Friday, May 3, 2013

Thoughts about Manufacturing the Spirit

In my adult life I've been very leery of manufactured spiritual experiences. I wasn't sure why, but I've been suspicious of treks, special camps, pretend scenarios such as airplane crashes and others that end up being about judgement and rewards and so on. It's been hard to stick to my dislike when group after group of people bear testimony about the life-changing experiences, but I've managed to keep my distance from such things.

Years ago, when I was in a YW's position, one of these manufactured spiritual experiences was being discussed and I got a pit in my stomach. Even though I was not the president at the time, I knew I had to do something to stop it. There was going to be a whole judgement day game and at the end those who had made "right" choices would be rewarded and those who did not would not get the reward of the celestial kingdom at the end. It was just a game after all, so why did I get so sick about it? I discussed the "game" with a friend and she pointed out that the game denied the atonement. After all there was no place in the game for those who had made the mistakes or listened to Satan's voice to repent. And even a game that does that is wrong if it was held under the guise of a church function.

I was so uneasy about the event even though among all my leaders, both in Young Women's and in Young Men's and in the bishopric, I was the only dissenting voice. Plans were underway. With a pounding heart, I drafted a letter that declared why I thought it was wrong and delivered it to one of the leaders in charge. The activity was cancelled. And no, it was not because of my letter. The decision was made before the letter was delivered. One of the husband's of one of the YW's leaders remembered a similar activity when he was growing up and he felt like it was a damaging experience. I was relieved, but somewhat bothered that he was the only one who seemed to know that things that are supposed to be a wake-up call can backfire. Or activities that are supposed to evoke emotion are replaced for true spiritual experiences.

Today I came across this blogpost that hit my uneasiness about these things on the head. Spirit and Emotion can be confused and often are, but they are not the same thing. Read and enjoy.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing. You mkae some excellent points and have looked at this in a whole different way. I am glad you are always one to stand for something, mainly the things you feel so strongly about..

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    1. Thanks Allison for your friendship and continued support.

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  2. Carole, I am so with you. If we want our youth to have a testimony we need to encourage them to study and pray. The hard part for some leaders is understanding that the youth have to work out their own salvation, and the experience will be a lot more personal than can happen in a single activity. We can't manage it, just set an example and give pointers along the way.

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    1. Jolynne, I guess there are not shortcuts for worthwhile things in life. Each journey is so individual and sometimes we want our youth to arrive to the same conclusion that we have--even if it took us a lifetime to find answers and maybe not even then. Eventually though, our youth see through the flimsiness of these activities and sometimes that flimsiness makes them feel slightly betrayed.

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  3. Thank you. I hadn't thought about this before, but I had often encountered it. I don't mind treks that teach youth they can do hard things, but that doesn't mean they felt the spirit. My experience with a mini trek was a fun, hard, rained-out hike with a hand-cart. Not a spiritual experience per say. Yet, the youth bore testimonies about it. This is not to say that an "official trek" in Wyoming isn't spiritual--but that's a different topic as it involves sacred ground (which I do believe in). Girl's camp is notorious for 2 things that bug me: 1. Ghost stories that lead to stories about real encounters with the adversary and girls getting scared and having to pray away a bad spirit and then bearing testimonies about it later. And 2: testimonies that go something like: "I love you guys. I know you'll always be there for me. Camp is so wonderful. I know this church is true. . . Amen." Emotion=testimony moment. Time to teach the leaders!

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    1. Susan, Thanks for your thoughts. I remember camp being an emotional crying jag where I felt overwhelmed by the love I felt for the girls at camp. Unfortunately we always came home and went back to normal. Still not everyone has that great of an experience. I also remember those adversary stories and how scared they made me feel. I agree that ground can be sacred and where people lost their lives trying to save others is sacred ground.

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