So I finally got around to editing my About page to change my LDS status. I can no longer call myself a Mormon. I just…can’t. I can’t call myself that anymore. Not after all that has transpired in the past few months and all the things I’ve learnt if it’s current practices and history. It breaks my heart to leave, there has been crying about this. And I don’t cry easy. I’ve realized that the LDS folks I’ve met here in Southwestern British Columbia are EPICALLY more tolerant than pretty much ALL OTHER Mormon’s. Except for maybe the awesome folks I’ve seen here Tumblr’s queerstake hashtag. So I wasn’t so much misled as exposed to a very rare occurrence. And just like I can’t be a Catholic for similar reasons, I can no longer be a Mormon. I cherish the friends I’ve made in my ward and #queerstake. But yeah. I can’t live a lie. I am still following the prompting of the Divine and I won’t let the higher ups in the church “take it from me”. My quad will sit lovingly on the shelf with the myriad of other scriptures from multiple faiths and I’m sure I will still pull it out from time to time. Short of an actual act of God or a schism within the church I don’t see it coming around any time soon, and just as I wouldn’t stay in an abusive relationship with a person or divinity, I won’t do it with the church either.
Thinky Thoughts – Mormon Edition
I would rather be punished by God at the end of days for treating others with kindness and accepting that love is love, than win an eternity by being a judgemental asshat.
Conflict
I ask the Spirit,
“What should I do in the face of this injustice? How can I stay when my heart is broken?”
And He answers,
“Do not let them push you away. Do not let them take it from you.”
It is now, when He is gone and truly becomes The Holy Spirit that I suffer with my Mormon stuff the most. I realized the synchronicity of some personal events with the coming of Spring and impending Easter. Understanding the unfolding of events doesn’t make it much easier to deal with though.
I don’t remember if I’ve actually written a full post on my Mormon issues or not. A lot of it stems from the leaked proclamation in regards to children of same sex couples.
Holiday Cards
So regardless of one’s culture and ancestry and what not, you can pretty much find Winter Solstice based traditions EVERYWHERE. The very least of these, in regards to sheer numbers, are Christian based traditions. Don’t quote me on this, it’s 2am and I feel sick, and my bullshit tolerance is in the negative somewhere, and I so don’t have the spoons to do all the actual research right now and find stats.
ANYWAY
Ever since the start of November I’ve been having some serious issues in regards to the LDS side of my practice. I still have Himself (and Odin, increasingly) kicking my ass to go get my Temple Recommend renewed and get my endowments done so I can get access to the fonts INSIDE the Temple. Ever see an image of a pissed off horse, wrenching on the bit, and getting close to bolting? That’s pretty much how I feel about the Church right now. I love Christ, I love the people in my ward, I love a lot of the teachings. But the people in charge seem to be a bunch of angry old white men who have lost connection with a good portion of the actual members of the Church. I’m hesitant to actually talk about it with my Church friends because I don’t want to hear a bunch of platitudes about how I should just shut the fuck up and do what the breathren tell me too. Support and sustain without question.
And then I come across shit like this and the whole idea of leaving the Church comes screaming back because FOR FUCKS SAKE ITS A CARD!!! A SIGN THAT SOMEONE CAREF ENOUGH ABOUT YOU TO SEND YOU A LITTLE NOTE.
Here is the posting from the Faceboom page of Dallin H. Oaks. My phone doesn’t want to copy the link.
A few years ago, I analyzed the Christmas cards I received at my office and home. There were many, so this was not a small sample. Significantly, my sample was biased toward religious images and words by the fact that most of the cards were sent by fellow leaders or members of my faith.
I sorted the cards I received into three groups. In the first group I put the traditional cards—those with an overt mention of Christ and/or pictures evocative of the birth of the Savior. Only 24 percent of the cards I received were of this traditional character.
In the second group were those cards whose pictures and visuals were not at all religious, but they did have the words “Merry Christmas” to identify the religious origin of the holiday. This was the largest group—47 percent.
In the third group—comprising 29 percent of the cards I received—there was no mention of Christ or Christmas and no religious visuals at all. These cards had words like “Season’s Greetings,” “Happy Holidays,” “Peace in the New Year,” or “Peace and Beauty of the Season.” A few were so daring as to refer to “Peace on Earth” or “Faith, Hope, and Love,” but none had any pictures suggestive of religion.
For Latter-day Saints, Christmas should be a time to celebrate the birth of the Son of God and also to remember His teachings. In reality, His life has had greater impact on every part of this world and its history than any life ever lived. His gifts to us are the greatest gifts ever given—the assurance of immortality and the opportunity for eternal life. Those are the gifts we should celebrate at this and every Christmas.
Mormon Bits
So April 30th of last year I was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Better known as Mormons. I know this is confusing because of all my Pagan stuff and I haven’t really explained ANY of my Mormon bits. It’s really confusing for me which makes it almost impossible to explain. IT’S SYNCRETISM PEOPLE!! Hermes=Jesus. Heavenly Father=Odin. Heavenly Mother=???. Why LDS Christianity and not some other form? Like the United Church of Canada that I grew up with? Apparently it has something to do with how the LDS folks treat their Dead. I have Work to do with Odin, Hermes and Poseidon with the Dead. So I don’t even know yet, I don’t get FULLY immersed in the rituals until my one year anniversary. Anyways. This song is my “Mormon” song because they teach how we are all Brothers and Sisters and how the end is coming but we just need to endure to the end. I dunno, maybe it’s only funny to me but Hermes and I both get the giggles from this song.
“Fallen” by Imagine Dragons
Run for cover
My sense of fear is running thin
Undercover
Just like a candle in the wind
Undercover
Just like a candle in the wind
Tell everybody, tell everybody
Brothers, sisters, the ending is coming
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Now we’re just gonna ride it out
Every morning
I’m staring shadows in the eye
Oh, good morning
Will you just wait until I die?
Tell everybody, tell everybody
Brothers, sisters, the ending is coming
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Now we’re just gonna ride it out
Tell everybody, tell everybody
Tell everybody, we are fallen
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Ohhhhh
We are fallen, we are fallen
Now we’re just gonna ride it out
I just want to take it in
Even when your fire runs out
Will you start it up again?
We are fallen
Perhaps a clue as to why I feel called to cover.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1 Kings 19:13
The power of Elijah is the sealing power of the priesthood by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven (D&C 128:8–18). Chosen servants of the Lord on earth today have this sealing power and perform the saving ordinances of the gospel for the living and the dead (D&C 128:8).
A Matter of Faith 