I am not a building!

[Whistler]

Today's lesson in my RS was about how we can relate to the Provo tabernacle, because it burned down and is being rebuilt in celestial glory! Unfortunately the whole time I kept thinking about how much this metaphor DOESN'T fit. I know Jesus taught in parables, so object lessons aren't inherently evil, but I am not a building! I have trouble relating to one! Buildings don't have feelings! They just have our emotional attachments and memories. I am willing to believe that the things that happen in buildings can affect how we feel in them (this is about as far as I go on personifying buildings).

The tabernacle wasn't feeling anything when it was first built! The PEOPLE who built it probably had a lot of feelings about it though--like how much hard work they put into it and how they had high hopes for it, and I think the tabernacle served/will serve its purpose that way. It also wasn't feeling anything when it was burned. People aren't things!! aaah. We should at least compare them to seeds or cells, which are alive and subject to similar laws of nature governing life. Also, the supports and crutches the building is using now for being rebuild are poor analogues for our support networks. When the tabernacle is done, it will have no need of external supports. But even when we're resurrected we will still have need of our connections with others. I hate mixed metaphors!

I'm ranting. Thanks for listening.

[Katya]

I know Jesus taught in parables, so object lessons aren't inherently evil, but I am not a building!

Jesus used unusually good parables (or the best ones have survived to be canonized), but it's really hard to create a good parable or extended metaphor, and bad ones are just more evidence of that.

[Portia]

In my advanced French Lit class, we often talked about how the protagonist of Notre-Dame de Paris IS the Notre Dame Cathedral. I can see Hugo running with this metaphor.

[Yarjka]

We've been taught that our bodies are our temples. What if when we die, we actually turn into physical temples? We really are buildings after all!

[Portia]

We've been taught that our bodies are our temples. What if when we die, we actually turn into physical temples? We really are buildings after all!

Then mine better be the frikkin' Taj Mahal.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Hmm, we just learned about how we need to "protect our nestlings" by fighting city hall, not badmouthing authority figures, saying no to more comprehensive sex education, and generally making waves in our communities. Also fighting for Prop 8 was totally awesome even if it was done in a way explicitly against Church policy. It's too bad, because we started the lesson in a good place (talking about strengthening our own testimonies, having family time, and teaching about sin and repentance in a way that doesn't imply to our children that they are dirty sinful creatures) but the last half of the class was annoying and uncomfortable.

We also learned in Sunday School that Obamacare was just like the plan Satan proposed in heaven. Yes, he did say it that explicitly.

Church in Texas is great.

[krebscout]

Oh man, speaking of children being dirty when they sin, the object lesson in sharing time in primary today drove me absolutely nuts. It was literally a clean jar being filled with dirt, and even after removing the dirt for repentance, "it's still dirty, so it's best just not to sin in the first place." And you need baptism to get into heaven like you need a ticket to get into the movies.

[UffishThought]

Noooooooo! I HATE the "atonement has no effect" object lessons.

[Yarjka]

Oh man, speaking of children being dirty when they sin, the object lesson in sharing time in primary today drove me absolutely nuts. It was literally a clean jar being filled with dirt, and even after removing the dirt for repentance, "it's still dirty, so it's best just not to sin in the first place." And you need baptism to get into heaven like you need a ticket to get into the movies.

Someone needs to teach those kids that the atonement is like an autoclave - making the jar completely sterile and perfect once again.
Or just, you know, tell them about soap and how it cleans dirt off pretty well.

[Whistler]

ahhh I love you guys

[S.A.M.]

I put a question into the board about better object lessons that include the atonement's function. I like the autoclave thought.

[bobtheenchantedone]

When do adults forget that EVERYONE sins like EVERY DAY? Not to mention that fear tactics do not work well.

[TheBlackSheep]

Once in Young Women, during a week the bishop was visiting, we had a lesson on the atonement. There was an object lesson that compared us to blocks of wood and sin like driving nails into the wood. Repentence removed the nails but left the holes. I think those were supposed to be like the memory of sin or something, and the teacher used it to demonstrate how it was best not to sin in the first place. The bishop spoke up and said that, no, actually, there would be no holes left after the atonement and explained why, and his response sort of changed my adolescent life.

[Whistler]

yaaaay for your bishop

[NerdGirl]

I heard an interesting twist on the board with nails in it once. Sin was putting the nails in the board, and we could do things on our own to take the nails out, but the holes were still there. The atonement gave us a whole new board with no holes in it.

[Portia]

I know I probably have a different conception of sin than many people here (I think most of what people fret over as "sin" could more accurately be termed "mistakes," and save the idea of real moral wrong for actually harmful behaviors, like lying, cheating, and abuse), but I truly don't understand the Mormon obsession with unspottedness or purity. If you have a beer or get handsy with someone, and then regret it, it's not like it never happened. I guess I just am not particularly bothered by nailholes in my figurative board: if I can learn from mistakes, and remember them, then that to me is a sign of maturity, not uncleanness.

I think this mentality of perfection or childlike innocence does more harm than good.

[Tally M.]

I think that while we will always see the board as filled with holes, so to speak, and learn from our mistakes, the important thing to remember is that through the Atonement the Lord sees our board as without holes.

[mic0]

So I went to church with a friend today cause it was her singles ward's "bring a friend to church day" (I did it many months ago, too, and posted about it then ). Annnyway, the point is there was an object lesson and I immediately thought of this thread! It was the old "write the instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" lesson, where if your instructions are not extremely detailed the teacher will deliberately misinterpret it and you will not have a normal PB&J at the end. I thought it was a pretty silly lesson, and... I don't know, it felt silly for young adults. Maybe that's pretentious to say, but that's what I felt.

Also, did you all notice the Board question about object lessons a few days ago? I really liked RP's lesson with smashing the glass.

[Portia]

So I went to church with a friend today cause it was her singles ward's "bring a friend to church day" (I did it many months ago, too, and posted about it then :P). Annnyway, the point is there was an object lesson and I immediately thought of this thread! It was the old "write the instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" lesson, where if your instructions are not extremely detailed the teacher will deliberately misinterpret it and you will not have a normal PB&J at the end. I thought it was a pretty silly lesson, and... I don't know, it felt silly for young adults. Maybe that's pretentious to say, but that's what I felt.

Also, did you all notice the Board question about object lessons a few days ago? I really liked RP's lesson with smashing the glass.

I have no idea what you're talking about, re: the peanut butter. Explain?

[mic0]

Sure! I had just explained to it Mr. Mico when I wrote this so I was tired of explaining. OK, you walk into the room and everyone sits down and there on the table are the ingredients to make a PB&J sandwich - bread, a jar of PB, a jar of jelly, a plate, a knife. The teacher gives everyone a piece of paper and asks you to write the instructions for making a PB&J sandwich. So, everyone writes. Typically, people say something like: "take out bread, put peanut butter on bread, put jelly on bread, put slices of bread together." And that's it.

Then everyone gives their papers to the teacher, who picks a few and follows the instructions extremely literally. So, step one, put peanut butter on bread? (S)he'll say something like "well... okay, if you say so!" And then proceed to set the jar of peanut butter on top of the bread. And then set the jar of jelly on the bread, and then maybe put a slice of bread on top. (Other people use this object lesson, too, sometimes in school to show people they need to be detailed when writing a paper, and also in other churches.) I hope I explained it well.