The Church is Perfect But the People Aren’t

[Anonymous]

Quote:

The church is perfect but the people aren’t

This is a phrase that has maddened many a person. When used, to me, it sounds like a license for the church to do whatever it wants, without obligation to make it right.

I would like to rephrase this maxim to this:

Quote:

The church isn’t perfect, but the people can be inspiring”.

I am driven by my experience as a young man wanting to serve a mission. My stake president harshly turned me out of his office when I approached him about serving a mission, (there was no money in the stake to fund a mission), and he was not very kind in the process. But there were members who came out of the woodwork to help me — some gave money, and one family let me live in their unheated, uncooled attic. Someone else let me use their car for part-time weekend work.

I feel my quote above more accurately expresses my own experience. It also contains implicit recognition that even the church as an organization, void of people, isn’t perfect. Policies, structure, procedures, culture — there are many virtues but we must acknowledge that even these organizational elements are not perfect.

What do you think of the maxim I have created above?

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

Quote:

The church isn’t perfect, but the people can be inspiring”.

What do you think of the maxim I have created above?

I think it’s more true. And I like it better.

Though, I have had a couple friends who found the usual phrase helpful in staying active. When the church is filled with a variety of personalities who will inevitably do something to slight you, it’s helpful to be able to at least tell yourself you’re part of something bigger that is infallible.

[Anonymous]

I cringe when I hear “the church is perfect…” because it’s not and that’s repeatedly demonstrated by changes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its simplicity is perfect, the church is not. I’m not saying the church or the people are evil or malicious, but neither are yet whole or without blemish. So I do like your maxim SD. The church does at its core hold to the principles of the gospel, and most of what the church teaches is designed to bring us toward individual perfection, although sometimes missing the mark in the way it goes about doing so. And the people can be truly Christlike and charitable.

[Anonymous]

There was a time when I needed to believe in something that was a guarantee. I remember specifically speaking in EQ meeting about how tithing is like an insurance policy that protects my family when I cannot be everywhere at once. I believed it because I needed to. It also created the prerequisites for my faith crisis and assumptive world collapse. I try to be charitable towards my former self that needed to take hold of something sure and unchanging. I try to be charitable of the people in the church today that need to do so and take comfort in testifying to each other about how sure and unchanging and “perfect” is the thing that they have found.

Yes, the people can be pretty impressive. My family has received many meals for when DW is recovering from surgeries. I try to not ask for more than 3 days at a time. Enough for us to feel that people care but not too much to seem to others that we might be taking advantage.

As for a maxim, I’m gravitating towards this scripture.

Quote:

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

We live in a world of partial information. I believe that I am fully known, fully accepted, and fully loved. It feels like we are scared toddlers trying to build societies and “protections” to help us not be so terrified of the darkness. We are capable of inspiring goodness and deep hurtfulness as we act according to our limited understanding and ability. Hopefully our ability to do good grows over time.

[Author]

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