Conditional church/god
I feel like everything about the church is conditional. If you want God to love you, you have to obey him, read his scriptures, obey his commandments, etc. If you do not do these things, God will not love you. If you want to reach the celestial kingdom, you must...
Take a look at a website called... "After all we can do". This site show 613 things that the LDS people are expected to do. Crazy long list, but well worth a brief look-over.
I do not want to believe in this attitude anymore. I believe in a God that is loving, caring, and would do anything for his kids, regardless of whether or not they screw up in life. I believe in a God that would want to see his children come home and live with him, regardless of their choices in life. I would be the same way with my children. If my child turns gay (which is against church policy to actively live a gay lifestlye), am I going to kick him out of the house and disown him and never let him come home again? No, absolutely not.
What if he kills someone and becomes a convicted felon? I would still love him and want him to come home and visit with us. What ever happened to unconditional love, like they say in the scriptures? What about the story of the Pridigal Son? Father was happy to see his wayward son come home. I could debate the word wayward, but the point is that his father accepted his faults and mistakes, and welcomed him home. THIS is what I imagine God to be like. We do our best here on earth (each choosing different paths), and God will make up the difference in the afterlife. I don’t believe that God will make up the difference in the afterlife IF AND ONLY IF we strive for perfection and hit a set number of checkmarks in this life… (Baptism, endowment, temple marriage, mission, etc). It’s VERY conditional love in the church.
- Be baptized by immersion at 8 years of age
- Receive the holy ghost by the laying on of hands by those who have the Holy Priesthood
- Receive the Aaronic Priesthood at age 12
- Receive the Melchizedek Priesthood at age 18
- Go through the temple and receive your endowments
- Serve a 2 year mission
- Wear your garments every day of your life
- Pay 10% tithing every month of your life
- Get married in the temple
- Preach the gospel to everyone
- Repent all the time of all your sins because you will never be perfect in this life
- Study the scriptures every day (mostly just the Book of Mormon)
- Pray every night and day, over food, and any other time of day when you feel like you need to
- Attend 3 hours of church every Sunday
- Keep the Sabbath day holy, meaning don't buy anything, don't go out to eat, no fishing, hiking, etc on Sunday, church videos only
- Endure to the end
- etc, etc, etc.
Take a look at a website called... "After all we can do". This site show 613 things that the LDS people are expected to do. Crazy long list, but well worth a brief look-over.
I do not want to believe in this attitude anymore. I believe in a God that is loving, caring, and would do anything for his kids, regardless of whether or not they screw up in life. I believe in a God that would want to see his children come home and live with him, regardless of their choices in life. I would be the same way with my children. If my child turns gay (which is against church policy to actively live a gay lifestlye), am I going to kick him out of the house and disown him and never let him come home again? No, absolutely not.
What if he kills someone and becomes a convicted felon? I would still love him and want him to come home and visit with us. What ever happened to unconditional love, like they say in the scriptures? What about the story of the Pridigal Son? Father was happy to see his wayward son come home. I could debate the word wayward, but the point is that his father accepted his faults and mistakes, and welcomed him home. THIS is what I imagine God to be like. We do our best here on earth (each choosing different paths), and God will make up the difference in the afterlife. I don’t believe that God will make up the difference in the afterlife IF AND ONLY IF we strive for perfection and hit a set number of checkmarks in this life… (Baptism, endowment, temple marriage, mission, etc). It’s VERY conditional love in the church.
REFERENCES:
- http://www.afterallwecando.com/
- http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon177.htm
- http://www.i4m.com/think/leaders/conditional_love.htm
- http://mormoncurtain.com/topic_russellmnelson.html