The Abraham Effect

 The Abraham Effect - Taking Abraham as the archetype, original pattern, of being able to return to the light despite being taught idolatry by our fathers.

 

If being a “brethrenite” were an Olympic event, my father would have easily taken the gold. As the poster child of the archetypical “brethrenite” he worked diligently to groom us in his image.  As a youth I recall him encouraging us to do yardwork by saying “President Kimball says we should beautify and keep our yards and property beautiful.”  That made me particularly grumpy because our neighbor was not a member of the church and he too kept his place beautiful despite his lack of acquaintance with the brethren’s counsel.  I could go on for pages describing his fidelity to the church and to anything and everything the brethren asked.  He loved Bruce R McConkie’s standard – “Obedience is the first law of heaven, the cornerstone upon which all righteousness and progression rest. It consists in compliance with divine law, in conformity to the mind and will of Deity, in complete subjection to God and his commands.”  In his world, I suppose fidelity to the church and the brethren was the standard against which God would measure righteousness.  I would later marry the daughter of a General Authority who was equally zealous toward all things church and brethren.  Despite my youthful animus toward obedience to the church and brethren being the motivation and standard of righteousness, my wife and I seemed for the next twenty years to pledge allegiance to the idiom “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” and raised our children with nearly the same amount of zeal toward the church and brethren as our fathers had exemplified.    

 

Well, thank God for Abraham.  As Denver put it – “Abraham represents coming to the truth in a generation of apostasy.  Abraham represents coming back to the light despite the fact that his father’s taught him idolatry.  Abraham represents the challenge that every man who would be saved from that point forward must find themselves within, and then overcome, the idolatry of their fathers.”  

 

In the end, I suppose that since Abraham is The Father of Many Nations through a promise given to him by God, I should change my flag, take Abraham as my “father” and once again pledge allegiance to the idiom “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

 

Signed

 

John The-Not-So-Beloved