The Book of Abraham

It was discussed in class last week that Joseph Smith had a sort of fascination with trinkets. There was a compass-like trinket discussed in the book of Mormon that lead Nephi's family in the right direction. And in the Book of Abraham, the trinkets (for lack of a better word) were known as Urim and Thummim. Abraham learned about the creation of the earth through Urim and Thummim. After doing a little research about Urim and Thummim, I found that Joseph Smith actually claimed that Urim and Thummim were two stones fastened to a breastplate and used like large pair of glasses. It is interesting that Joseph Smith consciously made that connection. He wanted to align himself with Abraham and show that he had too gained knowledge and understanding of God and the world through the same lens that Abraham gained knowledge. The idea of trinkets through which God is revealed to you is something that has not been present in any of the other texts we have read in this class. I was also doing a little research and the Industrial Revolution was taking place before and during Joseph Smith's life. He was living in a time where there was a greater emphasis on assembly lines and basically more and more "things" were being invented and mass produced for all to buy and use. So Joseph Smith talking about Urim and Thummim in that way is him drawing on the current state of America and the world and transforming it to fit into something different. He is taking something modern and of great importance in his society and changing it into something ancient and also putting much religious significance with it as well. It would be like someone today is saying that 4000 years ago, prophets had special stones that they could hold up to their ears and talk to God or talk to each other.

I think that the research and explanation given above for Urim and Thummim is an example of the historical critical method we have been using throughout this entire term. We look at something distinct and novel about a reading or belief, and we see how it functioned during the TIME it was written. We are not really concerned with finding fact or truth to the claims or beliefs, instead we are trying to find the motivations behind why the writer chose to put those belief in his or her writing. Joseph Smith, and most of the world, had been immersed in the Industrial Revolution for a while and it influenced his "translation" of the book of Abraham. 

Book of Mormon

Nephites vs Lamanites

When reading Book of Mormon, in the Book of Mormon, the first three chapters seemed to be all about Native Americans. It was stated earlier that the Lamanites were the Native Americans. They lost God and turned dark, then came back to God as were turned white again, and at this point, they have gone back to dark and are trying their hardest to attack and kill all of the Nephites. I got the sense that the Lamanites were the bad guys and the Nephites were the good guys for a time, but even they turned bad. Mormon that had to distance himself from both of these groups because of the terrible things they were doing. And at the beginning of the fourth chapter in this section, the Nephites were exterminated by the Lamanites. Based on what I have read earlier, that means that around 400 AD, all the people that were left in America were the Native Americans. Displaying the Lamanites in this way as brutal and ruthless could have been a way to justify all of the terrible things the white men were doing to the Native Americans during the 19th century.

Also, I found an interesting section that can relate to Manifest Destiny. On page 530, Mormon was explaining how the Nephites (him included) were trying to defend themselves against the Lamanites and in constant retreat from them that "we marched forth and came to the land of Joshua, which was in the borders west, by the seashore." Again, in the way I was reading this, I believe that the Mormons reading this would identify with the Nephites. Nephi was a predominant character and writer in this book, and was a good man, so I think the mormons would believe that their Mormon ancestors were the Nephites. Also, the fact that all the Nephites were killed off, as seemingly martyrs, they would even connect with them more possibly. So, the fact that the Nephites traveled all the way to the West Coast could reaffirm the idea that America, or Mormons, needed to gain their land back from the Native Americans because they drove the Nephites away.

Also, I found some similarities with Baha'u'llah at the beginning of this book as well. Mormon writes,

But wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease, because of the iniquity of the people.... And I did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had willfully rebelled against their God, and the blessed disciples were taken away out of the land, because of their iniquity (529).

This quote reminds me of Baha'u'llah, because it makes it seem as though these Americans were in a dark period with respects to religion, which is something that Baha'u'llah believes. The Baha'i believe that religion is ever changing; there are waves of heavy presence of God and a thriving following of a prophet, and there are also dark times when God is not as present and the world is in more of a transitional time. The Nephites and Lamanites were in a transitional time here. Also, it seems as though Mormon himself wanted to become a prophet and preach to the people, but he was shut down and ignored. The Baha'i believe that one of the worst things to do is to deny a new prophet. This could relate to the state of America at the time Joseph Smith was writing. He could have viewed America as in a transition phase. He was witnessing many different religions believing different things and he was seeing many people attack Native Americans too. He could have written this story as a reflection of their present state all the way back into 400AD. Also, maybe he was aligning himself with Mormon as well. Mormon was denied as a prophet at this time, and maybe Joseph Smith was being denied as a prophet himself.

Hey, i've heard that before

While reading the Third Book of Nephi, I noticed that when Jesus was speaking, he used certain terms and phrases that are very commonly used and were used in the King James bible as well. Many phrases struck me as familiar when I was reading it, because I have heard many people say these phrases in everyday life. I asked around and chatted with them about the phrases, and we came to a conclusion that these were indeed biblical phrases. So I assume that these phrases were commonly known (maybe even more than they are now, because people seemed to be more religious in the past) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Jesus says

Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come onto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And again, blessed are all they that mourn, for they shall be comforted; and blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (488).

The most striking language here is when he says that the meek shall inherit the earth. This is a common phrase and a biblical phrase. Also, on the next page, Jesus is quoted as saying

And behold, it is written, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye shall not resist evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also (489).

Nephi

Both of these quotes are very recognizable and from the bible. There could be several reasons for Joseph Smith including these quotes in the Third Book of Nephi. First of all, making direct references to the bible would first legitimize the Book of Mormon. If these were indeed true stories from when Jesus went to New World and spoke to Nephi, doesn't it make sense that he would say some of his most known ideas and lessons to these people. These are the things that Jesus believed, and because the phrases are so recognizable, society has shown that they are some of the most poignant and most helpful things that Jesus has said. By including these phrases, the book of Mormon is legitimized because it directly reference the bible, which at that point was definitely a legitimate document. Also, it shows that Joseph Smith really liked these things that Jesus said, and thought it important to include in his "translations." Also, these quotes do just provide a part of the moral compass people needed in the 19th and 20th century. 

Baha'u'llah and his Writings

As mentioned in my earlier blog post, in this biography, I was craving for the author to get into the actual beliefs and writings of Baha'u'llah. And in chapter 7, that is exactly what the author did. And I have to say, I found the things that Baha'u'llah believed to be extremely interesting.

First of all, I have always had a problem with prophets or religious writers claiming that the scripture they write are the actual words of god. I think this is a common belief in many religions. I do not know much about the bible, but Augustine firmly believed that the scripture were the actual words of God, and Baha'u'llah and his followers also believed that he was writing the actual words of God. I still do not think that the scripture we read are the exact words of God, but the testimony given by 'Azizu'llah Varqua, who was only 9 years old when he made a pilgrimage with his father to visit Baha'u'llah, gives a very compelling and convincing argument that Baha'u'llah's writings were indeed the words of God.

Varqua explains that when Baha'u'llah would get inspiration or have a revelation about something, he would order everyone in the room to leave while the words were being revealed to him. Varqua, being a curious boy, longed to see the revelation proccess Baha'u'llah did not allow others to see. Varqua accidentally went to see Baha'u'llah during one of these revelations, and his experience was extremely profound. He recalls

I stood near the door which I had entered, and was only a few moments in the room when I began trembling in my whole body. I felt I could not stand any more on my feet. His Holiness Baha'u'llah turning to me said 'Goodbye'. As I lifted the curtain to go out, I fell on the threshold and was unconscious... Then I understood why Baha'u'llah in haste dismissed everybody. It is because the people cannot endure it, there is such a Power in the room (139).

 This testimony was also powerful for me to read, and it caused me to slightly question my view that scripture cannot really be the exact words of God. This is a first hand witness account of something that seems too great to handle. I would say I am still up in the air about my thoughts regarding scripture as actually being written by God, which is nothing new. I seem to be up in the air about everything relating to religion, but this first hand account caused me to question my view, which I like. Being challenged to think about something different can be intellectually stimulating and fun to do.

Compassion

Wow, the Karen Armstrong video was very moving, and I have to say that I agree with all that was being said there. The first thing I found striking was that at the very beginning Armstrong was talking about fundamentalism being "a militant kind of aggressive religiosity" and that there was "sense of rage expressed in religious terms" when trying to deal with the injustice or imbalance in our world today. I think this relates to the points I was trying to make in a previous post about the fundamentalist baptists that were on the Tyra show. They were very aggressive and had a great amount of anger and rage inside of them because they believed so much of the world was corrupt and living in a way that would damn them to hell. But in this Armstrong video, the overarching theme was compassion. Though those baptists believed they were helping people out by telling them their ways were corrupt and sinful, most people who were not also fellow fundamentalist baptists would agree that their message and their religious goals were not those of compassion.

I do wish that the biography we were reading about Baha'u'llah did have more explanations of his actual belief system and the belief system of the Baha'i. And based on the next chapter being titled the writings of Baha'u'llah, maybe we just haven't gotten there yet. But there were some first hand accounts the author did include that illustrated Baha'u'llah as a compassionate person.


Fadil Mazandarani, an Iranian Baha'i historian writes

Among the other manifest qualities of Baha'u'llah were his matchless moral and spiritual courage, his fortitude and joyfulness even in times of hardship and difficulties, his generosity and munificence, his sympathy and compassion towards the poor and misfortunate, and his paying no heed to the rich and powerful (135).

I think this quote portrays Baha'u'llah as compassionate. He is portrayed as always keeping hope and always having sympathy and compassionate to the poor and those in need. I find it remarkable that Baha'u'llah could have everything taken away from him, all this riches and status lost, but yet he still manages to be so compassionate to others as well.  Also, it was stated that when assassins tried to kill him, there were multiple times that Baha'u'llah, just through talking with them, actually caused them to not attempt to kill him. He did not try to convert them to his religion, but there must be something about his personality and compassion that caused these assassins to not carry out their required task.

He loved children and was very involved in creating effective education for children. He set up a school for the Baha'i children in 'Akka, where he and many Baha'i lived. Baha'u'llah, even when he became very sick before he died, still saw visitors and followers because he had so much compassion for his believers that he did not let his sickness get in the way of seeing them. Mirza Ahmad Yazdi, who lived with Baha'u'llah writes "Although so majestic, Baha'u'llah was exceedingly loving, kind, and courteous and generous. When out walking with some of the believers He would chat with them very affably (142)."

He was quoted as telling a fellow Baha'i Sayyid Asadu'llah Qumi, who was upset by the terrible things we witnesses people doing, saying that "We [the Baha'i] manifested ourselves in order that feuding, disputes, tyranny and injustice should be removed and eliminated from the world... These individuals here... block the path of those who are seeking their Beloved (145)." When Baha'u'llah was describing the people that upset Qumi, he described them as perpetuating feuding, disputes, tyranny and injustice in the world, and all of these things go against the idea of compassion. These four aspects all pin people against others with the intent to hurt, sabotage or defeat, and that is not the compassion that Armstrong is talking about.  And Baha'u'llah states that his main goal is to get rid of all those forces that go against compassion.

 

Rastafari had Hope

Aside from Religious Studies, I am also taking a psychology class titled Psychopathology. In this class, we study various mental illnesses, personality disorders as well as mood disorders. In class today, I found myself thinking of the Rastafari movement many times. In Psychopathology, we were learning about the hopelessness theory of depression. In this theory, it states that having feelings of hopelessness can lead to specific and debilitating depressive symptoms. Several times during the lecture, I found myself drawing connections to the African people and their situation in Jamaica, and I came to the conclusion that these were a strong group of people that really never gave up hope, despite all of the terrible circumstances in which they lived. And not giving up hope caused them to create a system of symbols and beliefs that gave their lives meaning and purpose and raised their morale and increased the enjoyment of their lives.

In the hopelessness theory of depression, feelings of hopelessness are characterized by someone thinking that highly aversive will undoubtedly happen in the future and that there is no way for a positive outcome to occur. They believe that there is no way for them to achieve their goals, and there is no way to stop the terrible things that will occur in the future.  And one of the main causes for these hopeless thoughts have to deal with how someone interprets causes for certain aspects of their lives. Say someone failed a test, they could believe that they failed because they didn't try hard enough, the professor hates them or is a hard grader, or they think internally and actually believe that they failed because they are dumb. It was found that having thoughts like the last one, where you believe you are internally and perpetually dumb causes the most psychological distress. Always blaming yourself for your situation is not really the best thing to do.

When learning about this, I kept on thinking how many white leaders or colonialists were trying to make these Rastafarians actually interpret their socioeconomic status in an eternal way. The Rastas were raised in an environment where, from birth, they are lead to believe that they are fundamentally inferior to the whites. On page 31 of Rastafari: From Outcasts to Cultural Bearers, Edmonds writes

While these overt forms of oppression met constant resistance, there was widespread acceptance of the ideas that associate whiteness with beauty, goodness, and God and that associate blackness with ugliness, evil, and the devil... The end result was an endemic lack of self-knowledge and healthy self-identity among Afro-Jamaicans.

This quote shows that the Afro-Jamaicans were raised in a society that wanted them to believe they were somehow inferior. But this quote also shows that these forms of oppression were always met with constant resistance. Rastas were put into an environment where others wanted them to feel responsible for their poverty or perceived inferiority, but their strength came in the rejection of those ideals. And the rejection of those ideals caused them to not have feelings of hopelessness that could lead to a nation wide epidemic of depression.

  

Instead of giving into what the colonialist whites wanted, the Afro-Jamaicans instead never gave up hope, They instead looked to bible scripture and found a specific interpretation that explained their situation and gave them hope to change their lives. Instead of going with an extremely psychologically distressing explanation of their lives (blaming themselves like the colonialists wanted) they instead chose a different explanation that was instead rebellious but also empowering.

I always really enjoy when I can find some connections between the classes I am taking here at Lawrence.

Boboshanti

Here is a short video explaining some customs and beliefs of the boboshanti in a Rastafarian village. In this video, there are many things that are in keeping with the Rastafarian traditions explained in our text, Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers. Their entire lives are focused on getting back to the homeland that is Ethiopia. They consider themselves children of Africa and they believe that they must return to there. They desire equality and justice for all, which is a Rastafarian ideal stemming from the inequality and injustice they have faced for decades in Jamaica. Something that was striking about this group of, what the narrator calls the "most spiritually committed Rastafarians," is the fact that they wear turbans to cover their traditional dreadlocks.

The text explains that the dreadlocks have multiple levels of significance. Firstly, dreadlocks go against the social norms of beauty in Jamaica. It rejects the notion of skin bleaching or hair straightening and actually accentuates the nature of African hair. Also, dreadlocks go against the social norms of cleanliness and bathing because they appear matted, which in turn are thought to be dirty. The dreadlocks also emphasize the Rastafarian believe in all natural and organic living, because the hair is not being pulled or combed in unnatural ways.  The dreadlocks also signify fearsomeness and fearlessness because of their visual association with the Lion. Dreadlocks are seen as a spiritual and "mystical link between the Rastas and Jah... In this context locks are a kind of receptor or psychic antenna."  And finally, the dreadlocks are symbolic of the Babylonic Jamaicas unavoidable doom (Edmonds 59-60).

So why do these Rastas wear turbans to cover their distinguishing dreadlocks? Well, the answer is explained in the video. It is explained that turbans are worn because it is an ancient dressing that is worn by the people of Ethiopia. In the text, the dreadlocks were never explicitly linked to Ethiopia, except for the fact that they could be a "psychic antenna" between the Rastas and Jah or Selassie. I think that wearing these turbans are another way to connect to Ethiopia explicitly that is not accomplished through dreadlocks alone. Obviously these people are still following the dreadlocks tradition under their turbans, but this means that they value the physical connection with Ethiopia over the implications of wearing dreadlocks alone. Though the strength and defying of social norms is still present in their appearances, they value the idea of upholding an ancient Ethiopian tradition as well. They call themselves Rastas, so they have the dreadlocks like all other Rastas. But they also call themselves children of Africa, which is not what all the Rastas call themselves, so they use their appearance to reflect their strong connection to Africa by adorning themselves with turbans as crowns in the ancient Ethiopian tradition.