Jun 24 2007
Following Up
It’s interesting how sometimes after you write something, hours go by, and you look back over it and think, “wow! I hope that didn’t come across that way!” And then you mull, and you stew, and you fret–at least I do. And then I wonder who I might have offended or who got the wrong impression of me.
So, I’m throwing in yet another little disclaimer about this post here.
I’m a faithful and devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I refrain from talking about my religion very much here, mostly because I don’t want to isolate anyone or to come across as preachy. But it also means that I leave out a huge chunk of who I am. THIS is who I am: I believe in God, that He is my eternal and loving Heavenly Father. I believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and that He is my Savior. I love Him with all my heart and I try to serve him as best as I can. I want to love everyone, the way He loved everyone. I make a lot of mistakes, but my ultimate goal is to be like Him. I believe in the Bible. I believe the Book of Mormon is also the word of God. It is Truth. It brings me closer to my Savior. I read from it every single day. I go to church, every single week. I can hardly bear to miss it–sometimes I have to, due to illness or other circumstances–and I feel a great loss when I’m not there. The Gospel has brought me true happiness and I would be completely lost without it. I am grateful for it every day of my life.
That last paragraph describes me better than anything you’ll read about me anywhere else. And yet, sadly, it mostly goes unsaid.
And so, when I bash on BYU–something I’m prone to do without thinking through it very clearly–I forget that someone could mistake that for Mormon-Bashing which, as you now see, never what’s intended. Because I grew up in the shadows of BYU and both of my parents were professors there, I was intimately familiar with both the good and the bad things about it–things that are NOT in harmony with my beliefs as a Mormon. There is corruption and silliness everywhere, and for some reason I was in a position to see a lot of it at BYU. But BYU isn’t the Church, it’s simply a private university run and attended mostly by Mormons. They try to keep a high standard there, a strong moral base in an attempt to help students find themselves, as opposed to losing themselves as they do in so many other environments. I commend them for this, but I’ve seen where it goes way too far. The crucial thing to remember is that universities are run by people, the Gospel is run by God. I believe that people are, in general, trying to be the best they know how. But they are, alas, people.
It’s a tricky thing, because I want to keep my writing honest. If something’s screwed up, I wanna be able to say that it’s screwed up! But I also don’t want anyone to misunderstand my rantings.
I don’t think I was offensive earlier–no one has said as much, anyway. But I was afraid that someone might read something I didn’t intend to be read. For my own peace of mind, I needed to get this off my chest.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…
