The genesis for the following thought comes from William Tychonievich's dream of the Green Book, and a comment I left there. The idea behind that comment has continued to grow in my mind, so I figured I'd ride the wave and see where we go with this one.
First off, William has already made several interesting connections with the Green Book. This isn't meant to replace those, or even add to them... it is just where my mind is going, and maybe they tie or don't. I am not sure at the moment.
In the comment I left on that blog post, I mentioned that I had sat down at the piano for 5 minutes to play really quick (and recharge my introverted batteries!) before going to play with my kids. After playing a Christmas song ("Where are you, Christmas?"), I pulled out an LDS hymnbook and played a few hymns. As I was playing, it suddenly struck me that the hymnal was green (LDS hymnals are typically all green, and my large print version, that has the spiral binding underneath the hardcover spine, is no exception). This made me think of William's Green Book. So, I stopped playing and turned the book around so I could examine the spine. William described the book in his dream as having gold lettering running down the spine. Sure enough, so did the hymnal (I knew it had lettering, but for some reason I suspected but could not remember for sure if it was gold): "Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", it read.
This was promising.
The cover of LDS hymn books have a black image of the Mormon Tabernacle organ pipes on the cover, with "Hymns" in gold lettering below. These organ pipes I have already associated with Saruman (see this post for this thinking), and given the recent mention of that Being in both William's and my posts, this seemed interesting to me.
Later on, I left the comment on William's blog relating the LDS hymn book situation. As I was typing, I got a feeling to check what the hymn I had been playing when I had the thought about the Green Book. Our home PC is like 5 feet from the piano, so I just stepped over really quick and remembered that I had been playing "In Humility, Our Savior", Hymn #172. This was also interesting, as the tune to this hymn is also used in an arrangement that was my daughter's favorite song a couple years ago. The song is called "Blue Boat Home" by Peter Mayer, and the song describes the Earth as a boat that sails through the universe as if it were an ocean. The original tune that both the Mormon hymn writer as well as Peter Mayer applied their lyrics to is from a 1800's Welsh hymn called "Hyfrydol", which apparently means things like "delightful, sweet, beautiful, melodious", etc.
The "Blue Boat Home" connection further caught my attention for two reasons: first, the color blue figured prominently in the Joseph and Azilio stories, with blue figures in ships (boats) that seem to travel through the same kind of ocean that the Earth does. Second, and related to this, is the lyrics tee up a topic I have alluded to in some posts, but have not yet discussed in detail or been specific or outright in saying. That topic is my belief that when we learn of Nephi, the Jaredites, and even Earendil and the Numenoreans from Tolkien's tales, sailing through and across seas, oceans, and "many waters", in strange, curious vessels not built after the manner of men, we are most likely reading about them 'sailing' in much that same way. As in, we are reading about them travelling to another world, separated from this one by space.
For those that read between the lines in previous posts, that is not a surprising statement. For others, I am just going to let that hang for now, because I want to focus on something else about the specific hymn I was playing at the time of my Green Book thoughts, and perhaps tie that back to William's dream in some fashion.
Hymn #172 is what they would refer to in Mormon services as a 'sacrament hymn'. It is the type of hymn that would be selected to be sung by the congregation as the sacrament of bread and water is being prepared. As typical with sacrament songs, the lyrics (and music when it is played slowly and less energetically than the original) can be somewhat depressing. Take the hymn in question:
Let me not forget, O Savior,
Thou didst bleed and die for me
When thy heart was stilled and broken
On the cross at Calvary.
Sung to slow music, the above phrase is actually quite sad and depressing (to me, at least). It has a bit of a weighed down feeling, which is why when my daughter introduced me to Blue Boat Home, it kind of reimagined the hymn for me. It became more upbeat and alive.
If you are not a Mormon, you probably would not have heard of this hymn before. That is because the lyrics are property of the LDS Church, copyrighted in 1948 under one of the church's subsidiaries: Intellectual Reserve, Inc., or IRI for short. IRI owns all of the churches intellectual properties and trademarks.
The hymn in question also has a message that is fairly consistent with that of most other churches. That message being that Jesus died a painful death on the cross as payment for our sins (Mormons add the additional suffering in Gethsemane to the overall experience and story, though that is not captured in this hymn). In that, you and I have done wrong things, and continue to do them, and so fall short of Heaven. In order to enter Heaven again, someone who didn't make any mistakes or sins has to pay a penalty for the rest of us, this penalty being extreme pain.
It is Doug (of all people!), in his Cultural History of the Book of Mormon, who, in my opinion and based on what I have read, has done the best job of capturing how absurd this situation should be. Those book accurately, in my opinion, describes an implied universe run by pain and suffering, where anything short of perfection requires a perfect being to undeservedly receive the punishment that God and/ or the universe is either anxious to inflict OR powerless to stop from being inflicted on someone. Thus, we are surrounded by a universe we should fear and a God who either cannot or will not just forgive without someone getting some satisfaction of pain in the process.
This is demonic, and it suggests a universe run by demons (or an abominable church sitting upon Many Waters).
However, this is the message that Christianity - Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, whomever - as a whole has embraced! Who exactly are we worshipping in adopting this view?
The fact is that the Mormons, for all that is said is different about them/us, preach the exact same corrupted story of Jesus that everyone else does. And they fully own it... it says right there in the hymn, that is copyrighted by their intellectual property arm.
So, tying this back to the Green Book. The title that William saw - Narrative Reasoning - likely has a multiple meanings, as he called out in his latest comment. 'Narrative' we can leave as a story, if not necessarily clear about what that story is, yet.
Reasoning can mean something like applying one's reason or logical thought processes. In doing so, one might be using their intellect, which brings me to the Intellectual Reserve name. In doing so we have a clue as to the first meaning of Narrative Reasoning. Applying their reasoning and intellect, and the philosophies of men, the Mormon Church, along with all other churches, have created a narrative or story of abomination, and a worship of pain and suffering.
Joseph Smith was told that all churches were an abomination by Two Beings, and my guess is that the Mormon church falls in that category now also, with the adoption of this storyline likely the primary reason (among many other reasons, however!) As Joseph related of this experience:
“I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’
And as many years before, Nephi saw a day when the Book would come forth (again, this Book is not the Book of Mormon, I don't think) and churches would claim to be Jesus', but teach only with their learning (i.e., reasoning):
For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord’s; and thus shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord—
And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance.
This brings me to a second meaning. "Reasoning" has a more archaic meaning which means to challenge or question - dispute. I believe that narrative, specifically of Jesus and exactly what the 'atonement' and resurrection that he brought was, will be challenged. What will challenge it? Another story, and (you guessed it) it is through the Stones, as well as other records, witnesses, and accounts that this Story will be brought. A Challenging Narrative to Challenge The Reasoned (and Official!) Narrative that has caused Challenges (disputes)... or something like that.
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