This I Believe

I Believe in God.

I believe that God is love.

I believe that belief is valuable.

I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Friend.

I believe that scripture (the Bible, Book of Mormon, etc.) is the word of God as understood by prophets, historians and others that recorded their revelations.

I believe that all can receive revelation from God.

I believe prophets receive divine guidance for the world, however filtered it may be by their own experience.

I believe that God communicates with me through the Spirit.

I believe that God constantly strives to help humanity better understand His word and truth.

I believe that Truth should be sought for and Embraced.

I believe that people are inherently good.

I believe that the worth of every soul is great.

I believe that I have a Mother in Heaven, without whom God is incomplete and not god.

I believe that men and women are equal and deserve equal rights.

I believe that we are all children of Heavenly Parents.

I believe that we all have freedom to choose.

I believe that we will be judged by what we have done with what we were given.

I believe that I have the divine potential to become like God.

I believe in the power of music.

I believe that all things testify of Christ.

I believe that literature, film and other mediums of art teach truth in profound ways.

I believe that life does not end with death, nor did it begin with birth.

I believe that life is to bring me joy.

I believe that joy is made sweeter by experiencing suffering and pain.

I believe in the power of laughter.

I believe that all things will fail, except for Charity- pure, divine Christ-like love.

I believe that embracing Truth will lead to joy.

I believe that Truth can be found in many places, but that Truth will always bring me closer to God.

I believe that belief is power.

To paraphrase the words of Mark in his ninth chapter, twenty-fourth verse, And straightway I cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

And This I believe. 

My Scripture: Sources of Truth

What is Scripture for you? Once I was asked this in a Bible as Literature class by the professor. My gut reaction was to spout off the LDS canon of scripture, The Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, yet something caused me to reflect and consider what I truly consider scripture and what makes something scriptural. Scripture for me is a source of truth. I am reminded of Nephi’s words in 2 Nephi 25:26 describing why they wrote and compiled records, “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”

Those purposes detail what makes things scriptural. That may seem limiting to some, but I find it to be rather inclusive and liberating. Alma 30:40-44 and Moses 6:63 expand the idea of what testifies of Christ and the reality of God by saying that “all things denote there is a God”. Hence, scripture for me has expanded to include works of literature, art, film, etc. I generally have rankings or categories for scripture that designate the weight given to them. The Canon is top, with words of prophets next, viewed as a commentary on or extension of the Canon, sometimes with disastrous implications, that I discount as scripture. Other religious texts, such as The Quran, form another category. The Bloggernacle and articles written for various Mormon or other religious studies’ journals provide perspectives and insight that I may not otherwise receive. However, the largest and for me most expansive and powerful supplement to scripture is great works of literature and film.

Some works that resonate strongly with me include the Harry Potter series, The Man Who Was Thursday, Trinity, A Tale of Two Cities, Ender’s Game, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”, “O, Captain, My Captain”, “Invictus”, Star Wars Saga, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Lion King, The Fountain, Les Miserables, etc.

These works have gained their personal scriptural status by the spiritual experiences that I have had interacting with them. The witness that I have felt from the Spirit helps me to better understand Truth. Perhaps this occurs because I have a deep abiding love for literature and film. Perhaps because the exploration of doctrinal truths in a different context causes new revelation to be had. Again, this is not to say that I value such works as greater than canonized scripture, but simply supplement the canon with works that I have interacted with and felt a deep, moving connection to the divine. I feel that as long as I am grounded in Canon, it is possible and beneficial to seek truth anywhere it can be found.

Ultimately, scripture is that which brings us closer to God, that teaches of truth. The truth may be expressed in a variety of ways, perhaps literature and film are not your thing, but you feel the majesty of God in nature or in a busy city. Maybe it’s art that touches you or photography or language. I seek for truth and embrace it, wherever it may be.

One Heart, One Mind: A Streetlight Manifesto

 In the dimly lit arena, we become as one. I can make out vaguely humanoid shapes, but without the distinguishing features that serve as the focus of so much of the day-to-day grind. No way to discriminate and judge one another. The band begins to play. Electric, horn-driven ecstasy flows from their instruments. The trombone and saxophone duel, a debate for the ages- for truth. The electricity rises and spreads from the stage to the crowd. It begins to awaken. Memories are stirred of why they came here, what drove them to this dark collection of misfits. Soon the power is too much and it shocks the crowd into action—a pulsating, perspiring pit of purity swirls around the arena. The crowd goes and soon I lose myself to the crowd. I too become one with the music, one with the truth and the purity channeled through the brass and through the strings and through the vocal chords.

No longer am I myself. I am one with the Streetlight, one with the Manifesto. I am carried away and join the we. ‘I’ is no more. Only we. We seem to be in chaos, jumbled and jostled, with power punches and scattered skanking, yet we are one. The chaos is the order. The truth is too pure to hold still- it demands movement, electrifying us to action, to continue in the purity of the pulsating, perspiring pit. On and on. It seems to never end.

When we slow down and I begin to drift out of the we, I notice the sweat and the smell of the underground. Only outside the we do I begin to remember the toils and pains of school and work, the grind that awaits. As I start to lose the drive, the transcendent touch of truth, the horn-driven electric ecstasy, returns. The crowd remembers once more the purity and power of the pulsating pit and I become we again.

Worry and anxiety drains from my body as I lose myself to the music. We are there for truth, for the liberation and freedom sung from the stage that stretches to touch all of us. In the midst of the pit’s pure pulsating chaos, smiles are shared, hands outstretched to lift a falling friend, as we join together in collective harmony, letting the truth flow through us. The anonymity of the crowd makes us one, no longer shackled to appearance and expectations. The power of the music stripping away the trappings of the world, leaving only the purity of transcendent truth that carries us together to new heights.

Fists fiercely raise in collective cries against the pressures and prejudices of the outside world. We rejoice in the freedom of ‘us’, rejecting the false notions of individuality and worth. The pit is pure electric truth channeling through all of us. The truth that I wish to float in and embrace. A truth made transcendent by the collective experience. Together we pulsed and punched and skanked to the beat of that magnificent horn-driven, electric truth long into the night.  

I lost myself and found myself in the WE.

A Skeptic and His Acorns

I am a skeptic, who loves questions and questioning (I created a list as a missionary of doctrinal questions numbering around 300, which I occasionally build on. Currently it’s over 400 questions). This can make watching General Conference an uplifting, yet frustrating experience. I am prone to dissect every word and phrase that’s spoken and try and build counter arguments while I’m listening, a practice formed while I participated in debate during high school. I can’t just take the words of the prophets and apostles as one hundred percent the will of the Lord. I know the scripture, “whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same,” but I cannot accept the fact that every word or phrase that crosses the lips of the men I sustain as prophets, seers and revelators is scripture.  

In fact, I tend to follow counsel spoken by J. Reuben Clark, who gave a fantastic talk on the subject of revelation and knowing when prophets speak as prophets. His basic premise is that if what is being said is true then the Spirit will testify to you of that truth. If you receive no witness, then it’s not spoken under the influence of the Holy Ghost and therefore not inspired or binding. I enjoy this approach, but it’s not without its own problems. What if you can’t feel the Spirit? How do you know what is a witness? What if two people watch Conference and claim to have opposing Spiritual witnesses about the same talk? What about the different levels of spirituality, specifically relating to the ability to recognize and follow promptings?

Having a sufficiently complicated understanding of revelation and scripture muddies the idea of sustaining the leaders of the Church. I wonder if there’s a threshold for the amount of material from General Conference that needs to be accepted as truth and acted on to truly sustain my leaders. Some would claim that if you truly think they’re prophets, seers and revelators, then you would believe 100% of what they say. I’m not one of those people and think that if most knew the vast amount of statements made that we would now consider ludicrous to accept, they wouldn’t suggest such a proposal either. Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk from the Saturday morning session, acknowledges that Church leaders have made mistakes in the past, an admission that implies that not all statements made by Church leaders are inspired. Uchtdorf’s talk was incredibly welcoming and compassionate, soothing my questioning, skeptical soul. His statement that “the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding,” was particularly comforting and stated what I have long felt and believed to be true.

I sometimes long for the ability to believe everything without questioning, thinking that life would be easier if I was blind to the complications that I see everywhere and in everything. However, the spiritual experiences I’ve had due to questioning and pushing deeper, seeking understanding, are of immeasurable value to me. I don’t know what I would do without trying to constantly resolve tensions and work out conflicts. There is beauty in that conflict, in the ambiguity and unknown. The conflict can be wearisome and seem fruitless, especially when others doubt the sincerity of my faith and belief, simply because I question or see things differently. At times like these, I’ll remember the words of Pres. Uchtdorf, the Silver Fox, knowing that my acorn of honest inquiry can grow to be a great oak of understanding. My method of inquiry may differ from others, or perhaps they were given the gift of a great oak, or feel as though the existence of other’s great oaks is enough. The moments when the acorn starts to grow, when life is seen overshadow the pain and inner turmoil. The sensation of Spirit surrounding me as I discover truths and gain understanding, as I tease out and break through the conflicts is Enlightenment. An experience that I constantly strive for and wouldn’t trade for all the certainty in the world.

Truth: Dangerously Transcendent

 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32

Truth is fascinating. It seems to be an abstract idea that we attempt to give an incredibly concrete definition. The idea of truth also seems to vary from person to person, sometimes significantly. I recently re-read “The Mantle is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect” by then Elder Boyd K. Packer and this is partially a response to that. I think of Truth as having two main sub-categories: Factual or Historical Truth and Transcendent Truth, relating to right and wrong, doctrine, unchanging principles to live by, etc. That distinction helps explain some of the divergence in opinions about what Truth is.

The two categories are more fluid than rigid and I think that they can support each other, but problems can be encountered when someone holds that what they perceive as Factual Truth to be Transcendent Truth and then they stumble upon Facts that destroy their image of the ‘Truth’.

One of my favorite things about Mormonism is the eternal thirsting for truth that is evident and encouraged by almost all of the early leaders of the Church. The encouragement supports seeking after both categories of truth. John Taylor, third President of the Church, said it beautifully:

 “We are open for the reception of all truth, of whatever nature it may be, and are desirous to obtain and possess it, to search after it as we would for hidden treasures; and to use all the knowledge God gives to us to possess ourselves of all the intelligence that he has given to others; and to ask at his hands to reveal unto us his will, in regard to things that are the best calculated to promote the happiness and well-being of human society.

If there are any good principles, any moral philosophy that we have not yet attained to, we are desirous to learn them. If there is anything in the scientific world that we do not yet comprehend, we desire to become acquainted with it. If there is any branch of philosophy calculated to promote the well-being of humanity, that we have not yet grasped, we wish to possess ourselves of it. If there is anything pertaining to the rule and government of nations, or politics, if you please, that we are not acquainted with, we desire to possess it. If there are any religious ideas, any theological truths, any principles pertaining to God, that we have not learned, we ask mankind, and we pray God, our Heavenly Father, to enlighten our minds that we may comprehend, realize, embrace, and live up to them as part of our religious faith. Thus our ideas and thoughts would extend as far as the wide world spreads, embracing everything pertaining to light, life, or existence pertaining to this world or the world that is to come. … They would soar after the intelligence of the Gods that dwell in the eternal worlds. They would grasp everything that is good and noble and excellent and happifying and calculated to promote the well-being of the human family.

There is no man nor set of men who have pointed out the pathway for our feet to travel in, in relation to these matters. There are no dogmas nor theories extant in the world that we profess to listen to, unless they can be verified by the principles of eternal truth. We carefully scan, investigate, criticize, and examine everything that presents itself to our view, and so far as we are enabled to comprehend any truths in existence, we gladly hail them as part and portion of the system with which we are associated. If there is any truth in heaven, earth, or hell, I want to embrace it; I care not what shape it comes in to me, who brings it, or who believes in it; whether it is popular or unpopular, truth, eternal truth, I wish to float in and enjoy.”

Taylor’s quote stands in stark contrast to the ideas put forth by Packer. He pushes for accepting truth wherever it is found, while Packer cautions about avoiding some facts and truths because they can damage faith. While the cautions from Elder Packer are well intentioned, I don’t think that hiding Truth is the answer. Particularly given the consequences for faith if we hide the truth. . Given that faith by necessity requires a foundation in “things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21), can we really have true faith if it’s based in something that is not True?

An integral piece of my understanding of God is that he knows all Truth, so the instruction to avoid and deliberately hide or cover up some parts of known truth, troubles me. Doing so would in effect cripple our ability to progress and become like God. A natural extension of limiting faith.

Perhaps there is a Truth that transcends Fact, an idea explored by a friend and relevant here as well as to the ideas of Paul H Dunn, the (in)famous general authority who told ‘true’ stories to illustrate principles that ended up being less than factual. Transcendent Truth enables an account or story to be true, yet utterly fictional. I find powerful truths in Harry Potter, Star Wars, A Tale of Two Cities, Les Miserables, The Lion King, and even The Dark Knight. The truth of these works of fiction is powerful, regardless of being devoid of fact.

I don’t know whether faith must be based in Factual or Transcendent Truth. Perhaps it can be in both. I lean towards faith being tied to the Transcendent. This allows members to gain faith in Joseph Smith with the mythologized version of history, as the focus is to teach Transcendent and not Historical Truth. The myth is not inherently fictional, myths often have Historical Truth as well. The trouble lies in Transcendent Truths also being labeled Historical Truths. Yet, I believe and have experienced, the strengthening of faith that comes from embracing truth. My faith needed (likely still needs) to be examined and even purified a bit, but I continue to adapt and find the freedom that comes with embracing and floating in eternal truth.   

Mormonism: Pragmatically Supernatural?

I’ve been thinking recently about two sides to Mormonism that seem to contradict and pull away from each other, creating tension. One side is the mystical or supernatural, while the other is the pragmatic.

There have been great comments about both sides throughout the Mormon intellectual world and some that aren’t directly pertaining to the question, but sparked thought for me. A few months back, an atheist visited an LDS sacrament meeting and was impressed with the pragmatic values that were taught. Later I read a couple of pieces from Sunstone about the importance of mysticism within Mormonism and the need to reclaim it. After that, I read the series about Mormonism and Transhumanism on RationalFaiths.

I was torn back and forth between mystical/supernatural and pragmatic. The transhumanism pieces, while not blatantly preaching pragmatism, suggested to me a pragmatic worldview, where God is an evolved human being, that we can work to reach the exalted state through science and technology, not through some spiritual transformation. A complete response would take too much time and space for this, but would be interesting.

Essentially, I felt compelled to try and reconcile two competing world views- the supernatural and the pragmatic. It seems easy to dismiss the supernatural as the stuff of myth, fantasy and children’s stories and to embrace the pragmatic, especially when there is such a benefit to the pragmatic aspects of Mormonism. However, while some may be spiritually satisfied with such a view, I cannot advocate such an approach. The supernatural feeds my faith and stokes my inner fire of curiosity.

Yet, something holds me back from fully accepting a supernatural world. Perhaps it is the ridicule that often greets those that express beliefs in ghosts, aliens and other unexplainable phenomena. Outside of religion (honestly, probably outside Mormonism), I am extremely skeptical of any supernatural events occurring. If I hold that God is a God of miracles and is the same yesterday, today and forever, why would the miracles and angelic visitations that accompanied the faith of the saints throughout the Old and New Testaments and the early days of the Church in the Latter days stop now? They wouldn’t.

Perhaps, I simply wish that the supernatural was more prevalent in our lives, so I could be a Jedi/wizard/mutant/superhero. That may be, but I know that I have had experiences with a ‘reality surpassing normal human understanding or experience,’ like that found by mystics. Such an experience serves as the foundation of my still abiding belief in God and Mormonism, with other experiences strengthening and building upon that foundation.

Without the supernatural and mystical elements and experiences, I would not have a burning desire to remain in the Church. Although, perhaps what seems supernatural is really in accordance with higher laws of science and nature and would appear completely pragmatic and rational, if we understood more. I don’t know how much things can and will be explained, nor do I know if that explanation can be as detailed as a scientific proof for the chemical reaction of photosynthesis.

Does the power of God inspire more faith if it can’t be explained? Would magic seem as awe-inducing if it were explained away with theories and formulas? Did The Force lose some of its cool, when it was stripped down to midi-chlorians? Maybe science is magic or magic is science and the same wonder from the unexplained can transfer to the transcendent explanation. Perhaps there is no innate special spiritual gift and we can all harness the laws of nature to work miracles and advance the work of the Lord. It’s about learning.

That’s the harmony between the mystical and pragmatic. What seems mystical is simply in line with a higher order of pragmatism, that once learned will enhance the experience with what was once mystical. No longer is it unexplainable, no longer need you stand as a bystander. Armed with knowledge, you can participate in the miraculous and supernatural. You can understand the why and appreciate the execution that much more for the art that is required, the beauty that accompanies it.

Believing in the supernatural and mystical is striving for a pragmatism that works in the ‘reality perceived as essential to the nature of life’ that mysticism interacts with. Thus, the truth appears to be found within competing contradictions.