Fiona Givens on strengthening faith

I agree with you that the majority of the phrasing lean toward the magazines audience, and so it’s not one I will fully hang my hat on, but I did like the line

Questions are the basis of healthy faith. The disciples were – and are – full of them.

The Givens’ are a unique puzzle to me. I love some of their ideas, others not sure yet. I am glad to see them trying to share a some of their ideas with the more traditional member. It may widen the space for us in time.

Fiona Givens wrote an article for LDS Living on faith and doubt. Many of her phrasings may not translate well to members in crisis, but I read with hope that her definitions may not equal the standard cookie-cutter understanding in the church – and I was not disappointed.

I too agree with this statement but I will try to talk about the good that I believe I see in the article. Sometimes, you can’t do much good unless you are speaking the language.

Pathogen # 1 Nature of God. I generally like the change in perspective that we have a God that loves us intimately. As much as I believe we have this in the church, sometimes it gets watered down with a “quid pro quo/ check all my boxes and “bind” the Lord to my favor” mentality. Although not mentioned in the article – I really like the story of Hosea and Gomer from the bible and the insights that such a story can bring to the idea of God’s love for us.

# 2 the Fall. Ok I’m not sure what is being said here. I have always felt that the understanding of the fall as a necessary step (a step backwards in order to move forward) was an accepted LDS teaching. I don’t know why this qualifies as a pathogen.

#3 Sin. Bingo! Sin is as much a part of life as getting sick. It doesn’t need to mean that you are broken or an unwitting accomplice to the devil. Just like we want to avoid getting sick, we also want to avoid sin – but sometimes … Sick/Sin Happens! I can certainly wrap my arms around that!

#4 Leadership. I agree that we expect too much of our leadership. If we extend this all the way up to the 1P then we sometimes struggle with expecting infallibility (at least in important matters). I don’t know that I understand all the ramifications of this one. Is she saying that the church/leadership is wonderfully flawed, like a adolescent boy the Lord at one time chose to be the instrument of great things.

I would like to quote the following line:

Modern scriptures include numerous chastisements from the Lord to Joseph in order to illustrate that His prophet was just a man, fallible as any other.

I like the idea of saying that JS was “just” a man, as “fallible” (error-prone) as ANY OTHER man or woman. It really is kind of radical.

So yes, I can see some really good nuggets in this one even if I don’t agree with every jot and tittle.

For example, early convert Ezra Booth left the Church in part because he found Joseph’s “proneness to jesting and joking” incompatible with prophetic behavior. His colleague Simonds Ryder left because Joseph’s misspelling of Ryder’s name seemed inconsistent with prophetic inspiration. Sometimes the charges are more serious, but the problem of expectations is the same.

When I read of Ezra Booth’s experience I read between the lines. I hear of someone that met and observed Joseph personally and could not come to terms with this person actually being a true prophet of God. For me I don’t think it is a lot different when we read accounts of Joseph and essentially decide the same thing. To me it boils down to a common issue — our expectations of what a prophet should be does not jive with what we learn that he was. I’m not saying the problems are trivial and we should “just get over it”, I’m saying it is hard to reconcile what we can’t comprehend. Once we identify the problem then we can seek a solution – if any can be found.

I heard Fiona speak about this article. She make it clear that the article she wrote was edited by the LDS Living editors to be more acceptable to the LDS Living magazine audience. I don’t think she said explicitly that she was dissappointed in the edits — but it was clear that the final version wasn’t what she had written exactly.

I am sure writers see their work edited all the time — and choose to go forward with publishing what’s left of the message rather than not have the message get out at all.

I am really looking forward to reading her and Terryl’s next book, Crucible of Doubt (which is being edited for publication now).

LDSThomas

Interesting. That’s also quite reassuring that Fiona’s “rhetoric” hasn’t suddenly taken a turn.