News Lately

Sunstone: What Is Authentic Spirituality? - I had Sunstone envy a couple of weeks ago as lots of people on my alterno-Mormon Facebook groups talked about attending various sessions.  This particular presentation resonated with me.  One key section:

When you’re religious but not spiritual, you’re very concerned with the outward appearance. You want to make sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. You want to show up with the right smile on your face, the right clothes on your body, the right words on your lips. But if those things don’t come from a genuine place, what you are doing is constructing barriers between yourself and God.

This is because God deals in realness.

So true!  I'm still in the process of figuring out my relationship to God in a non-standard, non-correlated way.  I'm trying to find that genuine place for communication with the divine.  I know how to follow the rules, to say all the right thing, but I don't necessarily want to anymore, because I want to be real, and I believe God wants me to be real.

This also makes me think of the ongoing fixation with modesty, as the Church uses that term (aka, Hide Those Filthy Shoulders!), particularly the modesty of our Young Women.  Really?  Is that the most important thing to focus on?  Really?!


Faith & Doubt - Is it just me, or is everyone talking about the juxtaposition of faith and doubt lately?  Ever since my lesson with its great, student-led discussion, and the follow up emails between me and a member of my bishopric, this topic seems to be everywhere.  Though I'm sure part of it is that I'm hyper-aware of such discussions now.  Anyway, this blog post is an interesting discussion about how to approach someone in a faith crisis, and how to move through a faith crisis.  I'm taking some helpful pointers from this.