in the contemporary church but I got to see these past few days…and to me they were beautiful.

1) 75 or so people gathered to worship on a Friday morning on a non-holiday.

2) A couple of hundred people sitting and talking at a potluck on a Thursday night until well after 9pm – kids included. Even as I watched people leave, the exits were at a cost. You could see that people enjoyed time together and really could just sit and keep enjoying this space together.

3) An older pastor/priest (in his 70′s I guess) given space to participate in leading the worship gathering. His steps to the lectern were slower than they probably once were. His hands were a bit shaky. You could see that keeping his place in delivering the text took effort, again much more than it once did and at times as he sang the scriptures his voice wavered and cracked. BUT, as he chanted the gospels, no one thought any less of him. I would argue they thought more. It was beautiful to see this aged man walk with measured steps but with peace and purpose. Though I don’t know his whole story, he obviously has a rich one. His gifts of service and love have one him respect and honor in this community of believers. It is apparent that he has given much for them and the the community loves him. He was honored by the unwavering attention of the audience and we were honored to have such a beautiful servant of God be part of leading us in the liturgy.

4) A father teaching his son how to sing/chant in the liturgy. They stood at the front left of the worship gathering and every time that the father played a part in leading us through the liturgy he pointed or signaled to his son…teaching him what was going on. Mentoring at it’s best – brilliant. This father and son are both learning amazing lessons here as are we for getting to witness this.

5) Older women speaking into younger ones. In this community of believers I have now on three separate occasions in the past week seen older women take the time to stop or sit and talk to my daughter, Aubrey. They’ve answered questions or explained things to her. This paired with #4 has shown me how much I miss being part of a multigenerational community of believers. Many of our pop churches are missing out on these mentoring opportunities because we either a) don’t have older generations in our churches or b) have the generations segregated the vast majority of the time.

Thank you Lord for these treasures!

(Sarcasm Warning. I tried to keep it light. I mean this is the 3rd re-write/edit.)

This post may offend or may go too far…it is not my intent, but I’ve been thinking about it all day week. So here it is. My point is the apparent correlations and I wonder if this really does say something about us?

A couple of Givens:

1) America has produced 1 religion that is really ours alone. (started here, grew up here; exported from here): Mormonism
2) The last few years have taught us, I think…or maybe has taught me That our countries values are way out of whack in some areas. We are a bit self-centered, greedy and consumptive at times – all of which have let us to some pretty brutal and pivotal moments. At the same time we are expansive and like to take new ground; we like to win. We are ambitious; we go after what we want, and as a rule Americans just don’t, or don’t have to settle, for their place. There is always the chance to take new ground, gain a new station in life.

With those givens (in my thinking) I find it ironic that several pieces of our only home grown religion’s theology directly relates to several of our values or blindspots. Mormonism seems to provide a way to scratch where many Americans itch. Some of it good like there focus on family and morality. But there are some itches they are scratching that are part of the side of us that is not as grand; the parts that reveal our fear and need for superiority. I wonder if Mormonism doesn’t really seek to provide the American dream?

In Mormonism…

Truth is better told by us or we have a better form of the truth. (American exceptionalism)
Mormonism teaches that the Holy Bible is a start but is not complete or is even corrupted. The real truth came to an American.

The real paradise is here – also known as…there’s no place on Earth better than America.
No the Garden of Eden wasn’t in the middle east. How could it be silly? It was in Jackson County, Missouri.

You really are the master of your fate.
So after you quest for perfection (perfect for suburban living) you get to be a god. Most people spend their whole lives trying to control their own world. Mormonism says sure…in the afterlife not only your life, but the life of others as well – just jump through these hoops. You can be a god, just like you always wanted to be.

You can have it all!
Mormonism teaches that not only can you be a god; you can have your own planet! How much more can you get than that? That’s Boss!

Lack of Self Control, Justification, Lust
One day men, you can have a bunch of wives & a bunch of little you’s.

Other races are inferior
Oh wait, just like America, God evidently changed his mind about that around 1978. Funny how the Mormon church only lagged the Civil Rights Movement by a few years. So I wonder how it happened? Did God, or I’m sorry…Heavenly Father, change his mind in the 60′s and cause the Civil Rights movement paving the way for people of color to become not inferior to white people or…did free will of the 60′s movement lead God to go “Hmmmmm. I may have made a mistake there. Thanks MLK! Mormon peeps, I’ve changed my mind. Black folks are good people. Go get ‘em.”

Just keep telling the story & people will one day believe it.
After millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on research and archaeology. Not one shred of evidence is there to prove golden tablets, Semitic DNA in native Americans or any of their historical claims (prior to the 1800′s so called revelations). But just like our politicians…just keep telling the story. Having proof doesn’t matter. Just keep telling it and one day everyone* will believe it!

Now that’s a good ole American religion right there. The American Dream codified. Props to them for creativity.

I apologize now. I couldn’t resist.

(Again, I don’t mean this to be a dig on Mormonism. I just find this kinda interesting. So if you comment, keep it clean. I don’t intend to start a beat down.)

See anymore correlations?

Peace (for real) ~

William

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*Well not everyone. I’m about to sit down in the next few days with what I think is my 14th set of missionaries to talk to about “the church” and barring finding gold tablets in my house and ancient indian bones clutching on to a menorah buried in my backyard, I’ll be sticking with a group who stays inside of the Nicene Creed.

Jesus sets this woman free without her even saying I’m sorry. How interesting and comical that we have rules, steps, systems for this kinda thing.