(no subject)
Apr. 30th, 2007 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrm_backupSo apparently PBS is doing a whole thing tonight (ETA: and tomorrow night. Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liz_marcs for the heads up) on Mormons and Mormonism (both Frontline and American Experience) and that's cool. It's also a good time for me to share with ya'll who I am and what I believe and why I believe it.
Sharing my religious beliefs on livejournal is kind of like sharing my fannish thoughts with the people in my real life; ie, nigh on impossible, so while I've been thinking about putting something like this together for a long time I haven't ever put word to virtual paper. However, while I trust and love PBS quite a lot I want to add my voice to the voices that will be represented tonight.
I guess the best place to start is with a little background. My family, as portrayed through the use of general church vocabulary, is a family of converts. What this means is that we have no familial ties to Utah or the western United States that we are intimately aware of. My parents are from Dearborn, Michigan and the vast majority of my family lives in this state and the surrounding geographical area. My mother's family became LDS when my mom was 12 but were not active participants for very long. My mom remained connected with the church because of friends she had made and even attended Rick's College (the current BYU-Idaho) for a year. My father's family is Baptist and remains so to this day. I'm not sure that my grandmother has ever forgiven my mother for introducing my dad to the LDS church or for his subsequent conversion to it but she has, over the years, come to accept that we are easily as Christian as she is so that has assuaged many of her concerns.
My first experience with religion wasn't with the mormons but rather the methodists. When I was 5 or 6 my dad decided he wanted to take his kids to church because it had been such an influence for good on him when he was young so he took my brothers and I to the church on the corner which happened to be a First United Methodist. My mom refused to go saying that she wouldn't force anyone to go to her church but she wouldn't attend another (she was, at the time, what mormons call 'inactive' as she wasn't regularly attending church at the local ward). Time passed and things changed and by the time I was 9 we were all attending the local LDS church and by the time I was 11 my dad had joined and we had all been to the temple to be sealed. Since that day my brothers and I have each served as missionaries in various parts of the world (Texas, Brazil, and Chile) and my dad has served as a Bishop. We are mormons.
That all, of course, begs the question, what does it mean to be a mormon? The first thing it means is that you believe the fundamental precepts of the church. You believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he lived and sacrificed Himself for your sins and that he was resurrected. You also believe that in 1827 God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to a 14 year-old boy and the process was begun whereby many vital truths that had been lost were restored. You believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that there is a prophet on the earth today and you believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God just like the Bible and that both books provide essential teachings and truths.
And, you know what? I really do believe that all of those things are true. I'm not looking to start an argument over whose truth is better because no one ever wins one of those and it only leads to screaming and shouting and hurt feelings and that's not what I want to do here. I'm putting this out here so that people understand where I'm coming from and what I believe, nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, things get a bit trickier when you're dealing with how religion is practiced. While all mormons will agree on the basics there are cultural differences that can drive a girl crazy. Mormon culture dictates that everyone should be a Republican, which I patently am not. Mormon culture would also try and tell me that I've failed somehow because I'm nearly 30 and I'm still not married and have no foreseeable prospects towards becoming so. I'm a self-avowed feminist which makes Relief Society an interesting experience most Sundays. I've never felt very connected to other members of the church socially and, save for the time I spent as a missionary, I've never had any close friends in the church but that has more to do with how hard it is for me to open up with people then anything else.
The fact remains that as much as I might disagree with Mormon culture and for as little as I like Utah (the only thing at the moment that could tempt me to move there is the prospect of singing in the Tabernacle Choir and that's not nearly enough to cause me to make that journey) I love the Church. I love being a Mormon. What I've learned and what I believe has helped me through some very difficult times and has given me a foundation upon which I can more easily face the world and the future. I am a Mormon and I'll always be a Mormon, come hell or high water.
I am more then happy to sit down and have a good discussion with anyone about anything so please feel free to ask any question that pops into your head. You respect me and I'll respect you and we'll all get along just swimmingly. I've always enjoyed learning about other people's beliefs and opinions and am more then happy to share mine with you.
Well, that went better then I thought it would.
liz_marcs for the heads up) on Mormons and Mormonism (both Frontline and American Experience) and that's cool. It's also a good time for me to share with ya'll who I am and what I believe and why I believe it.Sharing my religious beliefs on livejournal is kind of like sharing my fannish thoughts with the people in my real life; ie, nigh on impossible, so while I've been thinking about putting something like this together for a long time I haven't ever put word to virtual paper. However, while I trust and love PBS quite a lot I want to add my voice to the voices that will be represented tonight.
I guess the best place to start is with a little background. My family, as portrayed through the use of general church vocabulary, is a family of converts. What this means is that we have no familial ties to Utah or the western United States that we are intimately aware of. My parents are from Dearborn, Michigan and the vast majority of my family lives in this state and the surrounding geographical area. My mother's family became LDS when my mom was 12 but were not active participants for very long. My mom remained connected with the church because of friends she had made and even attended Rick's College (the current BYU-Idaho) for a year. My father's family is Baptist and remains so to this day. I'm not sure that my grandmother has ever forgiven my mother for introducing my dad to the LDS church or for his subsequent conversion to it but she has, over the years, come to accept that we are easily as Christian as she is so that has assuaged many of her concerns.
My first experience with religion wasn't with the mormons but rather the methodists. When I was 5 or 6 my dad decided he wanted to take his kids to church because it had been such an influence for good on him when he was young so he took my brothers and I to the church on the corner which happened to be a First United Methodist. My mom refused to go saying that she wouldn't force anyone to go to her church but she wouldn't attend another (she was, at the time, what mormons call 'inactive' as she wasn't regularly attending church at the local ward). Time passed and things changed and by the time I was 9 we were all attending the local LDS church and by the time I was 11 my dad had joined and we had all been to the temple to be sealed. Since that day my brothers and I have each served as missionaries in various parts of the world (Texas, Brazil, and Chile) and my dad has served as a Bishop. We are mormons.
That all, of course, begs the question, what does it mean to be a mormon? The first thing it means is that you believe the fundamental precepts of the church. You believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he lived and sacrificed Himself for your sins and that he was resurrected. You also believe that in 1827 God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to a 14 year-old boy and the process was begun whereby many vital truths that had been lost were restored. You believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that there is a prophet on the earth today and you believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God just like the Bible and that both books provide essential teachings and truths.
And, you know what? I really do believe that all of those things are true. I'm not looking to start an argument over whose truth is better because no one ever wins one of those and it only leads to screaming and shouting and hurt feelings and that's not what I want to do here. I'm putting this out here so that people understand where I'm coming from and what I believe, nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, things get a bit trickier when you're dealing with how religion is practiced. While all mormons will agree on the basics there are cultural differences that can drive a girl crazy. Mormon culture dictates that everyone should be a Republican, which I patently am not. Mormon culture would also try and tell me that I've failed somehow because I'm nearly 30 and I'm still not married and have no foreseeable prospects towards becoming so. I'm a self-avowed feminist which makes Relief Society an interesting experience most Sundays. I've never felt very connected to other members of the church socially and, save for the time I spent as a missionary, I've never had any close friends in the church but that has more to do with how hard it is for me to open up with people then anything else.
The fact remains that as much as I might disagree with Mormon culture and for as little as I like Utah (the only thing at the moment that could tempt me to move there is the prospect of singing in the Tabernacle Choir and that's not nearly enough to cause me to make that journey) I love the Church. I love being a Mormon. What I've learned and what I believe has helped me through some very difficult times and has given me a foundation upon which I can more easily face the world and the future. I am a Mormon and I'll always be a Mormon, come hell or high water.
I am more then happy to sit down and have a good discussion with anyone about anything so please feel free to ask any question that pops into your head. You respect me and I'll respect you and we'll all get along just swimmingly. I've always enjoyed learning about other people's beliefs and opinions and am more then happy to share mine with you.
Well, that went better then I thought it would.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 06:06 pm (UTC)Just FYI.
Added, because bosses in cubes do not make for thoughtful response...
Date: 2007-04-30 07:06 pm (UTC)And I was wondering if I could link to this post? It's cool if you want to say "No."
Re: Added, because bosses in cubes do not make for thoughtful response...
Date: 2007-04-30 08:07 pm (UTC)Second, please feel free to link to my post. The more the merrier.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 06:09 pm (UTC)Mormon culture dictates that everyone should be a Republican, which I patently am not.
That's why I like the U: very Democratic (which I patently am), and few people in my ward, at least, are very intersted in dating, and very focused on getting their education, which rocks. I agree that I like the religion but don't adhere to the culture. Because the culture is kind of odd. :)
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 10:53 pm (UTC)In my family we're fond of repeating that the Church is true but the people are not. It's a good thing to remember on the more frustrating days.
*big hugs*
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 06:40 pm (UTC)I can't think of a better way of describing how a religious or spiritual belief works for you. *hugs*