America & Religion

I came cross a very interesting article (in USA Today of all places) about America & Religion.  You can find it here.

In it there was an interesting link to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life called the US Religious Landscape Survey. 

While it was a little disappointing to see the LDS members scoring so conservative on social issues, it wasn't that surprising.  But I say disappointing because my understanding of the Gospel compels me towards very progressive perspectives, not conservative ones.  Isn't that interesting?  One thing I learned (or read) while teaching the Gospel Doctrine class for three years (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon) is that there are a few common themes across all people and all times in terms of God's communication with his people:

• He commands us to take care of the widows and orphans
• He commands us to forgive people their debts to us - both figuratively and literally
• He is consistently disappointed that His people focus on gaining wealth and the things of the world (we even talk about that in Sunday School and think, "oh, those foolish Israelites or Nephites" even while we're doing the same thing!)
• While He sometimes gets annoyed with the general population of the world (Noah's days and some Old Testament days), His real annoyance and anger is only kindled by the failure of His people to live the commandments.  And those commandments are really simple:

1. Love God
2. Love your Neighbor as Yourself

Strangely enough, there's no mention of judging your neighbors or categorizing your neighbors into the good ones and the bad ones, or the ones worthy of our friendship and those not.   So.......for me, progressive politics and positions are interesting and compelling from a religious perspective because they are all about helping the poor, the needy, the widows and orphans, and making the decision to give up some of what we have (all from God anyway) to help those who can't manage to get it going in the world we live in.  

So strangely enough, God doesn't require us to decide who is worthy of our aid and who is not, take into account who will buy something we agree with and who will not when we decide help, or attach conditions to our love. He'll judge everyone by their actions and intentions of their hearts.  And He's the only one who can really accurately read the intentions of the heart.  So, for me that means we should worry less about what OTHER people are doing and get focused on making our lives more Christ-like in action and thought.

Anyway, enough on that  I'll get off my little soap box!  

Here are some of the interesting & hopeful results from the Pew Forum survey (and I definitely recommend that you check it out.)

• 37% of Mormons look to Reason or Practical Experience and Common sense when looking for guidance on questions of Right & Wrong.  (58% look to Religion, which would seem fine, but I think one of the major goals of life has to be the development of a personal set of ethics and morals that can guide you through the complexities of life.  While it's perfectly reasonable to base that on a religious system, it has to be internalized and made your own - otherwise you've abdicated your responsibilities to someone else.)
• While 91% of Mormons believe that people who lead good lives are rewarded eternally (why not 100%?), only 59% of Mormons believe people who lead bad lives and aren't sorry will be eternally punished.  That's sort of interesting.....I suppose it might be because we believe that almost everything is forgivable at some point?
• Only 57% of Mormons believe that "Only my religion leads to eternal life."  That's very nice to see.
• More interestingly, only 54% of Mormons believe that there is only one true way to interpret the teachings of our church.  I think that's really interesting.  It's certainly supported by my experience in church.  While there are fundamentalists who would like to insist that there is only one way (always THEIR way, too), it's nice to see that people are open to multiple ways of seeing things as we all try our best to live the best lives we can.
• 26% of Mormons believe that we should either adjust beliefs and practices in light of new circumstances or adopt modern beliefs and practices.  It would be fascinating to learn more about what those people mean.  But one thing that comes to mind is a recent talk by a member of our Stake Presidency.  He called out a differentiation between Doctrine, Policy and Practice.  In his categorization, the first doesn't change (fair enough) but the other two do.  Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but definitely changeable.  Sometimes we are tempted to see everything as doctrine, and it was refreshing to see someone talk about the space for change that exists.  
• 15% of Mormons either Never or Seldom receive answers to prayer.  That's sort of interesting, I think.

Anyway, like I said, the article and survey are quite interesting.  Hope you enjoy!

Mark