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…how do I get over these stumbling blocks.
I have felt like I have been spiritually running in place for the last 3 years and haven’t gotten any where.
This is kind of trite, but once I stopped seeing stumbling blocks everywhere (and I believe you when you say your list is long!), and saw the blocks for what they really were – a way up and forward. I’m not afraid anymore of where they will take me. I have a personal assurance that God can be with me, that I’m not on his bad side for rejecting so much of the church’s narratives.
A really good book that talks about adult religious development is Navigating a Mormon Faith Crisis by Thomas Wirthlin McConkie. Last I looked it was still to edgy for Deseret Book, but you can get it on Amazon. He left the church as a teenager and roamed far and wide until he came back, at least in some respects.
Of all the topics discussed here, this is my favorite and I could write pages on it. I totally support everyone’s comments about their place in their transition. I will add though that for my life and movement forward, I anchored in other people who had experienced extraordinary spiritual experiences. Luckily for me I was born with one of those tales laced into my life, Joan of Arc, she too had experiences. She was a farm girl. Only in her teens. Pious to her Catholicism. Untrained for battle or life outside her farming community. But she answered the call of 3 spiritual personages who spoke to her, led her, guided her, and ultimately abandoned her when she burned at the stake for heresy.
Over the years her story has taken on a mythology. It’s hundreds of years old now. What is or isn’t true of it is pretty minimal, but it inspires people all over the world, through out ages of time.
Our tale is barely 200 years old. It hasn’t begun it’s ascension. While you wait, take comfort that you are apart of that arc. Let it sit for awhile, even in it’s uncomfortable state. It will have meaning for you.
As to navigating a tribe you can’t fully grasp, work with what you can grasp. Family (it’s a worthy effort), Self discipline – so scriptures aren’t comforting now – O.K. read other uplifting stuff. We have a library full of suggestions. Develop talents. Teach and live the Golden Rule – it’s universal. Study and learn meditation (It will help with church meetings). Look for good in your ward community. Make real Service a commitment. Even if it’s moving people in the ward or mowing an older sisters yard. Don’t do it for brownie points, do it to bring God into the community. During tough classes bring an e-reader and read Givens, Uchtdorf, Okazaki – and other broad minded members. It will help.
Welcome aboard.
Hi PTB, I’m glad you’re here and look forward to hearing more from you.
part time believer wrote:
How does one reconcile Issues related to church?
I suppose it depends on what end you are trying to reach. For me, I’ve gotten to the point where I think of the Church as an organization of believers. I’m welcome there because I don’t do anything against them. They are my tribe, I feel comfortable around them and I have my own, unique, belief system that sometimes matches up with the organization and sometimes doesn’t.Having said all that, I think the main thing that helps “reconcile” the issues for me is the following:
– I believe most, the vast majority, of members and leaders of the Church are acting in ways that they believe are best for themselves, their families, the Church, and humankind in general. When they stumble awkwardly, it’s not out of malice, but rather because they are human beings, just like us and they sometimes can’t pull things together they way they would like.
– I have come to believe that JS himself, in spite of all the strangeness, was a visionary who really did see himself as an oracle of God. He messed up in some major ways, but I often remind myself that he bore the brunt of his failures the way very few of us ever will.
Together, these views make it easier for me to accept that the Church can be both amazing and terrible at the same time, and I’ve learned to celebrate the good and discard the bad.
On Own Now wrote:Hi PTB,
I’m glad you’re here and look forward to hearing more from you.
part time believer wrote:
How does one reconcile Issues related to church?
– I have come to believe that JS himself, in spite of all the strangeness, was a visionary who really did see himself as an oracle of God. He messed up in some major ways, but I often remind myself that he bore the brunt of his failures the way very few of us ever will.
I see that now with Joseph, but it’s difficult when he gets painted to look like one of the current church leaders. And by that I mean how the leaders now are these squeaky clean examples of what modern lds living should look like
Why can’t we just be more honest about the man. For crying out Joseph almost got his balls cut off for some of his antics.
Sorry to sound salty, I don’t intend to offend anyone.
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Fwiw, ignorance is never bliss in the fullest dictionary definition. It is comforting and laziness-inducing and easy and deflective and content, but it isn’t utter joy or supreme happiness, imo. Those require understanding and real, practical, on-going, ever-present opposition that must be wrestled and fought and overcome. Ignorance can’t produce that necessary struggle.
Quote:Fwiw, ignorance is never bliss in the fullest dictionary definition. It is comforting and laziness-inducing and easy and deflective and content, but it isn’t utter joy or supreme happiness, imo.
This reminds me of something my husband read on LDS reddit. (not exmo). Everyone was cheering the new Ministering deal. And a fairly visible contributor asked the board, “So listening to the hoopla here, are you really happy?” The point was, all these believers had likely gone along “being satisfied with HT and VT status quo” but suddenly a change from elsewhere, and they stepped out of their stupor and were rejoicing. So were they happy before?
The new program is likely just a name change. We will likely fall back to lazy habits and before we know it, there will be new markers and so on. And we will retreat to routine. Or we can embrace options and make something of anything before us. Yes there will be resistance, push back, etc., but enough nuanced believer’s have proven that one can be different and remain “happy” even with full disclosure of the unsavory parts. You just get to navigate differently. Maturely.
As our own Hawkgrrl calls it, “Becoming an Adult with God.”
I’d say bliss comes more from not fretting about the truth so much when it turns out to be something we don’t like. Beyond that, I think it comes from acknowledging how ignorant we still are, and probably wrong about so many things… and realizing that’s okay.
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