Sunday, November 19, 2006
Hitting Home
A couple of months ago I was browsing through various wikipedia articles on the LDS church. After a couple of clicks to other websites, I found myself reading the story of a disgruntled former LDS church member who had been excommunicated in 1994. I soon realized that I had already read this lady's story several years ago, but something prompted me to read it again. To make a long story short, my synopsis is that she had been publishing LDS-related material that did not fit with LDS doctrine, so her bishop (possibly prompted by LDS church HQ) had asked her to stop. However, she had been presenting the material as her own ideas, not as official church doctrine, so she did not feel like she needed to stop. The bishop was perhaps too hard-headed, and she herself was probably too hard-headed, and sadly she ended up being excommunicated over the matter--even though she wanted to remain a member, and otherwise met the standards of the church.
When I had read this lady's account before, I had just thought "Oh, that's too bad. Too bad neither she nor her bishop would budge."
However, as I was reading it this time, I realized in a flash that I actually knew this lady's family! She referred to her husband and one of her sons by name, and as I was reading the account I realized that I was working with both the husband and the son at my job in Utah literally just weeks before the series of events that led to her excommunication took place. I don't think I ever met the lady, though. This was the summer before we moved to California; when we moved I never had a glimmer that anything like this was impending. (Since their last name is fairly common in LDS circles, the last time I had read the story, I hadn't even thought about the possibility that I might know her.)
As this realization dawned on me, I read the story in an entirely different light. Instead of just a casual, "that's too bad," I was filled with both love and grief for their family. I was deeply saddened by the bishop’s actions, and by her responses. I was also deeply saddened that many of the family's "friends" apparently started treating them like pariahs when the excommunication took place. I stayed up until at least 1:00 AM reading the lengthy account that this lady had written.
Since her published account ended a year or two after the initial events, I don't even know if/how things have been resolved since then; I guess it's not really my business, unless she chooses to put more of her story on the internet.
So instead of focusing on *her* story, I thought a little bit more about *my* reaction. When the characters in the story were strangers, I reacted with a “ho hum”. When the characters were people that I knew, I was captivated, entranced, and full of empathy. The story really hit home to me. I'm forced to wonder how I would feel if *all* news stories and the like, involved people that I knew personally. Obviously stories of war and famine would take on a new aspect--but so would stories of marriage and rescues. That would probably be a Good Thing.
As a final note, none of us are strangers to God. So perhaps the ability to consider all mankind our acquaintances is something that we should try to develop in our quest to become more godlike.
When I had read this lady's account before, I had just thought "Oh, that's too bad. Too bad neither she nor her bishop would budge."
However, as I was reading it this time, I realized in a flash that I actually knew this lady's family! She referred to her husband and one of her sons by name, and as I was reading the account I realized that I was working with both the husband and the son at my job in Utah literally just weeks before the series of events that led to her excommunication took place. I don't think I ever met the lady, though. This was the summer before we moved to California; when we moved I never had a glimmer that anything like this was impending. (Since their last name is fairly common in LDS circles, the last time I had read the story, I hadn't even thought about the possibility that I might know her.)
As this realization dawned on me, I read the story in an entirely different light. Instead of just a casual, "that's too bad," I was filled with both love and grief for their family. I was deeply saddened by the bishop’s actions, and by her responses. I was also deeply saddened that many of the family's "friends" apparently started treating them like pariahs when the excommunication took place. I stayed up until at least 1:00 AM reading the lengthy account that this lady had written.
Since her published account ended a year or two after the initial events, I don't even know if/how things have been resolved since then; I guess it's not really my business, unless she chooses to put more of her story on the internet.
So instead of focusing on *her* story, I thought a little bit more about *my* reaction. When the characters in the story were strangers, I reacted with a “ho hum”. When the characters were people that I knew, I was captivated, entranced, and full of empathy. The story really hit home to me. I'm forced to wonder how I would feel if *all* news stories and the like, involved people that I knew personally. Obviously stories of war and famine would take on a new aspect--but so would stories of marriage and rescues. That would probably be a Good Thing.
As a final note, none of us are strangers to God. So perhaps the ability to consider all mankind our acquaintances is something that we should try to develop in our quest to become more godlike.
# posted by John Colton @ 9:04 AM 
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That reminds me of the Sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon - how they were described as "shuddering" (or something like that) when they thought about any member of the human family not returning to live with Father in Heaven. Sometimes it's hard to feel that empathy all the time though.
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