Thursday, October 13, 2011

My Name Is Brad and Apparently I'm Not A Christian

There has been a lot of discussion lately about whether Mormons are Christians.  I would like to share some of my thoughts on the subject.


This argument is not something new.  Ever since the church started, there has been debates on whether Mormonism is considered "Christian."  


I use quotation marks when saying Christian because there are different definitions for that term which is causing this debate.  One definition, which is the one most often used by our critics, is somebody who believes in traditional christian beliefs.  Let's talk about one of those traditional christian beliefs now.  


It seems to me, the first and most important religious question is, "who is God?"  At this first important question Mormonism and Traditional Christianity differ.  The traditional Christian belief in God is in the Trinity, meaning that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all one being.  It is described like this:


We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghostis all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.


One of my favorite quotes comes from James E. Talmage in The Articles of Faith.  When referring to this definition of God he says, "It would be difficult to conceive of a greater number of inconsistencies and contradictions, expressed in words as few."


Now it is niether James nor my desire to demean anyone's faith in God, we just want to show that this explanation of God by traditional Christianity is not only flawed, but also limits our relationship with Him.  


John 17:3 says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  According to this scripture, we can know God.  How are we supposed to know God when he is incomprehensible?  


The belief in the Trinity is one traditional Christian belief that I do not agree with.  I believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings.  I believe that God has a body of flesh and bone, and I can develop a relationship with him just like I can with my earthly father.  I know who God is, and calling Him incomprehensible would deny the relationship that I have spent most of my life building with Him.  


Now there is another definition for what is Christian, which is anyone who follows the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.  When I say I am Christian, this is the definition I am referring to.  To explain Mormons' beliefs in Jesus Christ I will use a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle in the Mormon church.


"I testify that Jesus Christ is the literal, living Son of our literal, living God. This Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer who, under the guidance of the Father, was the Creator of heaven and earth and all things that in them are. I bear witness that He was born of a virgin mother, that in His lifetime He performed mighty miracles observed by legions of His disciples and by His enemies as well. I testify that He had power over death because He was divine but that He willingly subjected Himself to death for our sake because for a period of time He was also mortal. I declare that in His willing submission to death He took upon Himself the sins of the world, paying an infinite price for every sorrow and sickness, every heartache and unhappiness from Adam to the end of the world. In doing so He conquered both the grave physically and hell spiritually and set the human family free. I bear witness that He was literally resurrected from the tomb and, after ascending to His Father to complete the process of that Resurrection, He appeared, repeatedly, to hundreds of disciples in the Old World and in the New. I know He is the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah who will one day come again in final glory, to reign on earth as Lord of lords and King of kings. I know that there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved and that only by relying wholly upon His merits, mercy, and everlasting grace can we gain eternal life."


Now if someone who professes faith in Christ like that isn't considered a Christian, then something is clearly wrong.


I don't consider myself on the same level as Elder Holland, but just like him, I try my best to follow the teaching and examples of the Savior.  I know that Christ is my Redeemer, and the only way I can return to live with my Heavenly Father.  I strive to live by His teachings everyday, and look to Him for forgiveness when I come up short.  In Christ's gospel, I have found peace and happiness that continue to bless my life everyday.  


If you do not consider me a Christian because I do not agree with your theology, then that is fine.  You can call me whatever you want.  But do not tell me, and millions of other faithful people  that we are not followers of Christ.  That kind of judgement is actually very unchristian.  

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

QB Controversy? Give me a break

Time to talk some BYU football.  After the game against USU where Nelson came in for an ineffective Jake Heaps and "won" the game there has been some questions as to who should start next game.  As usual, BYU fans are being irrational and not seeing things through, so I would like to explain why this whole "QB controversy" should be put to rest.  As a disclaimer, I feel that I should explain that I have always been a big fan of Jake Heaps and I feel that Riley Nelson should have never come to BYU.  With that being said, I am going to try to remain completely unbiased and base my opinions totally on football and not personal opinions while I explain why Heaps should remain the starter.

First off, I can't stand Riley's long hair.  He's got this "I'm from Utah but I grew out my hair to look like I'm from California" look going.  I am not a stickler for the dress and grooming standards at BYU, but I feel like it is very hypocritical of BYU to allow him to do whatever he wants.  Let me explain why.  A couple years ago, BYU was recruiting a kid named Josh Quezada from southern california.  Josh was a pretty big recruit and was not LDS.  BYU was high on his list but while on his visit to BYU they informed him that if he chose to come to BYU then he would need to cut his hair.  Josh had long glorious hair that flowed out the back of his helmet when he played.  This made him rethink how serious he was about BYU because he felt his hair had become part of his identity.  After thinking it through, he decided BYU was the place he wanted to play, cut his hair, and committed to the standards of the school.  So if BYU is so serious about the grooming standards of the honor code that we would be ok losing a big recruit over it why are we looking the other way with Riley?  Is it because he is a returned missionary? Because he's white? Because he's from Utah?  Those are questions you don't want to ask but the point is that we have two standards right now, one for Riley Nelson, and another for everyone else.  If I was Josh I would have a major issue with that surfer hair that Riley is sporting, and not just that he's never stepped foot on a surfboard.

Ok now back to being unbiased...

The majority of BYU fans are convinced that Nelson should be the guy.  This was pretty obvious when they started chanting Riley! Riley! Anytime he stepped on the field.  Now I think the fact that BYU students think he should be the starter should be exhibit A for why he shouldn't be.  These are the same fans that rushed the field after narrowly beating Utah State last week.  Let me repeat that.  HUNDREDS OF BYU STUDENTS RUSHED THE FIELD AFTER NARROWLY BEATING UTAH STATE.  I have never been so offended in my life.  Come on BYU, have some dignity.  Is nothing sacred?  There are very few times when rushing the field is appropriate and beating Utah State under any circumstances is not one of them.  To further show BYU students ignorance, after DiLuigi fumbled the ball towards the end of the game I heard two, not one, but two different students yell "Come on Doman!!!! (our offensive coordinator).  Umm did I miss something?  Did Doman just go out there and fumble the ball himself?  Because I was under the impression that it was the running back. I don't understand how you can criticize a coach for a player dropping the ball, but apparently you can because these guys did.

 Now I gotta admit he had some great runs in that last quarter.  He runs hard and it was very effective against USU's defense.  His TD pass to Hoffman was a fine pass, probably the best I've ever seen him throw but that pass is always more about the catch than it is the throw.  Credit to Nelson for putting it where it needed to be, but Hoffman made a great catch there.  People forget that Heaps had an almost identical pass to Apo earlier in the game that was right there but Apo wasn't able to make the catch that Hoffman did. (To compare the two catches Apo's is at 0:41 in the video below and Hoffman's is at 0:55.)

Before talk about this "amazing comeback" orchestrated by Nelson gets out of hand let's try to remember what really happened.  The two plays that allowed us to win were two of the biggest flukes I have ever seen.  The first one is at 1:30 in the video below.  We can't see the flight of the ball because it is so high.  We usually call these types of passes a prayer because you throw it up and pray that someone comes up with the ball.  I've seen this throw from a lot of different angles and as far as I can tell it looks like Nelson has no intended receiver on this play.  He overthrows Matthews by about 15 yards and Jacobsen is running backwards when he catches the ball.  Hard to give much credit to the QB on a play like that because 99% of the time that pass is an interception and the game is over.

Ok now the touchdown pass that won the game.  This beauty is at 1:38 in the video.  Here we see that he overthrows DiLuigi (DiLuigi is 5'8" and has no chance at catching anything over his head), it gets tipped, and then ends up in Matthews hands.  Again, kind of hard to give credit to the QB on a play like that.

I don't want to sound like everything about that win was lucky.  Nelson came in and provided the spark that our offense desperately needed that game.  Our offensive gameplan was not working and USU had us figured out.  Nelson came in, changed things up and USU couldn't adapt in time.


My biggest problem with Nelson is that I don't think he can beat a good team by himself.  While he did come in and take it to Utah State, I think if Utah State would have been able to prepare to stop him then we would have seen a totally different game.  The reason I think this is the Air Force game last season.  Do you remember it?  I feel like very few BYU fans do.  We had been rotating series between Nelson and Heaps to start the season and for some reason during this game we only gave Heaps a couple of series and then let Nelson play the rest of the game.  Air Force had done their homework and knew that he did not have a very strong arm and so they stacked all their guys inside and played man coverage on the outside.  They basically looked at Nelson and said "We don't think you are good enough to beat us with your arm and we aren't going to let you run on us."  Well it turns out that they were right and Nelson didn't have the arm to effectively pass the ball against their man coverage.  We tried to run our option with him but they were all over us.  Run game only works when the defense has to respect the pass and since they weren't, they were all over us.  Riley was 8-19 passing for 73 yards at the end of the game and we lost 35-14.  There are plenty of QBs that are known for their rushing ability that are successful even in the NFL.  The difference is that they can still throw.  They are what we call "dual threat quarterbacks."  Nelson is a "single threat QB" that can't throw.  That is never a successful combo.



Ok that's enough about Nelson let's talk about Heaps for a little bit.  I won't act like he has been stellar this year because he hasn't.  Our offense has struggled at times and I do believe that he is part of it.  Having said that, I think you are a fool if you think that he is our biggest problem with our offense.  I don't think who is playing QB is our problem right now, I think our biggest problem on offense is our play calling.  Doman is a brand new offensive coordinator and is getting used to play calling duties.  I think that most would agree that so far our offense has been predictable, uninspired, and timid.  Now I'm not ready to give up on Doman, I think he is a smart guy and can be a great OC someday.  I think he is going through a learning curve right now and it shows on our team, even with all the talent we have out there.  What really makes me mad about this QB controversy is that Doman has basically made Heaps the scapegoat for our lack of performance on offense when he should be taking most of the blame.  The first few weeks of the season all the newspaper articles were about Doman and his questionable play calling, but now everyone has forgotten about that and everyone is talking about if Heaps should continue to play this season.  I think that is a cheap move by Doman to take some heat off himself.  I find it very funny that Doman is benching the player that has been "under performing" through the first 5 games of the season when he is the coach that has been under performing so far.

Let's also keep in mind that BYU's schedule so far has not been easy.  At Ole Miss, At Texas, Utah, UCF, Utah State.  So far of those teams, Heaps has faced 3 top 25 pass defenses.  UCF is #1, Texas is #6, and Utah State is #22.  Next week we play San Jose State who is terrible.  I really don't think it would be fair to let Heaps start that tough schedule and then put in Nelson to play the dogs that we have coming up.

I know that this has kind of been all over the place, but I hope my point is clear.  Heaps needs to continue to be the guy and Nelson needs to continue to come in for situational plays.  Hopefully against the next few games we have on the schedule our offense will get some confidence and experience in moving the ball so that we can end the season strong by beating TCU and Hawaii.  If you think that TCU is going to let Nelson run all over them then you are wrong.  He is not the answer to our problem right now.