Membership

末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会の信者のただのもう一人で、個人的に意見を風に当てつつです。
I am just another member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints airing my personal opinions.
This "hands-on" is in the form of what we call a personal testimony.
この「ハンズオン」は、個人の証という形に作って行きます。

My personal ideas and interpretations.
個人の発想と解釈です。

I hope it's useful. If not, I hope you'll forgive me for wasting your time.
お役立つ物ならば、うれしく存じます。そうでなければ、あなたの時間を無駄に費やしてもらってしまって、申し訳ございません。

Above all, don't take my word for the things I write. Look the scriptures up yourself. Your opinion of them is far more important to you than mine.
何よりもここに書いているものそのままだと思わないでください。参考の聖句を是非調べて読んでください。私の意見よりはあなたに対して価値があるのはあなたの意見です。

Sunday, April 12, 2015

What I'm Doing Here.


I am in no way authorized to define or establish doctrine for the Church. In no way do I intend to attempt to present an official viewpoint.

Nor do I desire to present an alternative viewpoint. This is simply my personal point of view, my personal opinions, my personal testimony or witness of the things I have experienced and learned.

This blog is separate from my other blogs because I am presently a teacher, and my religious activities need to be separated from my work to a certain extent. Children sometimes have a hard time understanding that they have to pursue their understanding of religion independently of their teachers. So I want to avoid mixing discussions of religion with my efforts to teach English or other non-religious subjects.

I decided to post this as a blog, but I'm also creating an index, here, so it can be read in order.

The URL:

"Guerilla" means small-scale warfare, as I understand it. The term has been borrowed to describe de-centralized, unofficial, grass-roots tactics in a number of fields, including marketing, politics, and biology. 

Well, yeah, unofficial, but with encouragement from the official  organization. The term has internal irony over and above the current contextual irony. The irony is somewhat intentional.

Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have recently been encouraging us to share our testimonies on the web in appropriate ways. This blog will be part of my effort to do so. I had considered doing this blog in the past, but, since some of the leaders are encouraging this sort of thing, now I'm going ahead with it.

This is not about warfare in the usual sense, of course. There is a possibly appropriate metaphor that Paul mentions, about the internal conflict we sometimes feel between our lesser desires and our better desires.

This is not about the use of weapons. It is not about attempts to force people to do, think, or believe anything.

It is primarily intended for people who have some interest in understanding this thing called "Mormonism".

The title:
I intend to take a hands-on, practical approach. I do not intend to dig into esoteric philosophy. And I intend, rather, to avoid speculation and theory.

I call it a "lay introduction" to emphasize the unofficial nature of my opinions. I intend to offer perspective, not prescription.

So, one more time, for emphasis:

This blog is composed of the opinions of one man who is nominally a member of the Church. Nothing more.

Of course, it won't be a hands-on introduction unless you read the scriptures I point out, and think about them. Pray about them if you feel inclined. But don't ask whether what I am saying is correct. Ask whether the scriptures are correct and whether you understand them correctly.

My explanations can and likely will go south every now and again. I'm human, still subject to sin, error, and death.

I hope this will be useful to some people, but I assume that there will be some people who will not find it so. That will not concern me. I am only offering my opinions and ideas to those who might find them useful.

(If you missed the link to the index, start here.)

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I have no problem with differences of opinion, but seriously abusive comments will get removed when I have time.