In Other News.

I didn't get a single comment on my last post, and nothing could make me happier. Which is odd, since I usually enjoy comments but in this particular case, I've heard quite enough on the topic from every side, including mine.

We have two daughters that are just under 2 years apart in age, and they shared a bedroom for most of their growing-up years and enjoyed similar interests and shared friends and generally had a grand old childhood. Except every now and then, we would hit a period of a few months where they seemed to drive each other crazy and would snipe endlessly. Put them in the back seat together and within 5 minutes, you'd want to drop them both off on the nearest curb. Preferably a highway.

Well, the past week in Mormon-internet-land has felt a lot like a long car trip with Chelsea and Hannah, ca. ages 8 and 10, and in rare arguing form. If I were President Monson, I'd be saying "Don't make me pull this car over!" It's been tiresome...exhausting, in fact.

Who knew that there were two kinds of Mormons and that they actually could hardly stand to be in the same room together, let alone in a worldwide church? The big sticking points seem to be: Unconditional Love, Infallibility Of All Our Leaders All The Time, What Women Want, How To Ask Questions Appropriately, and What Constitutes Apostasy.

The bloggers on both sides have put out an admirable amount of heart-felt, persuasive material. But it's the commenters...oh, the commenters!...who have really done the heavy lifting in keeping the argument going.

So I'm delighted that nothing I said inspired anyone to have a barroom brawl right on my blog. That would have made me quite unhappy, and since I reject the notion that there are only two kinds of Mormons, I would have hated to see 257 pieces of hostile evidence piled up here to prove me wrong.

There are as many kinds of Mormons as there are Mormons. And I have proof.

We have this great vintage picture book, The Mormon Story, that a non-member friend gave Russ as a gag gift once but that we actually love. It serves as a really marvelous snapshot of the Church, ca. 1964 and it feels like such a tangible little time capsule of my youth. Everything about it makes me smile, and very little about it is terribly accurate or applicable today.

Things have changed, folks.

I taught Relief Society this past Sunday and one of the things I did was ask the women in the room to give us a quick snapshot of their own Mormon Story. I wanted to get a sense of the diversity in the room in terms of how people came to the Church, how long they had been members, where their geographical roots were, etc. And it was really wonderful, because in just a few moments I found out that we had a whole roomful of women who were each looking at the Church through a very individual lens, a result of their own personal Mormon journey.

We are not cookie-cutter Mormons! And if it feels like we are, then it just means we're not sharing WHO we actually are. Because we are different. So we can stop trying to fit inside the cookie cutters, because guess what? We're already baked. 

And our story has an impact on the way we interact with our faith.

Someone who joined the church last year is not in the same place as someone who has been in it for 86 years. They have a wholly different context. And the woman from Bulgaria is coming at it quite differently from the one from Provo.

It was the best news I've received in the Church arena all week. (Especially now that the News news has recently gotten worse! But we're not covering that ground again. I've said my piece. Mistakes on both sides, blah blah blah blah. I'm going to just sit with my sadness for awhile here, if that's okay. If you'd like to sit quietly beside me, please do. I can show you how to make a "hankie baby" with the hankie out of my mom's purse...that's what I did for most of Sacrament Meeting during the years 1968-1973...she usually has a roll of Certs, too... just dig around in there...we can all share.)

We don't need to believe the same, or think the same, or question the same, or doubt the same, or do anything the same. In fact, we can't. We can embrace common goals and ideals and desires. But we're never going to hit that mark in exactly the same way. So we should quit worrying about that right now. 

Everyone customizes our religion to fit themselves. Everyone customizes their personal Savior. They can't help it. They're individuals. And that's why He's Their Personal Savior.

And it doesn't matter what you or I think about how Christ truly felt (feels) or thought (thinks) about any or all of the hot-button topics du jour. Doesn't matter a bit. Because basically your guess is as good as mine, and we both belong to His Church, along with our heads full of peculiar ideas and our suitcases full of Mormon stories.

And thank goodness! It makes it a truly vibrant, interesting place. Exactly like the world we ought to be increasingly reflective of as we grow, come to think of it.

- S.