tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post8921397737014497518..comments2023-03-27T11:27:08.451-04:00Comments on Formerly Barred: I Stand All AmazedMormonRaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03756504100827863560noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-28079833452353233292010-11-07T04:54:54.229-05:002010-11-07T04:54:54.229-05:00Dan,
I can never not be inspired and grateful whe...Dan,<br /><br />I can never not be inspired and grateful whenever I read your posts; I struggle with many of the same issues. Attending BYU has thrown off my spirituality compass. My experiences here have left me numb and desensitized, no longer feeling close to a God I once held so dear. I enjoy your words because they so neatly articulate a struggle so universal. There are so many more bitter, wary, and spiritually exhausted individuals out there, both gay and straight, who can benefit from your example.Ferrari von Cartierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06145323893128825933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-40452790253417088762010-10-20T16:42:10.418-04:002010-10-20T16:42:10.418-04:00It makes feel so normal, that other adults like Aa...It makes feel so normal, that other adults like Aang the Last Airbender!! Chew, I was starting to worry I was not normal :p!Anishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01657496788368714894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-25676800878773694802010-08-30T23:02:47.173-04:002010-08-30T23:02:47.173-04:00Daniel, I agree with much of what Rob posted. Alt...Daniel, I agree with much of what Rob posted. Although I currently actively participate in the LDS Church, for several years, I did not even believe in God, not to mention His Son. <br /><br />I too blamed my feelings on the Church. It is hard not to when you are raised being a member of 'the one and only true church' and then you lose that belief. At least for me, when I lost my belief in the church, I lost my entire spiritual belief system because I thought everything I knew about spirituality came from the church. <br /><br />Now, I am grateful for that period of my life because it forced me to challenge every belief I had once taken for granted. I had to start from scratch, first desiring to know if there was a God, and then what that meant to me. Then I needed to know about Jesus Christ. Did I need a savior, and if so, was it Christ or someone else. <br /><br />My spirituality was reborn independent of the Church. Like Rob mentioned, it was a profoundly personal experience, not connected with any church. I have since come to believe the LDS Church is the best vehicle for me to learn of and implement the teachings of Christ, but that came much later. <br /><br />I hope that you are able to reconnect with Jesus somewhere, someway. I do know he is our Savior. Wherever you need to go to find him, I encourage you to do it. Through him, you will find peace and healing.Bravonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02762204502534599107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-76105515389073673662010-08-09T20:51:52.808-04:002010-08-09T20:51:52.808-04:00Well Mr. Artist, I think you should paint Jesus as...Well Mr. Artist, I think you should paint Jesus as you see and feel him at this stage in your life. Express yourself. Make him real. Rid yourself of Greg Olsen waxiness. I dare you.. It might help.cjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07498877442080688617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-78749700373573579382010-08-09T15:28:54.942-04:002010-08-09T15:28:54.942-04:00"Or for goodness sake when I need spiritual i..."Or for goodness sake when I need spiritual inspiration and have to find it in Aang the airbender, a children’s cartoon character?"<br /><br />That cartoon is AMAZING.chednerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963974112297032614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-45229206962912047232010-08-08T22:33:54.626-04:002010-08-08T22:33:54.626-04:00@Seth R.
Perhaps I wasn't very clear--that fir...@Seth R.<br />Perhaps I wasn't very clear--that first description of Jesus is sort of a combined description of what I saw in Jesus as a gay teenager and what I currently think I should see in Jesus as a gay man, but can't because of the baggage I accumulated in college. The first description is based off things I felt before college--things I wrote in my journal and things that I remember feeling.<br /><br />The second Jesus is based off my experiences at BYU and is quite different from the first.MormonRaisedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03756504100827863560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-34839072077327098362010-08-08T21:27:29.369-04:002010-08-08T21:27:29.369-04:00It's kind of odd that you accuse Mormonism of ...It's kind of odd that you accuse Mormonism of ruining your childhood image of Jesus - then you go on to present a detailed and nuanced detailed picture of Jesus that is obviously a position you formed about him later in life.<br /><br />No kid views Jesus in all the ways you list in your second paragraph. For most of them - Jesus is just a nice guy who was nice to people and died because other people were mean.Seth R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13769247769345052208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-67499717272752675382010-08-08T20:22:32.901-04:002010-08-08T20:22:32.901-04:00Oh Dan, I'm so sorry to hear all this. I stil...Oh Dan, I'm so sorry to hear all this. I still do and always have thought of him the way you first described. It's been easy for me to shuck off the cultural barnacles of a big church organization gone wrong in many ways and conclude that the Savior would be just as upset as I've been about a lot of things. I'm sorry it's been difficult for you.<br /><br />The thing I've always clung to is that my faith is not in the organization or its personnel. The church is a delivery vehicle, nothing more, and sometimes its deliveries don't work. When it comes to how I envision the Savior and a "personal relationship there," the church really doesn't even enter the equation for me. It's MY relationship, not theirs. The Olsen paintings and the Correlated lessons and all that, for whatever reason they don't ever touch me where it matters. I don't pray to the church or in its name. I don't look to anyone in the church for examples of how to live. I learned long ago that doing that is dangerous. There's only one person it's safe to rely on like that, and His is the only judgment or opinion I care about. And I can draw close to Him on my own just fine without the Olsen paintings and the boring lesson manuals and the weekly harangues about divine displeasure with lagging home teaching statistics.<br /><br />There's another reason too but it's kinda private, I'll tell you about it directly sometime. I hope you can get past all that negative programming Dan and return to your childlike faith. I didn't feel like going to my voraciously pro-Prop 8 ward today so I went to St. Paul's Episcopal instead, where I have friends who welcomed me with smiles and hugs. And I felt the spirit of Christ there too, the first one you described. It was wonderful.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02992194211469009236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2072949053404807587.post-30532094217618232232010-08-08T19:02:58.898-04:002010-08-08T19:02:58.898-04:00Even when I was still trying to reconcile what I d...Even when I was still trying to reconcile what I deeply felt with what is taught in Mormondom (both in the church officially and among the people culturally), I felt like an outsider. The Jesus you described in your second paragraph is the one that resonates most with me.<br /><br />It deeply saddens me that because Mormonism is so monolithic and obsessed with maintaining such unrealistically rigid rules of compliance, the talk of developing a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" is mostly empty words. I can envision a personal relationship with the critical-thinking Jesus. But I can't even fathom why I would want a relationship with the Jesus who combines the worst aspects of jaded bureaucrat, probation officer and Zeus. <br /><br />My experience trying to be the good, compliant Mormon boy ruined the concept of who Jesus was and ruined the potentially positive impact organized religion may be able to play in my life. I don't hate organized religion, though I understand why some do. It simply doesn't work for me right now, in a very similar way that you describe in your post.<br /><br />Daniel, I hope that you and I both can find ways to renew our sense of the divine in a way that <i>does</i> work for us. The excellent books written by Prof. Bart Ehrman have helped me in really wonderful ways to reframe my thinking about Jesus and what is attributed to him and written about him in the Bible. His personal story is compelling, in part because his academic path, his views on Christianity and the development of his personal beliefs are interwoven in such a fascinating way. I highly recommend his books.<br /><br />Thanks for another thought-provoking and heartfelt post!Pablohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15390721012768975275noreply@blogger.com