Matt and I were at our friends home the other night when we began to have a very good conversation about THE church. For those who aren't members of THE church, I'm referring to MY church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I KNOW I know, you are all thinking "oh great, another religious rant" but it is my blog, and its not really a rant, just more of what I've discovered lately.
BTW, does anyone else' ENTER key NOT bring your cursor down to the next line? Its really annoying me. Ok. Moving on.
I don't recall how we got on the subject of religion and THE Church. It was probably me, because ever since I ran across the facebook page that was full of haters I've been thinking about THE Church a lot. We started discussing why anti-Mormons might have so many misconceptions of (for lack of a better word) Mormonism. Then we began to discuss the new Broadway show, 'The Book of Mormon' from the creators of South Park (both of whom are return missionaries btw). It personally doesn't bother me, and the statement that THE Church put out about the whole thing was very tasteful. In fact, I might want to see it someday, who knows. We began to discuss people (members of THE Church) getting all worked up about it, and spouting off and being offended. I don't personally see anything to get worked up about, in fact, my friend mentioned that THE Church should probably post 2 real missionaries out front of the show handing out copies of The Book of Mormon, people would probably read it! My friends husband said something really interesting that I had never really thought about before. I find, in Utah especially (sorry Utah friends), that members will FIND things to be offended over. And you hear a lot of complaints from new members, or non-native members, even some native inactive members that they feel judged and shunned because of things they do, or used to do, or haven't quite let go of yet. Anyways, back to what my friends husband said, he said "people in Utah tend to be more concerned with the LETTER of the law, and not the SPIRIT of the law. Its kind of like, its not the gift that matters, its the thought that counts... right? There is no sense in competing with Sister Smith down the block, or Brother Jones across the street. When you do this, pride begins to enter into the equation and then you have to start all over. When you are comparing yourself with someone you think is perfect, or if you try to better yourself by judging someone else, in person or in your head, you become more focused on the letter of the law, and not the spirit of the law. Anyways, I'm not preaching, just writing these things down for my own use.
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