Accursed

According to dictionary.com, accursed means

1.

under a curse; doomed; ill-fated.

2.

damnable; detestable.

In Joshua 6, the children of Israel are going around taking over Canaan. While they were sacking cities, the Lord gave them some specific instructions. One such instruction was that they were not to take things that were "accursed" because then they would become accursed themselves. The footnotes in the Bible say that things that are accursed are

"those things under a ban for the people to take, or dedicated for a sacrifice to the LORD."

The principle here that I believe the Lord was trying to teach was that what we influence ourselves with will determine what we will become. In this case, the Lord did not want the children of Israel to be influenced with certain booty that was probably more heathenistic than useful to them. Likewise, God does not want us to be influenced by objects, activities or people who would draw us away from Him. Like so many of God's commandments, this was more Him using His all knowing intelligence to tell us to stay away from that which is lethal to us.

What makes something accursed? I believe that something is accursed when it separates you from the Holy Ghost. An example could be when you are drunk. It is not just your senses and mind that become dull, your ability to be spiritually in-tune becomes significantly weakened to the point where the Holy Ghost cannot talk to you.

I do not think that God points a finger and curses things - I think that things become accursed through a series of choices that change its nature until it cannot be in the same place as the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost is light, as Christ often said in the scriptures, then it cannot be in the same place as darkness. This is one issue where the physics and the doctrine unambiguously agree.

Age of Accountability

A discrepancy between Christian churches is their view on baptism. Some believe it is necessary, some believe that it is just a nice idea. Some believe it is for washing away sins, some believe it is for washing away Adam's transgression. Where this comes into play with the age of accountability is the LDS view on infant baptism.

What I believe is that all men will be punished for their own sins - so needing to get ride of Adam's transgression in the garden isn't needed. I also believe that one of the main points of baptism is that it is an outward acceptance and acknowledgment that you are going to follow Christ as your Lord and Savior. A more wide spread comparison can be why do people have marriage ceremonies when really they could just say "Yup, we know it our heart and everything so why do we need to go through a ceremony?" Logically we can think of lots of reasons not to, but something inside us says that it is important to go through the ceremony.

With that in mind, I do believe that a child needs to be old enough to know what they are getting into. I was told the other day that 8 years old (when LDS children get baptized) is actually a minimum date, not a set in hard fast rule, to help with the administration of the church ordinances. It is up to each individual Bishop to seek revelation as to if an individual is ready to be baptized.

When I was 8 years old, I knew a lot about the gospel (or so I thought) and I remember that a member of the Ward Presidency came to my house and asked to speak with me alone. He asked me questions about Jesus and God and John the Baptist and dug around to make sure that I knew what I was doing. Looking back, I've never doubted that I entered the waters of baptism fully aware of the choice I was making. In contrast, I have an older sister who passed away as a baby. I've never doubted that she is innocent and with Jesus waiting for the rest of us.

For a more detailed sermon on this topic Moroni 8 is a great chapter.