Gospel Principles

[Anonymous]

You might or might not know of Tracy M – who writes her own blog (Dandelion Mama) and writes posts for By Common Consent. She has written eloquently and openly about her marriage as it fell apart at the seams over the past couple of years and of her struggle raising her children (including a child with special needs), especially now as a single mother. I read the following post of hers a few minutes ago, and I immediately thought of this group.

http://bycommonconsent.com/2010/09/23/gospel-principle-conversion/

I would like to suggest that everyone go to the original post and read both it and the comments. Please, don’t comment there if you want to nit-pick or criticize anything. That wouldn’t be fair to her, and it wouldn’t be appreciated by the admins there.

I know some here might not react in the exact same way most of the commenters there have, but I simply love the basic premise she articulates – that it’s the gospel principles that enthrall and captivate many who aren’t enthralled by the culture and captivated by the messiness that exists. I also love how she separates her intellectual struggles with some things now from her overwhelming joy at first exposure to basic gospel principles. I think it articulates something of what I mean when I talk about separating “pure Mormonism” from “The Church”.

I also think it captures well the tendency to let familiarity and time rob us of the wonder of discovery – especially if we grew up in the Church and never experienced personal discovery in the way she describes.

Feel free to excerpt things she says and discuss them here.

[Anonymous]

Quote:

This is why I joined the LDS church. It was the doctrine. Sometimes I think generational Mormons forget how amazing and wonderful and different this is- when I first heard it, my spirit lit up, and I wanted to cry with joy. This is also why it bothers me tremendously when I see and read about trends towards Mormons aligning ourselves with and maybe sometimes trying to be more like more general Christians. We are not. We have fundamental, specific, and very important differences- and without those differences, we would not be who we are.

As I read this I realized how little I’d learned over the years of the doctrine and how much the culture took over my belief. The problem, of course, is that the culture can let you down but the doctrine, if you believe it, won’t. Now I think that my problem is to become converted to the doctrine and not worry about the other since I guess it qualifies as the small stuff that we’ve wisely been advised not to sweat.

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