FAIR's Rising Generation

Archive for August 10th, 2009

There were three things I was thinking about when deciding what to write in my next blog post. The first was that I’ve been told several times that I need to be a teenage Mormon girl talking to other teenage Mormon girls, something I haven’t been doing very well lately. The second was that hopefully, we’ll be having some FAIR people looking at the blog soon and (unfortunately) my post may be one of the first they see. The third was the knowledge that a lot of people – although not necessarily doubting us –  may be asking: What is the point of FRG? Isn’t having FAIR enough? Why would anybody join FRG?

Instead of somehow writing three different posts concerning each individual thought, I’m writing one. No, no, I’m not clever, I’m just feeling particularly lazy at the moment.

I’ll tell you (as a fifteen year old Mormon girl) what I think the point of FRG is, in the hope that at least one of the people who have wondered this will read it.

FAIR’s Rising Generation has actually quite a similar goal to FAIR itself, except it’s aimed toward youth and young adults. We will help the rising generation of the church fend off things that might otherwise seriously shake their testimonies and possibly cause them to fall away from the Church. These things may be difficulty maintaining standards, difficulty understanding why you would want to maintain them in the first place, not understanding doctrine and just plain old lacking in faith. We’ll also help them to make right decisions and encourage them to go on missions.

As a teenage girl, I have experienced and have seen others experience those moments of ‘I just can’t believe in a church that’s founding prophet practiced polygamy’, ‘What the heck am I supposed to be doing?’, ‘I don’t know if I should even bother going on a mission’ and ‘what harm will one time do?’.

I know that there are many trials and issues which strive to tear apart the testimonies of younger Latter-Day Saints. I also know that they are a problem and I know that so many people lose their faith because of them. We are given trials to overcome them, and that is what I propose we help youth and young adults do.

I’ll tell you why just having FAIR isn’t enough. Your average sixteen or twenty year old doesn’t think the same way as a forty or fifty year old. They don’t always face the same trials, they didn’t grow up in the same age with the same walls blocking their way to salvation and truth. An eagle cannot teach a bear how to catch a fish. Your average teen or young adult will often not re-establish spiritual strength or faith the same way somebody twice or three times their age would.

I’ll tell you why somebody would join FRG. They would share the same vision as us, which is to help struggling youth and young adults overcome obstacles, understand doctrine and strengthen their faith. We aim to be youth inspiring, helping and directing other youth. It is a noble cause and one which I hope will not fail and with help I’m sure it will not.