For the Betterment of Youth: Trust

Happy Sabbath!

So, as it turns out, the First Presidency put out a new edition of For the Strength of Youth, and even though so far I have only read a few of the sections, I like it SO MUCH BETTER than the previous editions. So I want to talk about how awesome it is versus the old versions, particularly the 2001 edition, starting at the beginning.

As with almost every single anything put out by the Church ever, they each start with a message from the First Presidency. I feel like the tone from the 2001 version is geared much more towards Primary (and as I read the CTR Primary manual all the time, I have a pretty good idea of what’s geared towards Primary) whereas the 2012 version is actually addressed to young adults who can figure things out by themselves.

Wait, I forget what I was supposed to choose!

Inside the Mind of a Creep

Many of you will have heard about this story already, as it's been making the rounds on Facebook and other blogs. To sum up: boy sees girl, boy lusts after girl, boy blames girl, boy tells girl via anonymous note. Of course this happened at BYU. The general consensus seems to be that the unknown male here is to blame, on account of his pharisaical interpretation of the Honor Code, his refusal to take responsibility for his thoughts, and his tactless, cowardly way of expressing his displeasure. Many are wondering how this reflects on Mormon culture and whether our strong emphasis on female modesty is healthy (spoiler alert: it isn't) or even whether we unwittingly promote body-shaming of women and rape culture.

These are all valid concerns. I, however, want to go a little deeper. I want to try and get inside the mind of the man who wrote this note. I want to understand him. Perhaps, by doing so, I can help us all understand ourselves. Therefore, based on my years as an observer of human nature, my lifelong immersion in LDS culture, and my time spent as a BYU student, I have attempted to reconstruct this man's thought process as he encountered what must have been a very difficult situation. I now present it to you.

The Trouble with Hero Worship, or, How Mel Gibson Ruined my Childlike Naïveté

One characteristic that has reared its odd little head more and more in my life is a distinct mistrust of "popular" people or ideas. I like to think this isn't some sort of personal hipster-like revolution (though it's hard to justify that, as I'm sitting here typing this with black rimmed glasses, an ironic pop culture t shirt, and, you know, a blog), but rather a symbol of my strong will and principles. Yeah. That's it.

This subject actually came up when my girlfriend and I passed a billboard advertising "The Making of Jimmer" dvd. That sparked a good conversation between us on whether or not hero worship was a good thing. The result of our conversation was basically that it's a tricky business hero-worshiping someone--you never know enough about him or her to truly pass judgment on her or his overall moral character. For me personally, I think, in some way, this notion stems from a personal experience from my youth when I admired a person greatly, only to be later disappointed in them. Yes, that's right, I, like most children my age, was an avid Mel Gibson fan.

I...wasn't alone in this, right?