Sunday Thoughts

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints AND being one who reads most of her news online, my week was filled with daily updates about a certain cable television station that was choosing to include details about the LDS endowment ceremony, including temple clothes, in an upcoming episode. Troubling, sickening, disappointing, of course, if you happen to be a member of the LDS church who cares about such things. But major fodder for ridicule, loud laughter, evil speaking and rudeness if you don't.

After reading the articles, which all basically said the same thing, I read some of the hundreds of comments that followed. My stomach plummeted as I read horrible things said about Joseph Smith and the church. According to plenty, Mormons are robots, zombies, idiots, hypocrites, morons, cultish, sexual deviants, etc. etc. etc. Who do they mean? Are they talking about me?

I think it's natural for anyone to bask in good press and blush or feel the urge to fight back when the subject of bad press. While the reasons for those feelings may seem obvious, I've often wondered why I prefer the label "normal." After reading those hurtful comments, I suppose the most honest reason I can come up with is because I am normal. I speak in normal sentences. I eat normal things. I wear normal clothes. I live in a normal house. I am raising a normal family. Of course, I want the credit for being so.

But, then something like this happens, and my beliefs - which I DO believe, are so mocked and treated with such scorn and derision that I am reminded that by the world's standards, I am most definitely not normal. The world thinks that I am bizarre.

I don't think knowing something spiritually is much different than knowing you're in love. It's personal and impossible to prove and the person's only means of sharing that intimate experience with the rest of the world is to say, "I believe." or "I love ______." And yet, the two statements are not treated the same. When you're in love with someone, your spirit and body recognize that fact. The world accepts and understands because being in love is a common enough experience that if you say so, most won't respond by declaring you an ignoramus. Spiritual knowledge, on the other hand, is quickly dismissed as foolish tradition.

So, while the world says it can't be so, I say it can. With both head and heart, I believe that Joseph Smith was the individual who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ entrusted with the restoration of Christ's gospel. That gospel includes truth and knowledge that was lost but regained through the translation of the Book of Mormon and other scripture, as well as priesthood keys necessary to officiate important ordinances necessary for exaltation- some of which are performed in temples. I believe that all of this happened because I have felt it to be true when I have asked. I have felt it's truth when I have lived it. I can't prove it. But I know. Just like I know I love Jay.

Of course, I wish that something that I hold sacred and reverent was treated as such by the rest of the world. Unfortunately, holiness, reverence and respect are increasingly foreign ideas these days. Valiance too. Our lesson in Relief Society today was on Being Valiant In The Cause of Christ. At one point, the teacher read a quote about the early saints "cheerfully" pressing forward in the face of persecution. I thought about that. Confrontation - online, on a street corner, or even privately - is not my thing. But I can be cheerful. And I can be valiant. I hope by bearing my own simple testimony, that I am likewise being valiant in the cause of Christ.