Reform Mormonism is defined not so much by
the range of beliefs about various subjects
that are "allowed" or designated
as Reform Mormon beliefs as it is by the
freedom to explore those ranges.
To illustrate this idea, let's take a look
at the book Mormon Doctrine, a classic, encyclopedic work by an LDS authority
in which thousands of religious topics are
alphabetically arranged. With each listing
is the author's definition of the entry,
and the LDS "position" or attitude
toward the subject. It should be said that
not all LDS agree with every particular perspective
given in Mormon Doctrine. However, the leadership of the LDS church
edited the current (Second) edition of the
book, and it is generally regarded as a truthful
guide to "official" LDS position,
if a little extreme in some respects.
For example, when you turn to the paragraphs
on the subject "eternal life"
in Mormon Doctrine, you will find two or three paragraphs,
in which the subject of eternal life, as
it is understood in the LDS milieu, are explained.
Imagine if you had turned to the section
on "eternal life" and instead of
an explanation of what you should believe,
you instead encountered a series of questions
you were asked to consider - with no answers
provided to you. Some of those questions
might be:
- What does eternal mean?
- What is life? What does it mean to be alive?
What is physical death?
- Is Eternal Life merely the name for the kind
of life God has?
- Is Eternal Life subject to qualifications?
Will there be a "quality" of Eternal
Life? Does Eternal Life involve "degrees"?
- Is Eternal Life and Eternal Progression the
same thing? Can one live and not progress?
- Does Eternal Life consist only of being in
the presence of God?
- How will Eternal Life differ from life as
I know it right now?
- If I am assured of Eternal Life, what is
meant by "spiritual death"?
- Am I currently living part of my Eternal
Life, or is Eternal Life the next life?
If you spend some time thinking about it,
you can probably come up with many more questions
about the topic "eternal life."
Spending time thinking about these questions,
and which questions appeal to you, is important
- in discovering which questions appeal to
you, you discover aspects of yourself. Deciding
which question to pursue is also an interesting
process, because it involves certain skills
that you can develop over time. These skills
serve you throughout life.
To review: the first step is uncovering the
variety of questions relative to our subject.
The second step is to decide which question(s)
appeal to you right now.
Once you have settled upon a particular question,
you can begin asking about it. Asking takes
many forms, not the least of which is asking
of God. When you ask of God, you are promised
an answer. Many who have invoked this promise
have found it to be reliable.
Answers can come in many different ways and
by many different means. Recognizing, interpreting,
and understanding answers is another skill
to be developed. The skill, along with others
associated with this process, are all important
tools that serve you throughout your life.
We believe that they are abilities you will
continue to use eternally, so time invested
in understanding and improving them is time
well spent.
The answer you receive will lead you to another
question, or another series of questions.
You will return to the beginning of the process,
and have an opportunity to make another selection,
based upon what appeals to you. Stopping
for a moment to review what you have learned,
and how it both integrates into your life
and provides context for the next question
is a satisfying process Reform Mormons refer
to as restoration. Restoration both concludes the previous
cycle and starts another.
The freedom inherent in this process is liberating
to some people and frightening to others;
there can be perceived insecurity in independence.
This selection from the book Reform Mormonism may help explain it:
We are about to go exploring. Our map for
this exploration will be the range of belief
afforded to Reform Mormons. This range is
wide, and it covers much ground. The range
exists for every possible subject imaginable...The
"ranges" are merely the extremes
in possible answers that could occur; all
the various places on the map that you might
end up. It is not these ranges that define
Reform Mormonism; it is the freedom to explore them that defines Reform Mormonism.
Some people are very uncomfortable with this
at first; the idea of a range of options
seems frightening. They think: "What
if I choose the wrong question, or follow
the wrong answer?" They may have never
really had to make, or considered the need
for, these types of decisions before, and
they may think it easier to have someone
else step in and select for them. This is
the offer held out to the individual by prefabricated
belief systems: "we've got it all laid
out for you - no need to worry about choices!"
they proclaim. They peddle maps that have
their particular paths brightly marked, and
other paths scratched out. They want you
to turn the decision making process over
to them.
Let God be that person you turn to for assistance
with these decisions. Learn to do it that
way, rather than using man-made belief systems.
Use this process to develop your relationship
with God, and to become skilled with receiving
personal revelation. Do not atrophy your
skill by turning this process over to another
person or outside organization.
Your joy in life is the process
of looking
at the map, deciding what looks
interesting
and what appeals to you, and
then exploring
that. If, during your exploration,
you reach
what appears to be a dead end,
follow the
process discussed earlier: rest,
follow other
paths, and try again when you
have gained
other information.
God has given you the freedom to explore
all kinds of concepts and religious teachings without
fear of judgment or condemnation. Your exploration
of these ideas does not mean that you reject
the ones you already have - it means you
are prepared to enhance them. You will explore
exciting ideas, systems, and beliefs that
you never knew existed - things you had never
imagined. You will ask questions about them,
receive startling and exciting answers, and
ask more questions. All the while your Reform
Mormonism will be there, supporting you,
encouraging you, never leaving you. It is
a marvelous and wonderful work. It is the
adventure of a lifetime!
When the multitude of opportunities for belief
are laid out in a logical manner, it may
well be that any two Reform Mormons hold
vastly different - even contradictory - views
about a particular subject. This is to be
expected when dealing with people who are
progressing. People will be at different
stages of progression, at different points
on the upward spiral. The spiral itself is
different for everyone, because it is constructed
by each individual. No stage is necessarily
better or worse than another; it is simply
not useful or appropriate to compare them.
Therefore, Reform Mormonism is a religion
that encompasses this variety of views into
a larger truth: tolerance.
We believe that this tolerance is critical
to facilitate the process of progression
through Eternal Knowledge and personal revelation.
Without this tolerance, the impetus to explore,
the freedom to open up the map and see where
it will lead, is stifled. Such stifling is
the antithesis of progression; it does not
stop it, but it dramatically slows it down.
There are many who feel this stifling today.
It is a concern in many religions. You may
have felt it: it is a complex, mixed feeling
that one can describe as a sort of comfortable
suffocation. There is the comfort of knowing
that you do not have to make too many major
decisions - all of the hard questions about
life and God and morality have already been
answered, you only have to concentrate on
the little, day-to-day decisions. But there
is also the nagging feeling that you're missing
out on something, a "is that all there
is?" feeling, that has a slight sense
of suffocation to it. You've been told that
too much exploration of the answers already
provided to you is dangerous - that it's
safe to stay within those answers, but that
you risk your very soul to stray outside
of certain lines. You've been instructed
to obey commandments so that you will stay
within those lines, and thereby your path
to God is laid out for you, prepared, pre-formed,
predictable: no need for more questions.
And be assured that it is indeed a path to
God, as all paths are - it is merely a path
to God that does not necessarily support
your progression, that tends to stifle the
experience of many people in this life. It
does so by suggesting that the great tool
God gave you - the questioning and answer
process of Eternal Knowledge - is to be feared
as dangerous, and that you must therefore
limit its use (thereby limiting yourself.)
The suffocation feeling stems from this idea
that God somehow wants you to be limited;
the amount of new air you can breathe in
has been regulated.
I will not pretend that exploration is always
happy and positive. On the map there are
a wide variety of experiences, not all of
which are pleasant. Your independence from
the stifling control of those who seek to
limit you will, at times, seem insecure and
risky. When you set out on uncharted waters
there appears to be much risk. Others have
told you that you must not stray from their
pre-defined path, because the off-path risks
are too great. Stick to the path, they say,
and you will get to God.
The truth is: you will get to God anyway.
There is nowhere else to get to. Once the
pre-defined path becomes too boring for you,
once you realize that the well-trodden path
you're following, built by others, is only one way of a thousand different ways that all lead
to the same place - you will begin to develop
the spark of knowledge that God placed within
you - and you will start a new and more exciting
journey.
You do not have to abandon anything to take
this journey. Eternal knowledge is cumulative;
there is no need to erase your past. You
only need demonstrate the courage to explore.
It is the sort of journey that, at the end
of this physical life, you will be glad you
took.
In those moments when you are most honest
with yourself, you've wrestled with this
need to explore, and your courage to act
in this regard. I know the difficulty of
this; but you see, you are already treading
a new path. Even the wrestling has brought
about new questions, and new answers. This
demonstrates your ability to engage this
God-given process. |
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