Monday, October 05, 2009

Clarification

I need to add some clarification to a few of my religious-themed posts. I have been aware that I was leaving things out, but it's so hard to explain everything without getting into epic-length posts.

Anyway, some of my posts, especially Sunday's, make it sound like I believe the only reason a person would lose their testimony was if they aren't doing everything right (prayers, scriptures, etc.). I absolutely DO NOT believe this and know that the opposite is often true. I have read about many testimonies being lost because the person studies the scriptures and other official Church publications and they make comparisons and think about things and realize that things within the Church don't match up, or they don't match up to the person's beliefs. I do recognize this and don't mean to imply that you would only lose your testimony if you weren't faithful enough at scriptures, prayer, etc. I think that people like to believe that because it's a talisman against the loss of their own testimony -- if they can just do everything right, they'll be OK. Maybe I shouldn't extrapolate that to "people" in general -- but that's how I've felt in the past.

OK, it's really late -- this probably makes no sense. I plan to expand on this later.

2 comments:

Chandelle said...

"I have read about many testimonies being lost because the person studies the scriptures and other official Church publications and they make comparisons and think about things and realize that things within the Church don't match up, or they don't match up to the person's beliefs."

I have to assume, as a narcissist, that this post was written for me, since you know this was my experience - not so much that things didn't match up within the Church, but with my beliefs. :)

Katie said...

It was definitely written with your experience in mind :-D
I have several readers who doubt/question or are leaving the church and I didn't want any of them to think that I think I know why they feel the way they do :)