English Symposium

I attended the Non-Fiction readings on Friday at 10:15-11:45. The first essay was about a family whose father became very sick and they could not do anything about the situation and so they made the most out of what they had and the story ended with them dancing in the kitchen. The second essay was about a girl struggling from Chrome's disease. It also addressed other issues in her life like finding a boyfriend, and being successful in her extracurricular activities. Both of these essays were very personal and talked about serious trials in ones life, but they found their "happy endings" in the end. Not everything was resolved, but what they found was solace. 

The final essay was the one I came to hear because the title was very intriguing, "On Virtue: What Bathsheba Taught Me About My Maligned Sisters". It was written and read by Mel Henderson.She provided historical background on the story of Bathsheba and explained that Bathsheba was not even on a roof, but she was where she was supposed to be, preparing to clean herself for a ritual. It is a common misconception that she was an evil temptress, but she was about her own business, doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Henderson then changed the subject to a friend who had been sexually abused for many years, and who felt shamed even though it was not her own doing. She discussed how virtue is often only associated with women, and that men are often not held accountable. She also talked about how Bathsheba became a great vessel of wisdom, and a good mother to King Solomon. She believes that Bathsheba is an excellent example of virtue. 

Issues Paper Introduction

According to Segal’s law, "a man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure." When we are given too many options, it makes it difficult for us to decide which one is the right one. When options differ, it does not necessarily mean that there is one good option and one bad option. It does not denote sides, or black and white, or north or south, but it is a part of our nature to believe that there is only one way and that it is the correct way. In the LDS church we use the King James Version of the Bible, and that is partially because it was the Bible prominently used at the time the church was restored. Another reason would be that the KJV has been found to be one of the more accurate translations, and from what we have from Joseph Smith’s inspired version, the KJV compliments it well. There are some disputes regarding whether or not it is acceptable to use other versions of the Bible aside from the KJV. It is not wrong, but it may bring about some confusion. I experienced this for the first time when I was about nine years old visiting a youth group from my friend’s church. I brought my scriptures and was ready to volunteer to read when it was the time to do so. I knew how to turn to the correct scripture, but for some reason, what I was reading was different from what everyone else was reading. I was young and it was more confusing than bothersome, but when they gave me their scriptures to read it just felt wrong. Religion is something people everywhere are passionate about, and that does not always end as nicely as nine-year olds visiting a friend’s church. The KJV is important for us to use not only because of its historical roots in the Church and its accuracy, but because the language helps us understand the Book of Mormon better, and having multiple versions could lead to division within the members. 

Google Search Experience

Google search was semi-helpful, in that it did get me thinking about more ways to approach my topic. I have chosen to write about the Bible prompt for my issues paper, and the focus should be the LDS church because we are supposed to pretend that our piece is being written for an LDS audience. But when I googled, "why the KJV" I also found an interesting scholarly article written for a baptist website. I thought it could add a cool perspective to my paper if I could learn more about how the KJV is received by other Christian faiths that use it. There was another very helpful article that I found from Google that was actually published in the Ensign many years ago that spoke about why the Church uses the KJV. I thought that was very fortunate. I found that Google could be helpful, but that it also came up with a bunch of results that were not quite what I was looking for. The other results were kind of distracting, because they were a bit interesting but if I used them, I would stray too far off from the main subject of my paper.