What would you add to the LDS canon?

[moksha]

If you could add works to the LDS canon, what would you add?

I would like to add the Desiderata (for its timeless advice) and The Lord of the Rings (for its great story and portrayal of hope for the age of humans). Possibly even the Serenity Prayer.

What other possible additions could there be? Beowulf? The Canterbury Tales? A Midsummer Night's Dream? The Little Prince?

Would you add anything, and it so what would it be and why?

[Give It Time]

Just a few verses at the beginning of each standard work.

Science is not a liberal conspiracy. I am the Great Scientist. I honor the search for truth. If what science discovers disproves what is in these pages, that means the author was speaking as a man. Discard what science disproves and continue the search for Me.

I created all of you equal. Equal is a measurement, not a feeling. If a teaching within these pages supports inequality, discard them,b they are not of me.

I, the Lord God, delight in variety. What works for one or my children may not work for another. Yeah verily,bit is a truth all parents understand. Let each of you find Me in your own way. Let each of you honor that quest in the other. So long as no one is harming another, honor that quest.

Yeah verily, I, the Lord, am greatly pleased when my children can celebrate life, marriage and death together. Let all of my children gather to celebrate. Let none who love each other be excluded.

I gave you brains, I expect you to use them.

[Hagoth]

I like your suggestions, Moksha. I would recommend that rather than adding them to the canon, we replace the current cannon with such works.

I would add The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[blazerb]

I would add The Demon Haunted World.

[Mad Jax]

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

[Give It Time]

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I prefer the idea of replacing, too.

Well, there are some passages I'd keep.

Contrary to the title, this is actually a very good book. At first I was put off by the title, but I would frequently come across quotes from the book that I thought were pretty insightful. Much of the book is about prevailing in conflict without resorting to battle.


I'd add Tao Te Ching.

Can we break out into shows? I'm currently watching Buddha on Netflix and am finding it enchanting. Siddarth shows himself to be a of high moral character and he is just so, so pretty!

I have just discovered and recently watched for the first time, the old television series, Kung Fu. Yes, David Carradine as the lead instead of Bruce Lee is a slap in the face. Yes, David Carradine's yellow face is offensive. It was a different time and, if the show were done today, we'd do things differently. Having said all that, I found the show really quite excellent. Most of the stories hold up well. The incorporations of quotes from the Tao Te Ching work really well. The violence is not overdone. As someone who has done and knows stage combat, it was refreshing to see combat with a realistic level of violence. Blows that would put a person out of commission actually did, rather than the ridiculously unrealistic violence we have today. Quai Chang Caine does try to avoid fighting, but if he must fight, his victory is quick, decisive and he then seeks medical attention for his opponent. Really very similar to the philosophy found in Art Of War.

I don't know what the actual scriptures are for the Buddhists, but I'm finding a lot of wisdom in that tradition, as well.

[NOMinally Mormon]

I would add Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. I would remove D&C 132.

[oliver_denom]

I would like to add the Desiderata (for its timeless advice) and The Lord of the Rings (for its great story and portrayal of hope for the age of humans). Possibly even the Serenity Prayer.

Lord of the Rings archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Hobbiton was built in New Zealand.

http://www.hobbitontours.com/

You can even go on a guided tour. The church is true.

[Emower]

Great expectations, or David copperfield. In fact, most of Dickens works show the good and the bad of humanity in a way that allows a great compare and contrast. Much better than the book of Mormons, "well if you read it with this apologetic idea in mind then it isn't soooo bad."

[LSOF]

Just one sentence: "Mormonism is total bollocks."

[moksha]

Lord of the Rings archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Hobbiton was built in New Zealand.

http://www.hobbitontours.com/

You can even go on a guided tour. The church is true.

Book of the Rings tour guides from Salt Lake could help show the tourists the round door of the road where it all began. On the last day of the tour, the participants could partake of a three-hour block excursion from the Grey Havens. On board, they could sing the beloved song, "Praise to the Hobbit who Communed with Gandalf."

[deacon blues]

"If" by Rudyard Kipling. "Tell All the Truth, But Tell it Slant" by Emily Dickenson. "Brahma" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I love poems like these, that teach Truth so artfully, and yet so incisively.

[redjay]

Just one sentence: "Mormonism is total bollocks."

i might reframe as 'metaphorical and deep in symbolism, readers are invited to accept those principles which they find spiritually edify them'

If we stopped with the pharisee attitude, tithing become an offering on surplus, the word of wisdom was a word of wisdom, the church stayed out of the bedroom, and we got rid of the 3 hour block and by default a whole load of unnecessary callings; it might not be bollocks, it might be a pretty cool place.

[oliver_denom]

Just one sentence: "Mormonism is total bollocks."

i might reframe as 'metaphorical and deep in symbolism, readers are invited to accept those principles which they find spiritually edify them'

If we stopped with the pharisee attitude, tithing become an offering on surplus, the word of wisdom was a word of wisdom, the church stayed out of the bedroom, and we got rid of the 3 hour block and by default a whole load of unnecessary callings; it might not be bollocks, it might be a pretty cool place.

Before 1990 it was explained in the script of the endowment that at least some parts of the creation story were "simply figurative".

The work of the six creative periods will be represented. They will organize man in their own likeness and image, male and female. This, however, is simply figurative, so far as the man and the woman are concerned.

It would be nice to add something like that referring to endowment and all canonized scripture, they there is no requirement to take them literally. That alone would open the religion up significantly.

[Mad Jax]

Might be this is encapsulated in the scripture but I'd add this since it really is the whole of my law, and I genuinely do try to live the principle:

Latest 345.jpg (14.68 KiB) Viewed 8729 times

[StarbucksMom]

This quote from the movie Rudy

Father Cavanaugh: Son, in thirty-five years of religious study, I've come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and, I'm not Him.

And Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[Rob4Hope]

Oh wow....what would I add?

HA! I would print a new section named "D&C Retractions & Corrections".

Lets see,...what would I put in there?....humm.......?

I would start with one on tithing: it was Joseph Smith's intent that you pay on your surplus, which is defined as the money left over AFTER expenses.

I would print a Retraction & Correction on 132, indicating that God did not intend for women to be treated as chattel, nor to be threatened with destruction if they didn't agree with their husband's choice; or that they would NOT be forced to live, at pain of damnation, to enter into a marriage relationship they didn't want to be part of....OR IF THEY WANTED TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE HUSBAND,..fine (fair is fair). Or, that if women didn't want to have anything to do with it and decided to live with another man who they weren't married to, fine. After all, JS lived with various women who he wasn't married to UNTIL AFTER he died, and so forth.

I would put in a section that the Book of Mormon is completely allegorical, is not a historical document, was not translated from any ancient record, but was the product of automatic writing as JS was using hallucinogenic compounds, and was a conglomeration of other people's writings as well as the folk magic and beliefs of those around, including the revivalists.

I would put in a section that the apostles do not speak directly to Jesus Christ and that the 'correlated' response that "some things are just to sacred to talk about" was actually a devious tactic to indirectly communicate (LIE) that they had seen Christ, but do so in a way to not be held accountable if it was ever discovered they hadn't.

I could go on for pages.

Of course, if all of my changes were put in there, most of the church would leave. Fantasy is so much more palatable than truth or reality...

[deacon blues]

I think they ought to stick Lectures in Faith back in the D&C. They could use it as an example of how the lord (ie. church) changes its doctrine from having a spiritual Heavenly Father to a physical Heavenly Father. This would make a wonderful springboard to explore how doctrine in the church does in reality, change.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

I would have to give credit to all the other restorationist sects and other 18th and 19th century enlightenment theologians and add the works of Stone, Campbell, Walter Scott, Jonathan Edwards Jr., Hopkinsian Magazine, Samuel Underhill of the Owenites and anyone else Smith and the early brethren (Rigdon and Pratt) plagarized and borrowed from to form our tradition. It's only fair in the intellectual property age and the honesty standard we set up.

[Not Buying It]

Just one sentence: "Mormonism is total bollocks."

Folks, this is all you need. It is the single most crucial and important message that needs to be canonized.