A friend of mine posted a question on her Facebook wall today. She asked for perspectives and thoughts on the differences/meanings of "Priesthood Authority" and "Priesthood Power."
Basically, this post is just my musings on the question, as I've been pondering it.
I think we can come to answers and conclusions in many ways - either through understanding scriptures, in all their multitudinous languages, interpretations, examples, etc. Now, I know my Bible, but I pretty much just know it in English, so while this is A strong point in some ways, I am certainly not the expert, so I'm not even going to try. I'll leave that to the people who speak Hebrew.
I think I can draw on life experiences and my own personal relationship with God, however.
There are a few things I know about God, either from my own personal relationship with divinity, or from what God tells us about Himself/Herself through prophets in the form of scripture.
1) God is no respecter of persons. (Male, female, bond, free, black, white.)
2) The ultimate goal of eternity is to become like God.
3) God is love.
Now let's ask about priesthood power. What is it? It is the power of God. It is given to humanity to act in God's name, with God's power on Earth.
Knowing what we know about God, do we believe that God would refuse to grant power to people who are doing God's will? - No. God is also no respecter of Mormons versus Catholics, either. Mormons do not have the market on righteousness and being servants of God. I would further argue that I literally know LDS temple workers who DEAL DRUGS, Mormons who abuse their wives, Mormons who are serial killers, etc. On the other hand, I can name thousands of individuals who are righteous - who do good and strive to be like God - who are not Mormon. Fred Rogers, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther, Pope Francis, etc.
Mormons do not have the market on righteousness and serving God. I believe God gives priesthood power to those who do God's work, and require it in their service to God.
Now we come to Priesthood Authority.
Knowing what we know about God, point number 2, the goal of life is to become like God in the eternities. Keeping God's work and glory - the immortality and eternal life of man - in mind, an argument can be made that "authority" is a temporary construct. Authority is a means to an end. In the eternities there very well may be structural authority, but I believe it will center around Christ.
While adults may honor their parents, they also do not report back to them and obey their laws. Adults have their own houses. They pay their own bills. They may take advice from their parents, but they no longer have to obey them in quite the same way, as they had to when they were teens living at home. I do not believe that Gods have to follow authority figures such as bishops and prophets. They will follow - of their own volition - God the Father and Christ.
If Authority is a means to an end, what is its mortal purpose?
I now give you the parable of Jon H.
Jon H. was the best boss I have ever had. When I was a social worker at a care center, Jon was the administrator. Jon threw pizza parties. Jon left his office door open. Jon went around talking to residents, patients, and staff alike for multiple hours each day, to check in on how they were doing, what their concerns were, etc.
Nothing was beneath Jon either. Jon could be found with a cleaning bottle and a rag in one hand on more than one occasion. When I had the audacity to go on vacation one Christmas, and was concerned that I had no one who could replace me, Jon did the parts of my job he was legally allowed to do for an entire week.
Jon knew his care center inside and out. He took care of his charge, and had the beautiful ability to make everyone feel valued and important. His door was always open. His mini fridge was stocked for staff and patients alike. (We did not abuse that privilege!) He always had an enthusiastic way of asking, "How can I help?" I am thoroughly convinced that no greater boss has ever lived.
When Jon was naturally promoted, we cried. A new administrator came. This second administrator sat in his office. When staff showed a weakness, or made a mistake, he came down on them hard. (In one instance he may have come into my office to yell at me for a comment I had made the day before, about what a terrible, overworked day I'd had. I may have turned right back around and yelled at him, "What in the Hell is wrong with you?! That was a cry for help!")
This second administrator worried about what things looked like. He worried about how everything reflected on him, and how he was doing his job. He placed blame on individuals for natural mistakes. Moral went down. People were quitting their jobs right and left. Eventually this second administrator was fired. They brought Jon back, and there was much rejoicing. (He left after I left. I felt bad he was sent back after being promoted. That would have sucked. But the company was toxic, and he was better off elsewhere. He was too good for them.)
Authority.
I believe the mortal construct of authority was created so that the world could benefit from people like Jon. When good people have authority, the world runs like a well-oiled machine, and everyone benefits. Rules are clear and support is given where it is needed. When we view "Authority" as being the ultimate way to serve and help others succeed, you cannot go wrong. When, as King Benjamin counseled, your leaders are your servants, you see authority as it was intended. Your authority is your great teacher. Authority is a responsibility and a calling to serve. Literally no one kicks against an authority figure like Jon.
We kick against authority figures like my second administrator, however. When an authority acts and behaves like our second administrator, they are not an authority as God intended, and people would be better served elsewhere, because that authority did not care about everyone growing together, but cared, rather, only about himself, and his own recognition and power. My second administrator was, in fact, following Satan's plan - the glory be mine.
So often "authority" is looked at with a sense of pride - the accomplishment of leading with the fullness of the truth. It is glorying in itself, which is a sin I see happening now in the Mormon church. Authority is not being used as God intended - as a means of serving others, and helping them find God and happiness. It is touted as its own aim, not as a form of selflessness, humility, and assistance.
Because God doesn't care about authority as much as we do. Because it's just a mortal construct.
God is no respecter of persons, and if the authority ceases to be a way of serving and turning hearts to God, and turns, instead, into a way of serving itself, God will freaking FIRE it, just like my second administrator. Because God doesn't need authority. He created it to help others, and if it's not helping, God will not force us to obey it.
Because God is love. If we can learn to love, utterly, completely, and fully, we will be like God, and we will have filled the measure of our creation.
There's the lovely story in the Bible where the apostles attempt to rat-out a man they see casting out devils in the name of Christ.
Luke 9:49
"Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.”
And Christ responded:
Luke 9:50
"Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.”
Because God is not a stickler about "proper authority." Because if people are finding God in the way that works best for them, they're doing everything just fine. God created authority to help point us all in the right direction and work through our issues efficiently, with a nice support network. But if the "authority" isn't doing that for you, that's okay too. The goal is to be with God again. You do that by loving like God.
Moral:
God gives God's power to whoever God wants to give it to.
Authority is a means to an end, not the goal itself.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Thursday, April 2, 2020
What's Keeping Me Awake
The power has gone out in Eagle Mountain no fewer than five times in the last twenty-four hours. They scheduled a power outage from 11pm to 2am tonight to finish up whatever job they were doing, to fix the power for good. But this resulted in the furnace making a loud "clunk" and all the technology beeping back to life at 2am, waking up the toddler, making the toddler run to his door and demand to go downstairs, then scream crying when I brought him back to his room.
He fell back asleep relatively quickly. I, however, didn't. I couldn't stop thinking. Finally, around 3:45, I accepted to myself that I was getting two and a half hours of sleep and that that was fine. I was fortunate that I could nap in the afternoon, during "quiet time," and that I should just be sure not to operate heavy equipment once the sun rose, which, guess what, quarantine, so that's not that hard anyway.
I have been no stranger to insomnia in the past. Pregnancy insomnia hit me pretty hard both times around, and back in those days I had to go to work in the morning. So I'm feeling pretty fortunate that it's 4am, I'm awake, and that's okay.
Tonight I'm just thinking. I had a hard time yesterday. As with most of my problems, nowadays, my "hard time" came from social media. If I'd been content to sit in my home and listen to my children whine all day about demanding more screen time consisting of their diet of Chuggington and Daniel Tiger, I would have been fine. If I'd been content to watch them hit each other with Hot Wheels track and pretend to sting each other like bees, with tracks held to their backsides all day, sure, I would have been fine. If only I'd been content humming "Into the Unknown" from Frozen II, which was hardcore stuck in my head all day, I might have been happy. But silly me decided that I needed adult interaction during this quarantine and I got on Facebook, desperate to see what was going on in the world outside of my toddler quarantine.
Earthquakes, Pandemics, Tornadoes, Power Outages. The usual, for 2020. I kept scrolling. Fabulous memes. I collected, and continued scrolling. Which combination of Disney princesses are you when you're happy versus angry? Mulan and Ariel, apparently. Freaking waste of my life. Ariel? Bull. Continued scrolling.
And then I found this gem, which is keeping me awake.
"Ah," I said to myself. "They wanna rehash this $100 Billion concern again, I see. Just when I thought I was coping with the impending General Conference so well, I am again confronted with black and white thinking. You're in or you're out. Should I comment about needless stereotyping against people with rational concerns about the way the Church handles its financials, which, while handled fairly, could be subject to moral discussion? Well, let's see what other comments she's getting. Maybe someone will have said something so I don't have to."
Freaking #DEZNAT with their excessive patience, love, and faith!!!
I kept scrolling, I didn't want to deal with it. You can't win, with those people.
You could try and call them out on pride, creating a hostile environment for other children of God in the Church - good people who are trying to belong, but now can't, because you're standing there calling them a fool for disagreeing with you on something they are ALLOWED to disagree with you on. You could remind them that the Church makes $19 MILLION a day in interest, and that $100,000 is like dropping your pocket change in the Salvation Army tin in comparison. Is it nice? Sure. Was it the Widow's Mite? Not even a sneeze in a hurricane kind of close.
I could have even considered posting a GIF, because sometimes that's easier. I would have posted this one:
But then they would have insisted they were not hating. They said they had love and faith, and if I didn't have enough faith to blindly follow everything without questioning and braving my own conclusions, that was MY problem with God, and may I have a happy time in Hell with the other Liberal Lefties LOL.
Nope, I kept scrolling. (Correction, I went back to take screenshots to share with my husband, because of how much it was eating at my soul that the members of the Church inadvertently do everything possible to make sure I never feel like I can belong.) (In going back I also noticed someone had made a comment similar to what I would have commented, and thanked them for making room for me to belong. So yeah, I did eventually interact with the post. But not with DezNat. Like I said. Can't talk with people who have nothing to learn.)
Did I mention I had "Into the Unknown" stuck in my head all day?
I'm far from the first nuanced Mormon to resonate with that song. Because that's what that song is about to me. The lyrics describe, perfectly, what it's like to disagree with the Institution's authority and turn your heart to listening for God's guidance instead. Because God is better than mortal men, and God often has something deeper for you, if you're willing to listen.
But it's also really hard to find the courage to listen. I described it once: "It [took] reaching my breaking point with church leadership for me to look past that religious authority and search even deeper for truth." Coming from a multi-generational Mormon family, living in Utah, it doesn't take a lot of courage to be a Mormon. It takes tremendous courage to question the status quo, and figure out what YOU really believe. My "faith crisis" and questioning led me to stay, but with new stipulations. I do not hold the Church as the ultimate authority. God is. I don't believe that I have to accept everything that is spoken, if God is telling me something else.
There were a thousand reasons I should have gone about my day and ignored the whispers in my heart that prompted me to question, that landed me where I am now. It would have been so much easier to believe the traditional teachings - everyone I ever loved was within the walls of traditional Mormondom. And like a Band-aid, it would have been so much easier to leave the Church outright, rather than sitting "on the edge of inside." But instead I'm here, nuanced, and afraid of what I'm risking for following God.
I'm very much in the unknown.
It's the unknown that's been keeping me awake.
I'm still feeling sick about not having a home in the Church because I'm a "Liberal Leftie LOL" who thinks the Church missed the mark on what Christ would have them do with their excess money. And frankly, I'm feeling sick to my stomach about General Conference.
There's freaking Coronavirus, people. I'm in toddler quarantine Hell. I really want peace and hope, like everyone else does right now! I could really use a spiritual boost this weekend, but I'm terrified that instead, all I'm going to get is a First Vision Infomercial.
In a previous post I mentioned my concerns and fears about General Conference and their divisive decision to roll out with the First Vision theme. I believe Joseph Smith's first "First Vision" account, and I'm going to have his third "First Vision" account shoved down my throat this weekend with all the weight of "divine authority" insinuated. And if I dare disagree with a conference premise or conclusion, once again, I'm going to be cast as not having enough "patience, love, and faith," despite how God-directed my nuance truly has been.
I'm so tired. Physically, because I'm not supposed to be awake for another two hours, now, but emotionally moreso. My only beg, my only plea, is that we be more aware of each other, this General Conference time. Please know that God hasn't cast anybody out, so you shouldn't either. Leave room for people like me, who believe they are doing the right thing. If you don't leave room for people to do what they feel is right, they will do it somewhere without you, and it will be your loss.
He fell back asleep relatively quickly. I, however, didn't. I couldn't stop thinking. Finally, around 3:45, I accepted to myself that I was getting two and a half hours of sleep and that that was fine. I was fortunate that I could nap in the afternoon, during "quiet time," and that I should just be sure not to operate heavy equipment once the sun rose, which, guess what, quarantine, so that's not that hard anyway.
I have been no stranger to insomnia in the past. Pregnancy insomnia hit me pretty hard both times around, and back in those days I had to go to work in the morning. So I'm feeling pretty fortunate that it's 4am, I'm awake, and that's okay.
Tonight I'm just thinking. I had a hard time yesterday. As with most of my problems, nowadays, my "hard time" came from social media. If I'd been content to sit in my home and listen to my children whine all day about demanding more screen time consisting of their diet of Chuggington and Daniel Tiger, I would have been fine. If I'd been content to watch them hit each other with Hot Wheels track and pretend to sting each other like bees, with tracks held to their backsides all day, sure, I would have been fine. If only I'd been content humming "Into the Unknown" from Frozen II, which was hardcore stuck in my head all day, I might have been happy. But silly me decided that I needed adult interaction during this quarantine and I got on Facebook, desperate to see what was going on in the world outside of my toddler quarantine.
Earthquakes, Pandemics, Tornadoes, Power Outages. The usual, for 2020. I kept scrolling. Fabulous memes. I collected, and continued scrolling. Which combination of Disney princesses are you when you're happy versus angry? Mulan and Ariel, apparently. Freaking waste of my life. Ariel? Bull. Continued scrolling.
And then I found this gem, which is keeping me awake.
"Ah," I said to myself. "They wanna rehash this $100 Billion concern again, I see. Just when I thought I was coping with the impending General Conference so well, I am again confronted with black and white thinking. You're in or you're out. Should I comment about needless stereotyping against people with rational concerns about the way the Church handles its financials, which, while handled fairly, could be subject to moral discussion? Well, let's see what other comments she's getting. Maybe someone will have said something so I don't have to."
I kept scrolling, I didn't want to deal with it. You can't win, with those people.
You could try and call them out on pride, creating a hostile environment for other children of God in the Church - good people who are trying to belong, but now can't, because you're standing there calling them a fool for disagreeing with you on something they are ALLOWED to disagree with you on. You could remind them that the Church makes $19 MILLION a day in interest, and that $100,000 is like dropping your pocket change in the Salvation Army tin in comparison. Is it nice? Sure. Was it the Widow's Mite? Not even a sneeze in a hurricane kind of close.
I could have even considered posting a GIF, because sometimes that's easier. I would have posted this one:
But then they would have insisted they were not hating. They said they had love and faith, and if I didn't have enough faith to blindly follow everything without questioning and braving my own conclusions, that was MY problem with God, and may I have a happy time in Hell with the other Liberal Lefties LOL.
Nope, I kept scrolling. (Correction, I went back to take screenshots to share with my husband, because of how much it was eating at my soul that the members of the Church inadvertently do everything possible to make sure I never feel like I can belong.) (In going back I also noticed someone had made a comment similar to what I would have commented, and thanked them for making room for me to belong. So yeah, I did eventually interact with the post. But not with DezNat. Like I said. Can't talk with people who have nothing to learn.)
Did I mention I had "Into the Unknown" stuck in my head all day?
I'm far from the first nuanced Mormon to resonate with that song. Because that's what that song is about to me. The lyrics describe, perfectly, what it's like to disagree with the Institution's authority and turn your heart to listening for God's guidance instead. Because God is better than mortal men, and God often has something deeper for you, if you're willing to listen.
But it's also really hard to find the courage to listen. I described it once: "It [took] reaching my breaking point with church leadership for me to look past that religious authority and search even deeper for truth." Coming from a multi-generational Mormon family, living in Utah, it doesn't take a lot of courage to be a Mormon. It takes tremendous courage to question the status quo, and figure out what YOU really believe. My "faith crisis" and questioning led me to stay, but with new stipulations. I do not hold the Church as the ultimate authority. God is. I don't believe that I have to accept everything that is spoken, if God is telling me something else.
There were a thousand reasons I should have gone about my day and ignored the whispers in my heart that prompted me to question, that landed me where I am now. It would have been so much easier to believe the traditional teachings - everyone I ever loved was within the walls of traditional Mormondom. And like a Band-aid, it would have been so much easier to leave the Church outright, rather than sitting "on the edge of inside." But instead I'm here, nuanced, and afraid of what I'm risking for following God.
I'm very much in the unknown.
It's the unknown that's been keeping me awake.
I'm still feeling sick about not having a home in the Church because I'm a "Liberal Leftie LOL" who thinks the Church missed the mark on what Christ would have them do with their excess money. And frankly, I'm feeling sick to my stomach about General Conference.
There's freaking Coronavirus, people. I'm in toddler quarantine Hell. I really want peace and hope, like everyone else does right now! I could really use a spiritual boost this weekend, but I'm terrified that instead, all I'm going to get is a First Vision Infomercial.
In a previous post I mentioned my concerns and fears about General Conference and their divisive decision to roll out with the First Vision theme. I believe Joseph Smith's first "First Vision" account, and I'm going to have his third "First Vision" account shoved down my throat this weekend with all the weight of "divine authority" insinuated. And if I dare disagree with a conference premise or conclusion, once again, I'm going to be cast as not having enough "patience, love, and faith," despite how God-directed my nuance truly has been.
I'm so tired. Physically, because I'm not supposed to be awake for another two hours, now, but emotionally moreso. My only beg, my only plea, is that we be more aware of each other, this General Conference time. Please know that God hasn't cast anybody out, so you shouldn't either. Leave room for people like me, who believe they are doing the right thing. If you don't leave room for people to do what they feel is right, they will do it somewhere without you, and it will be your loss.
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