I would say that I generally have had a good experience at evening masses...this one was mixed. But before I get into why, I want to describe the Church. The Blessed Sacrament Church also has a school that is pretty large attached to it as well as a few statues and flowers growing around the premises. It is quite a lovely area.
Inside the Church is very similar. It actually reminds me of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, but the actual Church feels bigger, though it may not be. It certianly has more information. When I arrived early I walked around...seeing the Tombstone Memorial the Unborn (also have seen one of these at Saint Joseph's in Salem) and has information on the memorial Mass for the Sanctification of John Paul II and John XXIII. It also had their brief biographies.
There were tons of posters, notices and free information for anyone who was visiting. As someone who had arrived to the Mass early it was perfect for me in exploring the Church. After it got closer I made my way into the main Chapel.
The chapel is beautiful. The tapestries were white and had Thomas touching the risen Jesus with the quote, "My Lord, My God." and the quote "Blessed are those who have not seen and believe." This was the focus of the sermon, which I enjoyed.
Now for why it was mixed, besides the Tombstone...the music and the fact the Church is connected to the radio. The songs were just Christian Rock songs on the radio in the worst artificial way...beautiful, but no soul and turning words into lyrics for no other reason then for there to be singing...the congregation was quite on all the responses because the singer dominated...there wasn't much of a congregation it felt like even though the Chapel was full.
This is one reason I'm grateful for the sermon...the sermon tied to the belief after the readings (all of which were New Testament Readings) on belief and being saved and finally tying it into Thomas's doubt. I might have covered this in a past post but I think Thomas is the minimum that someone like me could ask for. When Supernatural claims are made (someone raised from the dead) I need more than people who lost a friend...if not it is in all probability just inspiration.
That is one reason I find Jesus's quote hollow...St. Paul asked people to think but then assumed to trust authority and his word regardless...if that's the starting point, how can one start clearly doubting and seeking the truth?
The priest had a great quote about questioning with an agenda (and tying it to the media as wrong) and I agree with him...but can't the same be applied? Would you apply the same doubt to you and your own beliefs as you would apply to another religion? To another supernatural event?
For me as an agnostic this is huge. If there is something that I can know for certain about what I can find beyond my senses...you can bet I would like to know. It would change the way I perceive the world beyond the very real human relationships and ethics of this one. The thing is, I haven't had a way to test that...I've had experiences but nothing so certain as touching the holes in a risen corpse and the wound in his side.
For any religion, any supernatural thing...I would want that. To know the world as more than what I've known so far. Knowledge is power and with an ethical mind that power can change us for the better, and it is sure as hell a lot better than ignorance.
My visit to the Cathedral Church of Saint Mark was for me a chance to see a lot of what I like about organized religion, mixed with the reason on why I don't see myself ever becoming a complete believer in a Deity, and why I consider myself Agnostic.
What I like about religion is social action and involvement with helping surrounding area and community, the quiet place for thought it can give as well as a place to think on ethics and in many cases provide good ethics as well as social justice in regards to helping the poor and equal rights and treatment of women and members of the LBGTQ community.
First to describe the location. The church is old, dating back to the late 1800's and has two buildings connected to it. The Episcopal Center of Utah, which is their headquarters and the Hildegarde's food pantry, which provides food to homeless in the area.
The pantry is somewhere I could see myself volunteering because of the direct action and help it gives in peoples lives. It also doesn't discriminate like some religious agencies and groups do in regards to who they help and serve. This living love and treating all with fairness and equality is what I look for in any group, especially one that ties so much of its identity into something greater than itself.
The main building has a gate and garden, as well as a bell at the very top. Inside the Cathedral is the main area with the altar and on the other side a beautiful organ, much like Cathedral of the Madeleine's, the Catholic Cathedral that is the street behind Saint Mark's. The area where we had the service was in a tiny chapel that was right next to the main altar. It was here that the Eucharist was kept and candles covered another altar.
Now for the service. At the service there were four people present, including the priest. The priest was a kind older man from Tennessee. The service began with the Confession of Sin and after Trisagion, which reads:
Holy God,
Holy and Mighty,
Holly Immortal One,
Have Mercy Upon us.
After were the readings, which were Genesis, when Abram is blessed by God and goes out, followed up by Paul's Letter to the Romans about how Spirit can only beget Spirit and Flesh can only beget flesh, and ending with Jesus's famous quote from that day's reading from John about "No one can come through the Father except through me," and that the "Son did not come to condemn, but to save."
The homily described faith as the main thing that Grace is something so beyond us that we can never understand it, but that it gives us more than we know. I understand the idea theologically of Grace but find that I can't fully believe in it or really anything like it...whatever comes from something that I cannot see or know I can only doubt. This is a major reason I don't think I could join most organized religions. I may think there is something greater simple due to probability for the complexity of life and possibilities of the universe. But I cannot know. There is no way for me to test, so I continue to explore and learn and grow. It is in these halls that the ethics of Christ's life are an inspiration to me and the social action in the community of truly living with love towards all.
It was a great service and I enjoyed talking to the priest and two of the colder congregants afterword. We mostly talked about how much Salt Lake City has changed and a bit more of the community of Saint Mark's. Who I look forward to visiting again.
Today has been an interesting day. I've met with friends and talked philosophy and teaching in China, ran into a philosopher from Kentucky who is teaching math and physics here and experienced an interesting sermon.
I figured with the time I have left in Nanjing I should revist St. Paul, and also visit the Temple before I go. Both are interesting places from what I experienced before, and in the case of Daming Temple, heard about.
The sermon today touched on the Problem of Evil, and to a degree the nature of belief and faith.
First I arrived early and sung two of the songs with the congregation, while also catching up with Durin, a college student who I had met there last time I had visited. After that there was the songs and readings, all which focused on the reality of God being there and the desire for God, before leading up to the sermon.
The readings were a psalm, and a chapter in Mark in which Jesus heals a woman who is healed by her faith in him, and his healing of a dead twelve year old girl.
The sermon started with the pastor telling a story about a sixteen year old believer he knew who died of cancer. He mentioned how he didn't know why events like this happen if God heals and that it had initially caused him to doubt. He eventually came back and tied this story to the story of a missionary in the 19th Century whose daughters had died in a shipwreck, and when he had passed the shipwreck on the way to his wife how his belief in God had caused him to have peace in his soul.
"What is the state of your soul?" He asked the congregation.
My thoughts were...'I don't know if I have one...I really have no way of proving if it exists or not. Where is the soul? What is the soul?'
He ended with making a claim that God seeks those who trust and have faith in him, like the woman who had faith and healed and the young girl who had been dead. If Jesus is "The Way, the Truth and the Light," my experience of the relationship has been an unknown, much like the existence of my soul, except Jesus's stories remind us of the importance of integrity with the world and living with truth and honesty in all that we do.
That is something I do believe in. virtue and integrity, it may be hard to fully define but it is something that can be defined and experienced without the questions and unknown. If Jesus Christ is God, I'll always be open to knowing that, but right now Jesus is unknown as anyone else in the past where I can know how others thought of him and what others believed him to be, but if I believed that without any doubts...I'd be lying to myself and that would not be living with virtue or integrity.
First, many of you may be wondering why I was in Utah. I initially came down to Utah to see my family and to run in the "Race for the Cure" in solidarity with one of my Aunts and my Grandmas who both had breast cancer. My Grandmother was in surgery for her's the day I arrived and that same day my Grandfather had heart attack in which he ended up in coma. The day I did "Race for the Cure" with many members of my Father's side of my the family, my Grandfather died.
I will miss him but am grateful for the life he lead, in all his strengths and weaknesses and for always being a kind, compassionate, gentle person to me, my family and my grandmother.
I could never describe fully how much my family means to me, and how grateful I was to be here with them through all that was going on. I hope to attend my Grandfather's funeral as well to honor the life he lived and his memory. His funeral is this Wednesday.
Writing all of this, I hope I do not hurt any of my family in moving forward from my relationship with the Mormon Church. There is much history here and in doing so I'll be exploring the reason for my own and my Mom and Mother's Mom's non-belief in the Church, because in it you can catch a much fuller narrative of where my story picks up and what I believe.
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This has been a blog post that I knew that I would be writing at some point, and fittingly enough it's on Mother's Day since it's my Mother and her Mother who really start the narrative. Mine and my siblings story really picks up when my Mother's story comes full circle connecting once again to her Mother's story.
Let's begin with my Grandmother. My Grandmother was adopted by her Aunt who was a devout Mormon. My Grandmother questioned the Church doctrine, especially why when she was growing, why African American's could not receive the priesthood. This lead to her leaving when she was given the reason I've heard of "The Church was not ready." Understandably this rubbed her the wrong way, did God only care and give his gifts to people of European Descent? Is God racist? The Native Americans were also a lost tribe of Israel and had darker skin because they were cursed? What? In the writings the Prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham she would read there racism towards African Americans, Native Americans and sexism which in turn lead to her leaving the Church at age 16. Which in turn lead to her doubting their overall claims.
The Age of 16. This the age my mother would join the Church. Drawn to the main narrative of families being together forever as part of Heavenly Father's Plan. My Mom grew up a Navy Brat and for much of her life her Father was at sea serving in Vietnam.
The Church offered stability that she had never been able to find. I heard that stability today in the sermon. That in obedience to our Heavenly Father as our Heavenly Mother is, and by the example of our Lord Jesus Christ who atoned for our sins. From here there is paradise with the Mormon Family and meeting all the people who were not born into bodies yet or who died and returned to their spiritual bodies.
Obedience, for good measure this rubbed Mom the wrong way. She studied the Bible and Book of Mormon so thoroughly, yet because she was a woman she was never taken seriously when she brought issues of reform. Such as letting the girl scouts go on camping trips, or having more money go to serving the poor rather then building temples. She also researched Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and found that she was living something she was unable to believe. She literally stayed for us kids, until worried how her autistic child who wasn't into playing sports (me) would probably be eaten alive by a culture that didn't do well with non-conformity (breaking gender roles is no, because it's part of God's plan). She finally left for me and for all the issues her Mother found with the Church. This brings me to my own story.
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When I had completed the 5th Grade we left Utah to Michigan and Mom told us the reasons she left. We understood her lack of power she had felt and supported her in her exploration of different faiths. Something we ourselves would do.
My early memories of the Church certainly weren't of genuine belief so leaving it wasn't so hard. I enjoyed singing, I loved my family and spending time with them. But I never thought about Joseph Smith's claims and was honestly much more interested in the animal kingdom and dinosaurs...Church was something I did because I had to do, it was where community twas that I felt separate from anyway (except my family), and the sacraments at best were fun. When I was 8 I was baptized and the first thing I said when I came out of the warm water was, "That was fun." After my Dad baptized me.
Leaving Utah was hard though, because my family was all there. No longer would there be giant family reunions I could catch (due to distance WA and MI and time), well up until now and finishing college.
It was this time I was a part of the Unitarian Universalist Church with my Mom...but even then, I was searching but not thinking all that deeply. It really wasn't until high school that I really began exploring religion in depth...and in the process became an atheist. I read the stories of Ex-Mormons and saw how they mirrored Moms, I read any information I could find on Joseph Smith and explored Christianity, Judaism and other faiths as well. What I found (which was my interest in middle school) was how connected they were to mythology.
The Mythology connection:
Jesus the Man God, who rose again. Muhammad the Prophet who ascended to the sky and created a Holy Book that God told him to say. Joseph Smith who was visited by God and Jesus and the Angel Maroni who gave him the Golden plates the new completed True Gospel (like what the Prophet Muhammad claimed the Quran to be). The Hindu, Norse, Greek and Egyptian Pantheons, some of whom died and were resurrected. The Legends surrounding the Buddha.
Prophecy - I see more reason to doubt all the prophecies in any of the Holy Books then accept them. I think the people who made them tried to make the most of their situation (I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt then call them scam artists) cause it seems they genuinely believed. Be it Isaiah, Joseph Smith or Muhammad...but within prophecy it's easy to see where they drew inspiration from. They drew inspiration from the stories and legends of their day and with it composed a narrative that represented many of the thoughts of their time...in all it's ethical (Golden Rule) and unethical claims (Racism, sexism, homophobia, genocide, war) that were made.
Male Priesthood Authority -This is a huge issue for me. The Orthodox Christian and Jewish faiths aren't that different from Mormonism on this issue. Same with the Catholic Church, the Baptists, Pentecostals, Islam and other conservative religious traditions. Why should a man only be allowed to preach and be allowed to lead a congregation? Why must a woman submit to a man? Besides the excuse of God wanting as the natural order of things and way HE meant things to be, I have not heard a single good reason why this is ethical. Partnership involves submitting to one another and working together. This tradition arose out of the era when women were seen as chattel and in the same area of property as animals. Look at the Holy Books (Quran, Book of Mormon, The Bible (Old and New Testament) and you see that female rights were minimal at best. The father made the decisions for the daughter and the wife, they had little to no power EVER.
My experience with this has seen the abuse of this authority, if God is the only one watching a man can do whatever he wants to a woman if she doesn't listen to him (the Bible prescribes the beating of children for example) and he'd have doctrine to back him if he looked hard enough...just like the justifications for racism, sexism, slavery and genocide that exist in the Holy Books. Man is the head of the household afterall...
When it comes to praying, preaching and understanding a book or leading a group a woman is just as qualified as a man. So why shouldn't she have the same authority as one on matters that involve such things? The only reasons I've heard is because "God says so," or "Her role is an important one, but not the same - separate but equal (which has been used to justify oppression in the past)."
Myth - A personal God, Angels, Demons are by their very nature mythical (as in the only proof for them lies in myths) as are miracles and the laws of nature being stopped, reversed, ect. Which makes revelation itself mythical since it usually calls on common myths and mythical language to paints it's narrative.
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During all this time the Church didn't accept are leaving and "No" as an answer. Missionaries were sent to our home 5 times that I'm aware of. The Boy Scouts came over and at one point girls from the Church invited us (my Brother and I) to a sleep over and dance.
I saw that the ex-Mormons had experienced similar and worse things and in that knowledge accumulated much bitterness towards the Church that I've continually sought to move on from once I became fully aware of the fact that I was bitter that the Church did not accept "No," and it's actions towards apostates and of the harm that had been done in it's name to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer and Transgender people who I knew (some of my friends in high school). I would learn though that was an issue in other faith traditions as well, as other blog posts have described.
It didn't end there though. At one point the Interfaith group at Eastshore my Mom was a leader of visited the Mormon Church near my house. The service felt targeted at converting us non-believers, which is in Church doctrine, but after other Churches being much more natural and having standard services, this one felt a bit off. This might have been my own chip I was carrying with me though that informed this view point. I wasn't aware of it really, until I'd matured a bit more.
The Church became a taboo in discussion with my family and for what's it worth I was grateful for that because I didn't have to forgive what happened. I could hold onto it. It wasn't until I began to work on forgiveness as a whole that I recognized the weight that I carried.
It was around that time I became an Agnostic Deist who believed in the main of tenants of Buddhism and Taoism, which I am to this day...the teaching allowed me to let go, since it was attached to the ego, and with it the bitterness has healed.
I talked to my cousins last time I was here about Gay Rights and the Mormon Church and found allies there who believed like I did in Gay Marriage being a right, and I also talked to my one of my cousins who was leaving on his mission. On the hike I found that mutual respect. Even though we didn't believe the same thing, I respect him for his beliefs and it seemed like he respected me.
I hope the Church and other conservative religions can move forward on supporting all relationships built on love and consent and supporting freedom of discussion and questioning within themselves. That maybe literal definitions may not be the best approach.
The weight I carried clouded my perspective. My Dad's of the family has never tried to convert me and I have so much respect for that and honor them and the peace they find in the LDS faith. With my Grandfather's death, and reading my cousin's blog when he was on his mission I know the peace it offers to many believers.
I think the institution as a whole needs to take responsibility for the evils of past (racism, sexism, homophobia), as does any institution...but I have hope someday it can. It's always difficult confronting our own mistakes, like my own bitterness and anger and growing from it, any person or institution (people within an institution) can do the same. Mistakes are opportunities to grow. Every Holy Book I know of has some immoral acts claimed in the name of righteousness and God (Genocide, Slavery, homophobia, Rape), but unlike books people change and can grow beyond the fear, hatred and backwardness of their ancestors. We were born with reason, morals, and the ability to empathize and feel for others whether inside our outside a faith. It's from these virtues that we move to create a better tomorrow and improve our institutions, communities and ourselves.
Virtue and and living with virtue towards all people are things I believe in.
So with peace I thank my family for supporting me in my non-belief of the Church and allowing me to grow on my own. For the Church for helping me with confronting my fears of public speaking (helped my Mom in the same way), and for the good it does do in the world in serving the poor.
