Jun 4, 2019
According to Joseph Smith, faith is the first principle of the
gospel. And many of this teachings show that he understood it
profoundly. But ever since the early church published its "Articles
of Faith" with all but one of them beginning with "We believe,"
Latter-day Saints, like so many other Christians who now live
downwind from when their various traditions broke off from the main
church and in doing so felt they had to distinguish themselves from
other denominations by sharing how their beliefs differ from the
others, "faith" has become far too conflated with what a person or
group believes. The active, relational, magnificent engine of
change and hope and well-being aspects of faith become, far too
often, forgotten. And one set of circumstances in which this
distortion of the concept of faith is often a bigger stumbling
block is for those who begin to doubt the truth claims that they
once held and/or feel out of place within a church of culture that
seems to demand a high level of belief, whether in the form of
creeds to assert or questions posed by ecclesiastical leaders.
How do we (re)claim in our own lives the power, hope, and love that
are the core features of faith? How can we be "persons of faith"
and persons who walk in faith even if we don't/can't actually give
mental consent to very many particular claims about the nature of
God, Jesus, Spirit, the universe, human beings, scripture, rituals,
salvation, and so forth? Mark Crego and Latter-day
Faith host Dan Wotherspoon believe <grin>
that the first steps involve attaining more clarity on the
subject/phenomenon of faith, unlearning the habit of equating it
too much with beliefs, and most of all beginning to understand that
it actually is all about relationships.
We hope you'll enjoy this terrific, insight-filled discussion! Let
us know if you did in the comments below! Thanks!