FAIR's Rising Generation

Archive for May, 2009

Anyone who reads a topic line like that has got to wonder what I mean. I know. I wrote it.

Personally, I’m a cool guy. Why? Simple.

Some people think football is cool. Sorry, it’s not. Rugby? Oh yeah…real cool. I love Halo as much as the next guy (and I think I can beat him, too), but I wouldn’t call it cool. Board games on the other hand are very cool–like Settlers of Catan (I think I can beat the next guy at that, too).

Cool comes in many colors. For example, all the new military technology is pretty nifty. Yeah, that’s right; I said nifty, and I’m not ashamed.

Skateboards would be cool, but I can’t ride one, so I’m not so sure.

Anyway, the point is anything can be cool. Don’t expect everyone to agree with you, but since you define what’s cool, their opinions don’t count. But the more cool things you know about, the more you’ll get along with people. Experiment!

Still, that doesn’t mean everything should be cool. I know guys who used to be on hard drugs. Definitely not cool. You can ask them. There’s a bigger and more important thing that we should never let be cool. That’s church.

Well, some parts we can make cool–like youth nights. Try staying awake in seminary; it’s worth it. What’s never cool is the sacrament. If you really wanted to, you could pretend it’s cool: “You take the sacrament? That’s pretty hip. Me, too.” It doesn’t really work; does it? It shouldn’t.

Taking the sacrament every Sunday is how we make a personal promise to Heavenly Father, showing that we are going to be better people now. I regret a lot of things each week. My goal is to never regret the same things I did the week before. Taking the sacrament is like hitting benchmarks which show how I’m doing. If I hit the same problem week after week, I need to put more energy into it so I can make taking the sacrament a rewarding personal report: “Heavenly Father, I did it. What’s next?” Sacrament is not the time to repent; it’s the time to be forgiven. But wait! Is repenting cool?

No. People who backpack know it’s cool. People who repent know it’s not. But wait. If I’m a cool person, should I stop repenting? What do you think?

If the purpose of life was to be cool, then we wouldn’t need repentance. Repenting often means we made the wrong things cool, and now we know it. Do you remember the time when you did something to get your friends to like you more? No, I’m not talking about the gallon challenge. It was worse than that, and you knew it (or know it now). I’ve been there, too. I stopped, made sure my friends knew I stopped (not always easy, but always important), and then it came time to let God know I stopped. Part of it was telling Him I wished I didn’t do it in the first place. That’s repentance.

Repentance isn’t fun, it’s not cool, and it doesn’t make anyone cool. But it does give us the chance to try again and try harder. Then we can be cool again.

If you’re into paintball, sweet. If you like mysteries, nice. If you and I make sure cool doesn’t replace our link to Heavenly Father, then everything we do will have more meaning and feel better. Not cool, but definitely worth it.

I don’t remember when all the men started wearing white dress shirts to Church. In fact, I don’t even know if I was alive when it happened. Or maybe it happened circa 1995, when Elder Holland advised: “May I suggest that wherever possible, a white shirt be worn by the deacons, teachers, and priests who handle the Sacrament.” Whether it happened before or after, or whether Elder Holland’s remarks merely solidified the trend is beyond me, but for one reason or another, the norm is that men and boys alike wear white shirts to Church.

Is it possible to deconstruct this phenomenon? Why do it if Elder Holland only intended the suggestion for a very narrow section of the Church? It doesn’t matter if you wear black denim Wranglers to Church; it doesn’t matter if you wear sneakers and mismatched socks; your shirt can even be untucked and wrinkled…as long as it’s white, you’re part of the gang.

The stated reason behind the practice—that Aaronic Priesthood holders should do it because it symbolizes ceremonial clothing that will be worn in the temple—doesn’t fully explain why endowed male members, who do not ordinarily administer the Sacrament, have chosen to adopt the practice. For another thing, one needs to account for the fact that women, who also wear ceremonial clothing in the temple, have not adopted the practice.

There are many possible reasons for men and boys to wear white shirts to Church. Below are three:

1) We use white shirts as a self-imposed marker of piety and membership. Latter-day Saints use many such markers (for example, the Word of Wisdom), as do other religions.

2) We use them to symbolize solidarity and equality between ourselves and our brethren. Christ has time and time again asked that we be one in purpose, also asking that we have all things in common.

3) We use them as something along the lines of an army uniform. This is somewhat controversial as Elder Holland made clear he was not likening white shirts to a uniform. Nevertheless, this isn’t about what Elder Holland had in mind, but why the greater Priesthood adopted a suggestion that was more or less directed at the Aaronic Priesthood.

But why an army? While it’s clear what we stand united against as Latter-day Saints, on whose behalf are we fighting? Jesus Christ’s? That is absolutely one way to look at it: A white shirt is an outward indicator of one’s desire and willingness to follow under Christ’s command. In other words, the wearer desires others to know that he is worthy to act in Christ’s name according to his Priesthood office. However, although Christ heads the Army and ensures our triumph, rather than fighting for him, I would suggest we actually fight alongside him towards a common goal. As Christians, we are not Soldiers battling for Christ. Rather, we battle precisely for what he battles for—the Kingdom of God itself.

Now, consider just a moment Helaman’s two-thousand Stripling Warriors. They went out on behalf of their parents and specifically on behalf of their mothers—whose faith upheld and supported their beloved sons as they fought valiantly. They trusted and revered their mothers, and as we all know, not one of them perished in battle.

On the subject of mothers, “The Family: A Proclamation to The World” contains a most peculiar reference. It asserts that every human being is either a son or daughter of heavenly parents. Furthermore, Eliza R. Snow reasoned in the well-known hymn “O, My Father” that in Heaven we indeed have a mother there.

So which scenario of the three mentioned is correct? I happen to prefer the third—thinking of myself as a Soldier in, not only His, but Her Majesty’s Royal Priesthood Army. This thought makes me somewhat more inclined to leave the black jeans balled up in the corner of my bedroom, make sure my socks match, and most of all, tuck in my freshly ironed white dress shirt. As the scriptures say, “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land.” I would like again to echo the words of Eliza R. Snow and testify to you that in Heaven parents are not single. There are many reasons to look our best at Church; perhaps honoring our Eternal Mother in quiet reverence is yet another reason to don the white shirt with gratitude and pride.

I had quite a few people in mind for my weekly post but couldn’t decide who should go first. Since this is the first person to be highlighted, I’m going with someone fairly obvious and famous. He epitomizes the good Christian.

Albert Schweitzer, born January 14, 1875, spent much of his life seeking to know God and immersing himself in the teachings of the Bible. He had aspirations of travelling abroad as a pastor but later changed his mind. Having a profound reverence for life, he decided that the ultimate missionary work was making life better for those around him. He took on the formidable task of becoming a physician and serving as a “medical missionary” in Africa. Spreading the gospel through actions instead of words, he brought the light of Christ to those around him.

Most of us don’t have it in our agenda to become doctors and travel to a foreign country to help those in need. However, we can learn a valuable lesson from this man: The Lord’s work is in helping others. We can’t change the entire world, but our actions inevitably affect those around us. Whether for good or bad is up to us, but how we treat others says a lot about our relationship with Christ (whether we realize it or not). It’s no insurmountable task to improve our world. We just need to cultivate a love of humankind, and the rest will come naturally.

If you know of anyone, personally or not, living or dead, from near or abroad, let me know about them! I’ll add them to my list of awesome people who I will be highlighting weekly.

Let me attempt an introduction.

I’m your Sunday evening blogger. Recently, I returned from my mission in Sydney, Australia and am now at BYU-Provo pretending to study ancient biblical history (because it would be a joke to say I understand it). Apart from my mission, I’ve been involved with FAIR’s Rising Generation’s parent organization (FAIR) since I was 16. My passion for defending the faith is as much a part of me as my toes. Getting rid of either would cause me discomfort.

As interesting as my life story is, I’ll spare you any more. Instead I thought you’d prefer something a little more insightful. I want to highlight a few benchmarks on the common path every Latter-day Saint must take.

What common path am I referring to? Within the realm of the God’s big plan for us, there’s a part called life on earth. Truth is, we’re living it right now. Life hands us vastly different circumstances, and each obstacle is unique. My challenges aren’t your challenges, and your challenges aren’t mine, but we live on the same planet, and we want the same goal: To return to Heavenly Father. To do this right, we have to embark on the path of perfection. Some parts of the path are common to all of us.

First, we have to build faith in the Savior. If we don’t trust Jesus Christ, He can’t help us (much like you could never help me if I didn’t trust you). We get our faith in different ways, but we all need faith to become perfect.

Another step on the path is baptism. While we treat baptism as something sacred, it turns out there’s nothing magical or mysterious about the process of being baptized. First, we step into the water. Then, someone with authority (a man holding the priesthood in our Church) says a prayer, immerses us fully into the water, and lifts us out. It’s that simple. Our name goes on Church records as a new member and we get a certificate.

What makes baptism so significant is it’s symbolism. Just as Christ died, was laid in a tomb, arose, and came forth resurrected, we go under the water (“buried” in it) and rise out as a symbol showing we want to follow Christ. Baptism is a contract (covenant) with God showing our seriousness. What makes it a miracle is that Heavenly Father dismisses all our sins to that point and lets us start over again, morally clean. It’s partly His show of support for our new life. We’ll go into more detail about baptism another time.

For now we’ll go over one more event on the path to perfection which is often ignored and rarely treated seriously. On the path to perfection, every member of the Church will confront anti-Mormonism. Trials of faith are essential to our growth, and we can’t be perfected without them.

Not all anti-Mormonism is the same. It may come from pamphlets distributed from other churches, it may be a friend accusing you or your parents of practicing polygamy at school, or it may be an atheist on the Internet mocking Christ. However frequent, and with whatever level of intensity, you will have to face it, and knowing what to say will help when it comes.

The reason I dedicate so much time to defending the faith is to help you and for you to help others. As Elder Christofferson said, “We need strong Christians who can…defend the truth of Jesus Christ against moral relativism and militant atheism” [1]. Physically we are strangers, but our spirits make us family. And if we want to be successful on the path to perfection, we have to do it together–you and I, our friends, relatives, and even our enemies. May we not be persuaded by what the critics say. Instead, may we be bold and firm, “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15) in defending what we know is true. Let’s lift each other up.

—footnotes—
[1] D.Todd Christofferson, “The Power of Covenants,” Ensign, May 2009, 19–23. In addition to this, C.S. Lewis said, “To be ignorant and simple now–not to be able to meet the enemies on their own grounds–would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”
C.S. Lewis, “Learning in War Times”, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, 1965, 28

Since this is my first post, I guess I’ll introduce myself and explain my involvement with Rising Generation a bit. I’m 22 and had been a member of the FAIR mailing list for a few months when someone brought up the idea of a FAIR branch specifically for young people. Feeling like somewhat of a sapling among towering redwoods, I thought it was a great idea! So I volunteered, and here I am.

As I was thinking of what I wanted to contribute to this blog, I had the idea of profiling awesome people. Something I always find extremely uplifting is when I hear stories of real people displaying integrity and courage. Sometimes, with the news and media focusing so much on the people who behave badly, we can really overlook the individuals who live in a way that helps others and makes the world a better place. You know: Good Samaritans.

Speaking of Good Samaritans, it seems very profound how the term originated in the first place. If you play word association with someone and say “Samaritan,” most likely they will say “good.”  If you ask someone what a Samaritan is, they probably won’t know.

Well, a Samaritan is actually a person belonging to a religious sect, similar but separate from Judaism. At the time the parable was given, the Samaritans and the Jews had somewhat of a rivalry as they both claimed to be the true Israelites to the exclusion of the other. In fact, the Jewish community (in general) despised the Samaritans, which is why Jesus included one in his parable. The priest left the traveller lying by the roadside, as did the Levite, even though priests and Levites were supposed to be the “good guys.”

What I find so profound is how this one parable in the Bible has changed the worldwide perception of Samaritans. People now don the name to symbolize charity and love for their fellow man, though Samaritans were once a loathed people. It inspires me. I hope I can be a Good Mormon, because I know that my influence on others always ends up being greater than I think. We have a tendency to assume that we’re too small to make a difference in the world, but it’s billions of seemingly small things happening each day that make the world a nice place or a nasty place, depending on what we choose to let our actions be.

I believe there are tons of awesome people out there; and that they can inspire us; be they young or old, alive or dead, LDS or not; from where ever in the world; and I’m going to make regular blog posts to prove it.