Honest faith vs. just being nice

I will tell you how I view it and you can take it for what its worth. If I understand, you are less concerned with showing them that there may be another explanation, but are interested in whether or not you should play along from an ethical standpoint.

Let me suggest there are parallels here to your own life. Imagine how a disaffected Mormon who doesn’t believe the story anymore feels when he goes to church. The DAMU recognizes there may be another explanation, and thinks believers might see things differently if they were privy to some better explanations, similar to how you view your family you HT. What does the DAMU do? Play along, or try to tell everyone? I think the situation is very similar. The big difference is that you find “haunting” to be less likely but don’t find your belief system to be so. Can you prove your religion true, or that God exists? No. Can someone prove it isn’t true, or that God doesn’t exist? No. And neither can your family prove the house is haunted, nor can you prove it’s not. I think much of this may be rooted in how each person evaluates various forms of “evidence.” But I digress.

Now to answer your question. I do the same thing when I give a priesthood blessing for healing. I don’t think it likely that my giving a blessing will actually heal anyone (incidentally, I would love to see a controlled scientific study done in this regard). But I don’t give the blessing with that intent. I give the blessing because it helps to comfort the individual. If any healing occurs as a result of the blessing, I suspect it would be due to the psychological, and physical affects of receiving this comfort, and whatnot. Should I feel it is ethically wrong for me to do such a thing? I don’t think so. We do things to help other people. If it helps people, that is worth something.

Let me ask a question. If you sincerely give the blessing, whether you believe the house is haunted or not, and the family concludes that the blessing “worked,” what does that mean? Was the house really haunted? Probably not, but nevertheless you have helped the family! You have served Christ by doing what is important for the family, not what is important for you.

Btw, to follow up on jmb’s post, when I give a Priesthood blessing I go into it expecting to give comfort – NOT healing or anything profound. I try to be open to whatever might come out of my mouth, but I don’t intend to perform miracles. Call it what you will, but I have found that doing so “works” or is “successful” 100% of the time – since I am open to those times where the Lord chooses to speak through me. Of the hundreds of blessings I have given, there have been hundreds that offered comfort and counsel, a dozen or so that mentioned healing that might or might not have been remarkable and three that have blown me away as I thought afterward about what came out of my mouth.

It was worth giving comfort in the hundreds just for the comfort’s sake – but it absolutely was worth it to have those three experiences.

I think life is like that in a lot of ways.

The biggest thing is that they need peace. They need to be released from their fear because fear is not from God…You’re a good man!

Very well said just me. Fear is not from God and it controls way too much in our lives.

A family I home teach believes their house is haunted. Many strange things have happened from their perspective (boxes moving, strange noises, shadows, etc). While visiting them, they tell me they hear the strange noises again. I don’t hear anything, and while not demeaning them or calling them nuts-o…I don’t believe there is anything in their house and their stories sound pretty strange to me. I honestly allow them to think what they want without passing judgment and realize they could be right, but I don’t really believe their place is “haunted”. Ok, so then they take it to me directly, and say that as a priesthood holder, they would like me to bless and dedicate their home against the evil spirits that are there.

My DH and I also think we must have a poltergeist because every day when we get home from work, no matter how nicely we left the place, every drawer and cupboard door in the kitchen are open. (JK – it’s our 11 year old).

I like the idea of thinking of “everything being holy” and respecting the holiness of the requester, especially if I’m on their turf. I agree that I wouldn’t put on a show or pretend to play along, but you can bless them and their home in that spirit (rather than an exorcism you don’t believe in). I was at Montezuma’s Well a year or so ago, and there was a Native American woman there who explained that it was a healing place, and that we needed to give an offering to Mother Earth in gratitude. She gave me part of a cigarette to crumble and throw (Mother Earth is apparently a smoker), and I certainly felt it was respectful to comply. It’s a site that is sacred to her, therefore, it’s appropriate to behave in accordance with her faith. People’s faith is what sanctifies things.

I went through something similar when I volunteered for young women’s camp a few weeks ago to be the “priesthood staff” for a couple days. I had no idea how many blessings I was going to get involved with. It actually turned out to be a very nice experience — faith promoting in a StayLDS kind of way.

I’ll be blunt. Most of the blessings were for nothing. There wasn’t anything seriously wrong with the people. They had a mildly sore throat from screaming and laughing all night or were scared from seeing a snake. It was REALLY awkward for me at first. But then I was blessed with seeing how it was just a nice spiritual experience for everyone. I wasn’t raising the dead or curing lepers in any grandiose Cecil B. DeMille epic drama kind of way. What I am getting at is their faith was producing their own experience.

If someone thinks their house is haunted, I don’t mind blessing the house for them. It could just be psychological problems they are having. But think about it, wouldn’t the blessing be well-matched for that? If they believe in their house being blessed, and it makes them feel better, that’s ok. It doesn’t matter if ghosts really exist or not. They feel better. It could be God and evil spirits too. I don’t know. The main thing is providing love and compassionate service to someone.

I guess I am still a little uncomfortable, feeling like I still believe God exists and periodically “enlightens” a prophet to restore truth so we can start a church to teach true Christ teachings…but on a daily basis, how much of it is really haunted hauses and scary snakes that we seek comfort from, when really we need to just look at real life with less paranormal explanations and more symbolism for meaning and direction.

I have mostly come back around to believing that God really does enlighten prophets, which prompts them to restore/reveal/highlight important truths to the people in the context of their time. I believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I just have a much more nuanced, natural and realistic view on what makes a “prophet” and the “truth.” To me, the absolute truths are transcendent and mostly beyond our grasp while in this existence. So it isn’t that disturbing to me anymore when I find the details of the Santa Claus story changing or needing adjustment. The basics remain the same. The basic lessons from the play of life and existence are constant. The actors and characters change. The scenery and props change. The meaning of the story pretty much stays the same. There’s a beautiful light out there calling to us, drawing us toward it. It is good, and we call this God.

I have priesthood power/authority to bless people because I believe it and they believe it. It’s all very real on the spiritual level. It may or may not be as real on the tangible/intellectual level.

Valoel said:

I have mostly come back around to believing that God really does enlighten prophets, which prompts them to restore/reveal/highlight important truths to the people in the context of their time. I believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I just have a much more nuanced, natural and realistic view on what makes a “prophet” and the “truth.”

I agree with this sentiment, and I would add that my view of prophets and scripture has become more nuanced than Joseph Smith’s was as well.

To me, the absolute truths are transcendent and mostly beyond our grasp while in this existence.

Totally agree. Joseph Campbell said that the most important truths cannot be fathomed, the next most important cannot be expressed, and the third most important can only be poorly communicated. It is on the 3rd group that all religion is based.

So it isn’t that disturbing to me anymore when I find the details of the Santa Claus story changing or needing adjustment. The basics remain the same. The basic lessons from the play of life and existence are constant. The actors and characters change. The scenery and props change. The meaning of the story pretty much stays the same. There’s a beautiful light out there calling to us, drawing us toward it. It is good, and we call this God.

The underlying premise of the change to the Santa story is particularly relevant. Instead of some kindly stranger with magical powers and unlimited resources (and er, slave labor force of elves), we discover that it is our parents who know and love us who are serving us and coddling us, and doing so without any recognition so they can make the experience a more magical one for us. The myth shifts to make things more personal (based on a real relationship with real people) and to also light the path for our own responsibility toward our children in the future. The truth transcends the myth by replacing the magical elements with charitable ones and with personal growth.