So I have had extremely faith promoting experiences lately. I want to preface with this because the latter half of my post is somewhat heretical.
I really enjoy following Christ. Honestly, there is so much depth that faith can add to your life. It can add so much more to how you love, how you forgive . . . all those things. The biggest thing that it adds to is probably family relationships. It transforms how people think of each other. I was talking to my Mom the other day and telling her that I could not marry a non-mormon. If Kylee ever passed away I would absolutely end up marrying a latter day saint. It is not because I think of Latter Day Saints as better, however. It is really because I don't think I could have as close of a relationship with a person who is not a member of my faith as I could with a person who is. To me, my faith is the most important thing to me. Also, I want to marry someone who believes that there is a prophet on earth today, and wants to follow him. If my wife was like, "listen, I am just not going to move to Missouri just because your prophet said we should" that would be incredibly hard for me. Also, if times become tough and I wanted to pay tithing instead of one of our bills, and she did not, that would not work in my mind. I would not be able to be as close to a spouse if they did not share my faith. If I could not come home from a fireside and tell them how my heart burned when the Spirit confirmed to me again that Joseph Smith is a prophet there would be a divide between us. Anyway, I just thought about that when I thought about how it adds to family relationships. Again, mormon women aren't necessarily better than non-mormon women, I just would get more out of my relationship with Mormon women.
But, now for the heretical. I don't think the color white has much meaning, at all. We always hear that we wear white to symbolize purity. I agree that we do. However, I don't think the color white actually makes a difference in anyone's life. I don't think it spurs anyone to righteousness. I think people would be just as righteous, overall, if our baptismal jump suit was black as if it was white. Same for garments, dress shirts for passing sacraments, etc. I can actually understand it for missionary clothes however. I think missionaries should not wear anything that distracts people from the message and makes them think about their clothing. I think uniformity for missionary attire is a very good thing. However, I think it almost does more bad than good to have white shirts. I think that it helps none (maybe for a few it does) and it distracts and causes many to judge. So overall I think it is net-negative, not net-positive.
I only wear white shirts. I only wear white garments (obviously), but I don't think the white REALLY does anything for me. I think that if they were red I would hold them just as sacredly (and I believe I do treat them sacredly). To me, this is one thing that is very traditional. Isaiah and other old prophets spoke of being sinless as being white like wool and snow and then people thought, yeah, let's have this be doctrine now. Although, again, there is almost nothing intrinsically spiritual about it. A white shirt is not innately better than a red shirt. I think they are both neutral.
But, I shouldn't be the one commenting on this, because I don't really think I believe too heavily in the "you show your reverance to God by how you dress" mentality. I do to some extent, but again, I don't think that anyone is any more righteous as a result of dressing up. I don't think there is correlation or causation. I think it is almost neutral. I think if we all started wearing regular clothes to church things would stay the same (although we now have the dress clothes being more righteous ingrained in us, so I think we really can't separate the two). I think I only feel better about myself when I wear a suit to church (and I do every Sunday) because we are told to culturally. I think if we escaped that I would be able to worship God just the same in regular clothes. In fact, I worship God at many times during the week, and I feel the Spirit quite strongly, and I happen to be in regular clothes. There does not seem to be much correlation with how I dress and how much I feel God's presence.
Anyway, I do have strong faith and testimony of God and Jesus Christ. I love this latter day restoration, and all of its attendant blessings. I mostly love hearing a prophet's voice, and knowing that they speak for God, and guide me to a path that will give me happiness. I especially love that Jesus Christ stood in the stead of my sins, suffered for them, and made it so I could overcome my numerous follies and sins. The atoning power of Christ, once felt, leaves a person forever changed. I am grateful for that power in my life. I am grateful for all these blessings.
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8 comments:
I think you should make one qualifying statement to that Mormon woman thing... "Faithful." Being married to a woman, Mormon or not, who is unfaithful, would be difficult. :) But I'm sure that's what you meant.
As for color... I have completely mixed feelings on the matter. On one hand, I really do believe that it is easier to actually BE the part when you are dressed the part. Yeah, the "part" is probably culturally constructed in large measure, but since it IS constructed that way, I think that it is important that we do whatever is necessary not to make people judge. I had this conversation with Dave once, and he was saying sort of the same thing - it isn't the color, per se, but the attitude you attach to whatever it is you are trying to symbolize. So in the church, white has been established as a symbol of purity. I feel really uncomfortable when the sacrament is passed by someone who is not in a white shirt. I don't feel uncomfortable AT ALL with the man in front of me, not participating in an ordinance, who is wearing blue or red or green or stripes. My Christian History teacher was talking about garments the other day, and how one of his friends said, "Alonzo, really, what is the big deal? They're just underwear." And he said, "Yeah. As long as that's all they are to you, that's all they are." Same principle. Still, leaders have suggested that we dress a certain way, and I don't think what the specific counsel is matters AS MUCH as the fact that we are willing to follow it. I think it is unwise to try and separate "cultural" counsel from "doctrinal" counsel, because even in that cultural counsel there is some sort of doctrine attached, be that obedience, reverence, respect, humility, etc.
So... I think we sort of agree. Basically, color doesn't mean a thing. But in practice, it does because we have established that it does, and at this point adhering to certain cultural codes CAN BE, if we want it to, a representation of our desires, our worthiness, and our efforts to do what is right.
May I be clear, though, about how much it bothers me when people judge others as unworthy simply because of the color of their shirt. That sort of crosses the "judge righteous judgment" line in my mind.
I agree with most of what you said. I agree with the perceptive comment by your teacher who said if it doesn't matter to you then they don't matter. I think that is spot on.
And that may be the point I am trying to make. Why does the color matter to us? To me, nobody's life is any different because of color of clothing. Not one person. They may think about the color of their garments, and how they are white, but they do not actually live a different life because of the color. And to me that is the ultimate test, how is your life different as a result of ______? And when your life is not any different that is the point where I caste that thing into the "irrelevant" section of my life.
I do agree with your comments on how nothing is that free from righteousness. There are aspects of humility and obedience that touch everything in our lives. But I don't remember any counsel saying that we should reverence the color white. That wasn't a jab at you, I am just saying. I obviously wear white all the time, and I wear white jumpsuits when I do baptisms for the dead. I just don't think that it matters. As long as we are required to wear white I will, but the second that the church says we can buy tan garments (or whatever color garment) I am all over that (the day will never come).
A person will reverence the garment because they have a testimony of what the garment is, not because the color of the garment (and I don't think the color determines what it "is"). A person who would reverence the garment because it is white is the type of person who would be reverencing it anyway, regardless of the color.
I love it when people bless the sacrament in shirts other than the color white (although I never have). It only means the cultural tides are shifting. It means that the more people do it, the more okay others will become with the practice. Which also means that we are that much closer to people not caring what color shirt the blesser is wearing (and maybe that day you will be paying attention to the covenant you have made with the Lord and not the color on a shirt :)
However, I do agree with you, and I really like the comment from the teacher, he is very perceptive.
Actually... you can have different color garments if you're in the military... :)
I guess what I was getting at is that regardless of which color it was, we would likely attach some sort of symbolic meaning to it. So if we did ordinances in red instead of white, we'd probably attach some significance to red as having something to do with the atonement or whatever.
And while I can't think of any counsel that specifically tells us to reverence the color white, it's insinuated all over the place. :)
Hmmm, I disagree with the third paragraph. I do not think there is any DOCTRINE that tells us to reverence white. I think everything is rather neutral in regards to white, except for our traditions . . .
As for the red, I was just throwing that out. I would not advocate replacing it with any color. I would say wear whatever color you would like. When everyone wears different colors it becomes a non-issue, because things would be so varied that people could not gather any significance from it.
I like the military garments. I honestly think anything is better than white. I have never met someone who didn't "spoil the purity of white" on their garments. They are impossible to keep spotless. And when we attach that meaning to white, and then everyone's garments change color, that may be sending a bad message!
Anyway, my feeling on colors: neutral.
However, I only have feelings about people caring about the color of shirts and such. More bad comes from it than good, which should be the test of anything in life. What is the net benefit?
I think there isn't one regarding colors.
I remember when the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. I think it's still the same. Didn't the bad Spiderman wear black? It's probably a cultural thing. The Savior used things familiar to the people he taught, the shepherd and the sheep, the fishermen, the law of harvest, etc. In our culture, black or darkness is bad, white or light is good.
When it comes to colors, I thought I had it all pretty much figured out due to the variety of skin colors in my family. That is until one of my favorite kids, namely Sam, clarified it for me. Some kid at school noticed that Sam's dad was black (he's actually brown). That kid asked Sam what color his mom was. Sam said, "my mom's kinda pink with red spots all over". So true.
When in doubt, ask a kid. Seriously. They see things as they are. We complicate things.
Oh and about marrying in the church...I pray daily that my kids will marry a faithful LDS person. I've seen both sides. Someone willing to make and keep covenants with you and God is priceless and will bring peace not only to your family but to your mother also!
All very interesting comments.
Just coming back to this (mainly because I check back for other comments... you have lots of good commenters, Matt), I didn't mean to imply that there is any doctrine about the matter. Just that it is insinuated - by bishops, stake presidents, other leaders, and sometimes parents - that this is just one of the things we do. I do think it's cultural, but I don't feel quite the bother with it. What I meant was that if it wasn't white, it would be another color. I don't think we can escape the fact that we add significance to things, cultural or otherwise. That's all. It's kind of like how you can technically use stuff other than bread and water for the sacrament (if for some reason you don't have access to bread and water), because it isn't the actual bread or water that matters, but the significance we attach to the symbol. I think it's a similar thing with the color white. It's just the color someone somewhere happened to pick, and we should remember that. It's symbol and metaphor.
:)
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