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AT one time, I was proud to be a Mormon — in a good way. Proud meaning I thought the Church was the greatest organization on earth, proud of its humanitarian efforts, unpaid ministry, service projects, clear doctrine which was preached consistently around the world, and proud of its reliance on continuing revelation, as well as its prophet and apostles. I would talk about the Church at every opportunity. Then I had my negative experiences and didn’t feel so proud of the Church anymore, or my membership in it. I don’t talk about it at the drop of a hat anymore. I only bring it up if someone presses me on the subject, and then, I want off the topic as fast as I can get off it without appearing timid about it.
The other day I found another reason to be “proud” of it again — and that was when my boss was encouraging me to take on some leadership positions etcetera. I indicated I’d had a parallel career these last 25 years in a volunteer organization and was familiar with many of the things she wanted to me to do, such as create a common vision, help people rise to the task at hand, motivate them through means other money….
ON the way home, I reflected on the fact that I’d received training in leadership from people like the Business Development Manager of a major fast food franchise, the Human Resources director of a major international company, a professor of international business strategy at a well-known university in Canada, as well as a number of successful self-employed business people. I have to say, I see that as a reason to hold the Church in higher esteem than I have been lately — the many opportunities it’s given me to learn leadership and management from talented people, simply because I was willing to step up and serve.
SilentDawning wrote:I see that as a reason to hold the Church in higher esteem than I have been lately — the many opportunities it’s given me to learn leadership and management from talented people, simply because I was willing to step up and serve.
Anytime we are able to find reason to hold any one, thing or organization in higher esteem than we previously had before, then score one for personal growth! Nice post SD… great reflection.
Just curious… do you have a facebook account, and if so what do you have listed as your religious views. I found myself unable to identify myself as LDS and simply put “Love One Another”
flowerdrops wrote:SilentDawning wrote:I see that as a reason to hold the Church in higher esteem than I have been lately — the many opportunities it’s given me to learn leadership and management from talented people, simply because I was willing to step up and serve.
Anytime we are able to find reason to hold any one, thing or organization in higher esteem than we previously had before, then score one for personal growth! Nice post SD… great reflection.
Just curious… do you have a facebook account, and if so what do you have listed as your religious views. I found myself unable to identify myself as LDS and simply put “Love One Another”
I think I either left it blank or simply listed “Christian”. Again, I don’t have that same pride I once had, although the reflection above is an emerging reason to restore that esteem in my membership in the Church.
flowerdrops wrote:Just curious… do you have a facebook account, and if so what do you have listed as your religious views. I found myself unable to identify myself as LDS and simply put “Love One Another”
Yeah. I hear ya. I change my facebood religion info on a monthly basis. I’ve never listed LDS. I have listed in the past: an Existentialist, Agnostic, Raelism, Enlighten-ism, Don’t Know/Dont, Care, Coast To Coast – ists, Buddhists, Vamp, South Parkism, Assholeism, Mayanism, and as of right now I am a Transcendentalist. NEVER – have I listed LDS.
cwald wrote:flowerdrops wrote:Just curious… do you have a facebook account, and if so what do you have listed as your religious views. I found myself unable to identify myself as LDS and simply put “Love One Another”
Yeah. I hear ya. I change my facebood religion info on a monthly basis. I’ve never listed LDS. I have listed in the past: an Existentialist, Agnostic, Raelism, Enlighten-ism, Don’t Know/Dont, Care, Coast To Coast – ists, Buddhists, Vamp, South Parkism, Assholeism, Mayanism, and as of right now I am a Transcendentalist. NEVER – have I listed LDS.
I think I had ‘non-practicing vegetarian’ up their for a while too.
Slightly embarrassed I’m afraid to say. Don’t know how to break it to some of my friends. At times, the church does wonderful things, but then it does others which just make me want to crawl under a rock. People here completely misunderstand us, and if they don’t think we’re some kind of cult, they have bizarre notions.
I don’t use facebook at all.
Sometimes, sometimes not. I list LDS on Facebook. I like some of the other suggestions, too! In fact, I think that I’ve taken that category way too seriously.
Thanks for sharing SD, it’s an interesting perspective. I have found that I am actually less (“ashamed” for lack of a better word) of the church now than when I was younger. I always remember feeling different or peculiar growing up, even though most of it was in the west where there are plenty of LDS. I always thought the word “Mormon” brought a reaction from people. I had the impression that the whole world looked down on the church.
Now, being much more individually minded I couldn’t care less about what other people think. But at the same time I see more of the good in the church – and the good that I enjoy in the church. Today I am more focused on the reasons that I like to go to church. If a stranger pressed me I also wouldn’t have a problem sharing honestly about whatever I think or feel. I have no reason to apologize, I am what I am, I do what I do, the church is what it is, I go and I enjoy it. I am deeply Mormon, for 6+ generations. I have no reason to hide.
Flowerdrops, interesting question: I actually skipped that whole part because I figure my friends on facebook know me well enough that I don’t have to be redundant. But if I did put something I could easily list Mormon, or anything else that happened across my mind at the time. Maybe I self-identify more as “Mormon” than “LDS”, I hadn’t thought of that before but LDS sounds to me more like the modern corporate version while Mormon is more of the legacy.
One of my high school friends who was definitely Catholic in high school (a rarity where I grew up – the Catholics mostly went to the Catholic school; our classmates were mostly Church of the Brethren) was listing as “Buddhist Jew.” To me, it does seem like over-thinking. In HS, I always felt so different because nobody understood what a “Mormon” was. They knew about polygamy and that was it. This was in Amish country. Driving a buggy and wearing a prayer bonnet was normal. Belonging to a church with a polygamist past that my family joined long after that fact, was weird. Go figure. But nowadays, I’m neither proud nor embarrassed. Even when talks like Packer’s come out (and no, I did not like it), I can shrug and say that everyone’s got their own view. We’re not all the same. I am who I am. I have often been told that people are surprised to find out that I’m Mormon because 1) I’m a strong-minded career woman, and 2) I’m very comfortable in my own skin and don’t care what people think of me. On the first one, I have been asked by outsiders how I can be a Mormon in such a male-dominated sexist culture; I respond that if that is so, then being LDS has prepared me to succeed in the male-dominated sexist corporate world. As to being comfortable in my own skin, it’s interesting that outsiders view Mormons as too worried what others think of us. I think that’s true. We come across as defensive and put on a superficial “happy face.” I think that’s what hurt Mitt Romney more than anything (except Huckabee’s dogged tactics to divide the GOP against him).
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