In the paper today I read about Pope Benedict’s trip to Brazil. While there are of course several points of doctrine on which I disagree with the Catholics, the fact remains that for the most part we’re trying to do the same thing: teach people to love Christ and be better people. I certainly can’t fault them for that. To the contrary, it makes me love them even more. (My mother’s aunt was a Catholic nun in Pennsylvania, by the way.)
In fact, the article made me feel wonderfully good as I read about Benedict’s “uneasiness with the effects of popular culture on young people.” He said, “Any trend to produce programs and products — including animated films and video games — which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion.” Yes!
Really, so many of the Catholic Church’s positions — on abortion, euthanasia, and sexual morality, to name just a few — are almost exactly in line with what I believe. It warms my heart to hear people stand for righteousness, regardless of what sect they belong to. I know some harbor ill feelings towards the Catholics, but shouldn’t we be rejoicing in the common ground we share rather than attacking each other because of our differences? Sure, I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s true church. And the Catholics believe theirs is true. So? I should hope they believe their church is true — if not, what’s the point in belonging to it?
And what about the miracles? I’ll admit that my first reaction was that they’re bogus, but I quickly caught myself as I realized that the exact same argument could be leveled against all the miracles we believe in. I therefore suspend judgment, because I really don’t know if all these Catholics miracles are real or not. They very well could be. And I’m really hoping they are; I’d be delighted to find out that’s the case.
In any event, we too often get caught up in the divisions between us. Yes, there are differences. But they don’t matter nearly as much as we think they do, at least when it comes to interactions between us. (And by “us” I mean almost any two groups.) There are very few groups in the world so morally bankrupt that there are no common beliefs. I’m not arguing for a joint weekend activity with Al-Qaida. But the Mormons and the Muslims, for example, or the Episcopalians, or the Catholics, or even the Scientologists — there’s definitely room for all of us.
One last thing. While we do recognize our differences, it’s crucial that we stay far, far away from ridiculing and belittling others’ beliefs. Unless something is a serious human rights violation, which usually isn’t the case, it’s better for us to stay off each other’s toes. Well, as long as we don’t voice our low opinions of other beliefs, aren’t we okay? No, I say. We need to root these weeds out of our minds and thought systems, replacing them with a peaceful and loving acceptance of other beliefs even when they’re vastly different from our own.
I don’t have to agree with all the other beliefs out there in the world, but I will defend others’ rights to have those beliefs, as long as they don’t harm others.
Comments
I really like this–It tastes good! I wanna be more like that. President Hinckley would definitely approve!
Turning hearts starts with ours!
I feel that the tendency to focus on differences instead of uniting on common ground is the reason the secular humanist worldview has prevailed in textbooks and in the classroom; because those of faith were to divided over doctrine to stand together.
I read an interesting book by Noebel, “Understanding the Times.” Which compared Biblical Christianity, Secular Humanism, and Marxist Communism as three major worldviews that vied for control in the West during the 20th Century.
The author compared the three on the following ideas:
Theology
Philosophy
Ethics
Biology
Psychology
Sociology
Law
Politics
Economics
When I was finished I tried to articulate what I believed, making up words to describe my thoughts. In the end I googled the words I came up with and realized that many had already been coined. I am sure as my depth and breadth of learning expands that those definitions will be found wanting.
Diplomacy and brotherly love is about building bridges of understanding and tearing down walls of ignorance that keeps us separate and slows our progress.
There will be people of other faiths that are living the terrestrial law that will be here during the millennium, and there will be some “active” members that do not. I teach my kids that the Gospel is to judge our own heart, and not for use to measure others by, becuase we only see through a glass darkly.
Dear Ben,
Your have an awesome heart and a wonderful mind. Thank you for sharing them with your readers.
I raised my children in Washington State. Their friends attended the Mormon dances. My girls went to their friend’s Bar Mitzvahs and church youth activities. The community gathered at a cathedral every Christmas Eve to perform Handel’s Messiah. My daughter’s high school string quartet played for several different churches’ Christmas and Easter services. The school choirs sang sacred music. The Veggie Tales movies were everyone’s favorite entertainment on the school buses going to and from field trips, and kids got together and prayed. My experience was that all of this built bridges of understanding and respect. It also provided me the opportunity to teach my children the gospel in a way that helped to fortify their testimonies as we talked about the doctrines, and they became very well versed in the scriptures. I grew up in Kansas with a similar experience and my testimony is very strong.
As a young mother, I was moving from Utah to Michigan with exactly enough money for the trip. I was driving alone with my four little girls when my car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Kansas has a lot of nowhere! I could see for miles and there was nothing. I prayed, “Heavenly Father, I need a ministering angel!†and a man showed up out of nowhere and towed me into town. He gave me $20 to feed my children while the good men of the town looked under my car’s hood and extracted the offending part. They called a shop owner to open his store and fix my car. The branch president came and purchased a replacement part. I was put up in a hotel for the night, fed breakfast the next morning, given $50.00 from my angel and wished God speed. The only request was that I let the good men of the town know that I had arrived safely in my new home in Michigan.
In Troy, MI, I got on my knees and told the Lord that I needed a place to live, that was in a safe neighborhood, and that would accommodate nine children for the summer. Immediately, my phone rang and a stranger on the other end of the line said, “I understand that you are looking for a house.†My new landlord told me that they had a house that was tied up in litigation, and that they had determined to leave it vacant during the litigation, but that they were God fearing people, and that they felt impressed that I was to be in that house. Later, my neighbors came to me and told me that they had been fasting and praying that I could buy that house, and that they had come up with $32,000.00 dollars to give to me for a down payment. These wonderful neighbors were of several different faiths.
Are these miracles? I believe that they are. I believe that they are as real as the miracles of having my children healed during a priesthood blessing while I was holding them in my arms, or the miracle of receiving divine intervention to stop someone from killing me when I started to pray. I know that there is a God who loves His children and hears and answers their prayers regardless of their faith. For me, it is a matter of knowledge rather than a matter of faith.
There are so many good people out there. They are our brothers and our sisters. They have good hearts and tender spirits. They are trying their best to love, nurture and protect their children. It has been my observation that whenever someone says something “stupid†condemning people of faiths different than their own, it is because they lack knowledge, faith or conviction in their own faith, or in their children’s testimonies. We can work together and we must work together. We all need all the help we can get.
I had a saying posted on my refrigerator door when I was raising my children: “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to criticize the rest of us.â€
I am grateful that I have a testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that Joseph Smith was and is God’s prophet. I also rejoice in the righteous teachings of the Pope to his people, and I believe that there are threads of truth coming down from Adam, Noah, and Abraham to all the inhabitants of the earth. It is interesting to note that when the scriptures speak of being either of the church of God, or of the church of the devil, the word church meant group or organization and was not specifically related to religion.
Holly: President Hinckley’s words did indeed come to my mind as I was writing this post, and I’m glad something of the spirit of them came through. :)
Donna: The last sentence of your comment is the topic of a blog post that’s been simmering on my back burner for the last couple of weeks. I guess I partly opened the vein with this post, almost without realizing it, but that’s quite okay. :) And so instead of responding to your comment, I’ll save it for the post, soon to be forthcoming.
J: Thanks. :) And I’ll have to save my responses to your comment for my next post as well. And I agree that the church of the Lamb v. church of the devil distinction doesn’t mean actual denominations the way we think of it now, but instead refers to where one’s heart is. There are “Christians” in name who are whole-hearted members of the church of the devil, and there are pagans who are closer to the spirit of Christ than many of us. Insides matter more than outsides.
once you start using phrases like, ‘the one true church’, you set yourself apart from the teachings of christ.
as i try to say on my website, EuthanasiaClinic.com, there is only one god and that is a god of compassion and mercy. euthanasia is a compassionate choice for many people who suffer needlessly.
My spelling typo?
Tola: Well, I happen to disagree on both counts, but considering the nature of this post it probably wouldn’t do well to dwell on that. ;) So instead, I’m glad you believe in a God of compassion and mercy — so do I. And I’m glad you care about the teachings of Christ — so do I. Nor do I want people to suffer needlessly. I think there are different perspectives on both problems, of course, but that’s inevitable in this world.
Donna: No, heavens, no — I meant the measuring others, seeing through a glass darkly, the ideas in that sentence, not the sentence itself. :)
I know. I just caught the typo when I reread the sentence.
Amen, brother.
Throw in your two cents