User:Hawstom

I have been a registered Wikipedian since 3 September 2003. I was a system administrator until retired for inactivity in 2022. I am very minimally and sporadically active in editing, with less than 100 edits made in 2008. For historic reasons, I am pasting on 1 April 2009 the rest of this page from a 7 April 2006 version. It may not be representative of my current views, but is representative of the "glory days" of my Wikipedia activity.

Tom Haws

Is Wikipedia Administrator - Native English user - Usa un nivel avanzado de español - Usa um nível básico de português - Dad - Latter-day Saint member - ENFP - Left-handed

For The Golden Rule - Kindness - Freedom - Pacifism - Reverence - Consistent Life Ethic - Non-possession - Respecting all religions - Faith in God and Spirit - Atheists - Serial comma

Against War - Violence - Abortion - Partisanship - Love of money - Irreverence

Leave me a message or click Discussion tab to see my talk page, and have a nice day.

I have been a registered Wikipedian since 2003-09-03 (and a system administrator since 2004-10-18). I am pretty casual about it, but I believe strongly in the Wikipedia. Wiki participation has changed me for the better, and I expect it will continue to do so.

These are examples of team efforts that have changed me for the better as the articles have changed for the better. These were hard work! Let me know if I should have added your name.

1. Mormonism and Christianity 2003/2004: User:Mkmcconn, User:Visorstuff, User:Wesley, User:COGDEN, User:Sterlingbates
2. Human 2004: User:Dbachmann, User:UtherSRG, User:Kim Bruning, User:Rednblu, User:Duncharris, User:JHCC, and many others (sorry if I missed anybody who struggled mightily with us). Revisited in 2005 through April 26 with User:FeloniousMonk, User:SlimVirgin, User:Goethean, User:Mel Etitis, User:Sam Spade. Wiki lemonade break April 26 through November 2005. Revisited January and February 2006 with User:Hitchhiker89, David D., and User:Silence.
3. User:Hawstom/Palestine

1. Imposed a hierarchy on Afterlife/Underworld articles

1. Wikipedia:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement
2. Wikipedia reputation (Wikipedia 1.0). See User:Hawstom/Wikipedia reputation.
3. Human
4. Wikipedia:WikiProject Energy development 1 kw-hr=3412 BTU, 1 barrel crude oil=5,800,000 BTU, 1 gallon gasoline=124,000 BTU. Internal combustion engine efficiency = 20% to 30%. Electric motor efficiency=80% to 90%. Automobile use equivalent 1 barrel of oil = 400 kw-hr, 1 gallon of gasoline = 6 kw-hr.
5. Welcoming new users ({{LDSWelcome|article|Hawstom}})

Learn more about me at my Personal Site or my Business Sites.

I am a believer. I believe in Heaven and in God, who is Love--the greatest of all. I govern my life by the belief that I was sent into the world by a loving God to learn to know Him/Love amid distraction and pain. I believe and strive to maintain focus on the idea that I will at the last day rejoice in every exercise of Love and denial of self, and I will weep and wail over every exercise of enmity and indulgence of self. I believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son, and that His work extends mercies unfathomable to me. I believe that by angels, visions, dreams, and diverse dispensations of mercy, God ministers to children of faith in all ages and nations.

My primary rationale for my belief in the above is that certain thoughts, experiences, and concepts pluck undeniable strings of recognition deep within me. These flickers and flows of recognition are more real than the physical world around me, and yet transcendent of it. Thus in complete frankness I may say I have factual knowledge of certain transcendent concepts of which the above paragraph is a culture-specific expression. In endorsement of the reality of this perception, I find that an honest, scientific inquiry into concepts of eternity and spirituality yields a highly consistent view across human cultures and religions.

I like the way Kevin Williams explained how this reality, esoteric but common, is experienced:

Imagine the universe - your reality - as though there is nothing else. God and heaven are fantasies of weak minds. For the sake of the analogy, label this kind of reality as a bubble which you had lived all your life - in a bubble - the universe - the only reality. You are certain there is nothing outside of this bubble. Period. Anyone who said differently was either lying, on drugs, or crazy. Then, something inspires you to read a well-known fairy-tale book just out of curiosity. As you read it, the fantasy tale starts to make sense to you. It begins to reveal secrets to you which you know are true that have never been expressed before. You begin to think this information comes from a reality you never experienced before. It is speaking to your very soul and makes complete sense to your heart and mind. You no longer believe it is a fantasy book, but the very words of God. You can't put it down until you read the whole thing. While this is going on, something is happening to your bubble but you keep reading. When you finish it, you realize that you just read the secrets of the universe but the whole world thinks it is a fairy tale book. When you are done and look up from the book, you realize that the bubble is gone. It popped. And now you are living in an entirely different world - even though it just looks the same. But more importantly, a different person is now in your body. The one who was in it before is gone. Now, you want to put on your white robe and sandals and climb the mountaintop to shout the Gospel and wait for Jesus to come.

And even after you return to your senses, you never view reality the same way again.

My current views (2024) may be opposite what I wrote below, but I am keeping it as a psrsonality portrait of the days when I was an active Wikipedian and admin.

Politics? I am decreasingly political. I don't know anymore whether I am conservative or liberal; you tell me.

• War is terrible even when it is justified. I am thankful I repented of pre-war hawkishness before U.S. invaded Iraq.
• Welfare by taxation is a curse. Forgetting the poor is a curse. Free-will sacrifices for the needy are holy. I deplore Social Security, Medicare and any other United States national health care program.
• I am a federalist with respect to U.S. government. I believe the government with the army and the border patrol should be small, but I am not against big local governments. I favor meaningful distinctions and competition for migration among local cities and States (provinces).
• Abortion is wrong. It should be illegal and disreputable. But penalties should not be stiff. I believe in love and mercy for all.

• Bachelor of Science, Brigham Young University, Civil Engineering, 1991

I am a father and a civil engineer. For two years, I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When I grow up I want to be a grandfather and a charitable and humanitarian worker.

I was born in the 60's and was raised an eighth-generation (Jeremiah Hatch) Mormon in Mesa, Arizona, USA (See my Wiki GEDCOM family tree, well, sort of). The Belief-O-Matic says I am a Hindu or Jainist, but as a matter of fact I am a member of the LDS Church, and enjoy serving in various assignments there.

(These are quoted off the cuff, so don't skin me if I misplace a comma.)

"Our Heavenly Father is more liberal in his views and boundless in his mercies than we are willing to believe or receive." Joseph Smith

"And Peter said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but of every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him." (The Book of Acts)

"And charity suffereth long and is kind, and envieth not and is not puffed up."

"All things must fail. But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever" (emphasis added)

"He that is not against us is in favor of us." (Jesus Christ, Mark 9:40)

[Are you a Hindu?] "Yes, I am. I am also a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, and a Jew." Gandhi

"There are many causes I am prepared to die for, but none that I am prepared to kill for." Gandhi

Multi-licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License versions 1.0 and 2.0

I agree to multi-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under Wikipedia's copyright terms and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 1.0 and version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.