A great spiritual awakening

I find it hard to be in the middle of things and be able to identify it as a movement or a new era of some kind.

I believe people have been calling for Meat instead of milk for generations, it is not new to our generation.

What seems to be new are the tools like the Internet to have these conversations and have access to some much information. I think when transportation (like flight) made it easier to see the world, people’s views changed with greater experience.

We now have greater transportation of ideas, which gives us all more experience and some validation that these thoughts and questions are not so unique.

I believe the church is (slowly) changing because of this (Joseph Smith Papers, RSR, etc). Because it has to. But hasn’t it been doing that since 1830?

Maybe it will take time to look at the change and then be able to label it “a new awakening” or some defining era different than others … but it seems difficult to call it that while we are in the middle of it.

cwald – I’m with you on this one.

A few weeks ago I went to Europe. We toured everywhere we could, this included many churches and cathedrals. Their history, their art, theology and life importance struck me. Every town in Europe has a church in the center. Among all the buildings that make that city, at least one pair of spires and bell towers rise above the roofs.

In various churches that we arrived at, Mass was being held. The attendees were small in number, so small that the group often met in a room just off to the side. But I sat there and listened as a handful of male parishioners chanted the prayers of their faith in their native tongue. I loved it.

I have had the privilege of growing up in the LDS mission field (not the BoM corridor). I thought I was appreciative of other faiths, until this trip. On the last church we attended, the town was celebrating a saint holiday. The building was bustling with High Communion, traditional dancers out front, and humble prayer rooms filled. As we were leaving the building we choose to step into the prayer room and pray. An official stood out front allowing entrance only to worshippers. No tourists. We were allowed in. We took our seat in the pew. Beside us knelt others with rosary’s dangling through their hands. Others with heads bowed on the pew in front.

I didn’t have a prepared prayer, I just let my heart speak. As I sat there two very overwhelming ideas hit me. First I am a religionist. I didn’t even know it. But if I were capable I would encourage people to go back to the religion of their childhood. Learn it’s good points and history – and carry forward. The second was that earlier religions than ours were more than just good. They were part of His plan. They were the beacons on the mountain top to guide His Kingdom forward. They are necessary, even with the flaws, mistakes, etc. With out each one spirituality and it’s necessity wouldn’t have survived. I also felt strongly that I needed to stay in the religion of my childhood. It’s important. I don’t know why or how, but we are apart of something bigger and we need people in our pews to help keep our beacon watched over.

Whether this is a new chapter, I don’t know, but I know I don’t want to miss it. I want to help it keep awakening.

Great posts everyone.

Cwald – I love the idea. I’ve so many bubbling around in my head.

I’ve spent the last 18 months living in Asia. It has been my ‘great awakening.’

When I came out here it was almost as if the ‘the gods’ had engineered it. It just happened. A wise old brother said “you’re going there for a good reason, embrace it.” I presumed God was sending us to Asia so my wife would come back to church. I struggled for a while to understand why, instead, she wasn’t attending and I was considering leaving. I wondered if it was a test I was failing.

But I have come to wonder if it was entirely the opposite. My perspectives are genuinely universal. I consider Mormon ordinances to be exactly what we say they are: outward expression of an inner conviction. If another person can express and live that inner conviction with a different outward expression, or no ceremony at all, then I celebrate that and so, I believe, does God.

I don’t think he really cares what religion we are or what covenants we make. I think he cares who we become and how we treat people while we do. If a religion facilitates that great. If it doesn’t, move on.

Mom3, I loved hearing about your religious experiences.

A couple of weeks ago I was in a quiet Buddhist temple. In a room with a large laughing Buddha statue the person there explained that people pray there and said I could if I wanted. I knelt on the stool and offered a simple prayer to the God of my understanding. I didn’t pray to Buddha. I prayed with the Buddhists. My guide nodded when I stood up and said “Buddha liked your prayer, he’s smiling.”

Some Mormons take these truths as a cop out. I’m ok with that. I consider it a “cop in.”

Isolation breeds contempt and narrow vision.

As much as anything else, isolation saved the Church from destruction – but it also provided blinders for the membership and leadership. That is changing radically now, in most areas except some pockets of rural Utah, and the breakdown of isolation is as responsible for the change I’ve seen as anything else, imo.