Yesterday I attended a party. I found myself in the same situation that I've been in so many times: the only non-Mormon, assumed Mormon. I'm not sure if it's the same elsewhere, but faith really does come up a lot here, even at a birthday party. For Mormons, talk of church is innocuous, but it's really alienating for me.
The fact that this bothers me so much brings a lot of my issues to surface. So many people have been amazed (really) when I tell them that I'm not LDS that it makes me feel like a lot of people assume that if you are a good person, you must be of good (correct) faith.
It's frustrating that, sometimes, human compassion is lost because we believe in it as a compartmentalized quality—it belongs in some places or people, not in others. While I certainly don't think the church teaches this, it's an individual fallacy that I encounter over and over again—that non-members are not as good of people.
And then that leads into conversion as "saving" people and all sorts of stuff, and I'm just sort of in a vacuum of space without the air to say anything.
Today was a really important day. My old color guard instructor, Eva, returned from her LDS mission! I was nervous. I have never enjoyed going to LDS churches. But I wasn't going to miss it anyway, because Eva is one of those phoenix individuals, and I knew this would be important to her and to me.
It was a bit awkward, but I've learned to just stay respectful and no one will chastise me for not participating. So I sat silently through the first hour. I first actually started to enjoy the sermon (erm, or whatever it's called in the LDS church) when a youth speaker—Baron, I believe—talked about the love of God. It was nice to actually hear a real-life application instead of the simple "God loves you" pills. His speech ended up being about how God may give you trials that can lift you higher or make you fall, but He gives you those trials out of love for you and the knowledge that you can be a better person than you believe.
Now, while I consider myself an agnostic, I think it's a lesson that has good applications to life. There will always be pitfalls in life, but the way you handle them and continue on determines where you will go. We as humans can always improve ourselves. I think it's most important that people apply goodness to their lives, whether it takes the love of God to get them there or not.
Later, Eva sang a song in French. It was beautiful. When she told us all the translation, I liked it a lot. Across many Christian faiths, song tends towards reverence and praise to God. This one was sung more like a story, about remembering a life before this and how glorious it was, how many people there were in that world and this one that love you. I liked it more because it was told more like a life lesson.
Finally, Eva's homecoming talk. It was excellent. She talked about the people she met in La Reunion, and the lessons she taught them and the lessons they taught her. I couldn't tell if she was looking at me, but it felt like she was talking to me. I kept thinking about how beautiful her smile was. I cried, honestly. There was a lot about people losing hope but then making changes in their own lives to bring that hope back, bigger and brighter than before. It was, in some parts, a lot like the youth talk in the lessons of self-sacrifice and self-improvement. Universal truths that are so easy to forget but so important to remember.
It's good to have her back. She's a beautiful person, inside and out, and I'm glad to know that her mission changed her for the better. I look up to her, and I'm proud of her.
The former, the discomfort. The latter, the pleasure. The relationship is so complicated for me that it becomes so easy to just focus on the bad, but I am so much happier when I remember the people I love who are compassionate, kind, loving individuals—of any and all religions.
Which finally brings me to my own religion. I'm a Unitarian Universalist. Most people give me some blank stares and "what??", but, as with most faiths, it's difficult to describe in a single sentence.
For the basics, the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism:
- The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
- Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
- Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
- A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
- The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
- The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
- Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
I find one of the most precious parts of my religion is the spiritual freedom it encourages. There are UUs who are Christian, atheists, Wiccan, Pagan. There are those who don't conform to any one theology. Though it's been a while since I attended actual church, I grew up in it. We've told stories and lessons from Buddhism and parties and Christianity and college and the children's section of the library. Anywhere that we can find truth, we take it. This is one of the main reasons that it is extremely unlikely that I will ever be converted; I may already take in any good from any religion without forsaking the good that other religions teach me. And that feels good. It feels right to seek out good, wherever it is found, and keep it close to my heart.
Though I may have disagreements with the LDS faith, and with many others, I try my hardest to accept it and the people as good—because every faith does speak of some truth. The truth that brings people to goodness is a good truth, even if it is not my truth.
And then, the classic ending. It's actually turned into a mantra for me. "Don't forget to be awesome." Don't forget to be fair, just, positive, confident, compassionate... Don't forget to be the best person you can be. Don't forget to encourage others to do the same. Don't forget to be awesome.
DFTBA
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