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It seems another small brick has fallen from the wall of LDS culture. I am applauding it. And the local guy in my Stake who posted it. What about amputees or those with arms in slings? I’m fairly sure none of these matters as long as you are respectful. My 8.5 year old is left handed, and also has a hard time with being corrected or transitions. For a while, we had an unfortunate family habit where my daughter would take the sacrament with her left hand, my husband would correct her, and then my daughter would become ashamed and defiant of her behavior, prompting my husband to react to her behavior – and the peace and meaning of the sacrament would be altered. NOTE: My daughter can become defiant out of boredom on her own during sacrament without any attention being paid to which hand she uses.
But using this article, I can advise my husband that maybe a better way is to drop the focus on the hand usage, and have a FHE/family conversation in an non-sacrament space on hand symbolism… a girl can dream
I believe certain particulars about rituals are important in helping us to both focus on the ritual, and cement certain ideas in our mind. I’m saying this from a completely secular, pragmatic point of view. I doubt God really cares about the particulars, only in the effect the ritual has on us (if anything). If it helps you to focus on Jesus, develop humility for our shortcomings, have compassion for those around us, and strive to do better, it is important to take the sacrament with your right hand. And even though it seems like a small and silly thing, I think the particular of taking the sacrament with your right hand can do just that. But if you can’t take the sacrament with your right hand (for whatever reason), I don’t think anyone should stress about it. The purpose of the sacrament is not to take it with your right hand. In my view, rituals are catalysts for inner-change, not magical steps taken to get supernatural beings to do what we want.
dande48 wrote:
I believe certain particulars about rituals are important in helping us to both focus on the ritual, and cement certain ideas in our mind. I’m saying this from a completely secular, pragmatic point of view. I doubt God really cares about the particulars, only in the effect the ritual has on us (if anything). If it helps you to focus on Jesus, develop humility for our shortcomings, have compassion for those around us, and strive to do better, it is important to take the sacrament with your right hand. And even though it seems like a small and silly thing, I think the particular of taking the sacrament with your right hand can do just that.But if you can’t take the sacrament with your right hand (for whatever reason), I don’t think anyone should stress about it. The purpose of the sacrament is not to take it with your right hand. In my view, rituals are catalysts for inner-change, not magical steps taken to get supernatural beings to do what we want.
I can see this point of view. I guess, my perspective is that my daughter’s interaction with the ritual and and meaning behind it is currently enhanced by NOT focusing on the hand use at this juncture [because it triggers anxiety/behaviors contrary to what the sacrament means] and seek additional opportunities to instill the “best practice” of right-hand ship into the practice of the ritual later. A few months ago my 15 yr old took the sacrament with his left hand and passed the tray to me with his left hand. I told him he should know that there is some symbolism in using the right hand for partaking of the sacrament. He hadn’t heard that before. I told him it didn’t ultimately matter, but there can be some meaning to it. We spent most of sacrament meeting (instead of listening to speakers) looking it up on our phones and what it symbolizes and why. He found some cool scriptures and quotes he liked about it.
I reiterated to him it doesn’t really matter…it’s more a symbolic thing. But he thought it was cool and I think that will stick with him.
Once he has been told…my guess is…the thought will come each time…and he’ll feel he wants to use his right hand…and he’ll know why.
dande48 wrote:
I believe certain particulars about rituals are important in helping us to both focus on the ritual, and cement certain ideas in our mind.
I think that is almost everything we do in church…and so…I agree…there is value to it.
Hardly anything is literal. It is all stories in our minds…and we can find more meaning in our experience by having these. Joseph Campbell wrote quite a lot about the value of myths to accentuate our life experiences, and Jesus often taught in parables for good reasons. It can expand the mind and the experience.
The silly part is when those symbolic meanings become too rigid or literal and people start scoffing at left-handers…that is when they’ve missed the mark.
Quote:Jacob 4:14
Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall;
I am glad to see articles like this in LDS living. It doesn’t mean there is no room for ritual or symbolism…just needs to be kept in context.
Those that find meaning in using the right hand, great. Those that don’t…no biggie.
But I found it a good opportunity to teach my son. I take opportunities when I get ’em.
I’m one of those people who appreciates certain symbolism. Symbolism is the only thing that makes the temple tolerable for me. But, I see no symbolic significance in partaking of the sacrament with the right hand. I can at the same time respect those who do find symbolism in it, as long as it is not dogmatized. Supposedly Neanderthals were left handed as are bears, this may have some significance for why left-handedness is treated as gauche or sinister. SamBee wrote:
Supposedly Neanderthals were left handed as are bears, this may have some significance for why left-handedness is treated as gauche or sinister.
I also think there was some Greek translations of “left” as “sinister”.
There were also some ancient cultures that used their right hand for eating…the left hand for “cleaning” themselves. And so there was a purpose in shaking with the right hand and eating with the right hand for cleanliness.
😯 not saying i think about that with the sacrament…just saying…some traditions get started for reasons…then become ritualized.Pick your symbolism for what you wish. Or pass on that in the buffet.
Does it seem to others like back in the 1940s and 50s there was more need for rigidity and structure and exactness in obedience in the church? And today’s culture realizes it doesn’t always work well…so we need more of these LDS Living articles and other comments to help reassure us it is not so absolute anymore like it has been in the past? It seems that way to me sometimes.
Heber13 wrote:
Does it seem to others like back in the 1940s and 50s there was more need for rigidity and structure and exactness in obedience in the church? And today’s culture realizes it doesn’t always work well…so we need more of these LDS Living articles and other comments to help reassure us it is not so absolute anymore like it has been in the past? It seems that way to me sometimes.
I think that it is more of a pendulum swinging thing to keep the “spirit of the law” at the forefront and update Mormon “culture” to be noticeably more “relevant” in a variety of ways.
The idea that left-handedness is evil goes back a long way – probably to prehistoric times. Very old and before anything meaningfully Christian In Islamic cultures, the reason is more prosaic… the left hand is used to wipe the bottom so you eat with the right. There are even hadith about it, and a local curry house had one of them up until someone was wise enough to remove it.
AmyJ wrote:
I think that it is more of a pendulum swinging thing to keep the “spirit of the law” at the forefront and update Mormon “culture” to be noticeably more “relevant” in a variety of ways.
Agreed.
:thumbup: There was a lengthy discussion about this a few years ago with some interesting perspectives. I talked to a Catholic friend to get his take on this kind of thing and it was a great discussion.
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