Repeat: STOP. You MUST NOT hop on Pop.

My post "Stop! You must not hop on Pop!" ended (before the added note) with a warning to sheep not to hitch a ride with Pop -- "Pop" representing both the Roman Catholic Church (led by Papa Franciscus, the Pope) and the Church Formerly Known as Prince (symbolized by the "popping" Apricot Tree).

The Apricot Tree is a great image, actually. It appears to be covered with edible "popcorn" -- like the white fruit of the Tree of Life -- but, as the song reminds us, this is deceptive: "It wasn't really so, but it seemed to be / Popcorn popping on the apricot tree."

I'm not so great at taking my own advice, though, and this afternoon I attended Sunday school at the local Apricot branch, as I sometimes do on first and third Sundays, when they preach the Book of Mormon rather than the thoughts of Elder J. Humpty Dumpty.

I arrived a bit early and was waiting outside the classroom when the elevator door opened and out stepped Martin Luther. Well, actually it was Sister F., who teaches the Book of Mormon class, but her physique and facial architecture are uncannily similar to Luther's, and today she was wearing a long black gown and a backwards black Kangol driving cap of the type one associates with the actor Samuel L. Jackson.

It's impossible to overstate how very much like Cranach's iconic portrait of Luther she looked.

I should make it clear that I like and respect Sister F., a lot, and that her passion for and insight into the Book of Mormon is basically the only reason I ever darken the doors of that church. I realize that saying a woman looks like Martin Luther isn't exactly flattering, and that what I'm about to say is even less flattering, so I want to state at the outset that none of this is a judgment of her as a person. She just happened to be the vehicle the syn fairies commandeered to communicate a message that has nothing to do with her personally.

Luther appears in "With?" as Ninbad the Nailer:

Ninbad the Nailer -- there he stood

And did the only thing he could.

The references are to his nailing the 95 theses to the church door, and to his famous line, "Here I stand; I can do no other."

One striking fact about Sister F. is that, for health reasons, she doesn't stand. When she teaches her class, a small couch is carried into the classroom from the foyer, and she teaches from there. Here's a message exchange from a few months back, showing how I referred to her before I had learned her name:

So here we have someone who sits, because that's the only thing she can do, dressing up as Martin Luther, who stands, because that's the only thing he can do. An un-Lutherly Luther. A false Luther. (Again, I have nothing but sympathy for her health issues and respect for the way she shows up to teach her class in spite of them. Her unfortunate affliction is being used as a symbol.)

Today, after some of her characteristically insightful comments on the Book of Mormon, Sister F. went off topic a bit and talked for some time about how we should always follow the "prophet" (meaning church president Russell M. Nelson, the Apricot Pope), even when what he says seems strange. Although he may sometimes make mistakes or share his own personal opinions, we should always err on the side of assuming that whatever he says is the mind and will of God. As an example, she related how, despite serious personal misgivings, she had submitted to a certain Safe-n-Effective medical intervention because the Apricot Pope had told everyone to do so (and, she added parenthetically, because her employer had required it).

That was a bit of a wake-up call for me and made me realize that, despite the good aspects, this was probably not the kind of place I should be hanging out, or the kind of people from whom I should be imbibing wisdom.

As I walked out of the church at the end of the lesson, the Twisted Sister song "We're Not Gonna Take It" began playing in my head:

The mental image that accompanied this music was of a train station with people standing on the platform. The train arrives and opens its doors, but no one gets on. "No! We ain't gonna take it" -- it being the train.

My "Hop on Pop" post showed Pope Francis in a pickup truck, inviting sheep to "hop in." You hop in a car or truck, but you hop on a train, making it a better symbol of the Pop on which one must not hop.

In Chinese, you don't "take" a train; you "sit" it. The contrast between those who take the train and those who stand on the platform thus corresponds to that between the sitting and standing Luthers. I had occasion to explain this use of the word take just yesterday, when I taught this dialogue to my students:

As I posted the image now, the sign saying "8:28" jumped out at me. It's supposed to be the time, but I saw it as a scripture reference:

Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches (Morm. 8:28).