The new Executive Director of the Sunstone Educational Foundation gave me a gift of Krista Tippett’s book “Speaking of Faith.” I haven’t finished the book yet, but I have read some sentences and paragraphs over and over again, savoring the words. Chapter One: “Religions are containers for human identity.” I keep coming back to that sentence. It describes one of the problems I have with finding my place in Mormonism: because I don’t know what kind of Mormon I am, I don’t know what kind of person I am.
Being a believing Mormon framed my life. What I drank, what I did for fun, how I spent my Sundays, what I taught my children, who I slept with (or more accurately, didn’t sleep with) were all behaviors defined by my religious identity. I poured my self into my Mormonism and it contained me. When I lost my faith, I didn’t know who I was any more. I lost my “self” because I had defined myself by the container. When I created a new self-definition based on my non-belief, which had its own constraints and social norms, I had found myself a new container. Now that container doesn’t fit either.
What does the container look like for those taking the Middle Way? Sometimes I feel like my identity changes depending on who I’m with. I have friends on both sides of the fence and I treasure those friends. The social norms of one group are different from the social norms of another. It’s not only that the behaviors differ, the values are different. It would make little sense to recommend to a non-believing friend, “maybe you should pray about it.” It would offend a believer for me to say of Apostle X, “He’s just another clueless old guy.” Either of these statements can seem natural and sensible to me.
Perhaps the new container for my identity doesn’t have solid sides. It shapes itself based on its environment. NOMs are often accused of being inauthentic or disingenuous or lacking integrity. Perhaps it’s because our containers change based on context - not because we’re insincere, but because we are sincere. When we present one way to one group and another way to a different group, it’s because we are sharing authentic aspects of our identity that fit with our current circle. We’re celebrating what we have in common. That’s not insincerity.
Being in a flexible container can make it difficult to define and find our “self.” It’s better, though, than forcing ourselves into a container where we don’t fit.
Sunstone has hired a new executive director.
I, for one, welcome our new super-positive overlord.
Congratulations, John.
My ward had it’s pioneer day sacrament meeting last week. That’s a week earlier than usual. The choir had a song prepared, and our best tenor was leaving town this week. Our best tenor is also the bishop, so he rearranged some things.
With all of the Mormon Matters podcasts I’ve been participating in the over the last month or two, I’ve become enamored of the sound of my own voice. Instead of writing about last week’s Pioneer Day meeting, I recorded my thoughts about it. If you’d like to hear about how it went, here’s the MP3.
Here is the link to the midi file and the full text of the hymn I talk about in the ‘cast.
What do y’all think about Pioneer Day? Anything fun happening with the Utahans tomorrow? I used to think it was really dumb of the Utahns to have a day off and parades for a holiday that nobody else in the country celebrated or cared about. Then I moved to Southeast Louisiana, and suddenly it didn’t seem so dumb. Although I’ll bet nobody flashes their breasts to get cheap plastic beads at Pioneer Day parades, and there’s no king cake season (yum, king cake!) leading up to the Big Day.
I’ve never been very eager about home teaching, but I hadn’t considered it dangerous. Until recently, that is.
The Deseret News reports that a home teachee pistol whipped his home teacher in Provo. Apparently they were arguing - maybe over the beattitudes? - and the teachee pulled out his “large silver revolver” and hit the teacher in the face with it. According to the report, he’s awaiting bond. I’m guessing that he won’t be calling his home teachers for help in posting the $5000.
And it isn’t just the home teachers who can find the assignment dangerous. The recent story from Oregon about the man who allegedly molested a child while he was the family’s home teacher suggests that the person in the white shirt & tie may not necessarily have your best interests at heart. No, the world is a more complicated place than that.
My own experience with home teaching has been much more mundane. As a child, I wasn’t usually very excited when the home teachers came to visit. The strongest memories I have of home teaching as a teen were that one of my companions, Brother Johnston, was a very nice guy who knew my grandpa years ago when they worked together in the mine. Oh, and that one of the families had a Playboy calendar posted conspicuously near the front door. I suppose that some people would consider that a dangerous assignment, but I was a teenage boy, so I counted it a blessing.
A few years ago, the relief society did a lesson for the benefit of the priesthood about what they have learned from home teaching. One sister described how her home teacher was there when she needed him to be. The other described how her home teacher was a slothful servant whose lackadaisacal attitude prevented her from having the priesthood in her home. The odd thing is that they were both served (or not) by me. I saw them the same, treated them the same, and to one I was a shining example while to the other I was unfit to be called a home teacher. Different people have different expectations, don’t they?
I’m not currently home teaching, but we do let home teachers come by on the last day of the month. They are nice people, and it makes them feel better. They seem safe, and I promise not to pistol whip them.
In the latest Mormon Matters podcast, there’s a really excellent discussion about a recent church news release, titled Approaching Mormon History, which was apparently written in response to the increased media attention the church has received in recent months. According to the article, “Some [journalists] have questioned the miraculous aspects of the faith and have inquired as to why Latter-Day Saints continue to believe them as reality and not myth.”
The piece goes on to use various quotes from general authorities, many of them taken directly from the interviews Helen Whitney conducted for her recent PBS documentary, to reaffirm the church’s status as a literalist religion—and essentially assert that literal belief in certain key foundational events is the source of much of the LDS church’s religious power.
For me (and probably many other NOMs and Borderlanders), this topic strikes a sensitive nerve. First, I strongly disagree that religious power—including the ability to transform lives and change behavior—can only come from a literal belief in sacred stories. I was put off by the news release’s dismissive, almost condescending attitude toward a symbolic, non-literal approach to religion. Continue reading ‘Where Does History End and Myth Begin?’
The newest Borderlands article is out from Jeff Burton. It is entitled: “Is Life in the Borderlands Working For You?”
As far as I’m concerned theculturalhall.com, New Order Mormon, and Jeff’s Burton’s “Borderlanders” are all identical.
Anyway, I really enjoy and highly recommend Jeff’s stuff. In fact, I think Jeff Burton is the High Priest of this space (as long as we’re allowed to jointly annoint Ann Porter as the High Priestess, of course). 
Anyway, check it out. And if you like (or dislike), please let Jeff know what you think.
The high councilor’s story was something like this. Two young men in South Carolina were driving down the road when they saw a woman struggling to change the tire on her car. According to the young men, she was elderly; the high councilor elicited a chuckle from the audience when he said, “but to these young men, that might have meant she was in her 40s.”
After they changed her flat tire, she reached in her purse to offer them something to repay their kindness. Out from her purse she pulls two Super Bowl tickets. The boys are overwhelmed with her generosity, and they all go their separate ways. Continue reading ‘Super Bowl - Sized Sundays’
I watched a really interesting interview last night with Paul Simon. Charlie Rose was asking Paul about his creative journey as a song writer. Paul’s response made me reflect back on a post I wrote a few months back called “The Circle” http://theculturalhall.com/?p=59
Read Paul Simon’s response below and tell me how this resonates with your spiritual journey. It certainly resonates with me.
“Now when I write, I’m back to just me and a guitar. It’s come full circle. Of course now I know what I didn’t know when I first started. You start with something simple. Then you build it into a more complex problem. And when you solve that complex problem, you start again with something simple and you build it back up to complexity. And keep reducing it back to something simple. So what happens, as the years go by it starts to get like a Zen puzzle. It has to be simple but contain all the complexity.”
The new Harry Potter book comes out July 21st, and I’ve been rereading the past volumes so I can remember all the details when I start Volume #7. I’ve just completed “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which is the fifth in the series. Near the end of the book, Dumbledore, the kindly headmaster of the boarding school for young wizards, explains to Harry why he has been so distant the entire semester. He has been trying to protect his young charge. Then, in a passage that seemed to me strangely reminiscent of our Church, he tells Harry that he has been withholding the truth for many years. Notice Dumbledore’s motivations for so doing: Continue reading ‘The Church and Dumbledore–Benevolent Secrecy’
In the lobby of the courthouse hangs a reprint of a 16th-century Russian icon. The painting is of Jesus holding a Bible. The scripture reference is to judging righteously, written in Russian. Underneath the painting is a sign: “To know peace, obey these laws.” The ACLU wants the city to take down the sign and the painting. The presiding judge has said that they both stay.
During our patriotic testimony meeting yesterday, several speakers spoke about how grateful they are for the constitution, and our freedom to worship as we choose. One testimony addressed The Painting. The speaker was pleased with the judge’s refusal to take the painting down. I did not share with the congregation how grateful I am for the establishment clause. I did not explain my belief that without it there would be no guarantee of freedom to worship as we choose, and probably no restoration either. Instead, I will regale y’all with a story of God, Football, and Santa Fe, Texas. Continue reading ‘Fast and Political Issues Meeting’
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