And Yet, We Believe

As nuanced members in the church, it is fairly common to need to interact with people who approach faith in a more binary or black and white way.
How exactly do we do that? In this episode, we share some tips and ideas about interacting with Stage 1 or Stage 2 believers (see Brian McLaren's book Faith After Doubt for a deep dive into these stages).

It’s always been okay to use different Bible translations, but the Church’s recent change gives us a nudge toward using translations that are newer and based on better sources than the King James Version. We chat through our favorite translations, and how you should spend time with the version of the Bible that brings you closer to Christ… whether that’s the KJV or something that uses more modern language.

Our church meetings have had a very similar feel or vibe for basically our whole lives. Maybe a few things have changed here and there, but it has been pretty consistent for a lot of years.
What would a revamp look like? Would there be a benefit in refocusing our meetings on the Savior? Could we make room for more spiritual experiences and connections with God?

What did Jesus look like? And, notably, why does it matter?
 
Depictions of Jesus have changed a lot over time, from dark skin and light skin to gentle and fierce. But the most important thing is that everybody is able to see themselves in deity, and understand that they too are divine.
 
In this episode, we reference the following images and book if you want to see them.
Warner Sallman, Head of Christ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_Christ
Bernhard Plockhorst, The Good Shepherd: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bernhard_Plockhorst_-_Good_Shephard.jpg
Stephen Sawyer, Undefeated: https://www.art4god.com/store/undefeated
Expressions of Jesus: https://www.deseretbook.com/product/6080309.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqtce42zXttsUFtmgk_ZBDJvIwlLb7ZMbtuSDdS5goFvddildTi

We are probably all guilty of participating in negative conversations on the internet. Why are they so easy to fall into?
We know it is tempting to want to set someone straight and point out all the ways they are causing harm with their viewpoint. But what would happen if we just kept scrolling?
We acknowledge that sometimes we have to say something. We don’t want people to sit back and be doormats. But HOW we say things matters. HOW we treat people online matters. And we can all do better.
*Please note, we are not telling people to stay in harmful situations or to sit back and take abuse, especially physical abuse. This conversation is about how we interact with others online.

Is it possible for two people to feel very differently about the same Sunday School lesson? You bet. Is it possible for one person to feel welcome in their ward, and another person to feel unwelcome in the same ward? For sure. Sometimes we get so locked in on our own experience that we end up invalidating the experience of others.
In this episode we talk about how we’ve seen this happen, and how we can (hopefully) see the inherent dignity in other people and their lived experience—even and especially when it’s different from ours. 

Talking about hope can go in so many different directions. We try to keep it away from a toxic positivity version as much as we can. Hope can be in specific things or more broad.
In this episode, we talk about the story from the Bible where Jesus joins two men on the road to Emmaus. Join us as we dive into what we can learn about hope from this story. 

We all have a bunch of different things that make up our identity—from our favorite sports teams to our preferred political party. The problem comes when those things get in the way of living a Christ-like life. If a part of our identity is making us hateful toward another group of people, then our priorities are mixed up.

Is change possible in the church? We may not have access to make official changes for the whole church, but we can absolutely advocate for change in our homes and wards.As Sister Becky Craven said, “Enduring to the end means changing to the end.” Change may be scary, but it is necessary as we work to build Zion here on earth.

Mercy might be the only thing that can heal our society.We talk in this episode about how showing mercy means recognizing and centering the human dignity in another person. It doesn’t mean excusing behavior, but it does mean seeking to understand even those who are wildly different from us.