Too large for a comment

I am leaving town for the weekend and probably won't be getting online much, so I offer some thoughts now. Not very good ones, because I haven't given it a great deal of thought. RANDOM ALERT!!

I think in some respects the plan is a good one. I wonder if the City of Enoch had a similar judge system. It was a community full of religion that succeeded fully in getting everyone translated. What a unique society.

But every society is so completely different. Is there one common goal of society for all societies? Celestial? The same society here will exist there? From a religious standpoint we would say the City of Enoch was ideal. Non-religious people wouldn't say that nor would they believe in a perfect city that was translated. They would envision something different.

We might ask: how would it be for us in another society completely dominated by another religion. We have faced that to some extent. I was in  95% Buddhist country. 4% Muslim and the rest something else. How did that government do with other religions? Decent. But not a hundred years ago.

In some respects in might depend on how close the dominant religion was  to what we term as the true religion. While Buddhism is very different, the basic beliefs are good and entail good living principles. The only problem is getting people to live it. The Thai country would be better off if everyone lived their religion. 

In the D&C (I forget the section) it says that government should protect the exercise of conscience.  What does that mean? Do current governments protect that? Would a completely religious government allow non-believers that protection? In the BoM case, I believe they did.

The High Priest being the Chief Judge? I interviewed a judge in Provo. He probably is a high priest. Wonderful man. I'm not sure I ever felt the spirit so much when interviewing someone or interviewing a secondary source about the primary source. He has strong religious principles and it makes him, in my opinion, one of the best judges possible. He has the Gift of the Holy Ghost and he prays to now what to do. Would you rather have someone using only physical evidence to judge you? Or would you like someone who can ask a higher source to get a better idea.  He told me he meets people all the time that thank him for putting them in jail. He probably made some inspired correct decisions for those people. Other decisions may be inspired for the good of society.  I always thought in the mission field that the Lord puts you in the place where you are needed to help others, but where you can be helped the most too. Dual purpose. Probably that way for judgments. Put the criminal where it will help them best and help society best. Tough to decide, for sure, so I'd rather have heaven's help.

So, in that judge's case I'd say having a judge that is religious works well. That isn't quite what you were asking, but I think it is a benefit to our society. Should all of them be religious? Good question.

Sometimes as people we think things should be static or black and white. That person is ugly or evil. We shift between dichotomies where none should exist or we think some things should be static and non-changing.  While God is unchangeable, he does play ball differently according to what's happening. He commanded Nephi to kill, etc.  The Constitution was not meant to be the final word on government. It was meant to grow as the county grew. Fascinating. What if different types of government are good at different times? Kind of a weird idea I just thought up. In BoM times the judge system and religion intermixed was the best option for them. The City of Enoch had whatever they had. We have ours. We are probably placed in governmental situations that test our faith and agency and will help us somehow. Even bad governments may have a role to play (like bad empires against wicked ancient Israel) The British Empire could be seen as bad because they killed and conquered many people, but because of them Christianity spread far and makes missionary work so much easier. Not so black and white.

So, what if different governments are better for different times? A society that completely adopts an ideology at one point needs different things than a system that adopts 20 ideologies. Just a quick-thought thought.

What should we adopt today? Total religious judge system would provoke uproar, so maybe good LDS people who decide to be judges and do the best they can?  ?

Obviously we live in a day where there are bazillions of ideologies and religions. Totally different than when ancient Israel was with the Egyptians or moved into the desert. Or different than BoM times. We probably need a government that is different. The D&C says the Constitution was given by the Lord. Why didn't he create a Priest/judge system again? Something else needed to protect and test all of his children I guess.

Anyway, total stream of conscious thought junk going on above me. Sorry. Hope some of it is thought provoking and not simply thought vomiting.   KED OUT