A Faith Beyond: The Gospel's Least-Understood Principle (Part 13)

Part 1:  A Faith Beyond
Part 2: A Faith Beyond
Part 3: A Faith Beyond
Part 4: A Faith Beyond
Part 5: A Faith Beyond
Part 6: A Faith Beyond
Part 7: A Faith Beyond
Part 8: A Faith Beyond
Part 9: A Faith Beyond
Part 10: A Faith Beyond
Part 10.5: On Occasion of My 45th Birthday
Part 11: A Faith Beyond
Part 12: A Faith Beyond

Sunday Picnic: I'll Bring the Fried Chicken

If there's one thing I know about Faith, it's that she's a social creature.

Faith shrivels in secrecy, amid buried dreams and unspoken hopes.  But she thrives among friends.  Like a picnic, Faith is meant to be shared.

​Jesus promised:

   Where two or three
   are gathered together
   in my name,
   there am I in the midst
   of them.

(Matt. 18:20)

And don't worry if you're single; you're not!  If you're reading this, then you've got me; even Abinadi had the company of Isaiah's words when he stood before Noah's priests.  Jesus had His Father abiding in Him when He faced Caiaphas.  And we possess the greatest companion of all, the Holy Ghost, able to commune with the hosts of heaven.  I can't imagine a bigger cheering-section than that.

The point I want to make is that faith is never a one-man or one-woman enterprise.  Moving mountains is a community endeavor.

Faith needs family (not talking about blood relations but our "faith-relations").  Faith is the thread that ties all of us together.

The Greek word for "church" is ecclesia, which simply means "gathering."  But be careful: there's a danger when churches are staffed with authoritarians who want to place faith in a box.  The last thing we want to do is "institutionalize" Faith, prescribing how she is supposed to look and talk and walk.

Faith does not belong in a Finishing School; she is not a debutante.  She resists a schoolmarm.

Imagine showing up to the picnic with your homemade Mac-n-Cheese, and being told, "That's not right; you didn't use any Gruyère cheese!  It doesn't meet our standards.  We run a very nice picnic around here.  Throw it away."

And so we are left with a conundrum: Faith needs community but not necessarily institutions; churches can as easily thwart our faith as inspire it.

A Clear and Present Danger

I would argue the two greatest threats to a "living" faith are:

   (1) Institutionalization &
   (2) Ideology

Did you notice "sin" didn't make my list?  I don't think faith is threatened by sin at all.  The Gospels show how easily Christ can take care of that (see Luke 7:36-50, for example).

You see, sin and disbelief are chump change compared to the heavy-lift of freeing our faith from institutional and ideological bondage.

Lucky for us, the Lord is the Deliverer.  If He can conquer Pharaoh and crush Egypt's oppression of Israel, I think He can deliver our faith from the brick-making captivity of false traditions, indoctrination, and spurious historical claims.

This is why I am inspired by the example of Saul (Paul) ― who was, at one point, a Pharisee-par-excellence ― and yet, despite his background and predilections, was able to leave that all behind when he encountered Christ on the Road to Damascus.

No matter where we're coming from or where we're going, Christ will meet us along the way.  (May we all be so fortunate as to have God send us someone like Ananias to heal our blindness.  Acts 9:17-18).

So the great challenge to our faith are all these marionette strings we've attached to it: the religious, political, and cultural attachments and affiliations that clutter our faith.

Cutting those strings in favor of Christ's word is the purpose of this post (and the next one, stay tuned).

God's word will liberate us from the shadow of mortal precepts and prejudices ― and by so doing, reveal unto us a more excellent way.

New Olympic Sport: Institutional Hurdles

​If you heard news that your neighbor had been "institutionalized," what comes to mind?  Does it conjure to your imagination chlorine-soaked hallways and sedated patients?

Likewise, what happens to Faith when we "institutionalize" her?  This is Babylon's great masterstroke: to remove faith from the individual and reposit her in an "institution" instead.

Can we see how deleterious it is to our faith when we switch from having faith in each other to trusting in an institution?

After all, institutions are not tangible, living things.  They are constructs; they are corporate fictions.  Left unchecked, these soulless entities can be used by the devil as stumbling blocks (looking at you, Great and Abominable Church).

Consider the Middle Ages, when Catholic priests jealously guarded their "purview" to the Latin Bible so common folk couldn't access the word of God except through them.

Nowadays, we could replace "Bible" with any number of other things (such as "priesthood keys") and arrive at the same result.  Isn't it funny how God wants to endow us with power from on high (D&C 38:38), but we are instructed by leaders to stay in our lane and defer to their authority?  That is the opposite of individual empowerment.  Instead of looking to "on high" we begin to turn to the institution and those who are "high ups."

But then spiritual seditionist William Tyndale came along in 1526 and did the unthinkable: he translated the Bible into modern English.

We regard Tyndale as a hero today.  But not the Church, not back then.  How did the Church react?  Did they commend Tyndale for his desire to ennoble the laity and to spread the authority of God's word as wide as possible?

Nope.  The Church declared him a heretic and burned him at the stake outside of Brussels in 1536.

Plough-boys (or in my case, Dough-boys)

My favorite quote of Tyndale was when he said to one of his accusers, "I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost."

That quote reminds me of the time evangelical preacher Nancy Towle said to Joseph Smith, "Are you not ashamed of such pretension?  You, who are no more than an ignorant plough-boy!"  To which Joseph replied, "The gift has returned back again, as in former times, to illiterate fisherman."  (Nancy Towle, Vicissitudes Illustrated, Portsmouth, NH: 1833, 156-157).

Our faith needs fewer aristocratic pretensions; we need more plough-boys.  Because Management does not always have Labor's interests at heart. 

As Joseph Smith said, "I love that man better who swears a stream as long as my arm yet deals justice to his neighbors and mercifully deals his substance to the poor, than the smooth-faced hypocrite.  I do not want you to think that I’m very righteous, for I am not. There was one good man, and his name was Jesus." (Joseph Smith, Documentary History of the Church, 5:401)

You see, the spirit of the early Restoration was quite egalitarian.  The principles of liberty (that we commonly associate with the American Revolution) found their way into the Restoration's early roots.  And for good cause: the Lord was decidedly committed to the democratization of authority among His children at the beginning of this dispensation:
 
   That every man [and woman]
   might speak in the name
   of God the Lord,
   even the Savior of the world;
   that faith might increase
   in earth.

(D&C 1:20-21)

Did you notice that last part?  Does faith increase or decrease by being constricted to an oligarchy of priests?  How does faith fare under their pyramidic-purview?

And so we have drifted from the original constitution of the Restoration as revealed in 1831.  I understand the reasons, I think, for why we scrapped the Lord's blueprints for the Restoration and refashioned the Church into the image of the world ― reasons that were very practical and exigent at the time (it is hard to remain idealists in the company of the John C. Bennetts and William McLellins of the world).

Bit-by-bit, we sacrificed our spiritual independence through the fires of Missouri and during the faithlessness of Kirtland (looking at you Safety Society).  We saw faith's dream become a nightmare in Nauvoo.  In the Territory we doubled-down, betting our faith on Plural Marriage and big business.

She remains fettered still.  Here we are, almost 200 years later, witnesses to the fact that faith is an unfortunate casualty of the war men wage in the Church for authority, gain and praise ― even those willing to trample over the word of God in their zeal to climb to the top.

   And it shall come to pass
   in the last days,
   that the mountain
   of the Lord’s house
   shall be established
   in the top of the mountains.

(Isaiah 2:2)

In the ultimate irony, the history of this dispensation has been the story of a people in search of the Mountain of the Lord ― not to obtain God's treasures, but to mine the mountain for its gold and silver.

The Test of Faith

​To understand the gravity of the situation, one need only look at how the Church has tied Faith to Tithing.  And Tithing to the Temple.  Giving money to the Church has become one of the main indicators of a member's "worthiness."  How did money ― and not Christ ― become the sign of our faithfulness?

The Church's messaging on Tithing sounds hollow against the backdrop of its wealth.  The Church is financially self-sustaining and has no need to devour the widow's mite.  It reminds me of the Savior's words to the Pharisees: "They are full of extortion and excess" (Matt. 23:25).

In fact, the Church's emphasis on Tithing during a time of plenty (when it has over $200 billion in investments and real estate holdings) proves the Savior's adage, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21).

From the Church's website, "What is Tithing?", we're told:  "Paying tithing demonstrates obedience and love and helps strengthen our faith in God."

​I Googled "Tithing" and guess what came up?  37 million search results, and guess who's on top?

Why have we made ​Tithing paramount?  Does it show we've figured out, like Nehor, how to use the Lord-for-lucre?

A reddit user wrote, "One time while my wife and I were going through financial struggles after losing one of my two jobs, the Bishop did a tally of our expenses.  After seeing that our car payment was the same as tithing, he told us to get rid of our car and start paying tithing then invest in a bus pass."

This reminded me of a time my Bishop told me that if I had to choose between paying tithing or putting food on the table for my family, to pay tithing.  You read that correctly.  He wasn't entirely heartless, though, saying if I paid tithing he would authorize a food order at the Bishop's Storehouse for groceries.

The scriptures have a name for this.  It is greed.  Not faith.  They call it extortion, not righteousness.  Like the ancient Israelites who melted their gold earrings and bangles for Aaron's Golden Calf, we continue to use religion to leverage God's blessings by telling people that if they want to be blessed, they better pay up.

The church has now grown so wealthy it has become a source of pride for many members.  The Church recently purchased the Kirtland Temple from the Community of Christ, and I saw countless posts (and boasts) about it on social media.

Nathan's words to David came to mind:

There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.  The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds.

But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

And the rich man took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for a wayfaring man that was come to him.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

(2 Samuel 12:1-7)

A Renewed Church?

The promise of the Restoration remains unrealized; can it be salvaged?

Ask yourself, how is Faith faring under the knife of spiritual lobotomists who obtained their degrees to practice medicine from Mammon?

I fear Faith has gone Code Blue.  How do we know?  By the scarcity of miracles (Mormon 9:15).

We need more William Tyndales who will break Rome's grip.  And as they say, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few Fabergé eggs.

The first "egg" we need to crack is figuring out what "the Church" actually is.

Fascinatingly, the Lord defines his "Church" in non-institutional terms.  He said to the Nephites after His resurrection:

   As I have prayed among you
   even so shall ye pray
   in my church, among my people
   [okay, watch for His definition:]
   who do (1) repent and are
   (2) baptized in my name."

(3 Nephi 18:16)

We see this again in D&C 10, where the Lord makes it bluntly clear who "belongs" to His church (and it has nothing to do with Tithing):

   Behold, this is my doctrine―
   Whomsoever (1) repententh
   and (2) cometh unto me,
   the same is my church.

   Whosoever declareth
   more or less than this,
   the same is not of me
   but is against me;
   therefore he is not
   of my church.

(D&C 10:67)

Lehi was a good example of this.  In Jerusalem there was an established church organization with priests; there was a law and temple.  Jerusalem's institutions were firmly rooted.

But then Lehi flees the wickedness of Jerusalem and does something completely crazy: he builds a makeshift altar out of rocks and (here it comes) offers sacrifices and burnt-offerings upon it.  This was outside-of-Jerusalem (a big no-no), beyond-the-walls-of-the-temple.  What was he thinking?  And just to make matters worse, Lehi wasn't even a Levite!

Lehi is proof that the Lord is not limited by location or institutions, legalistic texts or liturgies.  Faith finds a way.  God's children, His people ― His Church ― are those who repent and come unto Him, no matter their stripe.

In 3 Nephi 9, during the midst of the Nephite destruction when the voice spoke in the darkness to the survivors, what do you think God would say at their most vulnerable, heart-broken moment?

   Whoso (1) repenteth
   and (2) cometh unto me
   as a little child,
   him will I receive,
   for such is the kingdom of God.

(3 Nephi 9:22)

The take-away?  Let's stop equating the kingdom of God with the institutional church.  They are not the same.

Boston Tea Party Time?  For Churches?

The bigger lesson I think we should learn from all this is to stop over-complicating things.  We bleed faith dry with a thousand paper-cuts and concerns, unnecessarily (such as the current tempest-in-a-teapot over the wearing of garments and yoga pants, thanks to a General Authority's recent chastisement of women in California; I wish I were kidding.)

Now, some of you may think I am being too hard on institutions; we can't expect them to be perfect.  And I admit organizations can accomplish many wonderful, good things.  But consider: how important is faith?  Are we willing to allow our faith in Christ to become tainted, mixed with the "pollutions" of this world (Mormon 8:38)?

Similarly, an objection I hear from time-to-time from my family goes something like: "Tim, stop being so negative towards religion; stop criticizing the Church.  Pay your stamp tax like a good British boy.  So King George isn’t perfect?  Get over it.  You can still lead a fulfilling life under the Crown.  Westminster Abbey is so beautiful!  Just keep the commandments and leave the rest in God’s hand."

I would respond:

"I am a sheep not a serf; I need no sheriff when I have a Shepherd."  Vive la France!

Clark Burt explained:
  
"Someone who is repenting [is] leaving behind their traditional religion, their old church life, and are turning and coming unto Christ to be 'of His church.'  They are leaving the system of justification by their works.  It does not mean that they do not stay involved and attend church and activities, nor does it mean that they do stay involved, but it does mean that they will never see the organized church as they once did." (Clark Burt, "Repentance: Only Those Who Repent Are of My Church", posted January 21, 2024, Given by the Finger of God.)

Look, maybe I care too much about the politics of Nottingham.  But in the end I am not worried.  Despite all the grift, I know the rightful King will set things in order when He returns (D&C 85:7).

Corporation Sole
(a poem)

In the beginning
    the spirit overextended
upon the face of the waters
    ordering the vast expense
of humanity, requiring
    restructuring of the way
the gods would finance
    the firmament circling
celestial Bodies in endless orbit,
    gravity forming a black hole
(a telestial money pit)
    which someone had to bankroll,
so a Council was convened
    to decide how best to manage
the heavenly commodities.

A torch was lit,
    a flame spoke forth
with dawn’s red authority:

        Let us organize man in
            my own image,
        a man, just one male alone
            who shall be ranked
        by seniority.

Another arose with lips of light,
    his words falling as a stone seed:

     We have learned by sad experience
         it is not good for man
     to be alone with absolute authority.
         Give him a helpmeet
     yoked equally. Make him
          part of a family.

The heavenly board calculated
    the dividends and chose to go with the first
(the stockholders finding it more lucrative
    to maintain management).
And so a corporation was formed and recognized legally
    by the whole of all the earth.

And it came to pass the password was bequeathed
    to a lonely man possessing the single deed
to everything in perpetuity
    based upon being the longest alive,
or at least the longest ordained,
    and finally, to close any loophole,
to be perfectly precise:

   (1) longest
   (2) continuously
   (3) serving in the body of
   (4) man.

       How art thou fallen, O Orson!
           who was cast down
       in Eighteen Seventy Five.

And when the deed was executed
    notarized and sealed,
the morning stars together sang:

      Who needs a bride when we
          have a groom, a glorious Celibate:
      Rejoice, no more
          deficit! We will make rain and many
      profits shall pour from the rivers
          to the ends of the earth.

And the man slept, for while
    he had no sons or posterity,
there would always be another to take his place
    pursuant to (1), (2), (3), and (4). See, supra.
And there was no end to the budgeted generosity
    of him who owned the whole shebang.

And the gods breathed into the
    man’s nostrils and he
became a living
    sole.