Joni’s words from the article are in italics. “…Liberal
Mormon.”It meant people who were of our faith, but who drew their own lines in
the sand. They decided which aspects of our faith to accept or reject, from
honoring the Sabbath to wearing less than modest clothing. Basically, it
described people who were members of convenience. When they didn’t like
something the Prophet said, they felt perfectly fine skirting around that one,
and writing their own rules.
As my husband likes to say, we all have our favorite sins,
liberal thinkers and by-the –book-thinkers alike. I consider myself, not only
liberal religiously, but also politically. Joni assumes we all wear “immodest
clothing.” Well, I don’t have the right kind of body that anyone would want to
see too much of, including myself, so no biggie there. Besides, up until the
hot-flashes started a few years ago, I was cold all the time. So unless you’re
in my bathroom, you won’t see more than a few inches of skin. And the
Sabbath—well as far as I know that one was covered by Jesus when he said, “the
Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath." So it’s between me and Jesus
on how I keep the day holy. Joni’s right about writing our own rules. We all
do. Or you could call it setting priorities. Another word for it is personal
revelation. But Joni criticizes that one too.
Here’s something to chew on from a couple of our prophets,
Harold B. Lee and Brigham Young. The LDS church believes apostolic revelation
to be inspired, but not infallible. Lee wrote, "We consider God,
and him alone, infallible; therefore his revealed word to us cannot be doubted,
though we may be in doubt some times about the knowledge which we obtain from
human sources, and occasionally be obliged to admit that something which we had
considered to be a fact, was really only a theory." Leaders are still
considered regular people with "their opinions and prejudices and are left
to work out their own problems without inspiration in many instances."
Brigham Young taught "the greatest fear I have is that the people of this
Church will accept what we say as the will of the Lord without first praying
about it and getting the witness within their own hearts that what we say is
the word of the Lord." Members are taught to rely on the Holy Ghost to
judge, and if a revelation is in harmony with the revealed word of God, it
should be accepted.
Liberal Mormons are more slippery. They often attend
church, but they’re the ones who dodge Gospel Doctrine class because the
teacher is “so by-the-book.” This criticism is meant to imply that he’s a dolt
who never questions anything, so why should I attend a class taught by someone
so narrow-minded?
She’s right. We are
slippery. She says we dodge Gospel Doctrine class because the teacher is “so-by-the-book.”
What she doesn’t say is that we’re really doing is selling dope to the
fourteen-year-olds who are also skipping class. Yes, we’re all behind the
church, behind the bushes leading our little ones down a dark path. Or we could
be skipping Gospel Doctrine class, not because the teacher is “so-by-the-book” but because he
or she is interpreting the gospel in a way that doesn’t come from the manual.
It might include rants about the moral decay of our society (code for we have a
Democrat president.) Or the political slants may not come from the teacher at
all, but from comments in the class condemning different classes or even races
of people. She says that we are “members of convenience.” There actually isn’t
anything convenient about having to be on guard the whole time you are at
church lest someone make a derogatory remark about the president of the
U.S.—and yes this has happened too. (P.S. Our ward has good GD teachers and yes
they are on my Facebook so know this doesn’t mean you or you or you, but it happens.) And
then there’s my liberal friends who are gay who dare to show up to church, and
my single friends, divorced friends, widowed friends. It’s not so convenient
for them. It's actually very inconvenient and yet, they are brave enough to believe that the church includes them.
They disagree with several points in the Proclamation to
the World, say no to callings that insult their intelligence, and create their
own spin on how God will ultimately judge us (very leniently, usually). They
think bikinis are fine, iced tea is a tasty drink, and R-rated movies are often
artistic and worth seeing.
Hmm. This is a hard one. I
do disagree with several points in the Proclamation. I don’t consider it
Christ-like enough. It isn’t inclusive of all types of families, those led by
single parents for example, and yes, I believe that my LGBT friends have a place in the
gospel, too. By focusing on the proclamation, some are left feeling broken.
(Yeah, I know sounds liberal. right?)
Yes, I have said no to
callings, not because they “insult my intelligence” but because again, I’m
entitled to personal revelation. And this spin you talk about on how God will
judge us—there’s another word for that too—it’s called the Atonement. I
wouldn’t know how tasty iced tea is, but I have seen quite a few R rated
movies. I follow what it says in the “Strength for Youth” on that and choose
media that is uplifting. Yes, it is possible. The rating doesn’t tell you the
overall content of a movie at all. I’ve turned off plenty of raunchy stuff
during primetime TV, then gotten out one of my “artsy” Netflix R rated subtitled moves and cried because it was uplifting, enlightening, and “worth
seeing.” Not that it's anyone's business besides mine.
Invariably liberal Mormons do not read their scriptures
every day. They do not attend the temple, they do not show up to help someone
move, and they do not Home Teach or Visit Teach with regularity. They view
those who do as quaint minions who never question authority and who follow the
rules like mindless sheep. The one thing they do subscribe to with gusto,
however, is free agency. In fact, free agency is their justification for the
Designer Gospel they have refurbished to suit their individual tastes.
Wow! This paragraph just blows my mind. If the author had
been reading her scriptures, I’m not sure where she would have found anything
telling her it was okay to judge others on these details, but should have found
plenty to tell her otherwise, unless the truly righteous have a whole set of
scriptures I’m not familiar with. Temple attendance—same thing. Whether or not
we visit or home teach—again same thing. However this one, I can truly argue
with. And the moving thing, too.
But she’s right about free agency—we are big on that one—and if I’m not
mistaken--so was Jesus and Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, right on down to
President Monson. It’s actually one of the church’s selling points. The
Designer Gospel, well yeah, she’s got me on that one because I also believe in
another liberal ideal that we do harp on a lot, called personal revelation.
I’m skipping some of the Meridian article, so make sure you
read the whole thing. But I’ll end with this gem.
Living in the gray area, the fringe, takes little– if
any– effort. Like laziness, it spawns rationalization, something the obedient
never have to worry about. The dedicated members don’t have to excuse or
explain themselves; they simply continue working, inching along on the path
Christ outlined. Only when we stray do we feel we have to justify our choices.
Perhaps that’s one way to tell if you’re at risk. Only the Liberal Mormons feel
the need to explain their twist on faith.
I’m wondering if she read my essay called “Living in theGray.” But if she had, she might understand that there is nothing easy about
it. My own personal struggles to hang on to faith in spite of the constant
marginalization by those who feel like their own brand of Mormonism is more
superior to mine, is anything but easy. The true difficulty is not that some of us are fringe
“liberals” and others are holding fast to the iron rod, it’s that we’re all too
quick to draw our own lines in the sand, and not reach out to those who seem
different than us. The irony in this last paragraph is that Jesus is the one
who said, “My burden is easy, and my yoke is light.” He’s the one who told us
following him would be easy and that the gospel came down to two simple
commandments; Love God and love your neighbor and on these, hang all the
commandments. I'm trying to remember that.
Where was the writer of this article during PresidentUctdorf’s message this last conference? Here’s just a few excerpts: “Some of
our dear members struggle for years with the question whether they should
separate themselves from the Church.
In this Church that honors personal agency so strongly, that
was restored by a young man who asked questions and sought answers, we respect
those who honestly search for truth. It may break our hearts when their journey
takes them away from the Church we love and the truth we have found, but we
honor their right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their
own conscience, just as we claim that privilege for ourselves.”
To those who have separated themselves from the Church, I
say, my dear friends, there is yet a place for you here.
Come and add your talents, gifts, and energies to ours. We
will all become better as a result.
Some might ask, “But what about my doubts?”
It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry
has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few
members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with
serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture
and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and
uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true.
Ok, me again. Also, be sure to read Elder Causse: In this
Church there are no strangers and no outcasts. There are only brothers and
sisters. The knowledge that we have of an Eternal Father helps us be more
sensitive to the brotherhood and sisterhood that should exist among all men and
women upon the earth.” (end quote)
By the time I finished writing this epistle or sermon or
whatever you want to call it, my very liberal perhaps even “left-wing, liberal
pinko” (one of my conservative father’s favorite phrases) heart has been moved
to feel compassion for Joni Hilton. I’m sure, she’s had plenty of time to
re-think her position. In all honesty, even though Meridian claims that it
slipped through their editorial process, it seems it wasn’t very different from
other stuff they have written, just a little more here and there until it’s a
slippery slope of hateful spew. The problem is that it’s very divisive and not at
fitting of any magazine that claims to be about the teachings of the Jesus
Christ. So Joni, it’s ok. We all make mistakes and sometimes let our heads lead
without remembering our hearts. So if I meet you somewhere along life’s
journey, I really do have empathy for you. Maybe someday we could actually have
a pleasant conversation. I hope so.
