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Shawn wrote:
Sorry I didn’t respond sooner. The you continued the analogy is brilliant and I know what you mean there.I’ve been thinking more about this thread lately. I now compare the church to a blueprint. Christ made a plan for His church and then handed the blueprint over to some men and contracted with them to build the church. The contract gives them authority from the Savior to build His church. Because they are men, they don’t build the church perfectly according to the blueprint. They do what they can and improve upon it as they go. Because the Lord made the plan and gave men authority, it is His church.
Great analogy. This one is certainly one that helps me feel more at peace.
I know I’m often a shoddy “builder” and I’m happy to give leaders the same fair view.
I guess sometimes the builders to go off plan and add an ugly buttress or greco-roman column like ‘blacks and the priesthood.’ Eventually someone checks the blueprint (or the architect sends a note) and the buttress is knocked down. Everyone knows it was there and it takes a while to forget. Some builders/occupants saw it for such a long time that they presume it must have been on the original blueprint but is just being taken down for a time (polygamy/getting a planet?).
I often wonder if the original blueprint was a lot more ‘log cabin’ and a lot less ‘bavarian gothic castle.’
Again your expansion of the analogy was awesome. LOVE that last comment, especially, mackay11. It’s like volleyball Shawn… You keep making such sweet ‘sets’ that it’s a pleasure ‘spiking’ them. And Ray, a pause to say thanks for all that you and the other mods do. I genuinely shrink at the thought of where I’d be without the people and messages of this forum. Was genuinely considering going on a “bender” as we call it in uk in the weeks/days before finding this forum.
(Bender: uk term for going out and getting very drunk, sometimes for several days in a row and getting up to no good)
mackay11: We call it going on a bender in the US too, just FYI. At least we did in the eastern US. Some wards are more prone to these kinds of not-very-well-thought-through comments than others. I have been fortunate to be in a lot of wards that don’t seem to have many people who spout silly comments. However, when I lived in Utah, there were a lot more of these types of remarks. In our ward here in Asia, a German sister asked in RS what you should do when a PH leader tells you to do something that you don’t believe you should do. One younger sister quickly answered that we should trust the PH leader and do what they say and we’ll be blessed. The German sister said, “Well, I don’t believe that. I know there are people who say things like that, but I’m entitled to my own personal revelation, and I should follow it.” Then I and a couple other sisters agreed with her. I felt a little bad for the one who gave the Primary answer, but not bad enough that I felt her answer deserved further validation.
I don’t even know what to say about someone who thinks the church is perfect. Isn’t that the old saw that the church is perfect but the people aren’t? I think that’s the saying. But I think it really means that the gospel is perfect, but people aren’t perfect at following it. I have found that many people on planet earth are not very precise thinkers. They conflate words and ideas into a mish-mosh that doesn’t hold up under even an average IQ’s momentary scrutiny.
Shawn, you hit the nail right on the head. I am not really concerned with weather the church is perfect or not. I think individuals who worry about that may be splitting hairs. It may be perfect in some things not so perfect in others. I focus more on the other side of the question is any of it true? If it is true then sure we can live with some imperfection because we all know it should work out. If it is all fiction then I am not sure any degree of perfection makes any difference.
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