Material Practice May 30, 2007

One of our class discussions/readings last week focused on writing concisely. Therefore I choose to practice this area of my writing. I decided to approach two different topics and concisely explain the issue/my feelings etc. in under 150 words each. We will see what happens.

Why fans should not support Barry Bonds.
According to ESPN Barry Bonds is third in the fan polls of this year’s All-Star team. Such fans must however realize the negative effect Barry Bonds has on baseball. Admit it, Bonds cheats. There is no other way around it. Bonds has used steroids in order to get to where he is today. According to ESPN The Magazine Bonds told Ken Griffey Jr. this several years ago. This has tainted all he does. If fans support steroid use, steroids will become the only way to get to the big leagues because players are not competing with each other but with their drugs. All the greats we admire like Mays, Ruth and DiMaggio will become distant memories to future generations because they will not understand the incredible feats these men accomplished. By supporting Bonds we support steroids which will ultimately lead to downfall of baseball because the tradition will be lost.

The hymns as scripture
Many prophets and apostles have requested that members have in their homes a copy of the Hymnal, many have called them scripture and request that we think of it as such. However the hymns are not written by prophets and apostles so how can they be considered scripture? In the hymns we find music that builds our souls and leads us to faith and repentance. Wasn’t this the goal of Nephi? “For…mine intent is [to] persuade men to come [to]…God.” Why else sing praises to God which build our faith then to come closer to him? I believe that like the scriptures the hymns were written by inspiration from above. That is why we can get so much good from them and why the spirit can speak to us through them. It is obvious that everyone needs to treat the hymns just as they would any other word of God.