Snow on Snow
Snow began to fall on 29th November – second anniversary of Storm Arwen, which was the most destructive storm in this region for a century; and has continued being added to since.
It is not very deep snow, but it has persisted for five days so far; and is proper snow – covering every twig of every tree – and the leaves have not yet fallen from the oak in our garden; and thick enough for sledging and snowmen.
–Bruce Charlton, with a personal touch.
I haven’t been to his place in a few weeks, so I was interested to see that roughly the same thing has been on our minds lately. This post in particular really spoke to me:
Therefore, the only way actually to be a Christian is to take the risks of being deceived.
And to have faith that anyone who is genuinely motivated to God and Jesus Christ will be able to receive the necessary divine corrections, when things go wrong.
(When, not if, things go wrong.)
I don’t agree with everything he says in the post, obviously. I don’t think all institutions and churches are on net corrupted and so on–in fact, my own view is that its one of the ways where for a long time our friend Bruce has been deceived and isn’t taking risks. But his main point is overwhelmingly correct.
My recent post about being on the cliff’s edge leaping was about this, though covered with enough of my typical literary effusion that it may not have been noticeable.
The Church is in fact a safety net, which means you need to be balancing on high enough wires that you sometimes fall. It is in fact a hospital, which means you need to be going out to get injured. Much of what we do in the gospel is giving you a shove to go fail. As Bruce points out, the most important way is in building spiritual experience and contact with God.
bruce g charlton
December 8, 2023
@G – Thanks for noticing this!
Of course, my conviction that the church is not only no-longer a safety net, but that it will (sooner or later) spiritually be fatal to regard it as such – is the difference between us in these matters.
I am not against any Christian church (least of all the historical CJCLDS – to whom I owe *so much* of what I regard as the most vital and important knowledge!); but I believe (here-and-now – ‘tho’ ’twas not always thus) it is only “safe” to participate in any church from the primary situation of taking explicit personal responsibility for core Christian convictions.
This was, as you know, one of The Major strands of Joseph Smith’s revelations – although it has, to my mind, since been rather buried under “church order” considerations (as began during his lifetime). In a sense, I am just saying that we now need to revisit these aspects of his early ideas – and put them at the centre of our lives.
Many Christians observably do this already – yet few, so far, will acknowledge that this is what they are actually doing. And this is the problem and weakness I call Bad Faith.
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-bad-faith-of-traditional-christians.html
G.
December 8, 2023
“It is only “safe” to participate in any church from the primary situation of taking explicit personal responsibility for core Christian convictions.”
Just so. Amen. Or perhaps it would be better to say “right” instead of safe.
I know exactly the tendency you are fighting against. Even the best of churches can’t help but but partly affected by the widespread corruption of the world we live in, and ours is no exception. Indeed, even starting from a purely LDS doctrinal base there is no good reason to think that personally, collectively, and institutionally we won’t be affected. At the same time, I find plenty of resources from within the church urging me not to be complacent, not to treat the gospel like a system instead of as a pilgrimage into the divine family, beginning with the Holy Ghost but also resoundingly with President Nelson’s 8 Keys to Revelation talk and with the conversations and testimonies I get from my friends in our congregation as they tell me about their daily struggles and triumphs. In fact, some of the stuff we do that most bugs me, like reducing the standards for youth, is clearly and explicitly coming from Salt Lake as a direction that we need to be less reliant on Salt Lake to tell us what to do and more willing to ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.’ Realistically speaking my own home has become a stronger independent pillar of faith because of the church directive to do home church–which sounds like a paradox but isn’t. From what I know of private conversations, I think you might find at least some of the apostles much more sympathetic to your point of view than you might think.
But if I could have a heart to heart with every LDS person about your quote there about the attitude one should have when participating in organized religion, I would. A lot of them would already know it. For some of them, it would be dangerous…their idea of ‘core christian convictions’ is already too tinged by various lies, and obedience to authority is one of the things keeping them from a crash. But for many extremely good people, it would I think be a pretty clarifying conversation that helps them take various truths they already know and click them into a coherent framework.
Even so, and from the standpoint of being more dubious about some institutional commitments than most LDS people I know, my feeling when I read you write about the Church from the outside is like the Spartan emissaries talking to the Persian satrap. “The half has not been told you, Hydarnes. Because if you know how sweet [living the gospel as a people is] you would tell us to fight for it not with spears only, but with axes.”
Bruce, please be aware that our policy with respect to you is the same as our policy with respect to faithful LDS readers. “All rebukes gratefully accepted.” You and they are are obviously touched with holiness and love and we delight to hear from y’all when you think we are off course.