Tenuous Beliefs

[Commons] [School] [Garden] [Kitchen] [Meditorium] [Library]
contrib/susan/tenuous.html

In my study of church history (and it is quite extensive not Sunday School only) Joseph was teaching a personal one on one relationship with God . When that was rejected then all of the Melchizedek stuff was revealed . IMHO it was a lower way to the higher way of having a one on one Calling and Election. IOW a personal relationship having nothing to do with organizations like Council of Fifty, Spiritual wives, temple ceremonies, baptisms for the dead, militias. If Joseph had been sustained as the Patriarch to the church we would have organized along patriarchal/matriarchal lines and would have been closer to Adam and Eve's/ Noah's etc way of teaching: telling their children about THEIR experiences and not disseminating a lot of doctrine.

You speak of Gods plan as a set of things we do in order to earn salvation or exaltation. I do not agree that that is the higher way, I believe it is telestial level stuff maybe terrestrial. I believe the higher way is to EXPERIENCE, KNOW and CHOOSE.

We of the Christian faiths get very hung up on the experience part and deem much of it evil. If your definition of evil is something that is "damning" or not allowing me to partake of the higher circuits of the universe I would agree. If your definition of evil is something that is "bad" I would disagree. Showing ankles used to be "bad." If your definition of evil is something that infringes on others free will I would again agree.

I believe I AM here to BE HUMAN and experience it with all of its joys and sorrows and frustrations and wonder. Interesting twist on this ol' world though is that sometimes I can experience through an art form such as a novel or movie and then know and choose from that or watching a real life drama in another's life and then through empathy experience, know and choose.

I choose to suspend all beliefs and hold them all very tenuously; even the ones I just espoused. To me it is not about belief but what I AM. It feels very disjointed to me sometimes after being so strongly tethered in the church and beliefs and doctrines for so long, but I AM having a very interesting life, understanding new stuff all the time and discarding other stuff. And I AM constantly being shown where my beliefs and prejudices still are and then I experience them differently, knowingly and then choose--to keep them or discard them.

It is a very different process for me and causes me to be quiet much more often. Harder in some ways because there's no system to say Hey you just earned an A or you stack up well at General Conference time, you are doing all those lists of things. The goal is so much away from that. It is more Hey I think I will do this because I AM wants to experience it.

It goes right along with the notion of the Saturn stone above the sun. We think we know, but then THERE's MORE and MOre and More. Well it certainly doesn't sound boring does it? Now how many of you can stay awake during conference or sacrament meeting, eh??? Can't you hear that insistent whisper everywhere: I AM ready to experience more???

From:     Absalom May 10 1998
Susan: This was profoundly moving to me. Would you mind if I published it on my web site at The Absalom Collection   ?

From: Susan Carter crtrfam@allwest.net
...I really felt the Spirit for the first time in a while while writing it. Sure you can publish it, but I feel the author was other than I.

[Commons] [School] [Garden] [Kitchen] [Meditorium] [Library]
contrib/susan/tenuous.html

Archive/Mirror Of: The Absalom Collection