Feeling the Flame of Faith Flickering
For many the birth of mature faith comes when the faith of their youth is challenged.
We are at the door of a new year and I would like to write to those who are feeling the flame of their faith flickering. Certainly this is a painful experience and is most difficult to bear. I think nearly everyone experiences doubt about their faith. That is to be expected. However, with the advent of the internet there is an avalanche of material that tears down faith. Latter Day Saints in particular are targets for those who feel it is their duty to expose Mormonism for what it is—“a big lie”. Many of the most effective at attacking the candle of faith are faithless and former “church members”.
My attitude for over forty years has been “bring it on”. If this is how they want to use their agency God isn’t going to stop them, the Lord will use them for His own purposes. I hope each and every one of them will return to their faith, but for now those who have met and defeated the enemies of faith need to tell their stories.
The Eyes of Shepherd are Upon You–Cafeteria, New Order, Former…Mormons
Those who call themselves Mormon are a family. And as many of us know by experience, members of a family can be all over the place regarding their feelings towards their Mormonism. Following is a short-list of attitudes, or the state of mind, among Mormons I am currently acquainted with:
Bloggernacle Stories of Lost Faith
In the two years I’ve been participating in the ‘nacle tales of lost or failing faith is a constant, and enduring leitmotif (Mormon 9:20). On occasion, someone will relate how they had a Spiritual experience that resolved their difficulty with church history or one of the other confounders of faith. But they are rare, receive few comments, and are quickly forgotten.
It seems many ‘nacler’s are stuck in the twilight zone of shrunken faith by choice, and when this carte du jour is challenged by someone (like myself) who can relate miraculous encounters with the things of the Spirit, they are instantly marginalized by the defenders of the status quo.
Heavenly Father Provides Us with Mountains to Climb, But Oft Times We Choose Hills Instead
Acquiring and growing a testimony is like climbing a mountain. As we ascend we can turn and view the vista behind us, and feel a sense of accomplishment at how far we've come. As we continue to climb we arrive at the top and feel a rush of accomplishment and growth. However, as we look into the distance we soon become aware that there are towering peaks before us that need to be climbed. We know if we leave theses unclimbed we'll be missing out on experience, experience that we need and should not put off.
Dealing with Crisis the Lord’s Way
Because we are the children of God we can know Him, and be Known of Him. The scriptures teach many things about Heavenly Father, and if we diligently seek Him He will be revealed. Many Latter-day Saints have experienced this revealing and therefore have a testimony.
In the last few years, as I've visited numerous LDS blogs, I have read many accounts of church members who experience a crisis of one kind or another. Their testimonies are often challenged as they struggle with a situation they feel is inexplicable. They are brought to a point where they begin to feel that God doesn't really exist, or needs to be redefined, because of the nature of their difficulty. All kinds of difficulties befall us while in mortality. When our faith was strong we thought we were on the high road to the Celestial Kingdom, but when in the midst of a crisis, our faith is seemingly uprooted as we're tossed about in the circumstances that engulf us.
Belief and Disbelief
Note: Belief and faith are synonyms as I use the terms in this post.
I've been thinking about the nature of belief and disbelief. Each person appears to have an inherent tendency to believe or disbelieve religious claims. Following are members of the church sharing their testimony of disbelief and belief.
Expressions of Disbelief
New Order Mormons-A Path of Deception
While surfing the Bloggernacle I came across a blog with a post that I would like to review. The author of the post shared his "testimony". He started out by stating that he was born and raised in the church, served on a mission, and cherishes the church, and then added that he did not believe in the spiritual claims of the church and never really had. This includes foundational things like the first vision, coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the priesthood by angelic messengers. In other words, all claim of the "supernatural" (his choice of words) never happened.
To him, the church is just an organization of men doing good things based on a whopper of a story. But, that is all right with him because there are many practical aspects of the church that are good, he writes.
Wrapping Our Minds Around an Idea-Choose Your Ideas Carefully
Wrapping our minds around an idea is one of the joys of life. It is fulfilling to wrap our minds around an idea and then apply our new idea in some fashion and see the results. However, at times the results can be unsettling. Ideas can seemingly wrap themselves around our minds and create misery for ourselves and others. The Lord told us there is opposition in all things and this includes the pursuit of learning.
Conservative, Liberal, and Intellectual Mormons
The Bible teaches the gospel net gathereth of every kind, in other words, the Lord sure has a lot of variety in His church. This is true of the Bloggernacle. We're a diverse group; a microcosm of early 21st century American Mormons.
For most of my church life I've thought of members as being either active or inactive. Now I view members as being liberal vs. conservative Mormons, Iron Rod vs. Liahona Mormons, and the latest is new order Mormons. And then there are subsets in each category. I'm not going to get into the details of the various notions behind the designations. In keeping with the KISS principle I'll say that there are three main groups of church members based on their descriptions of themselves: conservative, liberal, and intellectual.
Blown Away by Church History? Get Real!
I remember the first time I learned some of the challenging aspects of church history. The massacre at Mountain Meadows, details of polygamy, multiple accounts of the first vision, and etc. I felt doubt stirring in my mind and heart. It was painful, but short lived.[1]
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