Comments on: Lay your gifts on the padded bench

By: 0t

0t — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 23:02:12 +0000

I have found that the more I am open to the miraculous the more such events occur, including a few treasured incredible ones. Yet I am a highly educated person, two MS degrees, PhD student, but not in religious associated studies. There is a lot I have called into question, re-examined, educated myself on, re-educated myself on, tossed aside, have grave concerns about, but the ability to receive divine intervention is not something I’ve ever questioned, because the only times I’ve been without it is when I’ve not been sufficiently observant.

I know this is a kind of rebuttal, and I can’t suggest otherwise, but that doesn’t mean that I think your experience or point of view is wrong or misguided. Just different. Just as I would expect that there would be, as the scriptures suggest, all kind of believers and as has been said, spiritual gifts.

But we live in a world of the anti-miraculous, and I take some personal comfort that for all of my ability to explain away, there are events, moments, and communications that I cannot explain away. I love that dual world of the hard testable facts and the God who opens the heavens to those who believe anyway.

By: Kruiser

Kruiser — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:22:11 +0000

To change the tack on this a little bit, I have been impressed by the things that youth culture is interested in. Back in the day when my son was young, he with many others became a Star Wars nut. I tried to figure out what the common denominator was. They seemed to be impressed by the incredible power the characters possessed. Yes, that mysterious thing called “the Force” was so important. It was called upon to do good and to save the galaxy from disaster. It was realized that man alone could not do it. Now popular entertainment is loaded with stories of miraculous events and people that make them happen. Call it a youth thing, no, just about everybody loves transcendence – needs transcendence.

By: Jim F.

Jim F. — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 17:56:17 +0000

Rosalynde, this was a good piece: well-written with an important point. Thank you. It is important tor remember that the love we feel for our fellow saints is a gift. But, like Clark, I wonder whether you mean what you say when you ask about subtracting transcendence from religion. If we understand God in traditional terms–outside of space and time, “beyond being,” etc.–then perhaps nothing. But if we reject those terms, as it seems to me Mormonism does, then we have to rethink what we mean by “transcendence.” With that rethinking perhaps you experience transcendence more often than you think.

By: Alison Moore Smith

Alison Moore Smith — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 07:26:56 +0000

Thanks very much, Rosalynde.

BTW, I’m not able to go to the MTA conference again this year, but when I saw you were speaking it made it much harder to miss. You will be a wonderful addition.

By: Gander

Gander — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 03:56:12 +0000

You are a blessing to all of us, Rosalynde.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 03:43:39 +0000

“my attitude is a privilege of my safe and secure life, in which I have little need for divine deliverance from day to day”
That might be the case. I am in a similar place today. It wasn’t always this way, though. I know that in my extremity, when circumstance threw me in dark forests, ways were opened that were far beyond chance occurrences. Sometimes my life was saved; others my day was 1/100th as inconvenient as it might have been. I’m still alive and have all my limbs. I don’t know why others aren’t and don’t. But passing through those situations leaves me humbled that the divine, for some reason, intervened for me.
If you do end up living a little too close to the edge, be open to seeing how you got out of the experience. Quick wits? Luck? Or something beyond? Be open to the possibility.

By: Kevin Barney

Kevin Barney — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:53:39 +0000

As Paul told the Corinthians, “the greatest of these is love.”

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:10:14 +0000

What counts as transcendent in a religious that fundamentally is a materialistic religion? If we just mean by transcendent communication by the Holy Ghost then I guess I get what is meant.

By: True Blue

True Blue — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 23:38:43 +0000

The big difference I see with you experience, is the attitude of the man you describe as also loving and caring of you.
I do not actually see any people like him at church, but the obiedient set, tell me i’m apostate for not following the Prophet over the last few months, and last time I taught a lesson (some years ago) the fact that I mentioned the essay on race and the priesthood was reported to the SP who asked that I not mention it again at church, as it upset some people.
It is much easier to love people who are loving to you, even if they see the church differently. I do not have a problem with people seeing things differently, but I do feel I understand what it’like to be a person who is supposedly loved while my understanding is hated. Much more difficult to love those.

By: Carey

Carey — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 22:48:35 +0000

Q: “when you subtract out the transcendent from religion, what remains?”
A: Immanence. And immanence kicks the butt of transcendence every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

By: Brad L

Brad L — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 22:39:04 +0000

But here’s the thing: when you subtract out the transcendent from religion, what remains?

Moralistic therapeutic deism.

By: Christie Frandsen

Christie Frandsen — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 20:42:32 +0000

Even if you do not recognize it in yourself, there is no doubt in the minds of everyone who knows and reads you that you do possess an abundance of spiritual gifts – most notably the gift of tongues and the greatest of all spiritual gifts, the gift of charity. This was wonderfully and beautifully expressed, Rosalynde!

By: A Turtle Named Mack

A Turtle Named Mack — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 20:23:36 +0000

“when you subtract out the transcendent from religion, what remains? A lot of it, actually. Most of it, actually.”

I’m genuinely trying to figure out if this is a good thing, or a bad thing. I agree that most of our religious experience would remain intact if the transcendent was removed. Should it be otherwise? Would I want my religion to be more transcendent, even mostly so? Probably not, as I am also reflexively skeptical. However, if it’s mostly…something else, I don’t know what that means.