Friday, July 17, 2015

Every Member Shouldn't Have to Be "Temple Worthy" to Be "Baptism Worthy" or "Worship Worthy"

I believe we have conflated "temple worthiness" with "membership/baptism worthiness" and, going even further, "communal worship" worthiness too much in our modern church culture.

In my ideal world, speaking generally, almost anyone (obvious, very rare exceptions) would be welcome in our chapel doors to worship with us - no strings attached. Anyone who is willing to worship with us respectfully and try to live (or work on learning to live) certain basic principles would be welcome to join us as fellow members (essentially, a repentant heart and not necessarily a fully repentant body, if you will). Those who want to try to live "a higher law" would be encouraged to attend the temple.

By blurring the lines so much between those categories, we essentially have cut the heart out of the middle ground and forced those who can't or don't want to be temple worthy toward the other extreme - complete non-participation or only partial participation.

I also believe we generally are much harder in practical terms on our (inactive) own than on "outsiders", even as the official rhetoric we tend to use for "the world" is harsher - much too harsh, much too often.

1 comment:

ji said...

I'm sympathetic to the viewpoint you expressed. Thank you...