Agile Religion

Agile has its own pros and cons. Whether we ever fully committed to the model can be debated but from what I saw the process could get bogged down from time to time because there was often a committee of people giving the requirements. We’d lose weeks at a time because so and so wasn’t there to put a rubber stamp on things. When so and so was there to put their rubber stamp on things then so and so number 2 wasn’t there, and around it went. Towards the end of the project people started changing their minds about what the requirements actually were with both sides saying “that’s not what we agreed upon last month.”

Of course there were several pros to the agile approach. In the end no one methodology is perfect. I’ve seen people attempt to address the shortcomings by taking a more hybrid approach, agile waterfalls as an example.

I see JS’s approach as being very agile. The approach had its pros and cons; for example, I wonder whether polygamy would have taken off in a less agile environment. The approach did have it’s pros though. An appeal to the bible didn’t solve every dispute. People may have been in a place where they needed something that they viewed as being equally authoritative as the bible to settle a dispute. That or when a crisis came up in the community people felt like they had access to an agile god to guide them.

So is the modern church agile? Or have we been developing on requirements that were gathered 170 years ago? Would a more agile approach lead to a he said, she said quagmire or would it lead to a better overall product? Is there some sort of hybrid?

I hope you don’t mind if I shoot from the hip with a few items in the manifesto:

Spirituality over ritual

In visiting with other religions I see how rituals can serve to channel spirituality. Now that I’ve seen it in other religions I see it more in my own. I wonder if placing less emphasis on ritual would be like skipping a necessary step towards spirituality for some people. Rituals can help us focus.

History over narrative

To me history is just another narrative. Maybe a “Now over the past” or “Relevant to us over relevant to people in the past?”

Interesting list.

Individuals (including leaders) differ in which element they value more – and the collective church leadership does, as well. Individual leaders also aren’t consistent in which side of the “vs” they stress. Elder Packer repeatedly stressed individual over organization, for example.

I would say that the church of my youth and early adulthood absolutely fits the general pattern you outlined – and that the effects of Smith, Benson, Kimball, etc. still impact us today (generationally). However, I have seen substantial changes in the last 20 years with regard to multiple aspects, and I would classify the current situation as transitional with regard to the foundational orientation you describe.

… might lead to something better.

You know, I’d say “something different” rather than “something better”. When I was a full believer, the Church, its doctrine, and its culture all worked fabulously well for me. Not so much anymore, but that is more because of the shift in me and there are still lots of people for whom the Church is better than anything StayLDS engineers would build.

As for the listing in the manifesto you’ve provided, I think most active, faithful members of the Church would agree with almost everything that you have listed there. Critical thinking over rote learning? I think most LDS people would say, “yes, that’s what we do.” Charity over sacrifice? Heck, I think LDS people are the most charitable people I know and they are also the most sacrificing. I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive (XOR). Individual over institution? I think the Church does about as well as they can on that one; it’s just that they see a different approach to the individual (“Come unto Christ” rather than “Whatever Makes You Feel Good.”) Evidence over anecdote? Tough one. No religion/church is based on evidence. It always comes down to one’s own world-view; meaning it can’t be anything other than anecdotal. Spirituality over ritual? I think this assumes that ritual is counter to spirituality, which I would contest. LDS ritual may not be our cup of herbal tea, but it works very well for most members, obviously.

In my own career, one thing I’ve come to realize is that there are almost always multiple approaches to solve a problem or build a system, and the drivers are not which way is “better”, though we frequently talk that way. Ultimately, we have to weigh a set of trade-offs. Prioritization of these trade-offs is what sends us to a specific solution. With that in mind, I think it’s good to recognize that faithful members of the Church see the trade-offs in ways that may not match yours or mine. So, when we start talking about ‘better’ or ‘best’ or ‘right’ ways, just recognize that it depends on our own anecdotal evidence.

… contradict Christ’s teachings.

I believe it is critical to avoid using the term “Christ’s teachings” to represent a common and universally accepted set of assertions, upon which we can judge the actions of others. Adherents to different Christian churches almost all believe they are following “Christ’s teachings”, yet they can’t agree on what those are. We each interpret Christ’s teaching from our own perspective and trade-offs, as I said above. I have loved-ones who are good and compassionate people who are following Christ’s teachings as they see them. Some of them are faithful members of the Church, some members of other churches, some of no church in particular. I try to follow Christ’s teachings, but I can guarantee you that my interpretation of what those are differs from others, even here at StayLDS, largely because I’m an Atheist. I pick and choose what I want to ascribe to the set of doctrines I take as Christ’s teachings, and I ignore things I don’t find uplifting.

So, rather than each of us leveraging our own view of Christ’s teachings in order to call any particular institution or group of people “Hypocrites”, it might be more compassionate to approach them with the idea: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God”, or if it is all we can muster: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”. After all, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

Sorry, I’ve not been able to get back on this for a few days.

I hope I didn’t come off as condescending in my prior post.

For me personally, I don’t see the LDS Church as a top-down patriarchy ever being anything but what it is, so for me, the agile approach is something that I can use as a means for managing personal spirituality/behavior/meaning as a non-trad Mormon.

I do think that the LDS church would gain by becoming more ‘agile’ or pliant or progressive or whatever you want to call it, else it risks losing many of coming generation. But what I think as an individual member doesn’t really matter relative to the institution.