I am a conservative Christian, lived in Iowa all my life, not part of a campaign, and I watched the speech. I opposed Romney before, and some suggested the speech was aimed at people like me to change our minds. It didn't. It was insulting and shocking.
The part about "jesus christ" was the worst part because he's pretending that he has Christian beliefs when he doesn't, he has Mormon beliefs (that many, many different gods exist). He should have just explained his Mormon beliefs and been done with it.
I am beyond frustrated with people trying to tell us what we believe and how we should be able to say what we believe. When I say that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and that He is my Savior, that is precisely what I believe. Perhaps I differ from many Christian faiths in some of the details. Perhaps I differ significantly in some of the details. But I do believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and that is a very personal and important belief to me. Am I not allowed to say that to the public because when I say "Jesus Christ" or "God" or "Savior" my concept does not match yours or the majority of Christianity? How else am I, or any other LDS person, supposed to express my faith? I'm just a little tired of people trying to tell us that we don't actually believe what we say we believe and we ought to come clean about what we really believe. Of course I'm not going to bear my testimony about Kolob and polygamy in the eternities and the location of Eden, partly because I think these beliefs are very easily skewed by non-Mormons (and even by some Mormons), and because I don't profess to understand a lot of the nitty-gritty details myself, but mostly because that is not what is most relevant to my faith.
The faith I live is faith in the power of Christ to heal and change me, the power in myself to serve the people around me, the power of prayer to draw me closer to God and direct me for good, the importance of family in this life and the eternities. By talking about these things I am not hiding my Mormonness - I am expressing the most fundamental part of my faith, and the part of my faith that is relevant to me in my daily life. When I talk to my Mormon friends I do not talk about different things. This is what my faith is and I have no other way of saying it in a way that is any more honest to myself and to God.
5 comments:
Yeah!! So there. I couldn't have said it better!
Amen.
I once had a young man yell (loudly) at me in a very public place (on a college campus about 5 years ago) that I was a devil worshipper and was going to hell because I refused to go with him to an anti-Mormon film being shown by his "Christian" club on campus. I'm sure that made a really good impression on all the other students waiting for classes. Anyway, I remember thinking at the time, that if this was his idea of Christian behavior, I was really glad he didn't consider me a Christian. I had to then, and still have to remind myself that EVERY group has it's share of fanatics and nuts. So I try not to judge evangelicals by the few very vocal fanatics and hope that they will do the same for my religion. It's so frustrating, though, to hear the ignorance out there.
Anyway, good post--well said.
I agree that it's frustrating to be told that you don't believe what you do, in fact, believe more than anything. The gospel is my rock, and to hear from uninformed, well-meaning friends that I'm not Christian and that I'm going to hell never fails to make me angry.
Well what can I say than "By their fruits ye shall know them". If they want to focus on being negative, that's their choice, and good luck with that. I'll focus on the positives. :)
On a slightly related note, I took a quiz about the "right" candidate for me based on the issues and Mitt & I pretty much disagree about most things apparently.
Sorry, here's that link: http://www.dehp.net/candidate/
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