For those you may not know, I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As such, I'm fairly conservative while being open to new ideas and approaches. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. Unfortunately, during my time in the "Mormon corridor" I've run across nothing but bias and close mindedness. While there is occasionally a cool person every now and then, for the most part the people here piss me off. I think my first push towards that direction came when someone, upon learning that I was from Maine, said "oh, it must be nice to be out here (Utah-Idaho) where the church is so much stronger." When I answered "no, the church may be smaller, but it's just as strong as Utah," I was given a knowing wink before the subject was changed.
Personally I'm of the philosophy that size has nothing to do with strength. Those familiar with the bible may remember a story or two about that. I've found that those members that live in areas where the church may be smaller are actually stronger in their faith because they have to make a more conscience decision to live the gospel.
A great reflection of this is sacrament meeting, especially fast and testimony meetings. It seems that many have a problem separating the spirit from emotion. My personal favorite is when a speaker will lower their voice and whisper what they are saying so they can be more dramatic and have more of an emotional response. Things like that sicken me. I firmly believe that if you're going to do something, you need to do it for the right reasons- not for the reward, not because you were told to, but because it's RIGHT. Moroni 7 says more than enough on this subject.
It is this level of insincerity that really gets to me. A person can act as spiritual as they like, but in the end the spirit is not going to testify just because you say the right words in the right tone of voice.
This whole issue comes to a head in my mind when I hear people explain why a movie such as The Passion isn't worth watching.
First of all, the Lord has told us that it is not our place to judge, Also, Moroni has told us that if we must judge, we do it by judging whether something brings us closer to God or whether it drives us from him. With me so far?
And so, it seems to be that while me must decide what we expose ourselves too, and no point does it become cool to judge something and speak against something that we know nothing about. My example her is "Million Dollar Baby." While I did not like what I was hearing about the movie, I did not consider myself authorized to comment on it until I saw it.
I feel the same way about "The Passion." When the movie first came out, of course I felt uneasy and disturbed by what I was hearing about the movie. I loved how people called it evil and sacrilegious when it not only taught about Christ but stayed true to the gospel accounts. When I saw the movie, I was blown away. The Movie builds to the end, at which point we see the resurrection and the purpose of Christs actions. While the movie is absolutely emotional and does play to the heart, at the same time the spirit testifies of the message and story. Not only is this movie true events, but it's purpose is a righteous one- to bring men unto Christ.
And so, imagine my amusement when people begin to speak against the movie. Interested, I asked them to cite example from the movie. Upon further investigation I discovered that these naysayers had never seen the movie. Yet the were speaking against it (a bible a bible, we have a bible and need no other). It was not until I heard their argument that I was really angered. The movie, they said, "played to the emotions, and people confused that with the spirit, and thus fail to realize how evil the movie is."
Let's take a moment for dramatic irony, shall we? These same people who pretended to be spiritual, who play act on the stand during sacrament in order to impress the congregation, accuse a truly spiritual movie of insincerity? It was almost enough to make my head explode.
It seems to me that as a people we have begun to lose the ability to think and reason for ourselves. We have lost and forgotten those tools, such as the spirit, that help us to recognize truth. It makes me sad when people take words and ideas that they like and feel comfortable with over the truth and the right.
We must start recognizing the real reasons for why we are here on earth. As a people, we need to distanced ourselves from the "collective" and allow our minds and hearts to find the truth for themselves. Only then will we be worthy to enter the kingdom of God. If that's your thing, anyway. As for me, I just want to go see my father again.
