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SamBee wrote:
Check the archives, I’m sure the first article has been discussed before.
Oh, shoot! I didn’t mean to duplicate. I searched and didn’t find it in the first few pages of search results, so I posted. Can you post a link to that thread?
The technological success of Western Christianity, unfortunately, can be traced to conquest and empire building done in the name of Christ. We all really know that the western countries involved were more concerned with power and control of the resources the lands they conquered could provide. If it hadn’t been for empirialism and the industrial revolution it spawned, who knows where we’d be today, technologically speaking. The real shame is how people used religion as a guise to allow them to do horrible things for money and power.
hawkgrrrl wrote:Now, what does that sound like? Oh yeah, every religion ever.
That’s one of the beautiful things about personal faith is that we get to leave out all the dogmatic stuff we feel hinders our ability to have rewarding spirituality! All religions have their points worth considering as well as their points worth dismissing. But, even in dismissing those points it is worth considering what made them important to the people practicing them. A good example of this for me is the endowment ordinance that we practice in Mormonism. There are parts of it I don’t think are divinely created, but I feel they help me rember my Savior and the type of man I’d like to be, so I appreciate that and let the literalism go.
I doubt it’s a secrecy thing. I’m sure it’s more of a respect thing. It keeps people from feeling shunned, called out, feeling the pressure of bad attention, etc. People need the support that hearing other people’s stories can provide. But, knowing the names of the individuals isn’t important. There aren’t many people here who use their real name, but the support we feel from hearing one another’s stories is priceless in breaking down the barriers of loneliness in personal difficulty. Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement and advice! For now, the church is a source of good for my wife and me, and as long as it stays that way, I plan to be involved as much as I feel comfortable. To be honest, the things I found when I decided to begin discovering where my faith lies and what the origins of the church are didn’t surprise me. I have always been kind of an “a la carte Mormon,” accepting that not everything that proceedeth forth from the mouth of a man is the will or opinion of the Lord. The only thing that has really changed is my definition of the word “prophet” and my perspectives on the literality of the Book of Mormon. I still believe that there are many good and inspired things in the church. I just don’t believe that all things are/were. If that makes me apostate in some people’s eyes, I’m ok with that. My faith is my own.
As I have gotten over my feelings of disillusionment and confusion, and as my wife and I have continued to talk about the way I feel, things are getting easier every day. I feel like my personal religion is becoming purer again and that is one of the best feelings in the world.
I did have a very uncomfortable meeting with the bishop yesterday, however. My wife felt like she needed someone to talk to and asked if I would be ok with her talking to the bishop. I decided that it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make. I knew it would bring many uncomfortable discussions with him; but, I also knew that she needed someone who might be able to help her with her side of the situation. Let me just vent for a second and say that I DO NOT FEEL LIKE I NEED TO BE “SAVED” FROM THIS. I feel better for it. And it made me really uncomfortable and frustrated to try to explain my concerns while he tried to “reconvert” me. I felt so alone and angry afterward that I just went home and sobbed. It was absolutely awful for me.
