself. My EC and I were married when I was just 20. We’d only really been dating for 6 months and had planned our wedding in 3. In the 6 months prior to this I’d moved twice across country and didn’t really have roots anywhere. We never got to go through a temple prep class or pre-marriage counseling. I didn’t even know the Bishop or Stake President who did my interviews. I can look back now and thankfully things have worked out. Honestly, I don’t know how it could have worked any other way with how things were at the time but I really wish we would have had those opportunities to prepare together before beginning our life together. I am thankful that I had been prepared in other ways. Since I was a child I had learned the importance of temples and prayer and scriptures so I wasn’t totally a fish out of water. Still I was so nervous and uncertain I’m sure I didn’t hear half of what was going on. Thankfully we can go back often and as we do we can learn and re-learn.

The next thing that Sister Burton talked about was the parable given by the Savior in Matthew 25 of the 10 Virgins. She says, “I don’t think there is anyone, especially among those with tender hearts, who doesn’t feel sad for the foolish young women. And some of us just want to say to the others, ‘Can’t you just share so everyone can be happy?’ But think about it. This is a story the Savior told, and He is the one who calls five of them ‘wise’ and five of them ‘foolish.’” She goes on to compare it to personal preparation for the temple.

Honestly I’ve had those exact questions before, why would the women be shut out? Why would the Savior tell us that He would close the door if we weren’t prepared and on time. I thought the Savior was supposed to be accepting of everyone. How does this story fit in with all His pleas to “come” unto Him? I think I’m finally beginning to get some of it though. The Savior acts out of love in every possible circumstance. If He chooses to shut a door before us it’s because we’re not ready for what’s beyond it. What would have happened to those women if they had been let in late to the feast how would it have affected or changed them? These women were likely dreaming of their own wedding ceremonies and feasts no doubt a closed door had a very significant effect on their dreams and how they prepared themselves. Perhaps they would have felt awkward and out of place at the feast and wanted to leave anyways? Perhaps they would have embarrassed themselves? Perhaps the closed door helped them understand the importance of being ready the next time where an exception would have allowed them to continue on in their foolish misunderstanding of the importance of the event. This is especially important in the context of temple blessings. If we enter the temple without being prepared there will be consequences that can last an eternity and not only for us but for generations to come.

Sister Burton next went onto expound on how we can add oil to our spiritual lamps so that we might be prepared for the temple and making and keeping covenants. Some of the things that she lists that we can do include: attending sacrament meetings, fasting, family prayer, home teaching, controlling bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, reading scriptures, acts of dedication to the Lord, acts of obedience, deeds of kindness, paying tithes and offerings, having chaste thoughts and actions, and doing all those small and simple righteous things diligently and continually over time.

She also mentioned the importance of making our homes as much like the temple as possible in its sacredness as part of spiritually preparing our children. As a mother this one of course hit home to me. I’ve seen so much recently with the attitude that a disorganized and messy home means that there is love because the mother spent time with her children while a clean one shows neglected children or a parent who is overly perfectionist and over controlling. Part of me understands that thinking and my own home shows quite a bit of the choices that I’ve felt I’ve had to make. In thinking about it especially with this talk and in connection with other things recently I believe that this idea can be quite damaging actually. Somehow we’ve gotten this idea that we have to choose between a clean house and time with our children. For most of my parenting and even at most moments now that’s certainly what seems to be the obvious way of looking at it. I have come to believe however that a clean home can show just as much if not more love for our children in reality. If we’re looking at things the Lord’s way He wants us to do both and so what happens if we choose to do it together? Recently I started washing the dishes by hand again. Interestingly one night Monkey decided to join me. She and I had such fun working and sharing the job together she didn’t want to stop and she couldn’t wait to do it again. She’s even convinced Tiger to help out now so we are all doing them together and we have fun and learn as we work together (except for Bear, he just wants to empty all the cabinets as we’re putting things away!) It really is so simple and yet so beautiful. It’s just one area that we’ve been able to implement this but I can’t wait to find ways to expand it. I really do think that part of the Lord’s plan is that we teach and share joy as we work together not just play together.

The last thought I had while reading Sister Burton’s talk was about this concept of blessings coming from our preparations. There are many blessings that come as we are prepared to worthily enter the temple some are obvious and some less so. Thinking about those 5 wise virgins I see women who did what they could and were blessed accordingly. One blessing that came to my mind was in connection with the concept of the oil. The 5 had prepared the best they could and then waited patiently. One of their blessings was perhaps the same as that as the widow woman of Zarephath. They were blessed that their oil would not run out. In the case of the widow woman, we can see that it was a blessing not only to her but to her family as well. If we do what we can each day to serve the Lord and follow the guidance of our Prophet our oil will not run out the Lord will bless us for our efforts and with us our families. I really believe that. As we do what we can to prepare ourselves and our families for the blessings that await in the temple our testimonies will be continually refilled and no matter how long we wait in the night or how long the famines last we will have enough to see us through.

Sister Burton ended with this great thought, “May we prepare to worthily receive saving ordinances drop by drop and keep the associated covenants wholeheartedly. As we do so, I know we will qualify to receive the promised blessings of a fullness of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Lord in our homes and individual lives.”