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I feel very fortunate to be an amazing ward with a great bishop. We have a Sunday School that is designed for people to be open, honest, vulnerable and ask questions. Needless to say, that has freaked out a lot of people in the ward and stake, but we’ve stuck with it. We had an interesting discussion yesterday on being judgmental and what the Pharisees did vs what Jesus taught and did. The discussion forced some uncomfortable conclusions that were difficult for some people who kept trying to steer the conversation back to comfortable territory. What became apparent is that we have so many outward observances in the Church (WOW, garments, grooming, modesty, etc.) that tend to make us tribal, judgmental and exclusive and Jesus is calling us to move beyond that. A lot of people tried to say that Jesus was more concerned with obedience and personal righteousness than being judgmental (without any scriptural backing) and tried to justify being judgmental. My conclusion was what Richard Rohr has said, that we’ve never been ready for Jesus. He rocked the boat then and he still rocks the boat and makes people really uncomfortable. Again, hats off to my ward and our bishop for leading such a discussion.
I’m a big fan of Rob Bell and the Robcast. I have been enjoying his series on Jesus that has an unfortunate name that many would find blasphemous. However, if you can get past that, there is great material there on why his message is still revolutionary and fresh 2000 years later.
We can definitely be a Pharisaical group. Some of us get very caught up in the “strict obedience” idea and I think a not too distant past version of our religion emphasized Pharisaical rules (I call it the McConkie era for lack of a better term). Many members who were raised and baptized in that era tend to lean toward the rules and strict obedience. The good news is that some of us have emerged from those ideas and eschewed them and the newer generations don’t espouse them (think of things like caffeinated soda). That generation constitutes less than half of the church’s membership now and they’re dying off. I am also fortunate to be in a ward that’s more open to such discussions, although we do have those like you describe who would hold to old teachings and ways. I was actually just having a conversation with another free thinker and he asked why I didn’t say something a couple weeks back in PH when some of the old guard got off topic and went a little fire and brimstone. The answer was simple, really – sometimes it’s just better to just let them be while recognizing that most people in the room don’t really believe what they’re saying as it is. “Let them worship how, where, or what they may” and I will take the same privilege.
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