Churchyousness

In GD today they talked about apostasy and highlighted some examples of the issues that led people to leave, among which were things as minor as a dispute over a pitcher of cream and a lack of seating at the Kirtland temple.

That led into a tangent about people who left the church because they read anti-LDS literature or saw anti-LDS films. I've never had the slightest desire to read or see anything of the sort, though I know some people who did and who subsequently left the church because they got very caught up in what they saw as 'inconsistencies.'

In pretty much everything else in life I strive to see 'both sides.' But this is a segment of my life that I couldn't remotely care what the other side has to say. No, the members of the church aren't perfect. That's no big surprise. But it's more that I feel few people who leave the church or who aren't members of the church could have anything too interesting to say about the church.

I think of it like this: would you read a book about what it's like to be a woman if it were written by a man? Or say it was by someone who left the church-it would be like reading a book about what it's like to be a man by someone who used to be a man and who got surgery to be a woman.

If that person is no longer a man, it's because they personally had serious issues with being a man, and that is going to seriously jaundice their views about having been a man. I had a friend in high school who really dug into anti-LDS literature and had a copy of an early church newspaper in which one person was told in a blessing that they would bring the gospel to 'the people who lived on the moon.' That such a blessing was apparently given was offered as proof positive against the truthfulness of the entire restored Gospel.

I repeat forever: the church is perfect, but the people aren't. If the assumption in the world at the time was that people lived on the moon, then the fact that someone would express inspiration about touching many lives with missionary work in language that referenced the moon dudes, then good for him. And for all we know, the spirit world has a suburb on the moon-who are we to say 1800s dude didn't serve there?

The point is, if you'd rather lose your way by getting hung up on pointless and meaningless blips that you'd rather react to with outrage rather than faith, then fine. It's like leaving Disneyland and vowing never to return because a lightbulb was out on one of the windows in the miniature Tower of London on the Peter Pan ride.