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Help! I’m doing a Sunstone workshop on helping Mormons navigate a crisis of faith…and I need the following from you: 1) Good quotes for the journey
2) Good advice/tips/tricks for the journey
3) Good stories (short, simple, sweet) for the journey.
Please post them here, and I will aggregate into my presentation.
Thanks so much.
John Dehlin
Elder Wirthlin’s “Concern for the One” has some excellent thoughts that you could excerpt. Go slowly. Patience really is a virtue. It’s much harder to recreate and heal a shattered family or life than it is to reconstruct a new outlook piece by piece. Be willing to accept the fact that most of what you thought you knew for sure is most likely not true or at least not as you thought it was. Embrace the uncertainty. Let it send you down new paths of knowledge. Most important be not afraid. The Greek word from which “crisis” comes to us means “decision”. Perhaps one of the better, but less known, synonyms for faith is “leaning”.
During the phenomenon described as a crisis of faith, one reclines from his/her leaning with the intent to adjust one’s orientation. This adjustment, this decision, should not be made hastily, nor should it be avoided. This decision is not complete until one leans forward once again, until one lives in faith. Living out such a crisis exclusively in the realm of ideas will not bear fruit.
One I mentioned elsewhere, make a list of twenty things you like about the church and ten you don’t (notice emphasis on positive already). See how many of that ten can be eliminated or worked around. Many of them will involve people, or attitudes or even non-doctrinal stuff. * Adam fell that men might be, and they are, that they might have joy.
* Seek ye learning from the best books.
* There is opposition in all things.
Transcend your religion. Live the gospel because it enobles your character, not because the religion prescribes certain practices you have to follow. Recognize that crises of faith happen in other religions too. Eventually, you’ll probably have crises of faith those religions should you leave the Church. Therefore, bloom where you’re planted. We have grown up to believe that a testimony has to look and sound a certain way. But the Lord accepts us and our testimony right where it is. He only expects us to remain humble and open to our testimony continuing to grow and mature. Many members unfortunately do not know how to respond to other members who may have a non-traditional testimony. But that’s okay. We need to understand that is simply where they are too. They are doing their best to successfully navigate this experience of life just like we are. In other words, we need to be compassionate with ourselves and with our fellow members of the Church. “Anyone can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person at the right time, and for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not within everyone’s power and that is not easy.” Aristotle “The awareness of the ambiguity of one’s highest achievements (as well as one’s deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.”
“Certainty about the next life shouldnt yeild intolerance in this life”
“The highest result of education is tolerance.” ~ Hellen Keller
The Qualia powerpoints have been a nice bridge in our family.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69TOuqaqXI : Great powerpoint on having an open mindhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAIpRRZvnJg&feature=fvw : Instruction manual for lifeFirst I would say any short summary will be highly inadequate, they key is to get on a path of study heading the right direction. Personally I have found the right direction for me to include: Embracing the metaphor
contemplating paradox
focusing on good – not getting hung up on literal truth “It is better to be good than to be right”
separating the physical and the spiritual – Mythos and Logos
There are a ton of great quotes, but among my favorites is one from the podcast with Edward Kimball: “
Certainty is a burden” Too often a faith crisis can make someone jump from one certainty to another. From “the church is completely true” to “the church is completely false” without considering that it is probably a lot more complex than that. For those who want to find a productive way to remain in contact with the church I would suggest reading: Bushman, England, Bennion, Eyring, Arrington, Brown, etc.
Hugh B. Brown: “
The church is not so much concerned with whether the thoughts of its members are orthodox or heterodox, as it is that they shall have thoughts.” Just because an idea (as in intellectual freedom) is not popular in our church culture, does not mean it is not a part of the true doctrine. Joseph smith effectively defined Mormon doctrine as whatever is factually true; I interpret that idea to say if it is not actually true it is false Mormon doctrine – even if 95% of the church thinks otherwise.
John, I admire what you have done, and have read a lot about you, but one thing, in your future podcasts can you get a few more stories from saints who are not American? I have a personal interest in such stories… I appreciate it would be harder to get hold of them… The moment I realized that I donn’t have all the answers, and that no one actually does, I experienced the most profound relief. (I also experienced simultaneous terror and elation, but relief is the dominant feeling. 
-Go slow. -It’s OK to drop beliefs and practices, but always trade up.
-Have a sense of acceptance and compassion for yourself in your past. See that you were making decisions as best you could, and then use that forgiveness for your self to see that others (the more orthodox around you) are just the same.
-Easier said than done, but stop depending on others to validate or approve of your beliefs.
-Less is a LOT more! when it comes to revealing your transition to others. You really don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. You also don’t need to convince anyone else you are right.
-Religion is the science of making meaning of your life. It is an emotional and spiritual adventure. Religion does not have to be logical or being proven “correct.” It only has to work for people. If it makes people happy and loving, then it is true to some extent (experiential truth)
-Try very hard to gain the metaphorical experience of “salvation.” This is a deep and subconscious-penetrating emotional sense that everything is going to be OK, that God loves and accepts you as you are (full of flaws, and whatever “God” really is). Be a good person. Make the world a better place. Be authentic while being compassionate to what others are experiencing. See life as an adventure and a hero’s journey, not as a trick question you are failing.
-Find sources of inspiration and spirituality that feed you. Life is fully loaded buffet. You can pull from any source that uplifts and nourishes your soul.
-Life and religion are full of paradox and mystery, powerful engines that drive our enlightenment. It is OK to not know things, and to have mysteries in the universe. Try to have hope and faith in something better.
-Develop a sense of compassion and forgiveness for leaders. See that they are just people like you.
There’s a feeling at those times of being cut adrift or falling. It seems like it’s going to go on forever and never get better. But it can and it does. I agree it’s better to keep your feelings to yourself for awhile. And don’t expect people to understand and don’t underestimate the impact on those closest to you. The early Crhistian fathers used to talk about the desert and in my case it’s literally like that in trying to sort through all this and find some way through it.
Teaching manuals can be a bit cut and dried. If anyone can think of alternative but “kosher” (alright, we’re not Jewish, but you know what I mean) sources of inspiration…
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