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Margaret Young wrote a moving post for BCC on Tuesday entitled, “They Fought as They Were Taught”. ( http://bycommonconsent.com/2009/08/25/they-fought-as-they-were-taught/ Quote:In LDS theology, we talk about “redeeming the dead.” I think at least a portion of this means that we undo their errors and create a better world on the foundation–but also the ruins–of what they’ve left to us. Sometimes, we simply rearrange the ruins like a puzzle which makes a different kind of sense in a different kind of world. They bequeath both a legacy and a burden–and we are called to responsibility.
I love this perspective on redeeming the dead, and I pray that my own descendants will redeem me in exactly this manner. To do so, they will have to see me as redeemable, even if some of my beliefs seem ignorant (or even abominable) in the lens of 20/20 hindsight 150 years later. I pray they use that hindsight charitably and realize I was doing the best I could with what I know, just as they will be doing as they look back at me and forward to the judgment of their own descendants.
Thanks Ray That is indeed a moving and interesting article by Margaret, something to carefully consider just how casual people can become when they can conveniently tag other humans as “inferior”. I really like the conversation that is going on around it as well, as you have pulled up some quite interesting stuff. So one of the things I take away from that is our need as a Mormon people to be honest about our past, to accept what was is good and what is bad and try to do better. The key is not to ignore the messy, ugly stuff (like Mountain Meadows and the blacks-priesthood issue) but to accept them, atone for them personally in our own lives by respecting those we have harmed and doing good where we can.
When I look back on my past ancestry I have an entire paternal line actively participating in the conquest, subjugation and humiliation of the Irish, starting in 1649 (or thereabouts, this is from memory) when they went over with Cromwell’s army to finally “solve the Irish problem”. The protestant / catholic hatred that is still there in Ireland no matter how “civilized” they seem to have managed to become is another legacy of ancestors that seems to be so hard to undo. The virulence of religous hatred does last unto the 3rd and 4th generation. So, there, I have work cut out for me.
When we as individuals start off our spiritual journey we do so with a minimum on knowlege and experience. As we go through time we get better and better at hearing the voice of the Lord and heeding it. We progress step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, and grace for grace. This is the path and the price for living in an existance with a veil over our minds. I’m not sure the church is any different than we are individually. The chuch in its own way is an individual soul that needs to learn step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, and grace for grace. It takes time and is built upon not only the early revelations of Joseph Smith, but upon all the conversations with the spirit and church leader and even us. The culmination of experience for the whole church goes on in a slow pace because the truths must be passed and applied through the generations and made in essence, habit. Each generation gets it a little better than the last. The Spirit only lets us/the church know what we are ready to receive.
I am thankful for a God that is merciful and perfectly patient with our combined and individual weaknesses, who allows us to live our own paths according to our light and knowlege, no matter how dim. If you could put a time line on the life of the church as you could put on a human life, the church may still be in its toddler stage, still trying to find its balance and still trying to uderstand ithings in a big world.
It may be true that the church has done or said things that are wrong. But so has every toddler, and all of us parents know that it would be pointless to treat a young one with anything but understanding and mercy. The church’s mistakes make it no less true, it just proves that there is always room for improvement.
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