“God gives us commandments to help us understand how we can fulfill his plan and become more like him.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ: Discussion 2, pg. 2_20
You freely gave your gift; you never told
us it might be revoked. Paid penalties,
even as you knew we’d fall short of old
god-worthy scions. Calmly bearing keys
and your birthright, you ply them to appease
our parents, even as we prides and joys
roughhouse in a drenched yard on muddy knees.
They mourn the clots like long lost golden boys,
and warn us sternly: take a bath or lose your toys.
Poet’s Notes:
This stanza is based loosely on the second missionary discussion, part of the Uniform System for Teaching the Gospel, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I taught this discussion to investigators on my mission in the mid-1990s. The featured image is of my personal copy.
Follow this link to read Stanza: The First Discussion.
Reactions to the poem are welcome in the Comments section below, along with thoughts about the second discussion from those who taught or received it.
Wheat & Tares 
Wow. Great form, and much to ponder. Too early for me to comment on the poem’s doctrinal or emotional statements. I have to ponder for a while to see what I think or feel about it.. — My mission was in the mid-80s, half of it done under the very last version of the memorized discussions, and the second half done using the “pink discussions,” the proto/beta ancestors of the ones you used.
Did you realize that those discussions had prompts requiring the missionary to commit the investigator to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but never was the missionary prompted to commit the investigator to pray about whether or not Jesus is the Savior of the world? Not even in the Second Discussion!
I find that very informative.
John C, in terms of teaching priorities, I think that’s basically correct. In the manuals, the specific commitments missionaries are instructed to seek from investigators in the first 2 discussions are as follows: read and pray about the Book of Mormon; pray to know Joseph Smith was a prophet; take part in additional discussions; attend Sunday services of the Church; get baptized in the Church; and provide referrals to the missionaries.
Your comment got me remembering a scripture reference: 2 Nephi 33:10-12. The prophet Nephi essentially says: believe in my words and you’ll believe in Christ. And if you don’t believe in my words, believe in Christ and he’ll get you to believe in my words. It seems the discussions treat the existence of Jesus Christ as a foregone conclusion (as did most people I taught the discussions to in New England back in the ’90s). When, I found myself teaching agnostics/atheists, it certainly wasn’t the case I didn’t care about them disbelieving Jesus as Savior. I just had more pressing priorities: get them to believe in Joseph Smith/Book of Mormon, and get them baptized. And if I could get them to do those things then, like Nephi says, of course they’ll also come to believe in Jesus Christ.
2 Nephi 33:10-12 is listed as a scriptural resource that missionaries can refer to as needed while teaching the first discussion; moreover, cultivating a powerful belief in Jesus is an explicitly stated, repeated goal of the missionary discussions.
Great poem, so much for me to think about as my faith and view of the atonement and the role of Christ has totally shifted since I taught that to people as a missionary in a non-Christian country. This is a part of our theology that I’ve found people generally accept at face value and are totally unwilling to question or even hear questions. For me, there are so many: 1. Why would God require an atonement and why is he so bound by the law that required one? 2. What is the role of grace if the atonement is essentially an insurance policy that requires obedience and kicks in if we mess up and have to go through a painful repentance process as penance for sins? 3. What are the commandments and sins? Do we have a list? Why have the definitions of sin shifted in recent time? Drinking alcohol used to not be a sin and now it is and using birth control used to be a big sin and now it isn’t.
I feel like questioning the atonement and the role of Jesus is a non-starter with most orthodox members and is offensive to most.