The Deseret Morning News

It seems that all of my first posts are about serious things, and that wasn't intentional. I guess it could be because I made a blog to share some of the things that I have been thinking about and these are the things that have been on my mind for a while. Maybe next week I will write about something that isn't very important, but still extremely interesting--sports.

But until then . . . I read the Deseret Morning News a lot. Being in Utah there is an extreme amount of stories that revolve around religious people. These stories almost without fail revolve around Mormon people doing something wrong. But there are times when they find someone else to speak about. The stories don't necessarily bother me, although I do think they try to show Mormons doing something bad any chance they get, but it is the comments that irritate me.

For instance, about a year ago there was a BYU professor who was caught doing something inappropriate and just plain wrong. I was amazed at the comments people left. Many people were calling for him to be thrown away with the key and numerous other things. I couldn't have disagreed more with many of the posts. But a couple bothered me a great deal. One person said that we shouldn't be so quick to judge. I believe the exact quote was, "he who is without sin cast the first stone." I agreed whole-heartedly with the post. The person that he was telling not to judge wrote back that he could judge, or cast the first stone, because although he had sinned he had never sinned as greviously as this professor had. I was dumbfounded. What a horrible world we would live in if everyone could "cast stones" at anyone who committed a worse crime than them. I am glad Jesus set the right example for us, as he forgave everyone, regardless of their sin, if they came to Him. He truly was not a respector of people. I think we are not to judge any sins. Now, don't get me wrong, there are sins that are so grevious that people lose their right to live in society because the potential risk of them acting it out again is too great a risk. But these are few and far between, and even those people are not in our stewardship to judge . . . in my opinion.

Also, I can't stand, in all these articles, when someone was Mormon and doing things that are wrong and they get caught and people say they were living a double life. While I do acknowledge that some people intentionally try to deceive, I do think a lot of others are just doing their best. It is funny because if these people spoke to someone before they got caught what would be people's advice to them, "Go to church, try to be good, live your life better!" Yet when people recognize that they are doing something wrong, can't figure out how to stop it, and try to go to church and do other related things, and then get caught, people say they were living a double life. If holding on to the one thing that can actually help you is living a double life, then yes, they are doing exactly that. Let people that are having a hard time hold on to the thing that can save them, it is all they have when times are hard! We always say that churches are hospitals for sinners, not museums for saints. If that is true why do we get upset when a sick person is found at the hospital on Sundays?

I do acknowledge that there are lots of people who do intentionally deceive. In which case all I said is out the window. But you get the gyst of what I am saying. Just because someone lives a religious life and does something wrong doesn't mean they are deceivers. I am someone who thinks that every person in life does some things wrong, and one of those "everybody" could be a member of a church--just maybe!

This isn't meant to be a confessional, in fact it isn't. I do think I am living a good life. But I must say that if I ever did start doing something wrong (I am scared that this post and the David post will start to get people thinking that I am committing horrendous crime--I am not :) ) and I didn't know how to stop doing it I would still go to church. I would still talk about God, as I would love Him regardless of my actions, and I would try to help others believe in Him also. If I got caught I would guess that people would say I was living a double life. That irritates me.