CTR part 2

This choice is also inherent in the fact that you are a mormon at all. The church teaches that those who are here on earth chose to keep their first estate, that is, they chose before coming down to earth to follow god. And those who are members of the church are the ones who chose the most right in the pre-existence.

The T stands for the. While this might not seem like something I could spend my time analyzing—never underestimate my powers of over analysis!—it is actually the most important word in the whole initialism. In my first waitressing job, we had a whole hour and a half of training where we went over the restaurants mission statement. Our mission statement had something to do with good food and better service, but my manager spent the most time on the fact that we didn't want to be one of the best restaurants in the area; we wanted to be the best restaurant in the area. No namby-pambying around for us. The definite article in both my old job's mission statement and also the religious initialism designates both primacy and supremacy of that which follows. The church acknowledges no relativism. There is not any "everyone finds different paths to god" or "I don't believe like you do, but your life makes you happy and that is great." Oh no. The use of the definite article removes any wavering, any luffing. There is no other right. There is one right that works for each and every individual on the face of the planet. (Non members often comment on the uniformity—physical, psychological, spiritual—of members.) There is one baptism, one church, one method of worship. And that which is not the right is wrong.

The R stands for right. I could make a deviation here into the political right of both the church and its policies and practices, but I won't. Not only am I not politically inclined, but I think that may be a stretch, even for new historicism. The right is that which members of the church are striving for. And as I discussed earlier, there are not rights: there is one and only one right. That right makes it possible for all the girls in your class to set the same set of five goals for that week. That right makes it possible for everyone in every circumstance to be required to fulfill the same obligations. All must pass through the same portals, both in the mortal world and the world to come.

The predominance of this right also makes it unnecessary to explore, explain, or analyze either its limits or its alternatives. Members are neither encouraged nor permitted to intellectually explore the bounds of the right; the nature of the right is all-encompassing, and it therefore has no bounds. There is nothing outside the right of the church, so you are not to look. Anything that is said outside the right is wrong and is satan trying to deceive you.