Mormonism as a tribe, Part 3: The role of Christ
Christ as the chief
Christ has been placed as the tribal chief for christians. He leads the way; he takes on the toughest aspects of life and he finds a way to overcome them. Now we can follow christ because he is a worthy leader; he has proven himself by being raised from the dead and through the truth demonstrated in his lifestyle.
This is why you'll have people get up in testimony meeting and weep over what christ has done. And then once you are done weeping, they'll promise to do everything christ says so that they can show how obedient they are to him, and then he can bestow his love on them. This is all natural. This is all instinctual. This will lead to the survival of the tribe.
This is why you have young men (who are probably at the most emotional time in their lives and are less rational than they would be later in life) who will give everything to their chief, Christ. They literally would do anything for him, so they give two years of their lives to him (or what they interpret as Christ) they hang pictures of him in their apartments, they talk about how great he is and what he's done for them, they follow his teachings and try to be like their chief, because the animal survives by imitating the true chief, and then they try to convert other people to follow their chief, too. Because if it worked for them, it must work for everyone.
Christ is not here to lead
The problem with having Christ as chief is that he is no longer here to guide us. He can't make the decisions because he is dead. So others try to take the place of the chief. In the mormon church, they place the role of chief onto the prophet. The prophet can then use Christ as the model to lead the tribe. But what if he is an emotional man instead of a rational man? What if his role is that of the emotional shaman and not a rational chief? How would you know that this new chief is a good chief?
You could only tell by his actions. If his actions were true, then it would be alright for him to lead, but if they weren't true, then it could lead to the destruction of the tribe. So powerful is this tribal instinct that he could tell his subjects almost anything, and if there was a strong tribal bond, the subjects would do it. This is why fundamentalism is so scary, because if the leader is emotional, then their decisions are not based in a rational reality, and you'll start seeing people fly planes into skyscrapers and they will be totally convinced that they are doing this for the betterment of the tribe.
Christ has been placed as the tribal chief for christians. He leads the way; he takes on the toughest aspects of life and he finds a way to overcome them. Now we can follow christ because he is a worthy leader; he has proven himself by being raised from the dead and through the truth demonstrated in his lifestyle.
This is why you'll have people get up in testimony meeting and weep over what christ has done. And then once you are done weeping, they'll promise to do everything christ says so that they can show how obedient they are to him, and then he can bestow his love on them. This is all natural. This is all instinctual. This will lead to the survival of the tribe.
This is why you have young men (who are probably at the most emotional time in their lives and are less rational than they would be later in life) who will give everything to their chief, Christ. They literally would do anything for him, so they give two years of their lives to him (or what they interpret as Christ) they hang pictures of him in their apartments, they talk about how great he is and what he's done for them, they follow his teachings and try to be like their chief, because the animal survives by imitating the true chief, and then they try to convert other people to follow their chief, too. Because if it worked for them, it must work for everyone.
Christ is not here to lead
The problem with having Christ as chief is that he is no longer here to guide us. He can't make the decisions because he is dead. So others try to take the place of the chief. In the mormon church, they place the role of chief onto the prophet. The prophet can then use Christ as the model to lead the tribe. But what if he is an emotional man instead of a rational man? What if his role is that of the emotional shaman and not a rational chief? How would you know that this new chief is a good chief?
You could only tell by his actions. If his actions were true, then it would be alright for him to lead, but if they weren't true, then it could lead to the destruction of the tribe. So powerful is this tribal instinct that he could tell his subjects almost anything, and if there was a strong tribal bond, the subjects would do it. This is why fundamentalism is so scary, because if the leader is emotional, then their decisions are not based in a rational reality, and you'll start seeing people fly planes into skyscrapers and they will be totally convinced that they are doing this for the betterment of the tribe.
posted by Jason King at 9:13 PM
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