Clues about relationships are often found in beliefs and attitudes.
Melissa Burns's fingers slowed to a stop on her typewriter keys as she
listened to Bobbie and Karel talk while they waited in the department office.
She listened for a bun or so before asking, "Did someone get
married?"
Karel and Bobbie both looked up at her.
"Uhm, ...," Bobbie stalled.
"Sorry. I shouldn't be eavesdropping." Melissa looked down and started to type
again.
The two of them both shook their heads.
Karel said, "No problem."
Melissa stopped typing again, hesitating before asking, "But you did you go to
the temple this morning?"
(If the university were BYU, in our world, the temple up the hill from
campus would not be built until something close to a hexadecade -- decimal
sixteen years -- later. In this world, the temple up the hill was already operational, so they
could walk to the temple early in the morning, do a significant amount of
service, and walk back to campus in plenty of time to meet with their
professors before lunch.)
"Oh, yeah," Bobbie replied. "With some other friends of ours."
"Did someone get married?"
Karel said, "No, we just went to do some proxy work."
( Ehyephoot
religious practices include proxy ordinances for the dead similar to those
practiced by the largest branch of the faith often called Mormonism. I'll borrow from
Mormon culture for the names of the ordinances.)
Bobbie turned to give Karel a meaningful look, but Karel didn't immediately
read her meaning.
"Proxy work?" Melissa gave them a puzzled look.
"Baptisms, endowments, sealings," Karel answered by reflex.
"Do you mind if I ask, what are endowments and sealings, and how are they
done?"
(Whether we speak too seriously about sacred things or too casually, we
tend to be misunderstood. It shouldn't be surprising. Sacred is that which
is set apart from the ordinary contexts within which we operate. The
meanings of symbols being greatly derived from context, it is generally
necessary to mentally and emotionally separate ourselves from the ordinary
somewhat to understand the sacred.
And words that are too serious in one context may well be too casual in
another. Or vice-versa.
So it's part of being human to tend to avoid talking about sacred things
except in sacred places.)
Karel seemed surprised, but Bobbie quietly asked, "What do you know about
baptism?"
"Well, I was baptized when I was a baby, but my husband keeps asking me when
I'm going to listen to your missionaries and get your baptism."
(Again, we can see parallels to our own world.)
Now Karel understood. He pursed his lips and nodded, and said, "I hope he
isn't putting too much pressure on you."
"I do feel a little stress about it."
Bobbie said, "Oh, that's too bad. Baptism is a big commitment. It's not
something we really want people to be feeling pressured into."
"It's my own fault. I should have asked more questions about the church he
belonged to before we got married."
Karel tried to commiserate. "I wouldn't suggest taking or laying blame.
Falling in love does make people feel adventurous."
"Thanks ... I guess." Melissa pulled her lips into a tight line for a moment,
but then continued. "So what is this endowment thing? Winn tried to explain it
to me once, but I didn't really follow what he was saying."
Bobbie and Karel looked at each other and negotiated non-verbally.
Bobbie suggested, "Can we start with baptism?"
Karel nodded his agreement
Melissa blinked. "So your baptism is that different? My preacher said it would
be. Said you even taught a different Christ."
Karel nodded thoughtfully again. "Our practices relative to baptism may be a
little different, and, I don't know, maybe our focus is on different aspects
of the Savior's teachings. But I don't think we worship a different Jesus. Do
you recall in the scriptures where He got baptized?"
Melissa frowned and nodded. "I'm familiar with my scriptures."
"John was baptizing in a river, and Jesus went down into the water to him."
(I'm not sure whether I should translate that as John or Elias. I'll go
with John. And it really shouldn't be surprising that their scriptures would record many events similar to those recorded in ours.)
Melissa responded with a chapter and verse reference from their
Holy Book, similar to Matthew 3 in our Bible.
"And John said something about their positions should be reversed, but Jesus said,
'Let it be this way once, to fulfill all righteousness."
Melissa nodded thoughtfully in response. "That's what the scriptures say."
"And the Apostles taught that baptism is symbolic of burying the old, sinful
man and rising out of the water a new man in Christ."
("Apostle" translates well, here: "special witness" of Christ.) "And
several places in scripture invite us to be baptized in witness of our
commitment to follow Jesus."
Melissa nodded again. "I believe in that."
Bobbie said, "It's a covenant, a promise to God."
"A covenant? As in, my parents promised God they'd raise me as a Christian?"
"Well, since we don't uhm, get baptized until we're a bit older, ..." Bobbie
looked back at Karel, but he just nodded. Turning back to Melissa, she
continued, "it's the person receiving baptism who is promising to follow the
Savior's teachings and example."
Melissa looked perplexed. "Older? Then how are your children who die
saved? Do you have to do proxy work for them? And how do children get their
Christian names?"
(Yet more parallels. Yes. They are there. Quite logically.)
Karel explained, "Traditionally, we usually give our children a name and a
blessing soon after they are born. But we don't consider it required for salvation. Baptism isn't required of children,
because the Savior suffered for our sins, and He took on the sins of the
innocent unconditionally. Children who die before they are old enough to
choose to accept baptism are not under the burden of sin, and are saved in
Heaven without baptism."
Melissa frowned. "How do you tell if they're old enough?"
Karel replied, "Prayer and inspiration, really."
Bobbie added, "But we don't usually invite children under seven to receive
baptism, and we usually try to extend an invitation by the time they are bee
or cee."
(Eleven or twelve. And we note more minor differences between our world and Xhilr.)
Melissa thought some more before responding, "I think I can understand that.
Children can begin to think seriously about such things about that age."
Bobbie added "It's an assertion of faith."
Melissa asked, "So I was baptized when I was a baby. Does that not count?"
Karel asked, "Is that your own assertion of faith, or your parents?"
"I've always felt that I accepted it."
Bobbie nodded. "I can see that."
Karel thought for a moment. "I think that saying your baptism doesn't count
would overlook some important things. But it isn't quite the same."
"Seems a bit different." She took a turn to think. "When I was hex --"
(Guess I'm not going to avoid this. Not magic hex, of course. "Tensixteen" also seems to engender confusion, so I'm using "hex"
as a forced corollary of decimal ten: "hex" => 10sixteen
. This is not their language, it's forcing coinage from ours. I'm giving it as an abbreviation of "hexadecade". So when she was decimal sixteen --)
"-- I took the catechism. That was when I made my commitment."
Bobbie and Karel nodded.
"So when do you take your catechism?"she asked.
"Oh. We don't." Karel said absently.
Bobbie reached around and patted Karel's knee a little more forcefully than
gently, and added, for him, "Many of us attend a seminary class for
about four years when we are in our early hexes."
(Coining a hexadecimal corollary of teens, of course, literally from 10sixteen to 1Fsixteen -- decimal
sixteen to thirty-one, but, in practice, from about Dsixteen to
17sixteen -- decimal thirteen to twenty-three.)
"But I skipped some of my second and third years because I was feeling a
little rebellious. How about you, Karel?"
"Went all four years."
"Figures." She squeezed his knee.
"Hey." He said quietly and slipped his hand under hers and squeezed back.
Melissa pretended not to notice the hand-holding. "So, is the temple where you formalize your
catechism, then?"
Bobbie retrieved her hand and Karel scratched his chin with his freed
hand.
"Interesting thought," he half-muttered.
Bobbie blinked. "I don't think so. But since I don't know much about your
catechism, I'm not sure that would be a wrong comparison." She thought some more before continuing, "When we
record our family histories, sometimes we treat other church's baptisms
similarly to our name-and-a-blessing in our records."
"Christening?"
"We call it the same as the records we record it from."
"Hmm. So baptism is a commitment. If I get baptized into your Church, how do I know what I'm
committing to?"
"You'd study with the missionaries for several weeks first."
"Is there a short version?"
Karel pulled his scriptures out of his backpack. "Well, there are a couple of
pretty good summaries." He opened his copy of the Book of Ehyephoot to
a scripture comparable to Mosiah 18 in the Book of Mormon:
On a certain day, most of the believers were gathered at the place called
Ehyephoo to hear Ringo preach, and he taught them about repentance,
redemption, and faith in the Lord.
When he had carefully
explained the doctrines, he declared, "Here we have the waters of Ehyephoo.
Now, as you all have expressed the desire to join the fold of God and be
called his people, and as you have all expressed willingness to bear
one-another’s burdens, that they may be light — to mourn with those that
mourn, to comfort those that need comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God
at all times, in all things, and in all places until death, that ye may be
redeemed of God and numbered among those who come forth in the first
resurrection, that ye may have eternal life —
"I can go with that," Melissa said quietly.
"I really like this scripture," Bobbie agreed. She continued reading over Karel's
shoulder:
I say, if this is the desire of your hearts, what would you have against
being baptized in the name of the Lord, witnessing before him that you have
entered into a covenant with him to serve him and keep his commandments, so
that he may pour out his Spirit upon you in greater abundance?
"Commandments?" Now Melissa's guard was up. "What are these commandments?"
"Pretty much the sermon on the mount," Bobbie explained.
"And," Karel added, "that last part, the pouring out of the Spirit is important. Because of
the covenant, we can receive more guidance and commandments through the Spirit
as we need them. When we get baptized, because of the promises we make, God
can teach us more than if we never got baptized."
"So there's more, and you study that in the Temple?"
Bobbie rolled her eyes sideways at Karel. He raised his eyebrows and smiled
lopsidedly back. "We really should leave this to the missionaries. It feels
like we're digging in too deep."
"But we're in it now," Bobbie raised one eyebrow and fixed him with a mock
glare.
"What promises do you consider yourself to have made to God?" Karel asked.
"You want me to recite the entire catechism?"
Bobbie grinned. "Is it long?"
"Kind of."
Bobbie took a turn: "For us, the covenant of baptism is simple. We promise to
have faith in Jesus Christ, and to repent of our sins. We promise to obey the
commandments Jesus gives us. And we promise to help others of God's children
when we can."
"So how many of those commandments are there?"
Karel answered. "That's what we mean by God teaching us more. He gives us
those commandments through the Holy Spirit."
("Holy Spirit" is a compound that translates directly.)
"In your temple," Melissa asserted.
"Well, there, too, sometimes." Karel became pedantic. "Too briefly stated, humans have spirits and God has
His Holy Spirit, and the spirit is what gives us understanding. It's the
answer of faith to the question begged by certain higher branches of
mathematics as to how symbols get meaning. But God's Holy Spirit is what gives
us understanding about the things of God. It is also the source of our
conscience."
Bobbie closed her eyes in exasperation and shook her head. "Too deep?" she muttered, just loud enough for Karel to hear.
"And you go to the temple to receive those commandments?"
Karel scratched his head and looked for help from Bobbie.
"Way too deep." She shrugged, then turned back to Melissa and said, "We
receive them where and when we need them."
"If we are worthy," Karel added. "Things we are taught in the temple help us
stay close to God's Holy Spirit and stay worthy to receive His instruction
through the Spirit."
Bobbie looked a little perplexed, but nodded in agreement. "It's instruction
to help us understand what we get from God each day, more than specific
commandments."
Melissa thought for a bun before asking, "Does that mean there's
no official catechism?"
Karel said, "I think that's the best answer we can give you. We have lesson
manuals and the like, but we don't have a specific catechism."
And Bobbie added, "We each learn what we need as we go. It's a lifetime
process."
"Then how do you know how to behave and what to believe?"
Karel answered: "Study the scriptures, pray, attend church. When we do what
God tells us to do, He teaches us each what our next step is on an individual
basis."
"But, how do you know that, at some point, at the next step, your God doesn't
turn into a soul-eating monster and tell you to do something evil?"
"That would not be God, would it?" he responded.
"Of course not. But how do you know?"
"Practice," Bobbie answered. "Reading the scriptures. Prayer. Doing what we
think is right and listening to what our consciences tell us about what we've
done. And not turning away -- uhm, well, returning to God when we realize we have turned away."
Karel added, "If we find ourselves facing some conflict of belief, we can
always return to the basics to figure out what we've misunderstood. God wants
us to be happy."
"Ah! How do you know that God wants you to be happy?"
Bobbie and Karel looked at each other and laughed a quiet laugh.
"Indeed, indeed," joked Karel.
"Experience!" Bobbie responded. "Repentance isn't to make us suffer, it's so we
can quit doing the things that make us unhappy."
"Suffering isn't repentance?"
"Not unless it leads us to God."
Karel explained a bit more: "Many sins do require us to suffer, or to pay at
least a part of the price of what we did. But because we are not perfect, we often don't have power to pay the full price. The purpose of repentance is
that we can leave the sin behind and move forward, live a more godly
life, with Jesus' help."
"Okay, okay, so far what you believe doesn't seem so fanatical, not really so
different from what I've learned. But can you tell me some examples of the
'more things' that God teaches you?"
Bobbie said, "The beatitudes are beautiful, aren't they?"
"Of course."
"But sometimes it's a little difficult to figure out how to do it, right?"
Melissa nodded.
"Unless we have the Holy Spirit's help," added Karel.
Melissa closed her eyes for a moment, and said, "It seems like you're starting
out from a different approach, but it ends up being what I believe."
Bobbie said, "I think you'll mostly find it so."
"So, what's this endowment thing?"
"Instruction," said Karel. "But it's easy to misunderstand, so we leave
the world behind and go into the temple to receive it."
"It's very peaceful in the temple," Bobbie explained. "You can feel really
close to God."
Melissa looked up at the door, where Professors White and MacVittie were
standing, listening patiently. "Oh, dear. I think I've kept you from your
appointments."
"Not at all!" said Professor White.
"I'd better not keep you any more."
Professor MacVittie said, "It sounds like you're having a nice little
chat."
Bobbie said, "We can definitely talk about this some more."
Professor White said, "We can wait."
Melissa said, "No, that's okay. It's time for me to get back to work."
Professor MacVittie said, "If you think so."
And she nodded.
Bobbie said, "We'll talk again, okay?"
"I think I'd like that."
Professor MacVittie said, "I do think you'll have more opportunities to talk. Well, since the two of you two are here," he suggested, "let's all talk together in my
office."
Professor White was in agreement, so the four of them went to Professor
MacVittie's office, where Bobbie and Karel discussed their progress towards
entering their degree tracks.
You can find the original first draft of the chapter that this chapter was
extracted from, and various other approaches I have tried with it, here:
https://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/05/economics-101-novel-ch05-first-semester.html.
