Have you ever felt ashamed to be born into the church (assuming those who respond were, of course)? I was thinking about how Christ's teachings to the Pharisees were directed at the members of the church. So many of us born in the church end up doing sins as wayward as those who wander without it, only it comes in the form of hypocrisy, oppressive obedience, and making a mock of the Lords laws, fixated upon the letter, contention, pride, rather than the spirit of Charity... As I teach my children to love the church they were born into, I find myself watching them slip into some of the same habits... I find myself overwhelmed by my own inadequacies to reign in my own weakness, let alone to help pilot my children along the straight and narrow...
Sometimes it leaves me a bit envious of those who wander without the law, and then discover it through a great change of heart... that comes all at once, rather than being strung out over a lifetime of stupid little mistakes...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I've never felt ashamed. I've felt grateful. I've also felt grateful to have lived both in and out of Utah. It's my opinion that true conversion is no easier one way or the other.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I was musing openly, of course, and I was just thinking about how the warnings that Christ gave to Israel might be likened to members of the church. Israel was essentially the church... enjoying the Lord's blessings and protections, and how the warnings he issued may help us to examine how we treat those who are not members, etc...
For example, are there Samaritan groups in this day? Might there be case for a comparison of Jews and Samaritans, to Mormons and Evangelicals?
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
My mom joined the church when I was about three. My dad never joined (at least not yet). Basically though I grew up in the gospel but technically I was not born into the church. I still made plenty of mistakes both big and small and continue to do so. I still had to become converted myself and develope my own testimony. I don't feel like one way is better than the other. I have had multi generational mormons actually surprised that my siblings and I turned out so well as if we were somehow handicapped coming from a convert/partial member home. My brother and I just look at them like they are crazy. I have seen multigenerational LDS homes with screwed up kids and with great kids. I have seen convert homes with screwed up kids and with great kids. Sometimes both types of families are mixed. You just have to do your best to teach them and have faith that they will make the right decisions when they are older.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
