(written on October 7th from notes taken previously)
I was up relatively early, but I mostly just wasted my early-morning hours.
Saw the news that President Nelson had passed away. Certainly not a surprise with him having recently turned 101 years old, but also a little sad. In the short time that I have been back as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, I’ve really appreciated him. I was a true prophet of God to me.
I ate some breakfast and then headed over to Cascade Springs to take a quick bath before heading off to Church.
After sacrament meeting, I spent some time just hanging out in the parking lot alone. Someone during sacrament meeting had mentioned that there was an attack on an LDS church in Michigan, so I apprised myself of the details while I was in the parking lot before heading back inside for second hour.
I spent a good chunk of the day after church, far too much, following the news of what happened in Michigan.
I spent a fair bit of time online on YouTube responding to comments. Many political leaders, media, influencers, etc, described the events as being an attack against a Christian church, identifying it as an LDS church and categorizing us as a Christian church.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I appreciate that. Certainly, we have doctrines that don’t align with mainstream Christianity, but Jesus is the center of our faith, our Savior, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
But many people were jumping into the comments on these videos describing the tragedy and the unfolding details and were using the comments sections to say that we’re not Christians.
I spent quite a long time attempting to kindly share our beliefs about Christ, that we are indeed Christian, and I hope it made a difference. I know it won’t make much of a difference to some, perhaps even many or most, but at the very least, I hope to be an example to fellow Latter-day Saints that we can respond with love and kindness and don’t need to hit back at those who might be anywhere on the spectrum from insensitive to hateful.
As an aside, I’m growing more and more tired of the overuse, from my perspective, of the word hate.
I see it everywhere.
Is there hate, certainly. But most of what I see described as hate is disagreement.
Disagreement does not signal hate. Opposition does not equate hate.
I really hope we can grow out of our culture of extremism. Superlatives in verbiage seem to dominate; and our cultural perspectives seem to have followed suit.
I can’t think of the words I want at the moment.
Anyway, I hope to be able to bring people together, and I’m grateful for the non-Latter-day Saint voices that have come out in support and defense of me and the Church I have chosen to be a part of.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 