FAITH, BELIEF, KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH

One of the great things I experience about communities, church and society in general is that people that I would otherwise not know or spend time with constantly surround me. Such an idea illustrates the profound diversity within the world, no matter where you come from. One of the things I love about yoga philosophy is the belief that the same life energy (phrana) runs through everyone, but it is our experience and our true essence that sets us apart from the next person.

With this in mind I want to point at an issue that I struggle with in my own life experience. The LDS church is said but its leaders and some members to be the only true church, the restored church. I feel that this is a risky statement, because it is exclusive and establishes the idea that everything else is wrong.

One of the LDS leaders, Gordon B. Hinckley said: “We recognize the good in all people. We recognize the good in all churches, in their effort to improve mankind and to principles that lead to good, stable, productive living. To people everywhere we simply say, you bring with you all the good you have, and let us add to it. That is the principle on which we work.”

The power of words in the world is great and how we use them can greatly alter how things are interpreted and treated. Hinckley, I feel had a way with words that was soft and loving and we need to replicate that.

When people say, “I know this church is true” what does that even mean? Just as I have mentioned in connection to yoga, our experience of life is different from others and thus our truth is also different.

The scriptures are a great example of diversity in experience and truth. They are written by human beings just like us and thus experience things differently from their counterparts. God works with the person, much like meditation and yoga is built around the person and how they work. For me the scriptures are written subjectively from one person’s experience, which explains the diversity and perhaps seeming contradictions that one can encounter. God and Christ are spoken of as good, loving, caring and kind while being judges, enforcing justice and they are even said to send plagues and hardship to those who sin, (a concept I struggle with). These references are written from someone’s own understanding, experience and way of interpretation. Thus for them it is their truth, belief, knowledge and faith, but it does not mean it has to be everyone else’s.

As a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I experience, truth, knowledge, belief and faith in very different ways, even from my own family. As one finds truth, knowledge, belief and faith in this one church, I also find it outside of it. We are in a world that is full of belief no matter what it may be in or how diverse it is a belief non-the-less. I feel that the power to believe is a surrendering of oneself to something beyond or greater than them.

If the LDS church is the only true church, what does that mean for the God that is found in the Catholic Church, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, even Buddhism and Islam etc. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and inter faith scholar, talks about gratitude in a beautiful way, when he states “God is telling us he love us everyday, all we need to do is be grateful.” How amazing is it that we can see and find a God-like figure or being in everything, everywhere, everyday.

Such a profound diversity brings into picture the atonement (at-one-ment). Such atonement is found everywhere, the very fact that such diversity can exist together in one world, or even one religion is found everywhere, the very fact that such diversity can exist together in one world, or even one religion is the process of at one ment. We can find God and belief everywhere, the atonement is present in yoga, yoga means union with God, it brings unity and total integration. Buddhism is about becoming awakened about becoming part of the whole and united with the greater force. Islamic practices highlight a deep devotion to God, the trinity itself illustrates a sense of unity with Christ, God and the Holy Ghost.

My point is that the statement of the LDS church being the only true church is void because truth is relative and can be found everywhere around us. We need to pay attention to and make way for the mountain of truths that surround us everyday; we need a fundamental change in how we approach belief, truth, knowledge and faith.