The Elmens: Day 4: Your Views on Religion

Day 4: Your Views on Religion

Wow. Isn't this a touchy subject! So the following are my opinions only. Don't judge.

I'm a baptized Mormon. I've also periodically tried to be an active, participating, tithe paying member of the LDS church and for right now at this point in my life I have decided it just isn't for me. I'm a spiritual person, I believe in God, but I don't necessarily believe he/she is Mormon, or Catholic, or even Baptist or Buddhist. I believe in a higher power, but I'm just not sure what that is yet.

I have my issues with the LDS church, not so much the religion itself but with some of the people. I've never been someplace where I have felt more unwelcome in my life. Someplace where I felt worse when I left than I did when I got there. And made to feel that way by people who try to pride themselves on their giving and welcoming nature. These people welcomed Cody, and Jon too. But the women? Some of the most judgemental people I have ever met in my life. I understand this to be a wide-spread not just a singular problem within the church. On the other side of that I can't stand the mentality of some people in this state that all things related to the LDS church as bad or evil. The church does so much for so many, and would help even those people that hate if they ever needed it. They create beautiful churches and amazing temples to provide their members with wonderful places to worship. They do great things for their youth, especially for the boys, and I think they mean well, I just think things start to go wrong when your people, specifically your people in charge, start interpreting and enforcing things based on their own moral beliefs and feelings instead of by the nature in which they were intended.

My son has decided he wants to go on a Mission. He decided this on his own, no influence from us. In actuality we probably have encouraged him against it..strongly. But he won't be swayed. Never before have I seen a child who willingly gets up and goes to church, alone. He sits alone, sometimes a stray family will take him in, but for the most part in his new church he is a row of 1. He lives what he believes and is very pure in what he wants. And at the end of the day what I say to him, is the same I say to everyone else about him, we have supported Cody in everything he has ever wanted to do up until now, and we will continue to support him if he decides to go on a mission. He has the kind of faith in his religion that I've rarely if ever seen before. While most people I talk to have to beg, drag or coerce their children his age into going to church, I have my guilt to face about sending him alone.

Are other religions any better?? Maybe. In all honesty I've never really looked into any of them. Never had much interest in religion other than my few previous bad experiences. I believe in a God that is loving and kind, a God that never gives you more than you are strong enough to handle. A God that would never keep me from my family or friends in any sort of an 'After Life' (if there is one) because I didn't pay enough money to his designated church while on Earth, or because I didn't jump through all the necessary hoops to go through his temple, hoops that, in my opinion, seem to change based on each person, and their ability to pay, and/or in most cases their ability to lie their way in. The God I believe in would welcome everyone, regardless of who they are and what they have done in life.