Wednesday, December 14, 2011

How I Would Describe My Testimony and Feelings for the Church in Non-religious Terms

I am convinced the LDS Church literally provides what it claims to provide for many of its members - an assurance that they need in this life based on a vision of the next life. I believe it literally provides for me what I want from it - a wonderful theological framework, a community in which I find joy in serving, a symbolic compass that enthralls me, a flawed community and organization that still manages to provide great leadership opportunities to many, a place where improvement is possible and multi-faceted evolution can occur, etc.

I really don't care much about it being "literal" in a universal sense and from an intellectual standpoint, as long as I literally can get from it what I want to get from it (and become through it what I want to become through it) - and, even though I want to get some things that aren't available yet, the LDS Church does so (for me) far better than other Christian constructs and has provided some deeply personal, spiritual, cosmic experiences for which I am grateful.

4 comments:

dehurt said...

Love it!

Ellen said...

Yep, well said. :-)

Anonymous said...

So if you had been born to devout Evangelicals, you would presumably be posting this exact same post about another Christian faith? I'm glad it works for you, but it's hardly unique to any religion. With minor revision, the same post could even apply to World of Warcraft.

Papa D said...

Maybe, Anonymous, but I have no idea. Personally, evangelical theology does absolutely nothing for me intellectually or emotionally, but that might be very different if I was raised evangelical.

The key, however, is in the title - "How I Would Describe My Testimony and Feelings for the Church in NON-RELIGIOUS Terms".

I would describe it very differently in RELIGIOUS terms, but that wasn't the point of the post.