Ponder and respond as you desire:
1. What does it mean to be "pure in heart"? What is a "pure heart"?
2. What does it mean (what is it like) to "let virtue garnish [your] thoughts unceasingly"?
3. What does it mean to "forgive all men"?
4. In a time of great national pain, Abraham Lincoln famously recommended "malice toward none" and "charity for all." How does this work for you when you feel malice coming towards you?
5. How does all of this play out, for example, when you encounter something like HBO has just pulled on "Big Love"? If you didn't see it, don't go looking. If you did see it, how did you feel?
Even having read the Church's pre-broadcast response, I just wasn't prepared for my own reaction to this desecration. (For those of you who haven't seen it, "Joe the Plumber" has posted the link in his comment to our first blog post, below.)
Anyway, opportunity for reflection. The times, they are a-changin'! Thoughts?
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I think when the Lord says that it is required to "forgive all men" that he's being quite clear. It also seems wise to apply a liberal interpretation of the word forgive in this case: To not take offense or remain offended, to not harbor grudges or ill will towards others, to remain charitable in our actions towards them, etc. This, however is more easily said than done.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the reason it's such a challenging commandment is because of our cultural tendency to "measure" righteousness and then classify ourselves somewhere along that scale. Since we like to think of ourselves as decently upstanding members of the true church, this leads us to cognitively dissociate from "the Gentiles" or "the world" in ways that I don't think the Lord intends. This makes it harder to empathize with and forgive the offender because we can so readily relegate them to the "other" category in our mind.
The reality is that we are all basically broken, dysfunctional sinners whose separation from God causes no us no end of trouble, and that the average upstanding LDS person is probably not that far off from a hardened prison convict on the absolute scale.
It is a very uncomfortable thought that I am probably close to violent criminals in terms of my eternal progression -- but it certainly is a better perspective to forgive someone from.
Sister Thayer, I think this is a great idea!
ReplyDeleteLast November, after watching the terrorist attacks in India and verbal attacks against the LDS Church with Proposition 8, I started to wonder about Matthew 5:44, where Christ tells his disciples: “…Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” He goes on to say: “For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? (Matt 5:46)”
As I watched things unfold on the news, I constantly wondered: How do I love and pray for those who seem to disregard my humanity and things I hold sacred? Whether HBO producers or terrorists, to me, an enemy is not based on any specific act but is anyone who makes me feel threatened. Christ’s concept was clear, but my implementation was not.
I decided I would pray that these people would find peace and joy in their lives… that they would be truly happy and form lasting relationships where they could realize their divine worth and potential. People whose lives are focused on destruction are probably not consistently feeling godlike peace, joy, or happiness.
As I did this, I learned something that later I heard President Monson put into words:
“One man said, ‘I looked at my brother through the microscope of criticism, and I said, ‘How coarse my brother is.’ I looked at my brother through the telescope of scorn, and I said, ‘How small my brother is.’ Then I looked into the mirror of truth, and I said, ‘How like me my brother is.’’(Thomas S. Monson, Great Expectations, CES Fireside, 11 Jan. 2009)”
It might be said that President Monson was referring to other members of the Church or those with small flaws who are basically good, but surely not terrorists or anti-Mormons. If that is the case, then I wouldn’t say I’m qualified to draw a line for who falls under his words.
Prophets throughout history have taught about the natural man and warned of its effects if uncontrolled (Mosiah 3:19; Mosiah 16:3, 5; Alma 41:11; Romans 8:6; D&C 121:39). A Methodist pastor felt similarly when he wrote the lyrics, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love” in the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. My testimony of Jesus Christ and membership bless me as they help me to continually refine my nature and to seal my heart to God.
Acts of violence and words of hatred still deplore me; however, I find myself growing as I come to terms with my own humanity and seek to follow the teachings of the Savior.
I’m curious to see how others deal with these issues. How do you apply Christ’s teachings in Matthew 5 to those who you’ve never met, but seem to hate you or groups to which you belong? What makes you different from your enemies?
Although I believe it vitally important to remember one's nothingness, I think that Christian's observation that "the average upstanding LDS person is probably not that far off from a hardened prison convict on the absolute scale" is, how can I say...incomplete.
ReplyDeleteI agree that "not all is well in Zion" and that there exists a tendency for some members to dissociate themselves from non-members when conducting a "comparative measurement of righteousness", but there are distinct and vast differences between the Mormon and the mobster, I assure you.
I'm not saying that the statement is outrightly incorrect, I just think it shouldn't be made without further qualification. Righteousness is not determined by state alone. That I agree with. Identifying someone as a Mormon and someone else as a convict does not completely reveal their "level of righteousness". Saying that someone is a prophet doesn't even do it. Whatever God's "formula for righteousness" is, I believe it to be strongly dependent on both the things you've done and the DIRECTION you are heading. The convict could be turning to God while the member could be doing just the opposite. In this respect, yes they'll wave as they pass by each other on the road to eternal progression, but this is not the "average" situation. Finding nearby outliers from both data sets does not give one liberty to link the two sets.
The average member has made sacred covenants and strives to keep them. The average violent criminal makes shanks and tries to use them. Equating these two is both not necessary and not accurate.
Don't debase the importance of the steps you've made toward Christ in some kind of attempt to position your perspective to forgive the violent criminals of the world. I think you just have to realize that we are all capable of evil, at any point along our progression and that our path to perfection can make a U-turn if we're not careful. In that respect we are all the same. Any LDS member can BECOME that convict, but that doesn't make him that convict.
Something interesting from Scott Card, appearing in National Review Online. For even more interesting stuff, follow Scott's links.
ReplyDeletehttp://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmJmZDFiYmVkOTdlYjVmZmNiMzhhODEwYmYzMTRlMzg=&w=MA==
If you can't get this link to work, just Google Big Love? Big Deal Orson Scott Card
It's interesting, I think, that the church has been so often in the spotlight.
ReplyDeleteOne thing with which I disagree in Orson Scott Card's article is this statement:
"Mormons have always been the exception to America’s policy of religious tolerance."
I just think that's a little ... oversimplified. I don't think that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the exception, but rather an exception. I mean, for the last sevenish years, Islam has been the primary focus of attack here in the U.S. And persecutors of Jews even have a special name to describe them.
My point: It happens.
Also: It will happen.
But, y'know, the best part is that the Lord doesn't care what people think. 'Cause he's the Lord! [:~)
P.S. Sorry I'm really late. I wrote this last night.
But hey, y'know, late's my style! (Sorry.)
In response to Andrea's comments:
ReplyDelete[ “One man said, ‘I looked at my brother through the microscope of criticism, and I said, ‘How coarse my brother is.’ I looked at my brother through the telescope of scorn, and I said, ‘How small my brother is.’ Then I looked into the mirror of truth, and I said, ‘How like me my brother is.’’(Thomas S. Monson, Great Expectations, CES Fireside, 11 Jan. 2009)”
It might be said that President Monson was referring to other members of the Church or those with small flaws who are basically good, but surely not terrorists or anti-Mormons. If that is the case, then I wouldn’t say I’m qualified to draw a line for who falls under his words. ]
Despite their horrifying acts, these people are still included in that statement. They are human and are more like us than we would like to admit. I believe that everyone essentially tries to do what they think is best. The problem is that due to individual circumstances (parenting, mental illness, indoctrination, what have you) such people don't have a clear understanding of "what is best." This is why we are told to condemn the sin and not the sinner. Only God knows their individual circumstances and can judge where their hearts were in committing their crimes.