Previously: The Earth Is Flat! (Maybe)Amber Rose is someone I would probably describe as -to put it nicely- "not exactly my type." She has been known to embrace the kind of lifestyle I have always been opposed to. She is a self-described "model" (whatever that means these days) who was famously associated with the L.A. "Slut Walk," and has held the usual slate of left-wing views, once offering her opinion that Jesus was a cult leader who, "you know, had some good lessons along the way."
And, oh yeah: there's that glaring face tattoo. Right on her forehead in permanent ink are tattooed the words "Bash" and "Slash," which are the names of her two sons. So Amber Rose is not the type of person you would expect me to write an admiring tribute about. But here I am, and that's what I'm doing.
If You Will Allow Me A Brief Digression
I remained single until I was 28 years old and was rarely serious about who I dated in my younger years, since I wasn't planning to get married until I had launched my career as an actor. (A "launch" that never got off the launching pad, by the way.)
During high school I dated mostly LDS girls I would meet at the Anaheim stake dances, and after high school the girls were typically ones I met at Anaheim regional dances through the church's Young Adult Program geared for single members between the ages of 18 to 24. By the time I was 26 I had moved to Provo, and in January 1977 I drove down to Arizona where I had been cast in a very small role for a TV movie. I had one measley line, and even that was cut from the script once I arrived. Still, I was allowed to stay on set and appear in some scenes as an uncredited extra for a lot less pay. After filming wrapped a week later, I decided to return to Anaheim for a short visit with my parents, which turned into a much longer visit after I loaned my car to my little brother, who promptly drove it into the side of a mountain.
So for the next couple of months I remained in Anaheim waiting for my car to be repaired before I could return home to Provo where I was still paying rent on a townhouse. While in Anaheim I still wanted a church social life, but at 26 I had aged out of Young Adults and graduated into what was then called "Young Special Interests" (for single members ages 25 to 30+). Some of the Mormon girls I met in that auxillary had already been married and divorced, often with children, so I was dating my share of single moms.
Now, what you get to understand is that in the 1960s and '70s, divorce was still relatively rare among members of the LDS faith, and many otherwise fine members associated a stigma to divorced women, especially divorced women with children. I actually had a divorced friend named Linda who moved to Provo in 1973 and found that none of the other mothers in her apartment complex would let their children play with her four-year-old daughter for no other reason than that the child's mother was a divorcee, which somehow made the child anathema.
Back then I never cared if a woman was divorced or not; I didn't cotton to that kind of silly prejudice so it never bothered me if a girl I went out with had been previously married since I wasn't looking for a any long-term relationships anyway. I attended the YSI dances mostly just to hang out with single Mormons my age and enjoy the free punch, so it didn't bother me one bit that the girls I met at those dances had any kids.
But I will tell you this: if the local bishop had tried to set me up with a recent convert who used to be a left-wing whacko and had her children's names tattooed on her forehead...well, for me that would have been a dealbreaker. Not because she was toting around a couple of tykes, mind you, but because I wouldn't want anybody to see me dating a chick with a face tattoo.
So, I may not have been a bigot in those days, but I was extremely shallow. I like to think I'm not like that anymore, which brings me to the point of my story.
Matt The 'What Is A Woman' ManI am a great admirer of podcaster Matt Walsh. He's a committed Christian conservative and very smart, with a delightfully dry sense of humor. So imagine my disappointment to learn Matt was strongly opposed to Amber Rose being permitted to speak at the recent Republican National Conference. Here is what Matt tweeted about that appearance:
"The RNC gives a primetime speaking slot to a pro-abortion feminist and self-proclaimed slut with a face tattoo whose only claim to fame is having sex with rappers. Truly an embarrassment. Not a single voter will be mobilized by this person."Please watch this video of Amber's speech at the RNC, then tell me if you see anything in it to be offended by. It's only five minutes long:
By opposing Amber's invitation to speak at the RNC, Matt has just flunked Christianity 101. He failed to extend charity to someone he feels is not far enough along the path of redemption to suit him.
Just think about this: pretty much the only thing Amber did was admit she had been lied to, and then publicly repented for having believed those lies. For that she has already been mercilessly attacked by her former friends on the left. And now for some crazy reason a prominent conservative is attacking her? For what?
More important than Amber's endorsement of Donald Trump is that she confessed that she had been wrong about the millions of fellow Americans she had erroneously believed were her enemies. This is the sort of thing we Christians used to call an act of contrition. Had Matt Walsh seen past his own prejudice and simply listened to what Amber was saying, he would have recognized exactly what she was doing up on that podium: confessing and repenting. As Amber puts it,
"Now you may wonder why I'm up here telling you this. I'm no politician and I don't want to be. But I do care about the truth. And the truth is that the media has lied to us about Donald Trump. I know this because for a long time I believed those lies, so I'm here to set the record straight...The Left told me to hate Trump, and even worse, to hate the other side: the people who support him. When you cut through the lies, you realize the truth."I think Officer Tatum has the best take on how Matt Walsh got it so wrong. Matt made the same mistake a lot of conservatives make: he forgot that the Republican party is not supposed to be his religion. Here is how Tatum clarifies things:
"Some people have a problem with Amber Rose speaking at the Republican National Convention. Let me just put this in perspective: There is a difference between "Republican," "Conservative," and Christian." And I think a lt of people conflate all three of them together as, like, the trinity of politics. That's not the way it goes."A Word About The Slut WalkTwo days ago, Amber Rose was a guest of Canace Owens, where Amber laments what she considers an unfair association with the L.A. Slut walk, since she was not the organizer of the event and she absolutely hated the name the organizers gave it.
"If you say you're a Christian, you need to be abiding by Christian values in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and that's a closed unit. If you are a Conservative, that means you espouse conservative values. If you are a Republican, that means you are voting for a Republican; that's what being a Republican is.
"You can be a liberal and still vote republican and associate yourself with the Republican Party. You can be gay, lesbian, trans, gender identifying queer -or whatever they call themselves today- and still vote for Republicans and be a Republican. You can't do all that and be a Conservative because those aren't conservative values. And you cannot do those things and be Christian."
"I think that Amber Rose is a net positive. Even if she don't got it all figured out yet, even if she ain't a staunch Christian yet, I think that the values she brings is that the everyday person that don't typically, somebody that's in the industry, somebody that's got a lot to lose, come out and say, 'you know, I'm gonna vote for Trump,' it's very inspiring for people to have a broad brain that wasn't a conservative their whole life."
In case you haven't heard about it, this thing called the "slut walk" originated in Toronto after a man was on trial for rape. According to Wikipedia, the judge in the case, Robert Dewar, described the defendant as a "clumsy Don Juan" who had the mistaken belief "sex was in the air" and a "heightened expectation" sex would occur. Dewar said the victim and a friend were dressed in tube tops and high heels when they met Rhodes and another man outside a bar "and made it publicly known that they wanted to party." The court in Winnipeg, Manitoba, heard that the victim had willingly gone off with Rhodes and kissed him. But after she rebuffed his further advances three times, he raped her by the side of the road once they were alone.
A month earlier, a Toronto police constable, addressing the issue of campus rape, said, "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
Now that seems to me to be a rather obvious, if not innocuous observation. But it triggered a bunch of howling Wimmin on the left who insisted that a woman should be able to dress as slutty as she wants to without guys assuming they are looking for a good time. If I may editorialize here, that strikes me as the kind of stupidly ignorant thing you might hear from a woman who has never, ever encountered a man at any time in her life.
Anyway, all this hub-bub resulted in a crazy passel of gals deciding to get together in Toronto where they organized an event they called a "slut walk" where participants were encouraged to dress as provocatively as possible to "celebrate their inner whore," and that would somehow prove that women ought to be able dress like sluts without there being any possibility of arousing any men. Similar Slut Walk events took place in the United States, and Amber Rose was a participant in the one that was put on in L.A. She told Candace that she was alarmed at the ignorance of some of the women on display there and wished she could wrap a blanket around the half-naked bodies of some of these girls and help them get home safely.
This conversation between Amber and Candace is fascinating. At an hour and thirteen minutes it's a bit long, but well worth your time. I was surprised at how much I learned about Amber Rose during that conversation, as well as how much I learned about Candace Owens and even Cardi B, who, I'm ashamed to admit, I had already written off as a lost cause. Although Amber Rose was raised in a Christian home, she ultimately rejected Christianity -mostly, as it turns out, due to the behavior of a number of Christians she encountered over the years. I'm betting, like Candace, that it won't be long before Amber Rose accepts Christ completely. I have no doubt about that, as once the spirit of truth takes root in a person with an open mind, truth continues to grow exponentially.
Charity Is EverythingSo what is our lesson here? I was encouraged at how accepting the audience at the RNC was to Amber's short speech, as was she herself as she describes the aftermath. Amber is much more famous than I ever realized, with over twenty million followers on Instagram. There is no doubt that her speaking out about how wrong she was will have an impact that is felt by untold numbers of young people whose only knowledge of Christians -especially conservative Christians- is completely erroneous. We should not underestimate the influence this one woman will have on countless others.
There is a reason the apostle Paul expended so much wordage explaining the importance of Charity in 1st Corinthians 13. Sadly, most of us don't fully understand what that word means. When we hear the word "charity" we usually think it has to do with giving money to the needy. Certainly that is one aspect of charity, but it's not the only one.
When I seek an accurate definition of a word found in scripture, I always look to Noah Webster's 1828 edition of the dictionary. Under Charity Webster provides us with eight clarifying definitions, the first being "in a general sense, love, benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow man, and to do them good."
I was very happy to see that the crowd at the RNC extended massive amounts of genuine charity towards a speaker who most knew was not known to be "one of them."
Note that in addition to other dictionary meanings, having charity towards another means to extend sincere good will. Another word Webster uses to define charity is kindness, and that is the meaning I think best describes the need to extend charity to one another while on this earth: to cultivate an attitude of kindness toward everyone we meet, regardless of where they are on their path in life.
How important is this quality? Paul tells us that if we don't have charity we are nothing. The prophets Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni said the same, so it's worth noting that they didn't say that without charity we have nothing; they said without charity we are nothing. It seems to me, then, that an attitude of charity, of kindness and goodwill toward others, is the most important character trait any of us can develop in the short time we have on this planet. Nothing else comes close. Certainly I would not want to face the Lord at the judgment day and admit I never gave any thought to the concept.
How To Create A Zion Community
During the last twelve weeks of his life, Joseph Smith was intensely focused on launching what he called the Kingdom of God on Earth. One of the most egregious teachings in the LDS church today is the common fallacy that the LDS Church as it exists today is that self-same kingdom of God. Joseph made it abundantly clear that the Kingdom was to be distinctly different from the church; there was no comparing the two. The Kingdom of God, as envisioned by the prophet, would effectively leave the Church in the dust, that's how different they are from each other. The Kingdom was to exist independent of the Church, and include people who were not, and probably never would become "Mormons."
The prophet's vision of the Kingdom of God on earth is still attainable, and I believe that in these last days we will see it develop. But before the Kingdom can exist, we have to learn to live in Zion communities, and we can start anywhere; right where you live right now will work.
I have often described a Zion society as similar to a group of neighbors who live in a cul-de-sac. Picture most of the people in these homes as typical Mormon families who know and love each other and share essentially the same set of values. They look after one another. Now picture one of these neighbors as a long-haired, tatooed biker-type who smokes like a fiend and likes to chug down a six-pack at the end of the day. He has probably never attended any church, maybe doesn't even believe in God. In short, he has nothing in common with his neighbors except his humanity, and on that score he eagerly pitches in when a neighbor needs a helping hand and would give any of his neighbors the shirt off his back.
What makes that little neighborhood a Zion society is that the others accept our hairy, tatted-up friend for exactly who he is. He doesn't have to share their culture or their values in order to be their neighbor; no one requires him to "fit in."
Charity is the highest form of Love. We can't say we love our fellow man or woman if we are unwilling to extend charity to them, which I define here as allowing people the freedom to make their own mistakes while being ready to catch them when everything collapses in on them.
And you have to be able to do it without including any kind of "I-told-you-so."
We can boast all day about how we "love everybody," but that's just lip service. Charity is something we can't fake because it is either demonstrated in deed or it isn't. I believe our acts of charity are the method by which the angels gauge our commitment. Without charity our words mean nothing.
I love Amber Rose not just because I am commanded to, but because I can't help but love her. When someone with that much influence makes a major course correction in her life, it will trigger a change in countless others, both men and women, who had been lied into believing that happiness comes from licenscious living. Brothers and sisters, there is a cultural course correction on the horizon. Let's stand ready to assist when that tidal wave hits.
As the song says, "in the end, only kindness matters."
Links:
Amber Rose Speaks at the Republican National Convention
The Officer Tatum Show: Amber Rose Breaks Liberal Media With RNC Speech
Matt Walsh & Black Liberals Melt Down Over Amber Rose Making Dangerous Speech at RNC
"I'm 'Finally Free!" Candace Owens Interviews Amber Rose
"The Church Ain't The Kingdom"
Trailer for Matt Walsh's Upcoming Theatrical Film (and yes, of course I forgive him!)
Notes & Asides:
JOSEPH SMITH: THE LIES, PROPAGANDA & TRUTH ABOUT POLYGAMYThis video is unrelated to the topic above, and I intend to discuss it further in the future, but I couldn't wait to show it to you. And there's more to come. Don't miss it!
