Skyler made this nice note for his baseball coach. Pretty good at 4 years old.

The Whole Picture

One day I was thinking, Why do people think 'Mormons' are wacky? I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I know we have differences with other religions or schools of thought, but often our church is just unfairly portrayed. I decided to write something of an essay on the topic.

It is unfortunate that anyone has aversions to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those who do, simply lack a full view and understanding of its precepts and doctrines. Christ said, "by their fruits ye shall know them."

Some may recall the reaction of their Junior High School biology class when their teacher brought out human organs preserved in formaldehyde. If you never had such an experience, try to imagine the reaction of the young naive minds. Many different reactions took place in my class ranging from looks of disgust to shrieks and physical recoils. Now imagine the reaction of a trained surgeon as he views the organs of the body using his in-depth understanding of all of their intricate workings. Each part of the body, in its infinite scales, has its place and function with all required balancing properties working together.

When understood and viewed in its wholeness, the human body is undeniably a beautiful marvel. So it is with the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the official name of the Mormon Church). In the past 10 years, the church has received much publicity in the so-called main-stream media. I am disappointed, more often than not, in the way that the writers, columnists, broadcasters, and bloggers catch hold of a piece or two of doctrine that is unusual and unfamiliar to them and presumptuously talk about it in a disrespectful manner that encourages others to ridicule it. This closely resembles the seventh grader pointing at the strange looking pancreas on display and yelling, “yuck, get that away from me!” or the situation when an ignorant person mocks and dismisses a Van Gogh painting for its unusual, outlandish colors and rough strokes. If people will try to understand Mormon beliefs by first learning the basic, core beliefs of the church as they would the fundamentals of biology or art, they would soon begin to appreciate the beauty of its message.

So, what is the message? Simply this, the Good News, or gospel, which is that Jesus is the Christ and He lives. He has overcome sin and death so that we may have joy and be made clean to return to our Father in Heaven. That's it. That's the basis of all the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's the foundation upon which all church doctrine is built. If the church were a tree, this belief is the root and trunk of the tree. There are many branches that are each important to the whole of the tree but they all stem from the same root. In many cases, people who are unfamiliar with the church catch a glimpse of one of the branches or a few leaves and take that to represent the entire tree. They take their small perspective and fallibly re-tell it to others and try to compare it to an entire tree somewhere else that they are more familiar with. It is no wonder people get the wrong idea about the “Mormon” church and even have invalid concerns.

Regrettably, there seems to be a vicious cycle in play when it comes to fears about the church. It is a natural reaction for people to fear things they don't know about. This is the premise of racism and bigotry. Members of the church often have a fear of sharing and teaching others about their beliefs. They fear being chastised or shunned because of the opposition caused by the unfounded fears of others. Many of the teachings of the church are unique. If there exists only one true church grounded in an absolute truth (as opposed to relative truth), it is going to be unique. It's possible that when it comes to religion, people have come to fear offending or being offended at the expense of finding and promoting truth. Let's all as God's children get over our fears together.

I'll also caution that anyone who approaches any subject with full skepticism and unbelief will only find subjects to support that attitude. We all would be better served to respectfully take in the wholeness of one’s beliefs and truly learn about them for ourselves before we begin to pass judgment on them, let alone preach a faulty view of half-truths to others.