We are the Leaders of tomorrow[1]Or, as it is expressed in one of our more rousing Restoration hymns: “Shall the youth of Zion falter/In defending truth and right?/While the enemy assaileth/Shall we shrink or shun the fight? … Continue reading
We are the ones to have more fun[2]G.K. Chesterton, in the finale to his classic 1908 apologia Orthodoxy, argued for the grand importance of “mirth”–of fun–to the genius of Christ, writing: “Joy, which … Continue reading
We want control, we want the power[3]Is this presumption on her part, to “want the power”, in violation of D&C 121:37-39? Or paradoxically, is this not what we are all supposed to desire–that endowment of power from on … Continue reading
Not gonna stop until its comes[4]Indeed, as the hymn sings, “we must all press on” till we achieve this endowment of power; as the Book of Mormon instructs us, “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in … Continue reading
We are not Jesus (Christ)[5]None of us are; only One was Holy enough to take upon Himself the sins and sufferings of this world, and it really is presumption to abrogate His Atonement for ourselves (such, indeed, was the sin of … Continue reading
We are not Fascists (Pigs)[6]The term fascism recall comes from the Italian word “fasci,” meaning a bundle of sticks–with the implication that a single stick is easy to break, whereas a bundle of sticks, tied … Continue reading
We are not Capitalists (Industrialists)[7]The cut-throat competition of the capitalist system—wherein “every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and … Continue reading
We are not Communists[8]Among the super-majority of Latter-day Saints, especially in North America, it is axiomatic and uncontroversial to be anti-communist–since communism, like fascism just mentioned, is also a … Continue reading
We are the One[9]Here then is a paradox: we must not sin like Lucifer in taking upon ourselves the role of Christ; yet simultaneously, as 3 Nephi 27:27 reminds us, we are to be like Him in all things! He trod the … Continue reading
We will build a better tomorrow[10]As indeed we are informed quite explicitly in the Tenth Article of Faith: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) … Continue reading
The youth of today will be our tool[11]Is this not why Church HQ is so constantly fretting about Youth retention rates these days? Let us also remember that Joseph Smith was only 23 when he organized the Church in 1830–and Christ only … Continue reading
America’s Children made for survival[12]For again, if “Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent”, then America’s children must be the ones to do it.
Fate is our destiny and we shall rule[13]Again, we shall indeed, as “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).
We are not Jesus (Christ)
We are not Fascists (Pigs)
We are not Capitalists (Industrialists)
We are not Communists[14]No less than Hugh Nibley has identified the false dichotomy between capitalism and communism that The Avengers here also critique: “I have been quite half-hearted… and much too easily … Continue reading
We are the One
We are the One
We are the One
We are the One[15]“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we … Continue reading
I am the one who brings you the future[16]Are these not the Latter Days? “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).
I am the one who buries the past[17]“Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60).
A new species[18]“And that ye put on the new man [and woman], which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). rise up from the ruin[19]“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Revelations 21:1).
I am the one that was made to last[20]“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and … Continue reading
We are not Jesus (Christ)
We are not Fascists (Pigs)
We are not Capitalists (Industrialists)
We are not Communists
We are the One
We are the One
We are the One
We are the One[21]“And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may … Continue reading
We are not Jesus (Christ)
We are not Fascists (Pigs)
We are not Capitalists (Industrialists)
We are not Communists
We are the One[22]“For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: … Continue reading
We are the One
We are the One
We are the One
We are the one
We are the one
We are the one
We are the one
We are the one[23]First single and opening track to The Avengers only full-length LP–known as The Pink Album by fans–released shortly after the band’s demise in the late-’70s, and produced by none … Continue reading
References
| ↑1 | Or, as it is expressed in one of our more rousing Restoration hymns: “Shall the youth of Zion falter/In defending truth and right?/While the enemy assaileth/Shall we shrink or shun the fight? No!” The Youth of Zion are indeed the Leaders of tomorrow, and should be treated as such. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | G.K. Chesterton, in the finale to his classic 1908 apologia Orthodoxy, argued for the grand importance of “mirth”–of fun–to the genius of Christ, writing: “Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
The Avengers, like most first-wave Punk, likewise refused to restrain their anger and emotions; yet they were also, like Chesterton and the Savior Himself, the ones who have more fun. |
| ↑3 | Is this presumption on her part, to “want the power”, in violation of D&C 121:37-39? Or paradoxically, is this not what we are all supposed to desire–that endowment of power from on high, found in God’s Holy Temple–such that we desire all to receive it?
And does singer Penelope Houston, as a woman, sin to desire it? Or is she as the Prophet Miriam, and also sealed up to be a Queen and a Priestess? |
| ↑4 | Indeed, as the hymn sings, “we must all press on” till we achieve this endowment of power; as the Book of Mormon instructs us, “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 30:20). |
| ↑5 | None of us are; only One was Holy enough to take upon Himself the sins and sufferings of this world, and it really is presumption to abrogate His Atonement for ourselves (such, indeed, was the sin of Lucifer, before the War in Heaven). Penelope Houston here is right: we are not Jesus Christ, we can only accept His sacrifice and Atonement on our behalf. |
| ↑6 | The term fascism recall comes from the Italian word “fasci,” meaning a bundle of sticks–with the implication that a single stick is easy to break, whereas a bundle of sticks, tied and united together, is unbreakable, and can therefore be used to bludgeon others to death as well, which is of course exactly what happened in the lead up to the genocidal atrocities of WWII. Fascism, then, is a Satanic perversion of Zion, wherein we are united together not to beat down others, but uplift them all together. It is indeed a righteous desire on the part of the Avengers to refuse the demonic temptations of fascism. |
| ↑7 | The cut-throat competition of the capitalist system—wherein “every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime”—is explicitly the doctrine of Korihor the AntiChrist, per Alma 30:17. |
| ↑8 | Among the super-majority of Latter-day Saints, especially in North America, it is axiomatic and uncontroversial to be anti-communist–since communism, like fascism just mentioned, is also a Satanic perversion of Zion. Yet far less noted among us is the fact that, again, we are not to yearn for capitalism, either! To call our current economic system the “lesser of two evils” compared to communism is to still acknowledge that it is evil. Endlessly throughout the scriptures–Acts 2:44-45, 4 Nephi 1:3, D&C 29:30-39, etc.–we are positively beaten over the head with the fact that the only economic system acceptable before God is one wherein there is neither rich nor poor, but where we have all things common. “But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin”, reads D&C 49:20. If the United Order and Law of Consecration we covenant to uphold in the Temple is not communism–and it is emphatically not–it is certainly not capitalism, either. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. |
| ↑9 | Here then is a paradox: we must not sin like Lucifer in taking upon ourselves the role of Christ; yet simultaneously, as 3 Nephi 27:27 reminds us, we are to be like Him in all things! He trod the winepress alone and now sits on the right-hand side of the Father; yet we are also “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17). That is, Christ alone was the One; yet we are also the One, together, united, At-One, in Holy Atonement with Him! So, too, must we be One with each other–wherein we have “all things common” (Acts 2:44; 4 Nephi 1:3)–for “if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27). |
| ↑10 | As indeed we are informed quite explicitly in the Tenth Article of Faith: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.” That is, we are not to wait until Zion comes down from Heaven, but we are to actively strive build it in this life, so that we will be prepared to withstand and enjoy the Celestial Order when it arrives; as Moroni warns in Mormon 9:4, “Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell”. |
| ↑11 | Is this not why Church HQ is so constantly fretting about Youth retention rates these days? Let us also remember that Joseph Smith was only 23 when he organized the Church in 1830–and Christ only 33 when He accomplished the Atonement. The Youth will be the tools indeed; they always have been. |
| ↑12 | For again, if “Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent”, then America’s children must be the ones to do it. |
| ↑13 | Again, we shall indeed, as “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17). |
| ↑14 | No less than Hugh Nibley has identified the false dichotomy between capitalism and communism that The Avengers here also critique: “I have been quite half-hearted… and much too easily drawn into what I call the Gentile Dilemma. That is, when I find myself called upon to stand up and be counted, to declare myself on one side or the other. Which do I prefer — gin or rum, cigarettes or cigars, tea of coffee, heroin or LSD, the Red Rose or the White, Shiz or Coriantumr, wicked Nephites or wicked Lamanites, Whigs or Tories, Catholic or Protestant, Republican or Democrat, black power or white power, land pirates or sea pirates, commissars or corporations, capitalism or communism.
“The devilish neatness and simplicity of the thing is the easy illusion that I am choosing between good and evil, when in reality two or more evils by their rivalry distract my attention from the real issue.” (“How Firm a Foundation”, CWHN vol 9:163). |
| ↑15 | “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:11). |
| ↑16 | Are these not the Latter Days? “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13). |
| ↑17 | “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). |
| ↑18 | “And that ye put on the new man [and woman], which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). |
| ↑19 | “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Revelations 21:1). |
| ↑20 | “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44). |
| ↑21 | “And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one” (3 Nephi 19:23). |
| ↑22 | “For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just? Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:26-27). Just one more reminder that when the Lord said to “be one” in this oft-cited passage, it was explicitly in the sense of being one in all your possessions–to, again, “have all things common” (Acts 2:44-45; 4 Nephi 1:3)–not in the faux-equality of the communists nor the aggressive anti-equality of the capitalists, but as in the Law of Consecration we all covenant to keep in the Temple. |
| ↑23 | First single and opening track to The Avengers only full-length LP–known as The Pink Album by fans–released shortly after the band’s demise in the late-’70s, and produced by none other than guitarist Mick Jones of The Sex Pistols. In fact, they were previously most famous for serving as the opening act for the Sex Pistol’s final show in San Francisco (the one where Johnny Rotten sulked off the stage with a sneering, “You ever feel like you’ve been cheated?”) when they broke up in 1978. The Avengers unceremoniously broke up after only a couple short years as well. Yet also like the Pistols, their long-range influence upon the development of Punk (including the Youth of Zion) remains incalculable. And Penelope Houston has, to put it mildly, proven to be far less problematic—or at least far less hypocritical—than Johnny Rotten. They remain The One. |